Participated · Equity · Feb 2022

Groundfloor is a wealthtech platform that allows retail and accredited investors to access direct real estate debt investments; it was the first company qualified by the SEC to offer such investments via Regulation A. The company plans to use the new funds to scale operations, focusing on customer acquisition and product development, including rolling out a second mobile app. Groundfloor is expanding into dedicated markets and announced a plan to create a local lending footprint in Jacksonville, Florida as the first of many local joint-venture partnerships. The firm is hiring roughly 50 new employees in 2022 to nearly double its headcount. To date, Groundfloor has previously raised $41.8M in funding. Groundfloor operates a real-estate crowdfunding marketplace that pools capital from the public and lends it to residential real-estate investors, specializing in single‑family and small multifamily rehab and renovation loans. The company is qualified by the SEC to offer direct real estate–based debt investments to both non‑accredited and accredited investors and positions itself to broaden access to private capital markets. Groundfloor reported strong recent growth: in Q2 it said revenue increased 139% year-over-year and closed loans rose 160% to more than 1,000. The platform recorded $22.4 million in retail investment volume in the quarter and paid $13.2 million in principal and interest to investors, who earned an average 10.54% return. Management says the business doubled its annual revenue in the second quarter of 2019 and highlights a growing base of small investors able to invest for as little as $10. The company frames its mission as leveling the playing field in private capital markets and notes that individual investors now own roughly 20% of the company with 3,160 shareholders. Groundfloor is a direct real estate investment platform that enables non-accredited and accredited investors to participate in real estate debt offerings via Regulation A. The company serves the residential fix-and-flip market and provides borrower-friendly loan terms, including a deferred payment option to help developers manage cash flow. Groundfloor reports more than 50,000 registered users, and investors have funded over $75M in its real estate projects while the company has self-originated more than 550 loans. It is focusing its lending operations in 24 states and currently employs 45 people. For the twelve months ending June 30, 2018, Groundfloor reported GAAP revenue of $1,997,000. Founded in 2013 by Brian Dally and Nick Bhargava and based in Atlanta, the company has raised $13.8M to date. GROUNDFLOOR operates a real-estate lending marketplace that opens short-term, high-yield real estate loans to non-accredited, self-directed investors. Typical loans have returned 12 percent annually on six-to-12-month terms. Since a limited invite-only release following SEC qualification on August 31, the marketplace has doubled its investor base, is operating in nine jurisdictions, has funded 54 loans and sold over $3 million in Limited Recourse Obligation securities. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. GROUNDFLOOR plans to use new capital to scale lending operations, hire lending-operations staff in strategic regions, develop new investor tools, and advance its regulatory roadmap to enable nationwide expansion. The company has raised a $5 million Series A and $7.5 million in total financing to date. GROUNDFLOOR operates a microlending community for real estate that lets non‑accredited investors back independent builders with secured loans paying 8–12% annually. Projects listed on the platform are financed by community members, providing builders with simple, transparent financing and flexibility. The company raised $1 million in seed funding from angel investors including Michael Olander, Bruce Boehm, Mark Easley Sr., and Inception Micro‑Angel Fund. GROUNDFLOOR established its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, and has joined the Atlanta Tech Village. It plans to make at least five strategic hires from the Atlanta area before the end of the year. Founded in March 2013 by Brian Dally and Nick Bhargava, the company is focused on expanding real estate microlending in states with progressive crowdfunding rules like Georgia.

Led · Equity · Jul 2021

Perfitly provides a VR/AR and AI-powered virtual fitting room that lets online shoppers visualize garments on an accurate digital body double and interact with a personalized avatar. Garments are e-stitched into 3D replicas that capture fabric properties such as density, weight, stiffness, stretch, and friction to improve size recommendations and visualization. The platform is integrated into e-commerce product pages via a 'Try it on' button to reduce returns, increase conversion, and support retailers' sustainability goals. Perfitly reports a sales pipeline that includes several top-10 retailers and plans to use recent funding to onboard and serve those clients. The company aims to reach approximately 200 client retailers by 2024 and become a leading data and analytics provider to the industry. Perfitly will deploy the funding to accelerate its product roadmap and expand its team, particularly in sales and marketing.

Led · Series A · May 2021

Virtuix, founded in April 2013 and based in Austin, Texas, develops Omni — an omni-directional treadmill that enables 360-degree movement in virtual environments. Its commercial product line includes Omni Pro and Omni Arena, a turnkey multiplayer attraction comprising four Omni Pro units. The company has shipped nearly 4,000 Omni Pro systems to more than 500 commercial entertainment venues worldwide. Its Omniverse content platform offers 24 VR games with built-in esports competitions and has hosted over two million plays to date. Virtuix plans to launch Omni One, a consumer version for the home with a 30-title game store at launch, including company-developed and licensed third-party titles. The company intends to sell Omni One for $1,995 or via a $55-per-month payment plan and will use proceeds from recent financing to fund the launch. Virtuix develops the Omni, a patent-pending omni-directional treadmill that enables users to walk, run, and jump within 360-degree virtual environments to create a full virtual reality experience. The company positions the Omni to take VR beyond seated experiences by supporting natural movement and delivering increased immersion and presence. Virtuix completed a $2.7 million investment round to support operations, fund working capital and accelerate research and development around the full VR experience. The company has pre-sold more than 3,500 Omnis and offers the device for pre-order at $499 per unit; it has raised $7 million to date, including a $3 million seed and $1.1 million via Kickstarter. Virtuix added advisors Kai Huang (co-founder of Red Octane) and Mike Griffith (former Activision Publishing CEO) to guide scaling, branding and product development. The final Omni was scheduled to be revealed at CES in January 2015, with commercial production targeted for Q1 of the following year. Founded in April 2013 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, Virtuix is completing final development ahead of its upcoming commercial launch. Virtuix builds the Omni, an omni-directional treadmill designed to let users physically walk and explore virtual-reality environments. The company developed the Omni over roughly three years, with founder and CEO Jan Goetgeluk investing his life savings and working on the device after hours. Virtuix plans a commercial launch and expects to begin shipping the Omni to its Kickstarter backers later this year. It is partnering with manufacturers in China to bring the treadmill to market; COO David Allen has prior manufacturing experience in China. Financially, Virtuix completed a $3 million first institutional financing to broaden the market, following a $1.1 million Kickstarter that came from 3,000 backers. The company is based in Houston. Virtuix builds the Omni, a 360-degree treadmill designed to let users run, walk, or jump in place while playing games on the Oculus Rift. The Omni is a 4-foot-tall, 110-pound platform sold with special shoes and a belt harness for safety. The company is taking preorders on its website, with orders slated to ship in March. The Omni package is priced at $499 (the article notes a VR50 coupon code that yields $50 off). Virtuix raised $1.1 million on Kickstarter last month for the Omni. The article also references the Oculus Rift dev kit, which is available as a $300 prototype.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2021

Founded in 2018 by Jeff Myers and Ryan Belanger-Saleh, Gatsby delivers an iOS and Android platform that lets users trade stocks and options without commissions or per-contract fees. The service targets younger, less-experienced traders, replacing market jargon with a clean UI, a social feed, and a "get paid to trade" rewards program funded by payment-for-order-flow. Sign-ups have doubled since the start of 2021, and the company is aiming for more than 100,000 accounts by year-end, fueled in part by heavy activity in cannabis and meme stocks. Gatsby will introduce “Gatsby Circles,” allowing friends to follow and share trades, and is building advanced research tools, sophisticated options strategies, and an adaptive interface that tailors features to each user’s skill level. Longer-term, crypto trading is on the roadmap. The 12-person team plans to add 10–20 hires across engineering and brokerage operations over the next three quarters. A recently closed Series A provides the capital for this expansion and product rollout.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2020

CrowdComfort offers a mobile app and analytics platform that lets employees, facilities management teams and third‑party vendors collaborate on workplace requests and report comfort, maintenance, health and safety issues. In response to COVID‑19 the company released COVID Cleaning Maps and Analytics to track and display cleanliness of workplace air and surfaces, providing a real‑time audit trail of cleaning efforts. The company says many Fortune 500 and pharmaceutical customers use the platform to resolve service requests four times faster, reduce facilities costs by up to $0.40 per square foot annually, and achieve employee satisfaction scores above 97%. CrowdComfort plans to scale its sales, marketing and customer success teams to support surging demand as organizations implement return‑to‑work strategies. Its mobile applications are available on the App Store and Google Play, and the product roadmap emphasizes giving employees a direct voice to facility management to curate the workplace experience. The company is based in Boston and has raised $7.5 million to date. CrowdComfort has developed a messaging app combined with an indoor-mapping system that pinpoints the exact location of reported building issues, enabling employees to notify the right facilities staff. The product began as a tool to report being too hot or too cold but has expanded to handle a wide range of issues such as maintenance (e.g., burst pipes) and inspection checklists. The app surfaces virtual locations on a floor plan or via scannable QR codes so messages go directly to HVAC or facilities personnel. Customers named in the article include GE, National Grid, Massachusetts College of Art & Design and Taconic Investments (at Google in New York). The company is based at Greentown Labs, launched out of the 2013 Boston Clean Web Hackathon, is generating revenue and employs about 10 people. Advisors include Gregg Dixon and Doug Levin.