The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Sep 2023

Medeloop is an AI-driven medical research platform based in Menlo Park, California. Led by CEO Rene Caissie, it automates the entire research cycle—from grant discovery to data analysis—by transforming medical data into a graph database to deliver deep insights and fast results. Its suite includes a grant platform for identifying and applying for funding, a dual-component studies platform (mobile app for participants and web app for researchers), a no-code analytics platform, and a manuscript publication platform. These integrated tools are designed to let researchers manage every aspect of a study from inception to publication. Medeloop partners with healthcare institutions worldwide. The company intends to use the new funds to expand operations and accelerate development efforts. Medeloop offers an AI-driven platform that integrates, harmonizes, and analyzes health data using advanced AI tools to support clinical research. The product streamlines researcher discovery and simplifies grant applications, data collection and harmonization, biomarker and trend identification, and manuscript submissions. Medeloop says these insights have the potential to expedite the clinical research process. The company plans to use the funds to launch an end-to-end solution for early-stage clinical research. Leadership includes CEO Dr. Rene Caissie, CTO Raghav Samavedem, CSO Dr. Josh Walonoski, and COO Andy Yakulis. Medeloop is based in Palo Alto, CA.

Participated · Series A · May 2020

Commerce Layer provides a set of APIs that let businesses build custom e-commerce front ends for web, mobile, wearable and voice, plus point-of-sale, subscriptions and multi-vendor marketplace models. Its platform also supports shopping carts and converting print catalogues into interactive, shoppable digital experiences. The company plans to add a developer dashboard, a CLI, an order management system, a hosted checkout application, a metrics API, a reporting app, and improved subscription and marketplace support. Commerce Layer is led by CEO and co-founder Filippo Conforti and is based just outside Florence, Italy. The business has scaled from six customers in May 2020 to about 26, and reported revenues grew 6x in the past year. Customers include Chilly’s, Brioni, SumUp, Paradox Interactive and Coca-Cola Embonor. Commerce Layer has built a headless, API-driven e-commerce platform that lets merchants connect inventory, prices and orders to sites, apps, marketplaces, messaging services and social channels. The product supports multi-SKU management, multiple currencies, distributed inventory models and global shipping integrations to enable omnichannel commerce. Customers named in the article include Chilly’s, Au Depart and Richard Ginori, and customer requests help shape integrations the company builds next. CEO and founder Filippo Conforti positions the company as younger and more modern than legacy headless competitors such as Commercetools. Commerce Layer plans to use the new funding to expand into more geographies and add additional endpoints to meet customer needs. The company is based in Italy, just outside Florence in Tuscany.

Participated · Equity · May 2012

Crowdstar builds social and mobile games, with a history of fashion-focused titles like Top Girl and Social Girl. The company has shifted its entire focus from Facebook to mobile platforms (iOS and Android) and is placing renewed emphasis on tablets. Crowdstar plans to bring two mobile products to market later this year, one of which will be fashion-focused while the other will be a different genre. The company disclosed an additional $12M from existing investors and has more than $46.5M in total funding to date. Crowdstar employs about 70 people. The article notes rising mobile marketing costs and higher platform fidelity expectations, with new-game launch costs reaching into the millions—context for the new capital raise. Crowdstar is a games developer known for titles like Top Girl and Social Girl that has pivoted from Facebook to mobile. Its mobile versions have attracted 25 million users, with revenue split roughly 80% iOS and 20% Android; Google Play and Amazon's appstore are even in monthly revenue, though Amazon users are more lucrative. The company targets young women ages 13–30 and is pursuing "profitable growth" under CEO Peter Relan. Crowdstar raised $11.5 million in a recent round to double down on mobile, bringing total funding to $35 million. It is moving off Facebook due to reduced profitability there and has laid off about 25 people from its Facebook studios. Management cited broader market dynamics—Facebook's clampdown on viral channels and 30% revenue share, and Apple's larger payments ecosystem—as factors in the pivot. The article notes increasing competition and pressure on profit margins in mobile gaming and suggests recent sector exits have set benchmark valuations that may constrain upside for later investors. CrowdStar is a social gaming company best known for Facebook games Happy Aquarium, It Girl, Happy Pets and Mighty Pirates and is the fifth-largest Facebook social gaming app developer with 29 million monthly active users. The company recently reported its largest quarter of revenue in Q1 2011. Under new CEO Peter Relan (creator of incubator YouWeb), CrowdStar is shifting from being Facebook-dependent toward becoming an independent social gaming platform. It plans to expand internationally (about 50% of traffic is already international), push into mobile with iOS-first releases incorporating location and push notifications, and pursue talent and small studio acquisitions. CrowdStar currently has about 100 employees and says it will use part of the new funding to roughly double headcount, hiring developers, artists, producers, analysts and content managers. The company previously started with only $100,000 in funding from YouWeb; new investors and partnerships are expected to help with mobile expansion and China/Japan market entry.