Participated · Equity · Dec 2021

Kueski offers BNPL (Kueski Pay), personal loans (Kueski Cash) and interest-free earned wage advances (Kueski Up), using AI and machine learning on contextual and behavioral data to underwrite customers. The company says its dataset of six million unique applicants creates a data network effect to better predict repayment ability. Kueski declined to disclose hard revenue figures but the CEO expects the business will soon achieve $100M+ in ARR and reports strong recent product growth (Kueski Pay saw 210x GMV growth Nov 2020–Nov 2021; Cash grew 320% in the same period). Since 2012 Kueski has granted nearly 5 million loans online and has grown headcount to nearly 500 employees, planning to reach almost 1,000 by end of 2022. The firm has integrated thousands of merchants (including Walmart, Steve Madden and Sally Beauty) and plans to launch BNPL in brick-and-mortar stores and consumer apps on Google Play and the Apple App Store. Kueski says it will use the new capital to expand its BNPL footprint in Mexico, build new products for Mexican consumers and eventually expand to other Latin American countries. Kueski is an online lending company that offers real-time micro loans to Mexican consumers, using big data and machine learning to build credit-risk models and approve or reject applications in seconds. The company positions itself as the leading online lender for Mexico’s middle class and reports 7X+ annual growth since launch. Kueski says it has achieved better loss rates than a traditional credit card in Mexico. The firm plans to use new capital to accelerate portfolio growth, expand its team, and extend its brand presence throughout the region. Kueski was founded in 2012 and applies analytics to users’ credit history and digital footprint to underwrite loans.

Led · Series D · May 2021

Chia Network is an open-source decentralized blockchain, digital currency and smart transaction platform built around a novel "Proof of Space and Time" consensus and the Chialisp smart coin language. The platform is designed to be energy-efficient and secure while enabling cross-border payments, smart contracts, issuing financial assets, lending, escrow, institutional custody and distributed identity. Chia aims to operate a more user-friendly payment system for governments, financial institutions, corporations and consumers worldwide. The company plans to use proceeds from a recent $61 million Series D to accelerate the global build-out of its financial services infrastructure and drive adoption of its smart money and smart coin platform. Chia positions itself as a regulatorily compliant, energy-efficient alternative to proof-of-work blockchains, emphasizing enhanced security, trust and transparency. The company was founded by Bram Cohen and is backed by a group of venture investors supporting its mission to reform global payments and financial systems. Chia Network is developing a Layer 1 blockchain that uses plots of empty disk space rather than proof-of-work mining to enable programmable money and DeFi functionality. The team is gamifying early-stage contributions so generated plots and developer resources remain usable when mainnet launches. Leadership says the platform aims to offer comparable DeFi capabilities to Ethereum and capture market share by addressing scaling constraints. Chia plans to pursue an IPO long-term and rely on venture capital until a token launch, per founder Bram Cohen. The startup is targeting business-to-business revenue through vertical vendors (for example banks and Paxful) and is exploring live pilots with government agencies. The company reports public node participation of over 1,430 and will use the new funding to grow the team. Since launching in 2017, Chia has raised roughly $16 million in total venture capital. Chia Network is developing an alternative cryptocurrency protocol that replaces Bitcoin-style proof-of-work with proofs of space (unused hard-drive storage) combined with proofs of time to secure the blockchain. The core product is a cryptocurrency and its underlying consensus mechanism designed to be more energy-efficient and less reliant on low-cost electricity. Founder Bram Cohen — inventor of BitTorrent — teamed up with Tradehill COO Ryan Singer to build the team. The company has raised a seed round (amount not disclosed) to ramp up hiring. Chia plans early sales in Q2 2018 and aims for a full launch by the end of 2018, which the team calls a stretch goal. The roadmap emphasizes technical and legal design choices intended to address environmental impact and centralization issues in existing cryptocurrencies.

Led · Series A · Mar 2017

Paradata provides a cloud-based SaaS platform that uses machine learning to generate authenticated, accurate product details. Its platform serves original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) providers, as well as parts distributors and suppliers. Customers include Adtran, Aerohive Networks, Juniper Networks, Palo Alto Networks, Pure Storage and Teledyne/Lecroy Inc. Led by CEO Debbra Rogers, the company is based in San Jose, CA. Paradata is nearing completion of a $10m Series A1 financing. The company said it will use the funds to scale its cloud-based platform.

Led · Equity · Dec 2016

Vestorly provides a digital content marketing platform for financial services that uses AI to stream personalized, compliant content and capture behavioral data. The platform lets professionals access new data on audience behavior and share news content; it has tracked 1.3 billion unique data points based on real-time interactions. More than 1,000 firms in global wealth management use the technology. Led by Co-Founder & CEO Justin Wisz, the company intends to continue enhancing its platform with proprietary data science, recruit engineers, and maintain its focus on serving wealth management firms. Vestorly completed an $8.5M funding round to support these efforts, and two new board members joined in conjunction with the financing. Vestorly provides a content marketing platform tailored to the financial services industry, enabling professionals to use AI to deliver personalized, compliant content and access behavioral data. The product was engineered by Torii, a technology platform aimed at improving content management workflows with data science and intuitive user experiences. Led by co-founder and CEO Justin Wisz, Vestorly plans to expand enterprise sales and marketing efforts for its core product. The company also intends to grow the Torii platform into additional verticals. Financially, Vestorly closed a $4.1M Series A and has raised $6.1M in total funding to date. The company is based in New York City. Vestorly provides a content marketing platform that delivers personalized content via email, social media and website embeds to increase engagement for professional service providers and enterprises that support them. The company was founded in 2012 and is led by CEO Justin Wisz. It is currently used by professionals from over 400 financial services firms and institutions. Vestorly raised over $2M in seed funding and plans to use the proceeds to expand its engineering team and enterprise capabilities. Backers in the seed round included AlphaPrime Ventures, Formation 8 and Gaspar Global Ventures.

Led · Series B · Nov 2015

Qraved operates mobile and web applications that help users discover restaurants, offering a searchable directory with user-generated reviews, ratings, photos and discount offers. The service covers more than 25,000 venues across Jakarta and Bali and has over one million monthly users. Qraved was launched in September 2013 by CEO Steven Kim. The company plans to use new funding to further develop its core mobile and web apps with new features. It also intends to expand its presence in Indonesia and accelerate user growth through marketing and promotions. The company recently completed a Series B financing to support these initiatives.