Participated · Seed · Feb 2022

Lula builds a zero-commission, multi-vendor 30-minute delivery platform that helps convenience stores, pharmacies and consumer packaged goods brands publish thousands of SKUs and syndicate them across major third-party delivery companies. The product aggregates orders from multiple delivery providers into one synchronous tool for merchants with one or two employees. Lula charges a monthly subscription (which the company says most stores break even on within the first couple days of the month) rather than a commission. The company was started in late 2020 after founders encountered pandemic-driven store closures and has helped hundreds of stores onboard to delivery. Lula is growing store count by over 30% month-over-month, is in talks with large convenience store chains in Europe and Mexico, and is receiving organic inbound from independents across the U.S. The company has 35 employees and plans to use new funding for product development and to expand sales and customer success headcount as it scales to all 50 states and targets the next 2,000 customers. Lula digitizes convenience-store inventories, supplies stores with tablets and sustainable packaging, and syndicates their listings to major delivery platforms (DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats and its own platform). The company shifted from hiring its own eco-conscious drivers to partnering with third-party delivery services and charging stores a $50–$99 monthly subscription instead of commissions. Lula operates in New York, New Jersey, Florida and Philadelphia, and says partnering stores have seen a roughly 30% increase in revenue within a 10-mile radius. The team comprises seven full-time and eight part-time staffers, and the company donates 1% of sales to 1% for the Planet. Lula plans senior hires in the Philadelphia area and aims to expand with larger convenience store chains and to onboard stores remotely across all 50 states.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2021

Sigo is a Latinx-founded managing general agency that provides affordable access to auto insurance for underserved immigrant and Latinx customers via a natively bilingual, mobile-first platform. The company has written hundreds of thousands of dollars in premiums through its agency business and maintains a customer retention rate above 80% in California and Texas. Sigo removes biased rate factors from underwriting and plans to launch its own insurance product in Texas that replaces discriminatory metrics with telematics and a Spanish-language safe driving app. Founded in 2019 and operating from Jersey City, N.J., Sigo currently serves customers in California and Texas. The team is 100% Black- and Latinx-led and is supported by advisors with decades of insurance experience. Mentorship from programs like Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator and gener8tor has aided the company's growth and hiring expansion.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2021

Sigo Seguros operates a digital-first platform underwriting non-standard auto insurance, enabling customers to buy policies in minutes from their phones and avoid onerous downpayment fees. The company targets working-class drivers and initially focuses on Hispanic and Latino communities by offering a full bilingual experience in Spanish. Its underwriting technology has produced profitable loss ratios, distinguishing it from other auto insurtech cycles. Sigo reported over 500% growth in Gross Written Premiums last year and payback periods measured in weeks. The financing is intended to fund expansion into new markets with large immigrant communities and limited suitable insurance options. As part of the investment, Rafael Varela will join Sigo’s board of directors. Sigo Seguros provides bilingual, mobile‑first auto insurance tailored to immigrant and working‑class drivers, with a focus on Latino and Spanish‑speaking communities. The company’s product eliminates additional fees and biased rating factors such as credit score and employment, and offers a bilingual end‑to‑end customer experience. It launched a proprietary product in August 2021 and is headquartered in Texas; the company was founded in 2019. Sigo reports it exceeded prior‑year sales in just the first half of 2023 and sees payback periods measured in weeks and months. The company plans to double its team by the end of the year and use new funding to expand customer‑facing technology, continue digitizing underwriting, and expand into new markets with large immigrant communities. Sigo Seguros is an Austin, TX-based insurtech founded in 2019 that provides affordable auto insurance for Spanish-speaking and immigrant communities. It offers a fully bilingual, mobile-first platform that simplifies the insurance experience and launched its inclusive auto insurance product in August 2021. The company provides transparent pricing without fees or biased rating factors and offers coverage to customers with foreign IDs or licenses. Sigo currently serves Texas and plans to expand into more states in 2023. It recently raised $5.4m in seed funding to expand operations and broaden access to equitable insurance for immigrant and working-class populations. The company has made key hires, including a Vice President of Insurance and a Senior Product Manager, and will continue hiring across insurance, technology, and business functions. Sigo is a managing general agency founded in 2019 that provides auto insurance to underserved immigrant and Latinx customers through a tech-enabled, bilingual, mobile-first direct-to-consumer platform. Headquartered in Jersey City, NJ, the company currently offers coverage in California and Texas. Sigo raised $1.5M in seed funding to support its growth. The company plans to use the funds to continue expanding operations and broaden the reach of its auto insurance product among immigrant and Latinx communities. The startup was founded by Néstor Hugo Solari and Júlio Erdos. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2015

Diib provides small business owners with a data analytics platform that delivers prescriptive insights for website optimization. The platform uses website data and several algorithms to create prescriptive suggestions so users can make quick changes to their websites that generate results. Diib calculates a health score that gives businesses a website checkup in 30 seconds. That health score is calculated from metrics including number of page loads, visit length, bounce rates, mobile visits and more. The company intends to use recent funding to expand its existing product offering. Diib was founded in 2012 and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2014

Tute Genomics offers a cloud-based genome interpretation platform that delivers analytics, interpretation and reporting for clinical sequencing to support predictive, preventive and precision medicine. The platform is positioned for healthcare use and aims to enable genomics-driven clinical decision-making. The company is led by Reid Robison, MD MBA (CEO) and Kai Wang, PhD (President and Chairman). Tute Genomics is based in Provo, Utah. The article reports the company recently closed a financing round (see deal details). No operating metrics were provided in the article. Tute Genomics has developed a comprehensive cloud-based genome analytics platform that helps clinicians and researchers draw meaningful insights from genome sequencing data. The company processes sequencing data in the cloud and has commercially deployed its platform across clinical labs, molecular diagnostic companies and research institutions. Nearly 10,000 samples have been processed on the platform to date. Tute plans to use the new funding to expedite genetic discoveries and enable the adoption of genomic medicine in everyday clinical care. The company is led by Reid Robison, MD MBA, CEO, and Kai Wang, PhD, President. Tute Genomics builds a cloud-based genome interpretation platform that uses proprietary machine-learning algorithms to rapidly prioritize clinically relevant genetic variants, genes and pathways. The platform supports discovery of novel disease genes and identification of predictive biomarkers. Its analysis now includes over 90 annotation types, scoring methods and genetic databases. The company is led by CEO Reid J. Robison, MD MBA, and President Dr. Kai Wang, and participated in the BoomStartup accelerator in Utah. Tute raised $1.5M in seed funding from a group of backers and additionally raised approximately $300K via AngelList's Syndicate. The company intends to use the funds to further develop its software.