Participated · Series C · Jan 2022

NAWA Technologies commercializes a patented VACNT platform to deliver high-power, high-energy ultracapacitors (NAWACap), very fast electrodes for lithium batteries, and reinforced carbon-fibre composites. Headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, the company positions VACNT as a foundational material across multiple energy-storage applications. NAWA plans to build its first NAWACap factory to manufacture ultracapacitors from 2023 onwards and to ramp series production. The company is also accelerating development work on lithium-ion battery cell technology. Target end markets called out include power tools, sensor-based IoT, and automotive segments (hybrid, BEVs and FCEVs). NAWA's recent financing is intended to keep the company in a leading technological position and support scale-up to industrial production. NAWATechnologies, founded in 2013 and based in Aix‑en‑Provence, develops Ultra‑Fast Carbon ultracapacitor cells and applied nanotechnology that the company says can store 100× more electricity, cost 150× less than classical batteries and reduce battery‑waste environmental impact fivefold. Its ultracapacitors are positioned for high‑power, fast‑charging applications such as power tools and automated guided vehicles in factories, and for sensor‑based IoT devices. The company also targets automotive uses including hybrid cars, BEVs and fuel‑cell vehicles for rapid energy capture from regenerative braking, and future urban mobility like electric buses, trams and autonomous vehicles. NAWA showcased a hybrid ultracapacitor/lithium NAWA Racer concept e‑bike at CES 2020. Using the recent funding, NAWA plans to install next‑generation production line equipment at its Provence facility in 2020. That production line is intended to scale to over 100,000 ultracapacitor cells per month at full capacity.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2019

TrapX Security is a global leader in cyber deception technology that develops solutions to detect and defeat advanced attackers. Its DeceptionGrid product rapidly detects, deceives, and defeats advanced cyber-attacks and human attackers in real time, and provides automated, accurate insight into malicious activity unseen by other defenses. The company serves Forbes Fortune 500 commercial and government customers worldwide across sectors including defense, healthcare, finance, energy, and consumer products. Incorporated in 2012, TrapX is led by CEO Moshe Ben-Simon and General Manager Ori Bach. The company recently completed an $18M Series C financing led by Ibex Investors with participation from BRM, Opus Capital, Intel Capital, Liberty Technology Venture Capital, and Strategic Cyber Ventures. TrapX says it will use the funds to expand its global presence into additional countries and verticals. TrapX Security develops deception-based cybersecurity software that automates the detection, isolation, and investigation of malware attacks on enterprise systems. Its platform is described as a leading supplier of deception technology to hospitals, skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), MRI/X-ray centers and large physician organizations. The company reported positive results in 2015, which Strategic Cyber Ventures cited as a basis for its investment. TrapX has emphasized momentum in healthcare and plans to expand into additional verticals such as finance and critical infrastructure. Last year the company raised $9 million from Intel Capital and Liberty Israel Venture Fund to fuel global expansion. TrapX Security, based in San Mateo, CA, delivers deception-based cybersecurity defense focused on detecting, analyzing and defending against new zero-day and APT attacks in real time. Its flagship product, DeceptionGrid™, provides automated insight into malware and malicious activity for Forbes Global 2000 commercial and government customers across sectors including defense, healthcare, finance, energy and consumer products. The company is led by CEO Greg Enriquez. TrapX raised $9M in a Series B funding round to accelerate growth across the business. The company intends to use the funds to further develop its deception technology, hire engineering and marketing talent, and expand global sales initiatives. The round signals continued commercial traction with enterprise and government customers worldwide.

Participated · Series B · Mar 2019

WorkBoard sells OKR-focused planning software that helps companies plan, track and operationalize objectives; it also offers coaching, certification and other human-powered services that account for roughly 10% of revenue. The services team feeds product improvements directly, enabling rapid iteration between customer needs and the product roadmap. The company has delivered rapid revenue growth in recent years (350% in 2018, 300% in 2019, ~100% in 2020) and reported a 90% increase from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021, with management expecting to more than double in 2021. WorkBoard has been hiring aggressively (adding 82 people in the first 100 days of the year) and plans to scale headcount from about 250 to 400 this year. Management says it sees an economic inflection point and accelerating planning cadences at customers as tailwinds, and it plans to invest the new capital into product, international expansion (Asia and Europe) and community efforts. WorkBoard builds software and services that help companies set, track and execute on objectives and key results (OKRs). The platform is used to align work across organizations and roll up key results into measurable objectives. CEO Deidre Paknad said the company boosted ARR 3.5x in 2018 and then tripled ARR again in 2019; Crunchbase lists total funding of $66.6M and TechCrunch reports ARR is now likely over $20M and probably closer to $25M. The company reports a hyper-efficient enterprise sales cycle (under 60 days), average deal sizes of several hundred thousand dollars (which have more than doubled since early 2019), and sales & marketing efficiency of about $2 in new ARR for every $1 spent. Paknad also said market education around OKRs has declined and broader recognition is driving adoption, reducing go-to-market friction. Despite not yet having spent its prior $23M, WorkBoard raised new capital to pursue what it calls an opportunity to establish definitive enterprise leadership. WorkBoard is a pioneer of Enterprise Strategy and Results Management and offers the only OKR offering for large enterprises. Its platform enables organizations to align on outcomes, measure progress, and drive strategic priorities across the organization. Customers cited include Microsoft, Reliance Industries, Cisco, Malwarebytes, Go1 and Influitive. In 2018 the company reported more than 3x revenue growth and launched an OKR Coach Certification program. WorkBoard plans to deepen investment in its platform and technology and to grow its sales and services organizations to meet increasing enterprise demand. The company is headquartered in Redwood City, Calif. Workboard provides Active Strategy Management software that enables leaders and teams to iterate, measure and achieve strategic priorities faster. The SaaS platform helps organizations iterate on strategic priorities quarterly with a data-driven, inclusive process and maps strategies to teams while tying in operational data. It measures progress transparently and automatically, augments strategy and execution with machine learning insights on risks and execution patterns, and replaces onerous reporting with continuous visibility. The company counts hundreds of customers, including IBM, Samsung, 8X8, Catalina, Disys and Terarecon. Led by CEO and co-founder Deidre Paknad, Workboard plans to use new capital to accelerate sales and marketing of its Active Strategy Management offering. The company has raised $12.1M in total funding to date. Workboard provides execution intelligence applications for enterprise managers and publishes the Leadership Refresher weekly email for managers. Its initial app for goal and status reporting is currently in private beta. The company was founded in 2013 by Deidre and Daryoush Paknad and is based in Redwood City, CA. Workboard will use the $2.75M Series A capital to accelerate product development and grow its customer base. In conjunction with the financing the company added board members and advisors, including Chris Hollenbeck, Carl Showalter and Rusty Rueff, and advisor Christina Wodtke. The core product focus is execution intelligence for managers at enterprise customers.

Participated · Series E · Sep 2018

Sisense builds enterprise business analytics software designed to make big data accessible via visualizations in desktop and mobile apps and through voice platforms like Alexa, leveraging machine learning and AI and a cloud‑native platform. The product emphasizes embedding analytics across workflows and presenting digestible data to nontechnical users. The company serves roughly 2,000 customers, including Tinder, Philips, Nasdaq and the Salvation Army, and reports annual recurring revenue of over $100 million. Sisense has pursued inorganic growth, notably acquiring Periscope Data last year for about $100 million. It says it will use the new funding to continue building its technology and to expand sales, marketing and development efforts. CEO Amir Orad has framed the company’s approach as simplifying access to data and embedding analytics in every logical place. Sisense builds a data analytics and business intelligence platform that helps customers understand and visualize data across multiple sources. Its platform focuses on simplifying access to complex data, embedding analytics across screens, desktops, smartphones and voice assistants like Amazon Alexa. The company reports over 1,000 customers, including Expedia, Oppenheimer and Phillips, and powers Nasdaq Corporate Solutions' investor-relations system. Launched in 2010, Sisense employs nearly 500 people across offices in New York, Tel Aviv, Kiev, Tokyo and Arizona. Financially, Sisense announced an $80 million Series E that brings total funding to close to $200 million. The company plans to expand its international presence, add headcount in customer success and field engineering, and is open to acquisitions when the right opportunities arise. Sisense offers business analytics software that enables everyday business users to manage, analyze and visualize large, disparate data sets within a single‑stack environment on low‑cost commodity machines. Its signature In‑Chip analytics processes data up to 100X faster than competing approaches, reducing the need for extensive data preparation, large operational budgets, or specialized IT skills. The company reported revenue growth of more than 100% for the fifth consecutive year, added hundreds of new customers in 2015, and serves more than a thousand direct and indirect clients in over 50 countries. Sisense has delivered consecutive quarters of greater than 100% net renewal from its existing customer base, signaling strong retention and expansion within customers. Notable customers include Motorola, Skullcandy and eBay, and the company has received multiple industry awards. Sisense plans to continue investing in innovation and rapidly expand business operations to support global growth. SiSense builds business intelligence software that surfaces big-data analytics to ordinary business users through easy-to-understand dashboards. Its signature technology, branded In-Chip Elasticube processing, shifts work into in-chip processing rather than relying solely on in-memory systems so users can process terabytes on machines with less memory. The product is aimed at non–data-scientists and joins peers such as Looker, Origami Logic and Tableau in consumerizing data analytics. Customers mentioned include eBay, ESPN and Carlsberg. Founded in 2004 in Tel Aviv, SiSense already has an office in New York, plans a Silicon Valley office by early next year, and makes about 70% of its sales in the U.S. The company is not yet profitable but is growing quickly, expects sales to triple year-over-year, and forecasts profitability by 2015; CEO Amit Bendov has said he is eyeing an eventual IPO. SiSense provides an analytics platform centered on Elasticube, a high-performance analytical database that maximizes machine RAM, CPU, and disk use. Its Prism business-intelligence solution targets non-technical users and includes a columnar database, ETL tools, and web visualizations. The company says it can analyze 100 times more data than traditional in-memory solutions at a fraction of the cost and can analyze on one node what normally requires 20 nodes. SiSense serves customers in 49 countries, including Target, Merck, Wix, and Uber. Led by CEO Amit Bendov and based in San Francisco, the company completed a $10M Series B and intends to use the capital to increase adoption of its solution.

Led · Series B · Oct 2017

Cloud4Wi offers Volare, an AI-driven location analytics and marketing platform. The platform includes Guest WiFi, WiFi Analytics and WiFi Marketing to collect customer data, enrich on-premise profiles and engage customers across channels. It is distributed via a network covering over 65 million mobile users in about 15,000 locations across more than 80 countries. The company has offices in New York, Dallas, London, Paris, Milan, Pisa, Rome and Manila and serves brands such as Adecco, Bulgari, Burger King, Clarks, Gruppo FS Italiane, Liverpool, Moscow City Government, Olive Garden and VTB24. Cloud4Wi closed an $11.5M Series B and has raised $15.5M in total to date. The company plans to use the funds to further develop Volare, expand sales and marketing, grow its global partner network and improve its machine learning capabilities. Cloud4wi offers Volare, a services platform for advanced guest Wi‑Fi that lets large retail and restaurant chains and shopping malls leverage existing Wi‑Fi to deliver on-site mobile experiences and capture customer insights. The open, cloud-based solution is distributed through channel partners and includes mobile app integration, enhanced targeting capabilities, and a developer suite. The platform connects more than 45 million mobile users across 15,000 locations in more than 80 countries. Customers named in the article include Armani, Burger King, Bulgari, Clarks Shoes, Olive Garden, Prada, and Telecom Italia. Led by CEO and co-founder Andrea Calcagno, the company has offices in San Francisco, London, Paris, Milan, Pisa and Singapore. The new financing will be used to expand operations globally. Cloud4Wi offers a cloud-based platform that lets venues monetize WiFi via branded splash web portals, promotional offers, and customer data capture. The platform supports third-party developers to build additional apps on top of the service. The company has made headway in the Italian market, working with telco players, system integrators and vendors. Cloud4Wi plans to expand internationally and is opening a new San Francisco office as part of that push. Management intends to capitalize on hotspot growth in venues such as stadiums and shopping malls. Competitors mentioned in the article include FON, Boingo, Cloudessa, and Purple WiFi.