Participated · Equity · Sep 2024

Clasp applies a military-inspired ROTC model to healthcare by enabling employers to commit to clinicians before graduation and repay student loans over time in exchange for tenure. Its Loan-Linked Hiring approach replaces transactional sign-on bonuses with retention-based student loan repayment that vests with tenure; Clasp reports retention rates 2.5x higher than traditional hiring models. Across its network, employers have committed more than $130M in student loan repayment across thousands of programs, and customers include Boston Children’s Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering, MyEyeDr., Northwestern Medicine, Novant Health, OhioHealth, VCA Animal Hospitals, and others. The company plans to use the Series B proceeds to expand across health systems nationwide, deepen university partnerships, and scale the infrastructure that connects employers, schools, students, and financial institutions. Clasp was founded by Tess Michaels in 2018 and is based in Boston. The company positions student loan repayment as workforce infrastructure to reduce clinician turnover and support longer tenures.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2024

Clasp (formerly Stride Funding) operates a retention-driven recruitment platform that connects students and training-program graduates with employers who commit to repaying student loans in exchange for multi-year work commitments. The platform supports over 10,000 individuals and focuses primarily on healthcare roles—nurses, radiologic technologists, respiratory therapists—while also working with a large semiconductor employer. Clasp widens candidate pools via a national network of universities and training programs and aims to reduce recruitment costs for institutions by replacing signing bonuses and contract labor with committed hires. The company says its model drives long-term commitments between employers and employees and provides financial relief and job assurance to students. Clasp recently rebranded from Stride Funding; its new name was created by A Hundred Monkeys and its brand identity was developed by Mackey Saturday. The company plans to expand into other hard-to-hire industries as it grows.

Participated · Series A · Aug 2023

Confirm applies Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) to performance reviews, quantifying employee influence and impact based on peer and manager inputs. Its platform surfaces high performers, employees who need support, and key influencers to inform promotion, PIP, and retention decisions. Confirm offers ChatGPT-4–enabled features including auto-drafted employee reviews, auto-generated engagement survey insights, and auto-calibrated manager ratings to help minimize bias. The company will use the new capital to fund product development and expand investment in sales and marketing. Customers named in the article include Niantic, Canada Goose, and Thoropass, the latter of which used Confirm to retain 100% of its top performers and save millions. Confirm has also received industry recognition, including Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Award and placement on Human Resource Executive’s "Top HR Products of 2023."

Led · Seed · Feb 2023

VirgilHR provides HR compliance software accessed via a web portal and an integrated smart chatbot that surfaces regulatory requirements and guidance to HR professionals in real time. The platform includes modules and content for Leave, Wage and Hour, EEO, ADA, and Pay Equity, and subscriptions are customizable by organization size and employment location. Upcoming modules include Job and Worker Classification, New Hire Documentation, Offer Letters, and Non-Compete and Restrictive Covenants. Led by CEO Jocelyn King, the company aims to close the HR knowledge gap and enable managers to make compliant employment decisions quickly and confidently. VirgilHR plans to use newly raised funds to continue product development through the release of new modules and to increase targeted marketing efforts. The company is based in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2022

Wilya (formerly Gig and Take) offers a SaaS skills operating system that helps HR teams in manufacturing and supply chain manage and allocate skilled frontline labor. The platform enables more efficient use of full-time workers and the creation of flex-worker pools to reduce reliance on expensive contract staff and forced overtime. Led by CEO and Founder Rahil Siddiqui, Wilya integrates tools to introduce and manage closed pools of skilled industrial workers. The company plans to use fresh capital to accelerate development and deployment of its software solutions, expand market reach, and add product features addressing human capital challenges in the supply chain. The rebrand to Wilya reflects expanded platform capabilities and the company’s focus on helping customers scale labor more strategically in a volatile economy. Gig and Take builds software and services to unlock flexible ('flex') labor for factories and warehouses. Its product suite includes scheduling software purpose-built to incorporate flex labor into rigid plant schedules, change-management toolkits to evolve systems and strategy, and a labor marketplace of trained candidates. The company says its tools help supervisors deploy and oversee on-demand workers in real time, enabling faster job fill rates, lower attrition, and better handling of high/low demand cycles. Gig and Take closed a $1.5 million pre-seed round led by Schematic Ventures, and has previously raised angel funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Plug & Play Ventures. The new capital will fund commercial expansion over the next two years. Founded in 2021, the company emphasizes flexible scheduling as a way to broaden talent pipelines, improve employee retention, and help manufacturers address ongoing labor shortages.