Led · Seed · Jan 2024

Bolden Therapeutics is developing first-in-class antisense oligonucleotides designed to promote neurogenesis as potential treatments for central nervous system illnesses including Alzheimer’s disease. The company has begun testing candidate antisense oligonucleotides in vivo and intends to advance preclinical development. It closed a $1.5M pre-seed convertible note financing to support those preclinical programs. The round was led by Resolute Venture Partners and included Slater Technology Fund, Lifespan Vision Ventures and multiple angel investors. Bolden’s foundational research originated from two Brown University research labs and the company received two ‘Golden Tickets’ from Biogen allowing residency at LabCentral and sponsored lab space. Its current research facility is located at the Tufts Launchpad | biolabs incubator. The company is led by Co-Founder and CEO Johnny Page alongside scientific co-founders Dr. Justin Fallon and Dr. Ashley Webb.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2020

Haus produces a 15% ABV citrus- and flower-flavored aperitif sold through a direct-to-consumer membership with monthly shipment tiers (one bottle for $35, two for $63, or six for $144) and free sign-up. The product is formulated to qualify for direct shipping by being made mostly from grapes and staying under 24% ABV, which also allows Haus to publish ingredients and nutrition facts. Founders Helena Price Hambrecht (brand veteran) and Woody Hambrecht (winemaker) built the company to collect customer data, iterate quickly, and position the brand as a transparent, lifestyle-driven alternative to traditional wine and spirits. Haus plans a wholesale initiative with bars and restaurants in New York, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Denver, and intends to retain customers through discounts, events and future editorial content. Financially, the company completed a $4.5 million seed raise from a mix of funds and more than 100 individual investors to grow its community and scale distribution. Haus sells apéritifs online that are lower in alcohol (its debut is 15% ABV) and made from distilled grapes, fresh herbs and botanicals. The company launched a citrus & flower–flavored debut apéritif priced at $70 and is positioning itself as a DTC alternative to legacy alcohol brands. Haus operates a patent-pending production model and handles production and fulfillment end-to-end, currently bottling in a 3,000 sq. ft. warehouse with plans to purchase an additional 2,800 sq. ft. The business is run by founders Helena Price Hambrecht and Woody Hambrecht and is headquartered at the couple’s Sonoma County, California ranch. Haus plans to raise additional seed capital later this year to fund a 2020 subscription product, build brick-and-mortar apéritif shops, and release second and third product lines.

Participated · Series B · Mar 2018

180 Health Partners deploys cross-functional care teams—peer advocates, addiction counselors, social workers, nurses and resource advocates—that partner with providers and health plans to support opioid-dependent expecting mothers. The company’s model integrates medical and behavioral health care with social-determinants stabilization to reduce the incidence and severity of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) and improve long-term outcomes for mothers and babies. 180 works with health plans and is contracted with all Medicaid health plans in Tennessee, where it has primarily served patients to date. Its services aim to simplify complex medical, addiction, behavioral and socio-economic needs by directly filling gaps in care and matching members with tailored teams. The company says its solution meaningfully reduces opioid-dependent births and significantly lowers overall cost of care. With new capital, 180 plans to launch its program in other states with similar critical need and pursue national expansion.

Participated · Series A · Nov 2017

Meural builds the Canvas digital art frame, a second-generation 27-inch HD display tuned to resemble real canvas. The company has expanded retail distribution to 137 brick-and-mortar stores across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France and the Netherlands, including partners such as Best Buy Canada, Lowe’s Smart Home locations, Micro Center and Selfridges. Its Canvas will be on sale in those locations in time for the holiday shopping season. Meural raised $5 million in a Series A led by Corigin Ventures, with participation from Netgear, Resolute Venture Partners and assorted angels. The new funding brings Meural’s total capital raised to $9 million to date, after a $3 million seed round in April 2016 also led by Corigin Ventures. The company says the funding will be used to increase in-person exposure to drive mainstream consumer adoption. Meural builds a digital, connected canvas that streams art directly to users’ walls. The canvas features gesture control, an LCD display encased in a handcrafted maple wooden frame, and is available in three frame styles/colors (black, white, and lightbox). It ships with a companion free app that lets users select, curate, discover, and upload artwork. Meural has signed partnerships with Bridgeman Images, Sedition, Lomography and Eyes on Wall to source content for users. The company plans to use the seed financing to enhance marketing and R&D and to augment production and manufacturing infrastructure. Founded in 2014 and based in New York City, Meural is positioning its product for wider consumer adoption.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2017

Dubset built an audio fingerprinting and rights-management platform that can detect every sample used in a song or mixset against a database of roughly 100 million master recordings and then distribute royalties appropriately. Founded in 2010, the company spent years developing the tech to handle complex sample-clearance issues for remixes, mixtapes and hour-long DJ sets. Dubset has struck deals with major streaming services, including Spotify and Apple Music, enabling sample-containing tracks cleared through its platform to appear on those apps. The company is onboarding labels and publishers to have their master recordings indexed so remixes can be monetized rather than taken down. CEO Stephen White said the company expects a big year opening up the ecosystem and that DJ mixsets will become available on major streaming apps. The rise of sample-heavy genres and support from high-profile artists have driven interest in the service as a new revenue stream for rights holders. Dubset Media develops MixSCAN™, a patent-pending rights-management platform that identifies, registers, resolves rights and reports royalties for mix content. The company operates Thefuture.fm as a turnkey mix-content distribution platform for deployment by music services and DSPs. Dubset completed two-year trials of MixSCAN and has ingested and registered over 200,000 mixes from top DJs, enabling those artists to stream on its distribution platform. Management says the technology enables granular, scalable rights and royalty reporting and can power new revenue streams and royalty structures in the Dance/EDM segment. The company added industry veterans to its advisory board, including Ebro Darden, Bruce Flohr, Mark Gillespie, and Dean Wilson, to guide product development, content acquisition, and distribution. Through its investor network the company gains access to large music services, millions of listeners, and hundreds of millions of mobile subscribers across more than 30 countries. Dubset.com is a New York City–based service that provides DJ-curated internet radio with hundreds of channels of exclusive music content. Its channels are powered by proprietary MixSCAN™ technology, which identifies individual tracks, locations, and metadata required to analyze, report, and pay downstream agencies and rights holders. The company has signed over 200 DJs and offers curated channels produced by top DJs. Led by founder and CEO Dave Stein, Dubset added SRC Records founder and Universal Music Group executive Steve Rifkind to its board of advisors. The company recently completed a $500K funding round to support its operations and technology (investor details below).