Led · Series B · Jun 2022

PredictSpring provides an omni-channel commerce platform and modern POS technology supporting full POS, mPOS, cash management, clienteling, endless aisle, inventory management and curbside pickup. The platform serves multiple verticals including apparel and footwear, luxury, health and beauty, jewelry and watches, winery and liquor stores, home furnishing and decor, and telco. PredictSpring’s Modern POS is deployed on thousands of terminals across 25 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia and South Korea. The company has achieved fiscal compliance for POS software in several European countries (France, Austria, Italy, Portugal, Germany) and in Mexico. Led by CEO Nitin Mangtani, PredictSpring plans to use new capital to accelerate growth of its omni-channel business and expand R&D and go-to-market teams. PredictSpring provides a mobile-first Modern POS platform that enables omnichannel inventory management, clienteling, endless aisle, multi-tender transactions, cash management and curbside pickup. The platform runs on handheld devices including iPhone and iPad so store associates can complete secure transactions anywhere in the store. Key features include full POS/mPOS, clienteling with purchase and loyalty data, endless aisle integration of in-store and online inventory, curbside pickup, cash management, multi-tender support, and inventory management (including RFID and cycle counting). PredictSpring powers omnichannel commerce for brands and retailers such as Claudie Pierlot, Deciem, Maje, vineyard vines, PacSun, Sandro, Torrid, and Suitsupply. Led by CEO and founder Nitin Mangtani, the company plans to use recent funding to expand into new verticals including home furnishing, wineries and beverages, outdoor, and sporting equipment. The company received a strategic investment from Salesforce Ventures; the amount was not disclosed. PredictSpring helps brands and retailers create truly native mobile shopping experiences and also builds in-store mobile tools for sales staff. Its platform offers consumer features such as geofenced notifications and barcode scanning, plus salesperson-facing apps to look up customer and product information. Customers include Calvin Klein, Cole Haan and Nine West, and the company reports an average 200–300% improvement in conversions. PredictSpring is focused on improving both the mobile consumer experience and in-store technology. Financially, the company announced an $11.4 million Series A and had previously raised $2 million in seed funding. PredictSpring was founded by longtime Googler Nitin Mangtani to help brands and retailers accelerate mobile commerce. Its core product is a no-code mobile app development platform that produces "100 percent native" shopping-enabled apps. The company says the first apps built on the platform went live at the end of last year. Customers using the platform include Cole Haan, Eddie Bauer, Bluefly and Woodcraft. PredictSpring is also launching a Commerce Gateway to enable Buy buttons and shopping from ads and social channels (for example, Instagram). The Commerce Gateway provides a single API to integrate e-commerce platforms, inventory systems, payment providers, product catalogs and loyalty programs. PredictSpring has raised $2 million in funding from external investors.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2021

Elevate Brands acquires, launches and operates leading consumer brands sold by third‑party sellers on Amazon and other marketplaces. Founded in Q4 2016 with headquarters in New York and Austin, TX, the company uses a data‑driven approach—advanced algorithms and over 100M data points—to source and evaluate acquisition opportunities. It has a portfolio of more than 25 brands and reports close to 100% average post‑acquisition growth across its portfolio. Elevate Brands emphasizes best‑practice branding, supply‑chain optimization, and a streamlined underwriting process that can be finalized within 30 days to scale acquired businesses quickly. The company pursues a marketplace‑agnostic, targeted international acquisition strategy and plans to build legacy CPG brands while expanding into key international marketplaces. In 2021 it raised additional capital that brought its funding total to over $317 million, reflecting strong investor interest. Elevate Brands specializes in acquiring, launching and operating consumer brands sold by Amazon third‑party sellers, using a data‑driven underwriting process that can close deals within 30 days. The company has grown its global team of marketers and operators by more than 200% since January 2021 and opened a second headquarters in Austin, Texas, alongside its New York base. Elevate reports nearly 100% average post‑acquisition growth across its portfolio and is acquiring sellers at a pace of 3–4 new brands per month. The firm said the funding will fuel its acquisition plan and enable it to scale rapidly; it is on pace to acquire 100 category‑leading brands by the end of 2022. Elevate projected it is on track to hit over $150 million in revenue by the end of 2021. Founded in Q4 2016, the company targets the $300 billion Amazon third‑party seller marketplace that the article says is expected to double over the next five years. Elevate Brands is an operator and acquirer of Amazon third‑party consumer brands, using a data-driven approach to underwriting and post-acquisition operations. The company executes underwriting within 30 days and deploys operational teams immediately to grow acquired brands. Since acquiring its first Amazon business more than a year ago, Elevate Brands reported more than 100% average post-acquisition growth across its portfolio. It is expanding rapidly through targeted acquisitions and plans a marketplace-agnostic strategy to support long-term brand growth, with a focus on marketing and creative services. The company expects to hit $150 million in revenue by the end of 2021. Elevate Brands was founded in Q4 2016 and has headquarters in New York and Austin, TX.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2019

Returnly is a post-purchase payments company that helps brands and retailers deliver instant, seamless returns experiences. Its core product lets shoppers buy again using return credit before shipping original items back, settles the new order in real-time, and assumes the product-returns risk for merchants. The company offers a turn-key solution for large-scale retailers as well as hosted, fully brandable customer touchpoints like order and returns tracking, online returns and exchanges. Returnly said it will use the new $19 million Series B to grow merchant services and expand its product offering to help thousands of retailers compete with Amazon. Planned product work includes omnichannel support (Buy Online Return In Store) and deeper integrations with reverse logistics, e-commerce, loyalty, and CRM platforms. Returnly is headquartered in San Francisco and also has offices in Chicago and Madrid. Returnly offers a turn-key post-purchase payments platform that lets shoppers buy again using return credit before shipping original items back, settles those orders in real time, and assumes product return risk for merchants. The company also provides returns management tools and hosted, brandable customer touchpoints such as order and returns tracking, online returns and exchanges. Returnly has developed relationships with hundreds of merchant partners, including Fanatics, UNTUCKit, Outdoor Voices and The Greats, and has issued more than $100 million in returns credit to customers. The business is headquartered in San Francisco and maintains offices in Chicago and Madrid. The company plans to use the new financing and credit facility to onboard larger merchants and integrate its platform with reverse logistics, e-commerce, loyalty and CRM platforms. Its core focus is removing returns friction to drive customer loyalty and incremental sales for retailers. Returnly provides an online wallet that temporarily fronts customers the refund on returned goods so they can immediately repurchase from the same brand. The company acts as a middleman between shoppers and merchants, returning funds to customers only after retailers receive the original item. It uses data and A/B testing — run by a team that includes ex‑Glassdoor data scientists — to help brands measure the impact on repurchases. Returnly collects nearly all of its revenue from commissions on post‑return sales, with the remainder coming from an initiation fee charged when retailers adopt the service. Merchants such as Fanatics and Cotopaxi are cited as customers benefiting from the low‑risk value proposition. Founder and CEO Eduardo Vilar, who has a background in mathematics and actuarial science, leveraged the company’s own equity to power initial transactions and aims to demonstrate the predictability and profitability of that financial instrument to institutional investors.

Participated · Series A · Aug 2018

Backbone is a cloud-based, next-generation workflow suite that centralizes design, development, and production information for consumer goods companies. Its SaaS platform, launched in July 2019, automates data import, integrates with apps like Shopify, NetSuite, and Slack, and replaces outdated PLM tools. Backbone’s product improves cross-functional visibility, speeds time to market, reduces revision cycles and waste, and supports data-backed decision making. The company works with more than 150 companies, including Allbirds, Warby Parker, Outdoor Voices, Uppababy, Serena & Lily, Betabrand, and Parachute Home. Recent funding was used to advance the platform and expand into fashion, furniture, home and hard goods, and textiles. Backbone plans to increase staffing, hire a Chief Operating Officer, and double headcount from about 50 to over 100 by Q2 2020. Financially, the company has closed an $18M Series A and has raised $23M in total to date. Backbone PLM is a cloud collaborative platform that automates design and production processes for consumer goods and direct-to-consumer brands. It enables teams to manage milestone calendars, create tech packs, iterate designs, and track factory communications, samples, approvals, cancellations, actions and purchase orders through to the end product. The platform aims to reduce lead times across the supply chain and help brands get products to market faster. Founded by brothers Matthew and Andrew Klein, the company works with more than 100 direct-to-consumer brands, including Allbirds, Kith, Outdoor Voices, Parachute Home, Stitch Fix and Warby Parker. Backbone is based in Boulder, Colorado and recently completed an $8M Series A financing, which included $6.7M in Series A equity plus a convertible note. The company says the investment will be used to accelerate growth and continue product innovation.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2018

inkbox is a tattoo ecosystem that makes realistic semi-permanent tattoos customers apply at home without needles. Customers can choose from thousands of designs created by an active artist community or create their own, and the company operates an artist marketplace. Founded by brothers Tyler and Braden Handley in February 2015 and based in Toronto, inkbox has shipped over 500,000 tattoos to customers in more than 150 countries. The company has released collections with brands and influencers including Vans Warped Tour, Anna Brisbin, SickKids Foundation, and Debby Ryan. Plans include expanding its artist marketplace, developing new tattoo technologies, strengthening its brand and scaling operations through strategic hires. Alongside the financing, inkbox added advisors Jill Braff and Divya Gugnani. To date the company has raised $16M, including prior seed rounds. Toronto-based founders Tyler and Braden Handley launched Inkbox after a Kickstarter that raised nearly $300,000 and refined their product to a 10-minute application. The company sells short-term organic temporary tattoos and describes itself as a biotech on the back end with a consumer fashion front end. Inkbox completed a general consumer launch and hired chemist Chris Caputo, a former Harvard postdoc, as its first main hire. The team says it manufactured the underlying technology from scratch and spent about six months scaling it to consumer production. The company is developing a longer-lasting version of the technology that would last 30 days and has additional products planned. Financially, Inkbox recently closed a $1 million seed round from angels and an early-stage VC as it prepares for retail sales.