Participated · Equity · Jan 2023

Jackpot.com is an independent lottery courier platform that lets customers buy official state lottery tickets and, in select markets, scratch-off tickets through its web and mobile interfaces. The company currently serves seven U.S. states—Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio—positioning itself as a convenient alternative to in-store ticket purchases. Its core product streamlines ticket ordering, processing, and prize collection while complying with individual state regulations. Management is now focused on deepening penetration in existing jurisdictions and expanding into additional states as regulatory landscapes allow. To fuel that growth, Jackpot.com secured new financing that improves liquidity and supports an acquisition-heavy customer growth strategy. Leadership emphasized the importance of flexible capital to handle demand spikes that occur around billion-dollar jackpots. Although specific revenue or user figures were not disclosed, investors highlighted the company’s role in modernizing a century-old lottery industry.

Participated · Series B · Nov 2021

vivenu provides an API-first ticketing platform that lets event organizers and venues manage, market and analyze ticket sales. The company is co-founded by Jens Teichert, Simon Hennes and Simon Weber and is based in Düsseldorf, Germany. Customers include event organizers such as football club Schalke 04. vivenu raised a $50M Series B to accelerate its growth and product development. The company plans to use the funds to expand into new markets such as the US, grow the team, and further build the vivenu platform. Vivenu is a ticketing platform offering an API that lets venues and promoters customize ticketing systems and sales channels. Its product is a full-featured, out-of-the-box platform with real-time dynamic control over pricing, seating plans, customer data and branded experiences. The company exposes APIs to enable many custom use cases for large international ticket sellers and includes an integrated seating-chart designer to avoid manual back-and-forth. Vivenu says it has sold more than 2 million tickets since its seed funding. Financially, the company closed a $15 million (€12.6M) Series A led by Balderton Capital; it previously raised a €1.4M seed in March 2020.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2021

StatusPRO develops sports training and gaming products that fuse data with augmented, mixed, and virtual reality to create immersive experiences for coaches, players, and fans. Its core product lineup includes NFL PRO ERA, an NFL and NFLPA‑licensed first‑person VR simulation launched in 2022 that gives users a professional player’s perspective. The NFL PRO ERA franchise recently added head‑to‑head multiplayer gameplay and featured Lamar Jackson as its cover athlete. The company was founded and developed by former football players Troy Jones and Andrew “Hawk” Hawkins and is based in New York City and Miami. StatusPRO plans to broaden development into new sports titles while continuing to enhance modes, features, and its underlying technology. The company raised outside funding and intends to deploy proceeds toward product expansion and technical improvements. StatusPRO provides a suite of training and gaming products that combine player data with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Its training platform uses real-time player data to power holographic experiences that let players simulate any practice or game scenario without the physical impact of playing. Players are able to simulate virtual practice sessions while in different locations to mitigate the effects of having less time on the field. The company plans to leverage its platform to expand into the gaming market. StatusPRO said it will use the recently raised funds to accelerate expansion of products aimed at reshaping how players and coaches prepare for games and to define new forms of engagement between athletes and fans. The company was co-founded by Andrew "Hawk" Hawkins and Troy Jones and is based in Miami, FL.

Participated · Series B · Jun 2020

Squire Technologies provides a full-scale barbershop management and point-of-sale system including POS, scheduling, payroll, CRM and other back-office tools. The platform is used by independent professionals, single-location shops and multi-location franchises. Founded in 2015 by Songe LaRon (CEO) and Dave Salvant (President), the company is headquartered in New York City and has an office in Buffalo, NY. Squire maintains operations in 35 major cities across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom and has over 175 employees. The company plans to use new funding to further scale its sales and engineering teams. Since inception it has raised approximately $165M and, after the latest round, is valued at $750M. Squire Technologies provides a software platform for barbershops and men’s salons to operate and scale their businesses. The product serves independent professionals, stand-alone locations, and multi-location franchises with tools such as Point of Sale, Scheduling, Payroll, CRM, and other features. The company operates in 35 major cities across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. To date Squire has processed over $100M of payments for more than 1,000 shops. The business is led by co‑founders Songe LaRon (CEO) and Dave Salvant (President). Squire is a barbershop management and point-of-sale software platform that provides tools including POS, scheduling, payroll, CRM and cashless/contactless payments. Its platform helps barbers and shop owners operate businesses, streamline service interactions, and retain clientele. The company has offices in New York City and Buffalo and operates in 35 major cities across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Squire recently raised a $34M Series B (including equity and debt), bringing total funding to $46.2M. It plans to use the funds to add financial services to the platform, to assist and educate barbershops, and to equip them with tools for functioning in a post-pandemic society. Squire is Y Combinator-backed and has launched helpbarbershops.com to outline relief program eligibility for shop owners. The company is led by co‑founders Songe LaRon (CEO) and Dave Salvant (President). Squire Technologies provides an integrated software system for barbershops and men’s salons, with tools including point-of-sale, scheduling, payroll, CRM and other features. Its platform serves independent professionals, stand-alone locations and multi-location franchises across the men’s grooming segment. The company maintains offices in San Francisco, New York City and Buffalo and operates in 28 major cities across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Squire offers its platform to the more than 400,000 barbershops and men’s salons in the U.S. and Canada. Founded in 2015, Squire is Y Combinator-backed and a 43North award recipient. It plans to use new funding to accelerate R&D, hire product and engineering talent, and expand its market presence.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2019

Little Spoon produces fresh, direct-to-consumer subscription baby and children’s meals, including Babyblends organic purees, Plates toddler and kids’ meals, and its Booster line of vitamins and natural remedies. Babyblends is priced at under $3 per meal and Plates at under $5 per meal. Since launch the company has delivered more than 15 million meals and is on track for more than 300% revenue growth. This year Little Spoon quadrupled its team from 10 to 37 employees. The company is building a community and content platform called “Is This Normal” to engage parents and considers that platform central to its product experience. Management plans to use new funding to expand operations, increase capacity, invest in community and content, and develop new products as it pursues a holistic children's nutrition solution. Little Spoon, launched in 2018, is a direct-to-consumer children’s food and nutrition company offering fresh meals, a recently launched Plates product line, and a parenting community platform called Is This Normal. The company pairs product offerings with a digital community that includes 1:1 Care Team support, anonymous expert Q&A, and the Is The Normal? game. Little Spoon has shipped over 9 million meals and reported revenue growth of over 300% since the start of the pandemic; its Plates launch sold out in the first week and generated a waitlist. The team emphasizes transparency, nutritive standards, and convenience to address gaps in the baby and toddler food category. Little Spoon runs multiple give-back and employer-partnership programs (including #Passthelittleplate and Little by Little) and has partnered with Amazon, Union Square Hospitality, Lettuce Entertain You, La Colombe, and Feeding America; it has donated more than $100,000 in meals to food banks. Little Spoon is a direct-to-consumer, subscription-based company producing modular packages of organic baby food. Members receive personalized meal plans and the site offers a rotating menu of 50 recipes using 80 ingredients. Meals are sold at a fixed price of $3 apiece, and the company says it has delivered 1 million meals to date. Its packaging is 100 percent recyclable, spoon included, which the company says promotes motor-skill development and mindful eating. Co-founders include Michelle Muller, CEO Ben Lewis, CPO Angela Vranich, and CMO Lisa Barnett; the team launched the business a little over a year ago out of New York. The startup plans to use the new capital to expand its line of baby meals. Little Spoon is a prepared baby-food delivery service that ships fresh, refrigerated 4 oz meals for infants. The company produces meals using high-pressure processing (HPP) to lock in nutrients and avoid additives and owns its production facility. Little Spoon ships up to two weeks' worth of meals, pricing meals at $2.99 each in bulk (three meals a day) or up to $4.99 individually, with flavors that change by age. Although the service is available in New York, the company’s food-processing facility is in California and it says products can ship anywhere in a day, enabling geographic expansion. The founding team includes co-founder Michelle Muller (the “chief mom”), CEO Ben Lewis, CPO Angela Vranich, and CMO Lisa Barnett. The startup has taken a couple million from angel investors, including Sean Rad and Kyle O’Brien, and plans to raise more as needed. The article notes several other baby-meal startups have struggled, highlighting market risk for niche meal-delivery ventures.