Participated · Seed · Mar 2023

Coactive Systems, founded in 2021 and based in San Jose, CA, provides an enterprise-grade operating system that uses multimodal AI to manage, categorize, and retrieve visual data such as images and videos without metadata or tags. The system leverages multimodal AI to pull context directly from pixels and audio in content in a highly scalable and secure way. Led by CEO Cody Coleman, Coactive aims to ease the work of data, marketing, and product teams by eliminating manual tagging and labeling. Since launching last year, tech-enabled enterprises including Fortune 500 retailers, media and entertainment companies, and community platforms have used Coactive to build intelligent applications on top of large volumes of unstructured visual content. The company recently raised $30M in a Series B at a $200M valuation. It plans to use the proceeds to expand operations, development efforts, and its business reach. Coactive AI provides an application that helps data teams work with image and video data without requiring specialized machine‑learning skills. It uses pre‑trained models to generate a rough understanding of visual content and a proprietary active‑learning system to develop more specialized visual concepts. Those visual concepts are exposed through standard SQL and API interfaces to power trend analysis, content moderation, search, and other business functions. The platform lets users map analytic workflows to proprietary data and metadata ontologies (for example product catalogs or prohibited‑content lists) and can handle out‑of‑domain data that doesn’t match typical internet image distributions. It accomplishes this while requiring users to manually label only a few example data points, avoiding the need for a dedicated ML‑engineering or data‑labeling team. The company said it will use new funds to expand operations, broaden its business reach, and support development efforts.

Participated · Series B · Oct 2022

NorthOne is a New York-based challenger bank founded in 2016 that provides digital banking and financial tools tailored to small business owners such as barbers, mechanics and local restaurants. Its product roadmap extends beyond deposits to connect the data layer between accounting, receivables, payables, lending, payroll and the bank account ledger. The company replatformed onto The Bancorp Bank in 2021 and accepts cash deposits through partners like Walmart, 7‑11 and OfficeMax. Over the last 12 months NorthOne reported revenue growth of roughly 4x–5x, with customer growth in line with revenue; the majority of its customers have fewer than 10 employees. It has about 75 employees and says it will add staff programmatically as it builds new software layers and products. NorthOne markets through in-person events and partnerships (e.g., Profit First) in addition to online leads. NorthOne operates a mobile-first banking platform that connects to the financial tools companies use, provides insight into business financial health, and automates management tasks. The platform was launched in August in partnership with Boston-based Radius Bank and delivers banking functionalities such as wires, mobile check deposit, and cash deposits through its mobile app. NorthOne’s platform is API-enabled, allowing third-party developers to build applications and services around the product. The company says the idea originated in 2016 to act as the finance department small businesses might not otherwise be able to afford. NorthOne has offices in Toronto, Boston, and New York. Proceeds from the recent round will be used to develop a customer acquisition strategy and grow the team. NorthOne is building a mobile-first, API-enabled banking platform that provides bank accounts and a mobile app for small businesses, startups and freelancers. The product connects to existing financial management tools, offers real-time visibility into financial health and automates time-consuming financial tasks. More than 3,000 businesses had signed up for NorthOne accounts ahead of the platform’s launch. The company planned a late-2018 launch and intended to use new capital to finish development. NorthOne planned to expand its team from 5 to 15 employees using the seed proceeds. The company is led by co-founder and CEO Eytan Bensoussan and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Participated · Equity · May 2022

Gametime operates a mobile-first marketplace that offers a transparent way to buy and sell tickets for live events, specializing in last-minute purchases (customers can buy up to 90 minutes after an event starts). The platform covers sports, concerts, theater and comedy shows and is led by CEO Brad Griffith. The company has sold over $1 billion in tickets to date. Management plans to use the new capital to accelerate product development, expand efforts to reach younger ticket buyers, and enhance the platform. Gametime emphasizes a streamlined experience for late buyers and sellers of event tickets. The business is based in San Francisco, CA. Gametime operates a mobile-first marketplace that helps consumers find and buy last-minute tickets to nearby sporting events and concerts, sometimes up to a half-hour after an event begins. The app aggregates inventory from both primary sources and resellers and has added tickets from more professional sports teams and a wider variety of events since launch. Product features include Snap and Sell, which photos and lists paper tickets with automatic pricing, and Gametime Connect, which lets users follow friends’ purchases and listings. The company has pushed video advertising (one spot reached over 4 million Facebook views) to attract millennial buyers and drive transactions. Gametime employs about 65 full-time staff in San Francisco and operates in a competitive market that includes Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek and others. Management and investors say growth opportunities include stadium adoption of mobile tickets and a sizable “last-minute” segment of the market estimated at roughly $7.5 billion in North America last year. Gametime provides a mobile-only platform that surfaces available seats and enables users to purchase and redeem tickets directly from their phones. Purchases can be completed in just a few swipes and tickets can be shared via text and email. The app focuses on last-minute ticket sales across cities in the U.S., with tickets available in 35 markets for more than 150 teams. Over the past year the company has grown nearly 600% year-over-year and says its service drives incremental attendance and concession sales. CEO Brad Griffith says Gametime is betting that roughly 80% of ticket purchases will occur on mobile in the coming years, and the product is optimized for mobile entry into venues. Financially, Gametime has closed a $13 million Series A and had previously raised $5 million from Accel and other investors. Gametime provides a mobile-first marketplace for last-minute sports tickets, aggregating seats from a range of resellers and surfacing the best available seats and prices. The app stores payment details, speeds discovery-to-purchase, and delivers tickets to users’ phones in a scannable format to minimize friction. CEO and founder Brad Griffith emphasizes speed as the company’s core advantage, enabling purchases and mobile ticket downloads in minutes. Since launching in San Francisco early last year the company has expanded to offer tickets in 14 U.S. markets. Ticket sales grew 50% from July to August and are up more than 600% since the start of the year; the company currently has 16 employees. The new funding is intended to accelerate launches into additional markets; Gametime has raised $5 million total since being founded in early 2013. Gametime provides a mobile-first interface for purchasing last-minute, discounted sports tickets and ensures tickets are delivered in formats that can be scanned from a phone so no printing is required. The app aggregates discounted tickets pulled from multiple suppliers and is intentionally limited to mobile-ready ticket formats. The company curates venue content by sending a photographer to capture each supported stadium during actual games. Gametime launched in San Francisco and has recently expanded to Los Angeles, with plans to add several more cities throughout 2014. The product is positioned as a HotelTonight-like experience for live events, focused on buyers who purchase close to game time. Gametime closed initial funding to support its expansion and product development.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2022

Welcome Tech operates a digital platform built for immigrants, offering access to healthcare, jobs, education and financial tools. The company serves both immigrant community members and enterprise partners, enabling inclusive economic participation and helping employers recruit, retain and serve a diverse workforce. It reports over 4.5 million registered members and a growing base of enterprise partners. Led by CEO Amir Hemmat, Welcome Tech plans to accelerate development of its proprietary AI infrastructure and expand its workforce engagement platform. The company raised new capital to fund product and platform growth and scale its services to employers and immigrant users. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, California. Welcome Tech offers a suite of products for immigrants, including a bilingual mobile app, a debit card/digital wallet, educational content (SABEResPODER), a Rewards Center, FarmaSEP prescription savings and PODERSeguros auto insurance assistance. The company says it is approaching 4 million registered and active users, surpassed about 1 million app downloads, and has opened more than 500,000 fee-free bilingual bank accounts. From March 2021 to March 2022, wallet growth increased 2,200% and digital-wallet revenue rose 2,800%; its subscription service (launched January 2021) saw 50% quarter-over-quarter growth between Q1 2021 and Q1 2022. Welcome Tech relies on both digital and offline user acquisition channels, including partnerships with embassies and consulates, and emphasizes education-first trust building to lower acquisition costs. The company is not yet profitable and has expanded its team from 20 to 80 employees since its last raise; the board and staff report substantial ethnic diversity. Leadership says the raise will fuel steps toward building a full "operating system" for immigrants and eventual expansion beyond the U.S. Welcome Tech has built a bilingual digital platform, SABEResPODER, that provides educational resources, information and services targeted initially at the U.S. Hispanic community. The company launched a banking service (including a debit card and bilingual mobile app) six months prior to the article and in January introduced a $10/month subscription that offers discounted healthcare resources and free televisits. Welcome emphasizes earning community trust and gathering data before rolling out financial products, positioning financial services as its beachhead. Its platform is approaching 3 million active users, according to CEO Amir Hemmat. Founders Amir Hemmat and Raul Lomeli-Azoubel say the company aims to be a “digital Ellis Island” and plans to use new capital to build partnerships and increase awareness. Welcome operates out of Los Angeles with an office in San Antonio, Texas. Welcome Technologies is a Los Angeles‑based certified B‑corporation providing a platform that connects the global immigrant community to information, products, and services. The company leverages data from distribution channels that reach over 9 million immigrants a year and has built AI-powered products across affordable healthcare, micro-loans, educational resources, and more. Welcome reports a membership of nearly 2 million immigrants and uses that scale to deliver services and insights. Led by Chairman Raul Lomeli-Azoubel and CEO Amir Hemmat, the company recently strengthened its management team with hires including Joe Munoz, Christopher Gulczynski, Rene Garcia, and Gavin Hewitt. It closed an $8M Series A and intends to use the proceeds to expand its digital offerings and build an operating system for immigration. Welcome focuses on combining platform distribution, data, and AI to improve immigrant outcomes and product reach.

Participated · Series C · Nov 2021

Babylist operates a commerce and content platform that helps parents, family and friends discover, plan for, and purchase baby products, including an “add anything from anywhere” registry. The company leverages robust purchase data and expert-led guidance to provide product recommendations and predictive insights into parenting purchasing trends. Babylist says it has become the go-to solution for growing families, with more than half of first-time parents registering on the platform. It reports 8 million people made purchases on Babylist in the last year and is on track to achieve $250 million in 2021 revenue while operating profitably. The company plans to use new capital to open showrooms to help people find and experience products before purchase, accelerate growth, and pursue international expansion. Recent executive hires include a first chief financial officer and a senior vice president of supply chain to support scaling and continued profitability. BabyList is an online universal baby registry founded by former Amazon software developer Natalie Gordon. The product lets users add items and unconventional requests (for example, diaper service subscriptions) from across retailers via a browser bookmarklet and organizes a curated product catalog. The company launched a beta catalog with partners including Giggle, Land of Nod, The Honest Company and ten pilot Etsy shops. Users have added over 900,000 items to their registries, and the site attracted 10,000 users in the current year; the startup is a three-person team. BabyList plans to build a complementary mobile app that will include the curated catalog. The founder moved to the startup full-time after participating in 500 Startups.