Participated · Series A · Sep 2019

Caper develops a smart grocery cart outfitted with computer vision, image-recognition cameras, barcode scanners and a credit-card reader to let shoppers scan items as they drop them into the cart. The system is designed to monitor only the cart rather than an entire store, which the company says yields faster computation, closer cameras and easier scaling versus store-wide approaches. Caper also envisions on-cart features such as personalized recommendations, shopping lists and recipes delivered via a built-in touchscreen. The company plans to use new capital to bring its smart carts to more store locations and does not expect retailers to discard traditional carts—customers can still choose a regular cart and checkout normally. Caper has raised $13 million to date, including a $2.15 million seed earlier this year. The startup positions its product as a way for grocers to add seamless checkout automation while competing with initiatives like Amazon Go. Caper builds smart shopping carts equipped with barcode scanners, a credit-card swiper, three image-recognition cameras and a weight sensor to automatically identify items as shoppers add them. The company currently sells carts to merchants (who pay a technology subscription and receive free hardware upgrades) and says stores equipped with its carts see shoppers buy about 18% more per visit. Caper is piloting its technology in two retailers in the NYC area and is finalizing scanless capabilities that combine camera images with weight data. The startup also collects in-store route and dwell-time data to help retailers optimize layouts and plans to surface promotions and recipe-based recommendations on the cart. With the new funding, Caper intends to expand to more stores and develop a smaller smart shopping basket for smaller retailers. The company says shops buy the carts outright and subscribe to its software, but it has not disclosed cart pricing publicly.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2018

Reonomy operates a large database that ingests roughly 100 sources of public, proprietary and crowdsourced data and applies AI to provide market intelligence for commercial real estate. Its database covers about 50 million properties (roughly 99% of U.S. commercial inventory), 80 million companies, 300 million people, 38 million mortgages and 68 million property sales, and it serves more than 100,000 customers. The product is used by developers, investors, acquirers, mortgage lenders and service providers such as roofers for sales, research, underwriting and lead generation. Reonomy emphasizes a non-technical user experience to make disparate property data accessible without heavy technical effort. With a Series D of $60M announced alongside new partnerships with CoreLogic, Black Knight and Dun & Bradstreet, the company has raised $128M to date. Founded in 2013 and based in New York, Reonomy plans to expand internationally into Canada, Asia, Australia, the U.K. and Europe, and the CEO said the round is an up round that likely puts valuation above $200M. Reonomy offers a commercial real estate (CRE) data and analytics platform that serves brokers, lenders, occupiers and investors. Its product suite includes subscription-based web applications, workflow tools, data services and API feeds for enterprise customers. The company operates a database covering nearly 50 million commercial properties, 80 million companies, 150 million unique ownership contacts, 8 million mortgages and 20 million property sales. Reonomy provides search and filtering across the U.S. CRE market with more than 300 filters to support prospecting and due diligence. Founded in 2013 and led by CEO Richard Sarkis, the company is using new funding to accelerate growth and adoption of its platform. To date it has raised $68.4 million in total funding. Reonomy provides lenders, brokers and investors with proprietary analytics that collect, analyze and validate property- and market-level commercial real estate data on a continuous basis. Its product suite includes a web-based interface and data APIs. The company has expanded its CRE data business to offer API feeds and data services for enterprise customers in addition to subscription-based web applications. Reonomy plans to use the new funding to accelerate growth and adoption of these expanded offerings. The company is led by CEO and co-founder Richard Sarkis. To date, Reonomy has raised $38.4M. Reonomy provides lenders, brokers and investors with a web-based platform for commercial real estate property and market-level research. Its proprietary analytics systems collect, analyze and validate a broad array of property and market-level data on a continuous basis. The company delivers this processed data through a web interface to simplify property and market research workflows. Reonomy's product is aimed at helping commercial real estate professionals conduct faster, data-driven research and decision-making. The article does not report revenue, user counts, or other operating metrics. Reonomy scours public records and the internet for thousands of commercial property data points, drawing from more than 100 sources to produce standardized, structured datasets and analysis. The platform provides both high-level metrics (price per square foot, building condition) and granular details (regulatory violations, elevator conditions, boiler room situations, filed capital expenditures). Clients include institutional and private investors, lenders, researchers, and valuation groups at brokerage firms. Using Reonomy, users can compare a building against more than 300,000 comparable properties instead of just a few. The company launched a beta to select institutional real estate investors, lenders and developers in early March. Reonomy closed a $3.7M Series A led by SoftBank with participation from Resolute Ventures, High Peaks Venture Partners, KEC and FinTech Collective. With the new funding, it plans to expand into new markets, develop for mobile, and build out the team.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2017

Forge Therapeutics is a San Diego-based biotechnology startup focused on developing antibiotics to treat lung infections. The company is working on antibiotic candidates aimed at respiratory infections. In January 2019 the company announced funding commitments totaling $11.1M from CARB-X. According to the announcement, Forge will initially receive $5.7M from CARB-X. CARB-X is described in the article as a public-private investor that funds projects targeting antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Forge Therapeutics discovers and develops small-molecule antibiotics that inhibit metalloenzymes in multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Its proprietary chemistry approach is used to design inhibitors of zinc-dependent metalloenzymes, with a lead program against LpxC, an enzyme essential for Gram-negative bacterial growth. The company intends to advance its LpxC inhibitor into clinical studies. Forge is led by CEO Zachary A. Zimmerman, Ph.D. The company completed a financing to support near-term clinical advancement of its lead candidate. The business focuses on addressing the global health threat posed by so-called 'superbugs.'