The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Apr 2023

Giddy builds a recoverable self-custody smart wallet that splits a user’s private key into encrypted shares stored across multiple user-controlled locations. The company says its MPC technology lets users recover their wallet even if they lose a recovery share. Giddy raised $6.9M in new funding, bringing total investments in the company to more than $15M to date. Investors in the round included Pelion Venture Partners, Peak Capital Partners, Clarke Capital and others, with a strategic investment from Fortnite co-creator Geremy Mustard; Pelion led an $8M round in 2022. Proceeds will be used to further Giddy’s strategy to bring crypto adoption to the masses through its recoverable self-custody technology. The firm positions its product as a response to risks highlighted by collapses of centralized exchanges and growing demand for self-custody. Giddy is a Draper, Utah-based mobile app founded in 2021 that aims to enable mainstream DeFi adoption. The company is preparing to launch a platform that provides staking for DeFi users and offers a wallet designed for secure transactions and easy withdrawal. Its technology and product design focus on making DeFi accessible to average cryptocurrency holders regardless of technical experience or wallet size. Giddy raised $8M in seed funding to support its launch and growth. The round was led by Pelion Venture Partners and brought in a diverse group of strategic and angel investors. The article does not disclose operating metrics such as revenue or user counts.

Participated · Series B · Jul 2019

Landr provides a cloud-hosted mastering dashboard that uses AI trained on data from over 10 million tracks to generate bespoke audio post-production processors and make real-time tweaks. The platform also includes collaboration tools for sharing and commenting, plus a distribution program that lets artists publish to major services without surrendering a cut of earnings. The company reports 2.5 million artists in 160 countries have mastered and promoted over 12 million tracks with its tools, and it now releases thousands of tracks weekly on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. Recent product updates include multiple mastering styles, volume matching for playback, and other quality-of-life improvements. Landr has attracted backers and supporters from prominent producers and artists such as Hans Zimmer, Nas, Richie Hawtin, Pete Tong, and Tiga. The company has raised over $30 million to date and intends to use its new funding to expand its music-technology capabilities and pursue new market-shifting directions. LANDR applies big data analytics and artificial intelligence to automated music mastering through an online engine. The company offers subscription tiers ranging from $6 to $39 per month and says it has analyzed tens of thousands of files to model mastering engineers' decisions. LANDR serves about 250,000 users, many of them amateur artists who otherwise would not pay for mastering, while some professionals use the service for quick reference masters. The company has brought on roughly 50 audio and mastering professionals to refine its technology and today launched Ionian 1.0, the latest iteration of its mastering engine. CEO Pascal Pilon says LANDR aims to partner with streaming platforms like Spotify and SoundCloud to raise online audio mastering standards, and the company plans to expand its technology to tackle video as well.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2017

Pillow provides short-term rental management services, helping hosts manage calendars, pricing, key handoffs and cleanings. The company launched Pillow Residential, a platform that gives multi-family building owners transparency into unit rentals, guest profiles, and background-checked cleaners while enabling owners to share in rental revenue and ensure regulatory compliance. Pillow developed the product to address customer churn caused by multi-family building owner crackdowns and increasing local short-term rental regulations. The platform is offered as a building amenity to reduce owners’ need to police rentals and to give renters peace of mind about continuing to rent legally. Pillow has enrolled more than 5,000 units across San Francisco, Oakland, Denver, Eugene, Salt Lake City, Louisville and Albuquerque, and works with owners including Marian Group, Virtu Investments and Peak Residential. The company announced $13.5 million in new funding led by Mayfield to support growth and expand Pillow Residential to more cities and buildings in the coming months. Pillow Homes (previously operating as Airenvy) provides technology-enabled management services for short-term rental homeowners. Its offering includes a proprietary pricing algorithm and booking engine, listing optimization and marketing, and end-to-end guest customer service. Local operations cover house cleaning and preparation, guest support, key exchange, and maintenance and repairs. The company offers a Pay-Per-Booking option charging homeowners a 15% fee on rental income—roughly half the rate of many competitors—and is introducing a Fixed-Income Guarantee model that provides homeowners a pre-determined monthly income. Pillow currently operates in San Francisco and the Bay Area, Sonoma, Napa Valley and Los Angeles. Management is led by CEO Sean Conway and President and Co-Founder Justin Miller.