Led · Series A · Apr 2022

Murphy's Naturals, based in Raleigh, NC, is an outdoor lifestyle company producing natural products designed to enable people to enjoy life outside, including products in the natural mosquito repellent space. Led by CEO Philip Freeman, the company aims to remove barriers—product, planet, or protection—that prevent people from getting outdoors. Murphy’s is expanding its retail footprint to include REI and Walmart in 2024. The company intends to use new funding to scale and expand retail distribution nationwide, increase manufacturing capacity, and scale its distribution framework. It also plans to support research and development of new products both within the natural mosquito repellent space and beyond. The business recently completed an $8M Series B to support these initiatives. Murphy's Naturals is a veteran-owned, family-operated outdoor lifestyle company best known for plant-based mosquito repellents and other natural outdoor products. Founded in 2014 and certified as a B Corporation, the company emphasizes responsibly sourced ingredients and environmental and social impact. Its products contain concentrated natural repellent oils and are sold online and in retailers nationwide. Murphy's Naturals donates 2% of all revenue to aligned organizations, with 1% specifically to 1% For The Planet. The company plans to use new capital for R&D on innovative products, to increase production capacity, and to expand brand and marketing efforts. Leadership includes founder and CEO Philip Freeman, a U.S. Navy veteran, and NRV partner Laura Markley joined the board in November 2021. Murphy’s Naturals creates earth-friendly personal care products from natural, responsibly sourced ingredients. Its mosquito repellents are 100% DEET-free and use plant-based ingredients such as essential oils. The company is a Certified B Corporation and a 1% For The Planet member, contributing 2% of gross revenues to environmental and community causes. Murphy’s products are available at retailers including Target, Amazon, Grove Collaborative, and the Murphy’s Naturals website. CompanyFirst led an investment in Murphy’s Naturals with One Better Ventures participating, and representatives from both firms joined the company’s board of directors. The financing is intended to help fuel the company’s continued growth and success.

Participated · Seed · May 2020

SVT Robotics offers a software platform that orchestrates robots in warehouses and factories, aiming to solve interoperability challenges in industrial automation. The platform provides prebuilt integrations and partner-programmed functionality, and allows customers to design solutions with drag-and-drop tools. Solutions can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud to match customer requirements. SVT says deployments of its platform increased 375% from Q4 2020 to July 2021, and current customers include “top companies” in warehousing and manufacturing. The company says integrations are typically custom-coded in the industry, creating long development cycles, and its product seeks to speed deployments and reduce transition costs. SVT plans to use new capital to bolster product R&D and expand customer outreach. SVT Robotics provides a robotic Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) that enables companies to connect their enterprise systems to any robot or automation. Co-founded by Michael Howes and A.K. Schultz, the company focuses on simplifying and accelerating industrial robotics deployment. SVT completed a $3.5m seed funding round led by Cowboy Ventures with participation from Dynamo Ventures, Schematic Ventures, Ludlow Ventures and NRV. The company intends to use the funds to scale up its product and customer success teams and expand its offering. It is expanding its product feature set to support customer growth and market demand. The company is based in Norfolk, Va.

Led · Equity · Dec 2019

Shenandoah Valley Organic (SVO) is a Harrisonburg, Va.-based organic meat company that produces the Farmer Focus™ brand and emphasizes traceability. The company was founded in 2014 by CEO Corwin Heatwole and positions itself as mission-based and values-driven. Through its business model, farmers receive fair compensation and retain decision-making for their businesses. SVO closed a $15M funding round to support its growth. The company intends to use the proceeds for plant modernization to increase throughput volumes and to expand marketing and brand outreach. Those efforts are aimed at growing Farmer Focus fresh and value-add product sales in leading grocery stores and retail locations throughout the United States.

Led · Equity · Aug 2019

Ario Technologies builds an AR SaaS productivity platform used by industrial companies, including Fortune 500 firms, to increase productivity, connect data with equipment, reduce training time and capture workforce knowledge. The platform offers augmented reality software tools aimed at the industrial workforce. The company was founded in 2016 by CEO Joe Weaver and COO Nate Fender and is based in Norfolk, VA. Ario plans to use recent funding to expand its market presence in the United States and internationally and to continue iterating on its product offerings. Its current funding includes a venture capital round and a U.S. Air Force SBIR grant that together provide early-stage capital for growth. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article. Ario Technologies develops Ario, an augmented reality software-as-a-service platform that lets teams create and share real-time spatial information using real-world data. The platform is positioned for industrial enterprise use, with applications in training, reducing manufacturing downtime, improving safety, and providing remote expert assistance. The company intends to use recent funding to expand its industrial enterprise product offering and accelerate its go-to-market strategy. Ario emphasizes real-time spatial collaboration in physical environments rather than purely virtual experiences. The product targets organizations seeking operational efficiencies and remote support capabilities in industrial settings. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2017

ICX Media builds a machine-learning and data-analytics platform that provides audience insights, social marketing tools, analytics and access to more than 850,000 video creators. The platform helps media companies, brands and creators create, distribute, market and monetize video content at scale, and an enterprise beta launched in April with dozens of enterprises using the product. ICX Media offers tools for independent creators to manage, distribute, market and monetize videos across digital and social channels. The company emphasizes data-driven decision making to support content creation, distribution and advertising strategies. Founded in 2015, ICX is headquartered in Washington, DC, has an office in New York City and plans to add an office in Los Angeles. The company will use new funding to expand sales, marketing, business development and its data science and technology capabilities. ICX Media builds an end-to-end platform that connects independent video creators with publishers and brands to promote, syndicate, commission and monetize video content. The company emphasizes data and analytics to help creators grow audiences and generate revenue, focusing on thousands to tens of thousands of early-stage creators rather than top-tier stars. ICX views marketing companies as potential partners and aims to integrate marketing, distribution and monetization services into a single offering. Founders Michael Avon, Tom MacIsaac, Steve McCord and Joey McCord previously worked together at Millennial Media; Avon serves as CEO. The company raised seed funding to support product development and go-to-market efforts.