Led · Equity · Jan 2021

Black Girl Ventures runs multi-city events that combine pitch competitions and crowdfunding to support Black and brown women entrepreneurs. The organization was founded in 2016 by Shelly Bell and is based in Washington, D.C. BGV reports it has reached 64 countries and over a million people, funded 120 women directly, raised over $3M to date, and that its founders support $10M in jobs. Nike is investing $500,000 into Black Girl Ventures as part of NIKE, Inc.’s $40 million Black Community Commitment. That $40M commitment was launched in June 2020 amid national protests against police brutality. The Nike funding is presented as part of that broader racial justice–minded initiative.

Led · Series B · Mar 2014

Reflektion provides an AI-driven customer engagement and personalization platform that understands and influences individual customer intent in real time and delivers the most relevant content across all touchpoints. Its solutions combine individual shopper insights, product intelligence and deep learning to create ecommerce experiences. Retail brands such as TOMS, Ann Taylor, Sur La Table, Godiva and Destination XL use Reflektion’s AI. The company was founded in 2012 by Amar Chokhawala, who serves as CEO. Reflektion is based in San Mateo, California and Chicago, Illinois and intends to use new funding to expand into international markets, particularly EMEA. The EMEA region already accounts for 10 percent of its total revenue. Reflektion offers an "Individualized Commerce" predictive analytics platform that uses artificial intelligence and data science to capture, analyze and respond to each shopper's preferences and intent in real time. The company's solutions help merchants monetize webstore traffic through personalized experiences and applications. Clients include The Walt Disney Company, Converse, Uniqlo and Godiva. Led by CEO Sean Moran, Reflektion is focused on growing its client base and developing new products. The company plans to use recent funding to expand into international markets. As of the article, Reflektion had raised $29.3M in total funding. Reflektion builds real-time predictive analytics that analyze multiple data sets to forecast what each online shopper is likely to buy next. The company's product delivers individualized inputs to retailers to improve conversion and personalization. Reflektion cites customers such as O'Neill, whose conversion rates improved by 50% after using the platform. The startup plans to use the new funding to beef up sales and marketing and to launch e-commerce and business intelligence products. Reflektion's CEO Sean Moran framed the work as bringing advanced analytics to retail in a "Moneyball"-style approach. The company was founded by Google veteran Amar Chokhawala, an early engineer on Google Books and Gmail.