Participated · Seed · Apr 2022

tru.ID is a London-based authentication provider that replaces passwords and PIN codes with a possession-factor API leveraging SIM card cryptography. The platform exposes the cryptographic security built into mobile networks to businesses via API for multifactor authentication (MFA). Led by co-founder and CEO Paul McGuire, tru.ID aims to reduce cybercrime threats targeting customers and employees. The company says its service is already available in 20 markets covering over 2 billion users and is rolling out globally. Tru.ID raised seed funding to expand its operations and plans to use the proceeds to roll out services into the U.S. market. The product targets shortcomings of legacy authentication methods—phishing-prone SMS/email PINs and passwords—by combining mobile ubiquity with SIM-based cryptography. tru.ID is a London-based mobile authentication platform that has exited stealth and whose product is live in the UK, Canada, USA, India and Indonesia. The company leverages the cryptographic security of the SIM card to verify mobile number identity and replace legacy methods such as email+password and SMS one-time passwords. It offers an API platform with mobile SDKs and developer tooling to support integration from initial setup through deployment. tru.ID positions its solution as mobile-native, frictionless, secure and private, aiming to reduce sign-up abandonment and fraud. The company was founded by Paul McGuire and Eric Nadalin, both of whom previously co-founded or exited companies including mBlox, Boku, iPin and Nexmo. The recent £3M (~€3.45M) raise will be used to expand geographic reach and support growth.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2019

Acquire builds a customer engagement platform that integrates communication tools such as Salesforce, Slack, Facebook and Twitter into a single real-time omnichannel view so agents see every encounter and context. The product consolidates live chats, tickets, audio, video and responses into one system to reduce repetition and provide full customer context. The company plans to use the new funding to expand its go-to-market strategy and to build out its marketing and customer success teams. Acquire is headquartered in San Francisco and also has offices in Boston, the United Kingdom and India. It currently employs about 120 people and plans to add 20–27 more in the U.S. over the next six months. The company supports hundreds of customers, including Audi, Elevate and the U.S. Air Force, and is growing on average 3.5x year over year. Acquire is an enterprise platform that modernizes and automates customer communication across web channels. Its product includes patented instantaneous cobrowsing, a sales-funnel and CX automation dashboard, live chat, video and voice calls, and AI chatbots to deliver real-time, proactive support. The platform integrates with more than 30 sales, support, and communication tools (Salesforce, Zendesk, HubSpot, Slack) and counts clients such as Elevate, Audi, and the UK government. Acquire is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Boston and India and was founded by Laduram Vishnoi and Amrit Dhangal. The company has over 15,000 users worldwide and was recognized as a G2 Crowd high performer in Fall 2019. Acquire will use the $5.4M seed to accelerate AI product development and expand its team globally.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2019

LISCure Biosciences researches and develops bacteria-mediated immunotherapy that can be used alone or in combination with other drugs. The company is developing treatments targeting tumors, degenerative neurological diseases, autoimmune diseases, metabolic diseases and other major indications. LISCure currently has seven drug pipelines and two health‑functioning food pipelines, and is considering adding two more pipelines. Established in December 2018 and based in Seoul, the company raised seed financing to advance its programs. It intends to use the funds to strengthen its research and development capabilities around its core technologies. The focus is on expanding and progressing its bacteria-mediated therapeutic platform toward clinical and product objectives.

Participated · Series B · Jun 2019

Testim provides an AI-based software testing platform that speeds up test authoring and execution and reduces maintenance of automated tests. Founded in late 2014 by CEO Oren Rubin and COO Ronit Belson, the company operates from Tel Aviv, Israel and San Francisco, CA. Its platform is used by customers including NetApp, Autodesk, Swisscom, and LogMeIn, running over 2,000,000 tests every month. Testim plans to grow operations in North America and hire across engineering, product, sales, marketing and customer success. It also intends to bring its mobile app test automation platform, currently in early access, to market. To support these plans the company recently closed a $10m Series B, bringing total funding to $19.5m. Testim leverages machine learning to author, execute and maintain automated test cases with self-learning tests that adapt to code changes. Its platform uses dynamic locators and learns with every execution to reduce maintenance overhead and speed test authoring. Testim offers integrations with development tools such as JIRA, GitHub, Slack, and Jenkins to fit into agile workflows. The company positions its product to make application testing autonomous and integrative to the development cycle, enabling faster release cadence. Customers named in the article include Wix.com, NetApp, Walmart and Gett, and Testim runs over 300,000 tests every month. CEO Oren Rubin is quoted describing the company’s goal of delivering better digital experiences by enabling multiple daily releases through autonomous testing.

Participated · Series B · May 2019

Boomtown builds Relay, a SaaS platform that helps technology solution providers sell, activate, and support business technology products while simplifying customer experiences at scale. Relay enables efficient customer communication and cross-organization collaboration, including a programmable expert network for remote and field services. The platform indexes more than 2,500 unique products and services, serves over 350,000 business locations, and works with 175+ technology partners via a patent-pending business technology index. Partners using Relay reported activation-time reductions up to 88%, customer service handle-time improvements of 45%, and Net Promoter Score increases of more than 20 points. The company said it will use new funding to accelerate growth and continue investing in the Relay SaaS product. Boomtown also announced the appointment of Robert HB Baldwin Jr. to its board of directors.