Participated · Series C · Jul 2022

15Five combines software with coaching, manager training, and a professional community into a single-platform holistic performance management solution for HR teams. The platform aims to improve manager effectiveness, drive high performance and engagement, and increase employee retention. Product offerings include 360 performance reviews, in-depth engagement surveys, goal & OKR tracking, and weekly manager-employee feedback tools such as 1-on-1s and pulse ratings. The company serves HR leaders at over 3,500 companies, including Credit Karma, Spotify, and Pendo. 15Five recently received a strategic investment from ServiceNow that supplements a $52M Series C it announced in July; the funding is intended to accelerate product development and integrated manager training and coaching. The company is led by CEO David Hassell and is based in San Francisco, CA. 15Five offers a single-platform performance management suite that combines subscription software with training and coaching to measure engagement, run performance reviews, track OKRs, and deliver weekly feedback. Its product set includes 360 reviews, engagement surveys, goal & OKR tracking, and tools for manager-employee 1-on-1s and pulse ratings, plus a subscription training/coaching product called Transform launched in August 2021. The company focuses on small and mid-sized businesses (100–2,500 employees) and integrates with HRIS, payroll, and other systems to surface people analytics. 15Five serves over 3,400 companies, including customers such as Spotify, Credit Karma, HubSpot, and Pendo. The firm says its solution helps HR leaders develop managers and drive performance from the bottom up. 15Five is based in San Francisco and will use new funding to invest in R&D, deepen integration of software with coaching, scale go-to-market efforts, expand into new markets, and pursue potential acquisitions. 15Five offers a SaaS performance-management product centered on frequent self-evaluations (described as "15 minutes to write, 5 minutes to read") and peer recognition features called "High fives." The company emphasizes regular, real-time feedback and goal-setting to replace infrequent annual or biannual reviews. Management plans to continue building out core product functionality and to expand into adjacent services and coaching alongside its software. The CEO has also launched a podcast with the company’s chief culture officer around "best-self" management, reflecting an interest in productizing organizational-development and positive-psychology principles. 15Five is based in San Francisco and currently focuses on small- and medium-sized business customers. The company has raised a total of $42.6 million to date and says its valuation is higher, though the exact number is undisclosed. 15Five is a San Francisco-based continuous performance management platform led by co-founders David Hassell (CEO) and Shane Metcalf (Chief Culture Officer). The product enables employees to grow and develop in 15 minutes each week through weekly check-ins, employee recognition, Objectives and Key Results tracking, and 360° reviews. The platform integrates with business applications including Slack, BambooHR, Namely, Okta and OneLogin. The company intends to use new funding to accelerate product innovation, scale sales, marketing and product teams, and grow headcount as part of global growth initiatives. Financially, 15Five has raised $11.9m in total capital to date, including the current round. The offering targets ongoing employee performance management and development for businesses. 15Five offers a feedback platform designed to help managers and employees communicate regularly and drive team performance. The product encourages daily engagement but remains flexible enough to be useful in brief sessions. Typical customers are managers, executives and CEOs rather than HR departments. The company has picked up roughly 1,000 business customers, with a strong leaning toward the tech sector. 15Five is headquartered in San Francisco. With the new funding it plans to hire sales and marketing talent to grow the business and is considering integrations before expanding core functionality.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2022

CloudApp is a visual work-communication platform that lets teams create and share HD screen recordings, GIFs and marked-up screenshots stored securely in the cloud. Files are accessible via native Mac and Windows apps or as password-protected web links and the product supports integrations with Slack, Atlassian, Trello, Zendesk and Asana. Since its launch the company has amassed more than four million total users and counts customers such as Adobe, Uber, Zendesk and Salesforce. Founded in 2015, CloudApp aims to reduce synchronous meetings and emails by enabling asynchronous, easily searchable visual messages. The company envisions using AI to surface the most relevant content and build repositories of quick-help videos to improve workflows across sales, support, product and engineering teams. CloudApp plans to use recent funding to speed the product, deepen integrations, enhance security, and expand product, engineering, marketing and sales teams. CloudApp is a video-led collaboration solution that enables instant business communication through shareable videos, GIFs, screenshots, screen recording, and GIF creation. The company offers Chrome, Mac, and Windows applications and integrates with workflow tools including Zendesk, Slack, Adobe, Drift, and Zapier. CloudApp reports more than 3MM users and nearly 1,000 corporate customers and has high user ratings on G2 Crowd, TrustRadius, and Gartner Peer Insights. The company plans to use the financing to invest in its fast-growing enterprise-led product and to scale sales and marketing. Its product positioning emphasizes improving productivity and customer experience for businesses. The company is headquartered in San Francisco. CloudApp is a visual communication platform that enables instant video messaging, screen recording, screenshot annotation, and GIF creation. Led by CEO Tyler Koblasa and based in San Francisco, it serves over three million users and thousands of businesses. The product focuses on bringing human connection back to digital workflows and helping professionals express ideas faster through visual imagery. In conjunction with the Adobe investment, CloudApp released a plugin for Adobe XD CC that debuted at Adobe MAX. The plugin allows XD users to capture and share designs without leaving the Adobe application, improving collaboration with clients and colleagues. Prior investors include Cervin Ventures, Bloomberg Beta and others; the company has raised a total of $6m to date. CloudApp is a San Francisco–based platform for capturing, annotating, and sharing visual content. The product lets users capture images and screenshots, annotate them, share them, and search information contained within any image. It integrates with services such as Twitter, Trello, Asana, Google Docs, JIRA, MailChimp, and Zendesk to help unify digital workflows. The company has just launched CloudApp 4, which adds image-content search and analytics to track user views. CloudApp 4 also includes a Business Edition with enhanced enterprise security, compliance and control, custom data hosting (via Amazon S3, Google, Box), and automated user provisioning (via Google Apps, OneLogin, Okta). CloudApp serves creatives, marketers, developers, and support teams and offers a free tier at getcloudapp.com. The company recently raised $2M in seed financing.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2021

Abselion develops automated analytical instrumentation, notably its Amperia benchtop system, to simplify at-line protein analytics for biologics development and production. The company’s RED (redox-electrochemical-detection) technology enables sensitive, specific measurement of antibodies, AAVs and other proteins directly from crude samples, producing results in as little as one minute. Abselion positions the Amperia to deliver on-the-spot process insights that improve efficiency and accuracy in life‑science research and bioprocessing. The product targets applications across development and production workflows for biologics such as antibodies and viral vectors. The company is led by CEO Ruizhi Wang and is based in Cambridge, UK. Recent fundraising is intended to support commercialisation and to expand the Amperia system’s capabilities. HexagonFab is a University of Cambridge spin-out that develops affordable, convenient analytical lab instruments to simplify biomolecular interaction analysis for pharma research and manufacturing. Its first product, the Bolt, is a handheld device that uses electrical detection with a graphene-based semiconductor sensor to measure protein, antibody and small-molecule affinity and kinetics down to low nanomolar concentrations. The Bolt provides real-time signals, requires no installation, and delivers results in hours rather than days, enabling on-site testing by researchers and manufacturing quality-control teams. HexagonFab positions the Bolt to reduce costs, delays and failures in biopharmaceutical discovery and production, accelerating development of novel medicines for small patient populations. Proceeds from the seed round will be used to grow the team, complete development of the Bolt, and launch the product commercially. The company describes its instruments as convenient, accessible and affordable for scientists, researchers, and drug manufacturers.

Participated · Series C · Mar 2021

Foodsmart operates a telenutrition and food benefits management platform that pairs virtual nutrition counseling from a network of U.S. Registered Dietitians with digital tools to plan personalized meals and order food. The platform enables patients to order from nationwide grocers and local medically tailored food partners, apply for SNAP benefits, and learn cost‑effective shopping strategies. Foodsmart partners with health plans and providers to support people facing chronic disease and food insecurity. The company serves over 2.2 million members through contracts with regional and national Medicaid managed care organizations, Medicare Advantage plans, commercial insurers, and more than 1,000 employers. Founded in 2010 and led by CEO Jason Langheier, Foodsmart is based in San Francisco, California. It intends to use the new funding to expand operations and broaden its business reach. Foodsmart (doing business as Zipongo) is a San Francisco-based personalized telenutrition and foodcare leader. The company offers a fully customizable app-based platform backed by a national network of Registered Dietitians that guides members through personalized journeys to healthier eating. Its platform integrates dietary assessments and nutrition counseling with online food ordering and cost-effective meal planning for whole families, making the most of ingredients at home and on the go. The company describes itself as the world's largest telenutrition and foodcare solution. Foodsmart emphasizes making healthy eating affordable and accessible, a mission highlighted by participation from social impact investors. Financially, the company announced a Series C funding round of more than $25 million. Zipongo, launched in 2014 by CEO Jason Langheier, MD, MPH, provides a Food Benefits Management (FBM) platform that delivers sustained engagement through tools including Health (Digital Dietitian), Cooking (recipes, meal planning, grocery delivery, and discounts) and Restaurants (menus, restaurant ordering, and workplace cafes). The company uses those tools to help people assess and improve their nutrition and engage with food-related benefits. It raised $18M in Series B1 financing to expand the platform beyond wellness toward using food as a first-line therapy to treat chronic disease. Zipongo is developing a new solution called FoodScripts to enable health plans and providers to use food to treat conditions. FoodScripts adds prescriptive, personalized, evidence-based modules addressing hypertension, diabetes, obesity and more. The company plans to roll out an early version of FoodScripts to pilot customers in the early spring. Zipongo provides a software-as-a-service platform that enables digital nutrition coaching for large employers, health plans and health systems, and offers food utility tools for families to select and buy healthy food. Its product suite includes meal planning, recipes, grocery rewards, online grocery ordering, menu coaching and mobile meal ordering for cooking and eating prepared meals. The company serves over 150 companies and the majority of national health plans and wellness platforms. Founded by Jason Langheier, MD, MPH, Zipongo combines coaching and commerce to drive healthier food choices. It has raised $28M in total funding and intends to use the new proceeds to expand operations. The platform targets enterprise and consumer-facing partners to broaden adoption. Zipongo offers a web-based health community and an iPhone app that deliver personalized wellness plans, recipes, and grocery deals. The platform personalizes recommendations by allowing users to opt in and connect electronic medical records via a HIPAA‑secure portal. It integrates loyalty-card discounts at local retailers and is building a digital partner network so users can redeem discounts at their preferred grocery stores. The product focuses on transaction-level support to help families identify and afford healthy options at the point of purchase. Zipongo was in private beta and preparing for a full-scale launch while developing technology to sync shopping history and health data automatically. The team recruited grocery and health-industry veterans as advisers to facilitate integration with national chains.

Participated · Series B · Apr 2020

YFood offers complete food solutions in the form of ready-to-drink meals, bars and powdered shakes formulated to contain all essential micro- and macronutrients. The company sells its products online and through retail channels. It currently serves over 200,000 online customers, is available at more than 13,000 retail outlets and has over 70 employees. YFood is generating multi-million euros in revenue per month and is profitable in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The company has launched in the UK and intends to use new funding to increase its presence across key European markets. YFood was co-founded by Ben Kremer and Noël Bollmann and is based in Munich, Germany. YFood Labs develops a ready-to-drink meal beverage positioned as an alternative to junk food for busy consumers. The company was founded in 2017 by Noël Bollmann and Benjamin Kremer. YFood reports selling over 2 million bottles to thousands of customers across more than 25 countries, through its online channel and over 6,000 physical points of sale. The product is distributed both online and via extensive retail placement. Management plans to use new funding to expand operations and increase business reach in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The article does not disclose revenue or other financial metrics beyond unit sales and distribution reach.