The Venture Codex

Participated · Series A · Oct 2017

Solvvy is an intelligent self-service platform for customer experience based in Palo Alto, California. Led by founding CEO Mahesh Ram, the company leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence to deliver a self-service experience that reduces ticket volume and decreases operating costs. Customers include MailChimp, Vimeo, GoFundMe, Evite, Peloton, Rover, TaskRabbit and Upwork. The company raised a $12M Series A that brings total funding to $16.5M. Proceeds are intended to accelerate product development, expand the team and grow the customer portfolio. As part of the financing, Rory O’Driscoll of Scale Venture Partners will join Solvvy’s board of directors. Solvvy provides Solvvy for Support, a machine-learning product that lets companies answer large volumes of incoming support requests without human intervention. Users state their problems in everyday language at ticket submission and Solvvy surfaces answers across web, chat, mobile and other support channels. The company works with clients including Upwork, DoubleDutch, TaskRabbit and Amazon’s Alexa.com. Solvvy was co-founded by Mehdi Samadi and Justin Betteridge in partnership with Mahesh Ram. The company secured seed funding to expand operations and continue development of its customer-experience technology. It is based in Palo Alto, California.

Led · Series B · Dec 2015

Atheer is a Mountain View, CA–based provider of an augmented interactive reality computing platform. Its platform combines augmented reality with intelligent gesture, voice and head‑motion interactions along with real‑time rich‑media collaboration to enhance productivity and safety for deskless professionals at Fortune 1000 companies. Atheer’s glasses enable users to view workflow‑critical information, interact naturally without holding a device, and collaborate with remote peers. The company offers an Android‑based augmented interactive reality OS and suite that developers and enterprises use to build productivity applications and workflows. Customers and partners include Dassault Systemes, Flex, KPIT, Masimo, Optech4D, TeamViewer, Zurich Insurance Company, Lumus and NVIDIA. Atheer closed a $14M Series B and will use the funds to accelerate go‑to‑market activities and global customer deployment. Atheer develops AiR, an augmented reality smart-glass platform that combines gesture control with AR and is Android-based for third-party developers. The company targets healthcare, logistics and the energy industry, positioning its glasses for hands-free use in operating rooms and at the patient bedside. Atheer highlights a design advantage over bulkier headsets by making its product look more like conventional glasses. Leadership includes founder Soulaiman Itani and CEO Alberto Torres, who say the company is prioritizing industrial and clinical customers ahead of consumers. Atheer is four years old and described as Silicon Valley–based. Financially, the company filed with the SEC showing an $8.8 million raise via a Form D filing. Atheer Labs is developing Atheer One, a pair of 3D augmented-reality glasses that connect to smartphones. The glasses display 3D apps and games appearing to float in front of the user's face and allow interaction by pointing a finger in the air. The company intends the device for both playful, game-style environments and professional fields such as medicine and logistics. A developer version is due out in the coming months and the company plans a consumer launch in Q4 2014. On the financing side, Atheer has an active $6.1M funding round (filed via Form D) and has raised $1.5M so far; it also ran an IndieGoGo campaign that has raised over $110,000 from more than 250 backers. Previous investors include Farzad Naimi of Rona Holdings and Bobby Yazdani of Saba Software.

Participated · Seed · May 2015

Wealthminder offers a cloud-delivered platform that combines financial planning and automated investment advice tools with a marketplace for connecting consumers to financial advisors. The company provides its platform through an interface and as a white-labeled solution for independent financial advisors. Wealthminder also offers practice management and communication capabilities aimed at advisors and their clients. The business raised $1.45M in seed capital to support its operations and growth. Proceeds are intended to further invest in the technology platform and accelerate sales and marketing efforts. The company was founded in 2013 by CEO Rich Ellinger.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2014

BuildZoom operates a marketplace that helps homeowners find and hire construction and remodeling contractors, then supports both parties through project completion. The platform gathers and analyzes data on over 3.5 million licensed contractors and 100 million improvement projects to provide upfront advice to consumers. Led by CEO David Petersen and President Jiyan Wei, the company emerged from Y Combinator in 2013. BuildZoom reports a marketplace with over 12 million annual users and more than 35 employees. Financially, the company has raised a total of $13.5M to date. BuildZoom is a San Francisco, CA-based intelligent marketplace for remodeling and construction services. Led by Jiyan Wei and David Petersen, the platform lets homeowners find and hire contractors and view comprehensive profiles with work history, project photos and customer reviews. The company has collected data and analysis on more than 3.5 million licensed contractors and building permits for over 50 million construction projects nationwide. BuildZoom raised $2.15M in seed funding and intends to use the funds to invest in data science, engineering and customer support operations in its San Francisco office. Investors in the round include Formation 8 (lead), Y Combinator, Streamlined Ventures, Goldcrest Investments, Hydrazine Capital, Signatures Capital, DV Playground, Pankaj Shah and other angel investors. BuildZoom is a Y Combinator-backed online directory that connects homeowners with licensed contractors. The service aggregates public state licensing board data and select Better Business Bureau data to build its database, which now lists 3 million licensed contractors, 25,000 claimed profiles and roughly 60,000 uploaded photos. It combines contractor reviews, web-sourced reviews and business metrics (completed projects, time in business) to produce a "BuildZoom Grade" for each contractor and lets homeowners leave reviews. The company plans to evolve from a discovery/review site into a true marketplace, enabling transactions and cloud-based contract and communication tools so agreements and project management happen online. BuildZoom reports roughly 12% month-over-month growth and about 2,500 contractor sign-ups per month. After launching in March with a small distributed team in San Francisco, the company has been hiring engineers and user-facing staff and plans further headcount expansion.