Participated · Series C · Jun 2021

Bench combines intuitive software with a dedicated accounting team to deliver full‑service bookkeeping, tax preparation and advisory for small business customers. The company has relaunched its product to offer an integrated suite — banking, cards, payroll, bookkeeping, taxes and advice — that surfaces real‑time profitability and cash‑flow in the customer’s accounting and tax filings. Bench Core includes a business bank account and debit card in partnership with LendingClub and Stripe, while Bench Flex supports customers with existing banks; Core is priced at $249/month and Flex at $349/month. Bench says the product and integrations (Shopify, Stripe, Freshbooks, Sage, LendingClub, Gusto) aim to centralize and simplify financial operations for entrepreneurs. The company reports it services over 11,000 business owners, employs roughly 650 people, and plans to double its product and technology teams before the end of 2021. Bench positions its roadmap around reaching one million business owners and continuing to reinforce its product and service vision. Bench provides bookkeeping and basic accounting services for SMBs by combining machine learning automation with human bookkeepers. Users connect bank accounts and corporate cards so Bench can track transactions and handle bookkeeping tasks. The company automates roughly 60% of bookkeepers' tasks and has processed about $19 billion in client expenses. Bench offers tiered pricing by transaction volume and has cut prices 10–30% over the last year. The team exceeds 250 employees, including 150 bookkeepers. CEO Ian Crosby says the company will push further on automation to improve service and lower prices. Bench is a Vancouver-based online bookkeeping service that automates accounting tasks for small businesses and independent contractors. It combines software with a live bookkeeping team to deliver monthly bookkeeping for a fee. The service automates accounting tasks and provides customers with a managed bookkeeping offering. The company currently services thousands of business owners and employs 230 people. Bench has raised $33m to date and recently closed a $16m Series B. The company plans to use the funds for product enhancements and the rollout of a new product. Bench (formerly 10sheet) combines software that imports transactions from corporate cards and checking accounts with a one-on-one bookkeeping service that assigns each customer a dedicated Bench accountant. After graduating TechStars the company rebranded and emphasized the human piece of the workflow, adding features such as in-app messaging between customers and their accountants. The startup uses only its own accountants rather than third-party contractors and currently employs 126 people, many of whom are accountants. Bench has been focused on improving the product to deepen the one-on-one relationship and on building a recruitment engine to hire and retain talent. The company is using new funding to make additional hires and to improve its office and onboarding systems. Bench Accounting provides a virtual bookkeeping service that pairs personal (human) bookkeepers with a web-based app to let small business owners collaborate, send documents and view reports. Its professional bookkeepers are recruited across North America and are available to clients via phone, email and the web app. The company was founded in 2012 by Ian Crosby and Jordan Menashy and launched out of TechStars New York. Bench is based in Vancouver and New York City. Financially, the company closed $1M in funding that it says will be used for continued growth among small businesses; this financing is in addition to $2.1M in seed funding raised the previous summer. Bench is hiring to support its expansion plans.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2021

Glanris has developed the Glanris 901xTM, a patented green hybrid filtration media produced by converting rice hulls into a customized filtration material. The 901x reportedly removes organic contaminants faster than activated carbon and removes dissolved metals as effectively as ion exchange resins, at a fraction of the cost. The media is designed for faster kinetics, lower disposal costs due to easy evaporation, and continued filtration performance even in landfills. Glanris is testing the product in five vertical markets and currently serves industrial customers including HVAC manufacturers and automobile makers; it plans to sell into the residential market after completing NSF 61 certification this summer. The company opened a 60,000 square foot production facility in Olive Branch, Mississippi, capable of producing up to three tons of media per day using its patented kiln. To date Glanris has raised $2.8 million in total investment.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2021

Countingup provides a business current account combined with automated bookkeeping and accounting tools aimed at micro and small businesses. Its product includes a bank account with its own sort code and account number, a Mastercard, faster payments, direct debits, automated bookkeeping, invoicing, receipts capture, bill payments, tax estimates and profit-and-loss reporting. Accountants can be granted limited web access to view clients' real-time bookkeeping data. The company says it serves over 34,000 business customers and combines SaaS subscription revenue with fintech income such as interchange on card spend. Countingup’s long-term vision is to be the single financial hub for micro businesses in the U.K. and beyond; planned product work includes tax filing, new financial services (loans, card payment services), multi-currency invoicing and payments and a web version of the app. The startup is scaling its team from 30 to 80 people to accelerate its roadmap and build out sales and marketing for growth. Countingup operates a business current account that combines banking with bookkeeping to automate accounting for sole traders and small businesses. Users can open a Countingup business current account on their smartphone in under five minutes and access typical banking and accounting features. The company recently launched an Accountant Hub, a web-based system for accountants to manage and collaborate with SME clients. Countingup was founded by Tim Fouracre, who previously founded cloud accounting software Clear Books, and now serves about 20,000 business customers. It aims to become the financial hub for roughly 1 million UK micro-businesses and sees HMRC’s Making Tax Digital as increasing demand for its product. Countingup recently raised a £4 million bridge round to accelerate its banking and accounting roadmap. Countingup provides a business current account that merges banking and bookkeeping into a single smartphone app. Users can open an account via the iOS or Android app in a claimed five minutes and receive a U.K. sort code/account number and a contactless Mastercard. The app currently includes profit and loss reporting, bookkeeping categorisation and the ability to attach receipts to transactions. Invoicing is slated to launch later this year, and the 2018 roadmap lists automated receipt scanning plus tax calculations and filing. Founded last year by Tim Fouracre, Countingup aims to be the financial platform for 1 million U.K. small businesses and already has about 4,000 customers. The company is signing up roughly 1,500 businesses per month. Countingup is building a smartphone app that combines a business bank account with automated bookkeeping and accounting tools targeted at sole traders. Users can open a UK current account in about five minutes and receive a UK sort code/account number plus a contactless Mastercard. The app will automate reconciliation of expenses, submit VAT returns, generate profit-and-loss reports and create invoices. The company aims to simplify bookkeeping for the UK’s roughly 4.2 million sole traders. Countingup plans to launch its banking account in the U.K. later this year, with the integrated accounting functionality following early next year. The startup was founded by Tim Fouracre, the founder of Clear Books, and has raised initial capital to fund the product rollout.

Led · Series C · Dec 2020

Brightpearl is a Bristol, U.K.-based company offering a cloud platform for retailers to manage financials, CRM, fulfillment, inventory and sales order management, purchasing, supplier management, warehousing and logistics. The company has existing partnerships with Shopify, eBay and Amazon. Brightpearl raised $33 million in a Series C to scale its business; Sage led the round with a $23 million investment while previous backers Cipio Partners, Notion Capital and Verdane contributed $10 million. As part of the deal, Sage will take a seat on Brightpearl’s board. Sage said the partnership will help retail and e-commerce customers take advantage of best-of-breed cloud finance and retail management solutions as they undergo digital transformation. CEO Derek O’Carroll said the relationship will further support retail customers and accelerate Brightpearl’s presence in the UK and US by automating retail processes to save time and improve end-to-end customer experiences. Brightpearl is a cloud-based ERP for retailers and wholesalers that provides a complete back-office suite including financial management, inventory and sales order management, purchasing and supplier management, CRM, fulfilment, warehouse and logistics. The platform offers connectors to major ecommerce platforms such as Magento, BigCommerce and Shopify. Led by CEO Derek O’Carroll with Maurice Helfgott newly appointed as chairman, the company targets omnichannel merchants and retail businesses. Brightpearl is based in Austin, Texas and Bristol, England. The company has 1,400 customers worldwide who process more than $2.5 billion of orders with Brightpearl each year. Brightpearl intends to use the funds for further international expansion. Brightpearl offers a cloud-based inventory management and retail business platform that combines accounting, inventory, purchasing, CRM, shipping/fulfillment, POS and other modules. The software targets small to medium independent retail and wholesale customers and serves more than 1,400 customers across 30 countries. It integrates with major sales channels including Amazon, Bigcommerce, eBay, Magento and Shopify. The company is led by executive chairman Charles Grimsdale. Brightpearl has raised $30.5M in total and is using new financing to accelerate growth of its sales and marketing organization in San Francisco. It also plans to continue scaling its engineering, service and support teams. Brightpearl provides a cloud-based business management platform that integrates orders, inventory, accounting, reporting and customer data for multi-channel retailers. The platform is fully integrated with sales channels including Magento, eBay, Bigcommerce, Shopify and Amazon. The company reports revenue is doubling year over year and says its platform has processed over $1.3 billion in gross merchandise value since 2011. Brightpearl serves more than 1,300 retailers and employs 88 people across San Francisco and Bristol. Competitors include NetSuite and Erply. The company plans to use new funding to accelerate investment in product and sales expansion. Brightpearl provides cloud software for small to medium-sized retailers that integrates orders, inventory and customer data across multiple online and brick-and-mortar channels. Its platform offers a unified system to manage SKUs, prevent double-selling, handle support and delivery, and track customers across channels. The company recently added integrations with Amazon, Bigcommerce and Shopify to expand multichannel support and help retailers accelerate growth. Brightpearl emphasizes customer data and fully synchronized inventory management to enable more effective merchandising. Since 2011, more than $600 million of gross merchandise value has been traded on its Commerce Acceleration Platform. The company has raised $14.5 million to date, including the latest funding.

Led · Equity · Mar 2015

Dais Analytic is built on the Aqualyte family of nano-structured polymers and engineered processes and commercializes multiple product lines including ConsERV (an energy recovery ventilator), NanoClear (water-treatment beta-stage), NanoAir (water-based refrigerant beta-stage), and NanoCAP (prototype energy-storage). The company positions its technologies as resource‑saving, low‑emission alternatives for air, water and energy applications and is pursuing commercial channels in China, Southeast Asia, and worldwide. Dais reports growing ConsERV sales and is incorporating its first water product into a contaminated-water separation pilot facility under construction near Beijing. The firm’s disruptive air-conditioning work has attracted interest from developers and HVAC OEMs and is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. Early-stage NanoCAP energy‑storage work is being considered for integration into renewable projects and smart-grid use cases. Investors projecting growth expect Dais to scale to RMB 1 billion within five years; the company also received a $5.75M equity investment and a $60M take-or-pay agreement tied to the deal.