Participated · Equity · Dec 2025

Founded in 2020 by Daniel Taylor, William Hayden, and Ignacio Semerene, New-York-based Bags turns QuickBooks data into actionable financial guidance by combining responsible AI with human expertise and CFO-quality reporting. Its platform pinpoints bookkeeping errors, explains their root causes, and recommends fixes, while also surfacing access to more than $10 billion in potential credit. Companies using Bags report an average 250 % year-over-year growth, are 4.5× more likely to receive funding, and secure financing five times faster than the national average. The service is positioned as an affordable alternative to traditional fractional CFOs, which can cost $10k–$20k per month. With total funding now at $7 million, Bags plans to deepen its product capabilities and broaden partnerships with mission-driven lenders and CDFIs. Upcoming pilots with TruFund Financial Services and additional CDFIs and MDIs in 2026 aim to streamline borrower preparation, packaging, and post-loan support. Ultimately, Bags envisions a future where small businesses are well-capitalized, financially literate, and poised for sustainable growth.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2025

Lyzr AI builds AI agents for enterprise use and operates an internal agent called SivaClaw that can engage investors, draft memos, and analyze slide engagement. The company used SivaClaw to run its own capital raise, demonstrating the product by fielding questions from over 130 investors during the process. That fundraising effort resulted in a $100 million Series B at an estimated $500 million valuation and reportedly generated about $400 million in investor interest. Lyzr is roughly three years old and located in Jersey City, New Jersey. The articles do not disclose revenue, user counts, or detailed financial metrics, nor do they list specific participating investors or planned allocation of the new capital.

Participated · Series B · Jan 2025

LeapXpert's Communications Platform captures, governs, and analyzes conversations on consumer messaging channels in real time to make those interactions actionable for enterprises. The company serves hundreds of demanding organizations across financial services, government, and the Forbes Global 2000. LeapXpert has been named a Visionary in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Digital Communications Governance and Archiving for two consecutive years, was listed on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 in 2024 and 2025, and appeared on the Financial Times' 2026 list of the Fastest-Growing Companies in America. With the new $180 million growth investment, LeapXpert plans to deepen the platform's ability to understand and act on governed conversations, accelerate market expansion, and expand its senior leadership team. The company positions itself as the infrastructure layer to govern and unlock AI-driven value from enterprise messaging.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2024

Reality Defender offers a platform that detects deepfakes and AI-generated content across audio, video, images, and text for enterprises, platforms, and governments. Founded in 2021 and led by CEO Ben Colman, the company has partnered with financial entities, government agencies, and media conglomerates. Since launch it has detected millions of deepfakes, prevented advanced voice fraud in real time, and deflected state-sponsored attackers. The company announced an expansion of its Series A to $33M and intends to use the funds to expand operations and accelerate development efforts. Alexander Ross of Illuminate Financial will join the Reality Defender board following the financing. Investors in the round include Illuminate Financial, Booz Allen Ventures, IBM Ventures, the Jeffries Family Office, Accenture Ventures, DCVC, The Partnership Fund for New York City, and Y Combinator. Reality Defender offers an API and web app that analyze videos, audio, text and images for signs of AI-driven modifications, using proprietary models trained on in-house datasets. The company trains an ensemble of deep-learning detection models and emphasizes real-world performance over lab-only accuracy. It began as a nonprofit and was founded in 2021 by Ben Colman, Ali Shahriyari and Gaurav Bharaj; Colman is a former Goldman Sachs VP. Reality Defender's 23-person team will be doubled with the new funding as the company improves its detection models. Customers include governments across several continents, top-tier financial institutions, media corporations and multinationals. The company competes with startups like DeepMedia, Truepic, Sentinel and Effectiv as well as incumbent tools from Microsoft. Reality Defender plans an explainable-AI tool to highlight AI-generated text and will roll out real-time voice detection for call centers followed by a real-time video detection tool.

Led · Equity · Jul 2024

Cell BioEngines is a NYC-based clinical-stage biotech focused on developing allogeneic 'off-the-shelf' stem cell-derived therapies as cell-based 'drugs' for human disease. It leverages a proprietary platform that uses universal, non-gene-modified donor blood stem cells obtained from umbilical cord to produce clinical-grade cells at scale. The company’s lead program, CBE-101, is an expanded cord blood-derived hematopoietic cell therapy intended as an alternative for hematological cancer patients who cannot find a donor. Led by CEO Dr. Ajay Vishwakarma, Cell BioEngines aims to deliver off-the-shelf cell therapies and is positioning CBE-101 for multicenter clinical testing. The company said it will use newly raised funds to expand operations and its R&D sector. The article reports the company raised an additional $2M in the latest funding update.