• Lendio

  Participated · Equity · Oct 2016

  Lendio operates a high-tech marketplace that matches small-business borrowers with a pool of suitable lenders via a 15-minute online application, machine learning matching, and expert loan review—often facilitating funding within 24 hours. The company also offers an online bookkeeping platform, Sunrise by Lendio, used by hundreds of small-business owners and slated for deeper integration with its loan marketplace. Lendio plans to use new capital to expand its lender services division, enhance its white-labeled SaaS application for banks and lenders, and grow bookkeeping and lender-facing offerings. Over the past two years Lendio’s year-over-year growth has averaged 75%, and it has become the largest small-business financing marketplace in the U.S. To date the company has facilitated over 100,000 loans totaling $2 billion. Lendio reports that its small-business clients have generated an estimated $6.5 billion in economic output and created nearly 45,000 jobs. Lendio is a Salt Lake City, UT-based online marketplace that helps small-business owners find short-term specialty loans and long-term low-interest traditional loans. The company offers a free online service intended to decrease the time and effort it takes to secure funding. Led by founder and CEO Brock Blake, Lendio connects borrowers with loan options via its platform. In Q3 2016 the platform facilitated over $63M in loans to more than 2,900 businesses across 46 states. The company intends to use recent funding to accelerate growth through marketing, sales and brand awareness. Lendio operates a free online marketplace that matches small business owners with a range of loan products, from short-term specialty financing to long-term low-interest loans, delivered within minutes. The company is led by founder and CEO Brock Blake. In March 2015 Lendio raised $20.5M in funding to support growth. Management says the proceeds will be used to accelerate online innovation, expand its partnership program and grow its team of trusted loan advisors. The company also announced board additions tied to the round. No operating metrics or prior financing details are provided in the article. Lendio, founded by Brock Blake and Levi King in 2011, operates a marketplace that helps Main Street small businesses find suitable loans and lenders. The platform aggregates more than 3,500 loan options across hundreds of partner lenders and asks business owners four questions to build a profile and surface appropriate products. It integrates via APIs with tech-savvy lenders to enable often same-day pre-approval and to streamline underwriting handoffs. Lendio says it has helped hundreds of thousands of small business owners connect with loans and reports roughly a 70% approval rate for applicants; the platform also offers tools to help unapproved applicants prepare. The company positions itself as a next-gen broker that reduces friction and cuts out traditional middlemen. Financially, Lendio recently closed new financing that increased its total invested capital. Lendio, formerly FundingUniverse.com, operates a marketplace that connects small-business owners with banks, credit unions, and other lending sources. The platform uses technology to identify loan categories and the specific lenders most likely to approve an application based on credit, industry, revenue, and other parameters. Less than three months after its debut, users had requested about $1 billion in business loans through the service. Lendio says it works with roughly 3,500 lenders and provides access to more than 13,000 lending options. The company has been expanding its executive team, adding hires such as Zinch co-founder Brad Hagen and Nelson James of SEO.com. It has also offered promotional pricing to early users (e.g., a TechCrunch reader discount) as it scales adoption.

• CashStar

  Participated · Series D · Aug 2015

  CashStar provides prepaid commerce and digital gifting software and services to large retailers and restaurant brands, powering more than 300 leading brands worldwide. Its platform offers digital and mobile solutions, revenue-optimizing risk management, and a client success model aimed at driving growth. The company plans to use new growth capital to continue investing in product innovation, sales, and client success. Recent corporate milestones highlighted product development progress, client and partner wins, and new senior hires in channel partnerships and strategic business development. Leadership emphasizes capitalizing on a large market opportunity through continued investment in innovation and customer outcomes. Financially, the company has raised a total of $50 million to date. CashStar provides an online platform for businesses to offer digital gift cards and e-certificates via email, web, social networks, and mobile devices. The company powers the majority of U.S. retailer e-gift programs and counts more than 250 clients, including Best Buy, Gap, Staples, Starbucks, The Home Depot and Williams-Sonoma. The average amount gifted through the platform is about $50 per transaction. CashStar plans to use new funding to build out its platform with a strong focus on mobile growth and mobile-enabled gifting experiences. The article positions the company as competing with social and mobile gifting startups such as Karma, Wrapp, and Giftly. Its recent financings have supported expansion and product development across web, social and mobile channels. CashStar operates a digital gifting and incentives platform that lets retailers deliver personalized digital gifts via email, mobile and social channels. Its turnkey solution integrates on-demand gifting with multichannel marketing to drive sales and customer loyalty. The company serves more than 200 brands and targets a segment of the $90B+ gift card market. CashStar’s platform is used by retailers for B2B and B2C marketing, incentives and engagement. New products include mobile and social gifting and incentives aimed at increasing adoption and innovation. The company is based in Portland, Maine and recently secured additional funding to support growth and expand its retail brand network. CashStar operates a digital gifting and incentives platform that replaces traditional plastic gift cards with e-gifting, mobile and social gifting offerings. The company says it uniquely combines an on-demand digital gifting and incentives platform with multichannel marketing strategies. More than 90 leading retail brands use CashStar’s platform, including Gap, Williams-Sonoma, The Home Depot, Chili’s Bar and Grill, Pizza Hut and Staples. CashStar’s platform is positioned to drive incremental, higher-margin sales both in-store and online and to encourage customer loyalty. The company plans to use new capital to continue product and service innovation and to expand its list of retail partners. CEO David Stone emphasized that the financing will enable the company to push product limits for progressive retailers in the emerging digital gifting space.

• SimpleTuition

  Led · Equity · Mar 2014

  SimpleTuition operates a marketplace focused on college affordability, offering loan comparison, textbook purchasing and rental, and savings programs including an internally developed rewards program called SmarterBucks. The company acquired ValoreBooks in 2012 to add textbook rental and purchasing comparisons to its offerings. SimpleTuition expects to serve upwards of 17 million people in 2014 and has grown to a staff of over 35. Revenue increased to $45 million in 2013, and the business has been hovering around profitability, occasionally sinking into the red as it reinvests in product development and acquisitions. Its strategy is to broaden its marketplace into a hub of student services and additional mini-marketplaces under a larger "student savings" umbrella. The company first emerged in 2006 and has expanded both organically and via acquisition to support a wider range of student use cases. SimpleTuition is a Boston, Mass.-based provider of tools and resources for students to manage college-related expenses and debt. Led by co-founder and CEO Kevin Walker, the company's platform includes a private loan comparison tool (SimpleTuition.com), an online textbook marketplace (ValoreBooks), a rewards program (SmarterBucks), and SmarterBank. It operates three core businesses: student loans, textbooks, and rewards. The company closed a $4M Series D funding round to support growth across those businesses. SimpleTuition plans to invest the new funds in product development, marketing, and business development to expand its offerings. SimpleTuition operates an online platform offering tips, advice, interactive tools and deals to help students plan for and reduce college-related costs. Since its 2006 launch the site says it has helped more than 10 million families. The company focuses on tools to plan for college costs, pay less for college-related expenses, and manage and repay student loans. SimpleTuition is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and is funded by Atlas Venture, Flybridge Capital Partners, and North Hill Ventures. Management says the company is expanding its tools and services to assist more college students. The recent financing provides additional liquidity to support that continued growth.

• Interactions

  Participated · Equity · May 2013

  Interactions is described in the article as one of the largest standalone AI companies and offers Intelligent Virtual Assistants that combine conversational AI with human understanding. Its products are designed to deliver unified, optichannel customer care and to improve customer experience while reducing costs for large brands. The company is actively advancing its product roadmap and is prioritizing R&D and operational infrastructure investment. Recent executive additions, including a new Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Sales Officer, are intended to support scaling and go‑to‑market efforts. Interactions was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Franklin, Massachusetts, with additional offices worldwide. The company reported a fresh capital infusion intended to accelerate growth and product development. Interactions is a 12-year-old virtual assistant startup based in Franklin, Mass., that builds AI-powered natural language voice and chat systems for customer service. Its core product is an AI-driven virtual assistant that uses advanced natural language processing to handle phone calls and increasingly chat interactions, aiming to move beyond simple menu prompts. The company has deployed systems that parse complex requests—an example is with Hyatt hotels where callers can request reservations and the assistant infers party size from language—reducing robotic experiences. Some levels of their voice-recognition tech report up to 98% accuracy, while more complex requests currently yield accuracy in the high seventies. Interactions is focused on bolstering voice-recognition and improving text-recognition accuracy for chat systems as part of its near-term product roadmap. Financially, it just closed a $56 million funding round, its largest to date, bringing total funding to nearly $167 million. Interactions Corporation develops patented technology for automated voice and other interactive systems that engage customers in natural conversation. Led by CEO Mike Iacobucci, the company offers conversational virtual assistant applications for customer care. It closed a $40M financing to support growth. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations across all business functions and to continue technology and service innovation. It plans to grow its portfolio of solutions, expand existing facilities in Indianapolis and Austin, and open new offices in Boston. The company is actively hiring to support these initiatives. Interactions Corporation is a Boston, MA-based provider of voice and interactive solutions that enable consumer-facing brands to interact with their customers. The company offers a platform for automated voice and other interactive systems that integrates with existing IVR platforms, speech platforms, and web applications, supplemented by a small pool of human analysts. Led by CEO Mike Iacobucci, Interactions supports brands' customer interactions across voice and digital channels. It operates additional facilities in Indiana and Texas. The company plans to use the funds to support its growing customer base, expand market presence, and invest in new technology and infrastructure. Interactions Corporation builds customer care communication solutions that integrate with IVR, speech and web applications and augment them with a pool of human "intent analysts." The company was established in 2002 and is Boston, MA-based with a technology center in Carmel, Indiana. Its platform is aimed at consumer-facing brands seeking to improve interactive systems. The firm recently completed a financing that the company said will allow it to augment sales and marketing. That fundraising underscores a focus on commercial expansion rather than product pivots. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article.

No current team members are available.