Led · Seed · Aug 2019

Joust Labs is a U.S.-based neobank founded in 2017 that offers an all-inclusive banking platform serving freelancers, contractors, and small business founders in all 50 states. Its business banking app combines an FDIC-insured bank account with a merchant account to accept all kinds of payments and is available on Google Play and the Apple App Store. Core features include invoicing and payments management plus PayArmour, an invoicing-guarantee product that offers same-day funding when clients pay late or not at all. The platform is designed to smooth irregular cash flows and mitigate income volatility for independent professionals and small businesses. Joust says it uses contextual data and proprietary risk algorithms to reduce cost, complexity and risk for solopreneurs, and plans to expand its platform to serve the growing freelance workforce segment.

Led · Seed · Aug 2019

Joust Labs offers a mobile financial-services platform for freelancers, sole proprietors, and small and midsized businesses in the United States, enabling invoice and payment management and protection against late or missed payments. Its flagship product, PayArmour, is an invoice guarantee that provides users access to cash advances against unpaid invoices. Joust bundles PayArmour with a suite of financial services, including a bank account and payments processing, into a single mobile app. The platform is available on both Google Play and the Apple App Store. Led by founder and CEO Lamine Zarrad, the company positions itself to help independent workers get paid faster, protect their assets, and pursue new opportunities. The company plans to use new funding to expand its platform to better serve the freelance workforce segment.

Led · Series A · Apr 2018

Founded in 2012 by Adam Perold and renowned machine-learning researcher Yann LeCun, Element has built software that stores and matches a person’s face, palm, and fingerprints locally on low-power mobile devices. Its SDK sits behind partners’ mobile apps, creating a secure identity layer that can connect to bank accounts, medical files, and other critical records without relying on cloud connectivity. The company’s algorithms compress a full biometric profile to roughly two kilobytes, enabling fast, offline authentication even in areas with limited wireless service. Security features were designed to support shared devices, such as those used in banks that serve thousands of customers. Element focuses on developing markets and has partnerships with Telekom Indonesia (serving 180 million subscribers) and the Global Good Fund to improve identity for newborns and infants in Southeast Asia and Africa. Strategic investors include major Indonesian banks and Telkom Indonesia, underscoring the company’s push into financial and healthcare services in emerging economies. Element has raised $12 million in Series A funding to further expand these partnerships and refine its technology.

Led · Series A · Jul 2017

Callsign builds an adaptive authentication platform that combines multi-factor authentication with deep-learning fraud analytics to adapt authentication challenges in real time. The platform analyzes hundreds of signals (device, location and behavioral metrics) to decide the most appropriate security challenge for each login attempt. It can integrate with existing authenticators and identity providers, and supports out-of-the-box mobile authenticators or piecemeal deployments. Callsign says its system has been deployed to hundreds of thousands of users and names clients including Lloyds Bank and Deutsche Bank. Founded in 2012 and launched to major customers about 18 months ago, the company emphasizes privacy-preserving on-device transformations of raw signals. Management plans to use the Series A to scale sales, marketing, support and engineering and to expand into the U.S., Far and Middle East, opening Bay Area and New York offices.