Participated · Series A · Jun 2023

unspun is an Oakland, CA-based 3D weaving technology company led by CEO Walden Lam. The company developed Vega™, a 3D weaving platform that takes thousands of yarns and weaves them into garments in minutes, enabling near‑zero‑waste, on‑demand manufacturing. Vega is positioned to help brands realize low‑inventory, nearshore and automated supply chains for woven products. unspun has signed multi‑year agreements with multiple top retailers, including Walmart, to deploy Vega machines for localized production in North America and Europe. The company intends to use fresh funding to further develop its 3D weaving technology and expand operations in Europe and North America. Financially, it recently completed a $32M Series B financing led by DCVC. Unspun develops automated, localized apparel manufacturing technology that enables custom-fit garments on demand. The company began with custom-fit jeans and has since developed Vega™, a 3D weaving technology that transforms yarn into clothes in minutes. Unspun positions its tech to help brands and manufacturers streamline and decarbonize fashion supply chains through low-impact, automated production. The firm was co-founded in 2015 by Walden Lam (CEO), Beth Esponnette (CPO), and Kevin Martin (CTO) and is based in Oakland, CA. Unspun intends to use new funding to continue expanding its technology development and to move into hardware with Vega. The company raised a Series A to advance those product and development plans.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2023

Fortem Technologies, founded in 2016, designs radar-based sensors, command-and-control software and interceptor systems that incorporate artificial intelligence to detect and avoid other aircraft and airborne objects. Its products target defense and commercial customers seeking counter-UAS capabilities. The company has a network of investors including Lockheed Martin, AE Industrial Partners, DCVC, Toshiba, AIM13 and Signia Venture Partners. Recent financing includes a $25 million tranche led by Lockheed as part of a Series B, following prior participation by Lockheed in a $17.8 million round in 2023. Fortem plans to use the new capital to accelerate production at scale and integrate its systems within Lockheed’s Sanctum ecosystem to improve interoperability. The company emphasizes autonomous, integrated, deployable counter-UAS solutions to address rapidly scaling drone threats.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2023

Lavender provides an AI-powered email assistant that integrates with users' workflows to research recipients, score messages (0–100), and suggest optimizations to increase reply rates. The product combines deep learning on email data with communication and behavioral psychology to coach sales reps rather than fully automate outreach. Lavender says the tool can cut personalized email writing from over 15 minutes to about 60 seconds and drives average reply rates of 20% or more versus an industry standard under 5%. Customers named in the article include Twilio, Sharebite, Sendoso, Segment, Lucidworks, and Clari. The company positions its product to reduce rep onboarding time, improve sales pipelines, and help teams maintain growth with leaner headcounts. Lavender plans to use new funding to expand its team and introduce additional AI-powered features to boost productivity and generate faster responses.

Participated · Series B · Oct 2022

Landis operates a program that buys a home in an all-cash offer on behalf of a client, rents the home to that client, and provides personalized coaching to help the client qualify for a mortgage and repurchase the property. The company was founded in 2018 by Cyril Berdugo and Tom Petit and is based in New York. Landis runs a two-year coaching program focused on improving credit and savings milestones; it does not charge for coaching and earns revenue when it buys and later sells homes. The company declined to disclose revenue metrics but said its valuation increased with the new round. Since 2021 Landis has expanded from operating in 29 cities across 11 states to over 50 markets, its team has grown threefold, and applications to its program have increased more than seven times year-over-year. The new capital will be used to expand the coaching program (including a $2M allocation), enter new markets, and grow the team. Landis buys homes for prospective buyers who cannot yet qualify for a mortgage, rents the homes to them, and helps clients save, build credit, and become mortgage-ready within 12–24 months using underwriting technology and individualized coaching. The company provides a Landis Homeownership Coach mobile app (now free on iPhone) that dashboards credit, down payment savings, and debt with actionable insights. Clients are typically referred by real estate agents and mortgage lenders and are often held back by poor credit, lack of down-payment savings, or existing debt. Landis emphasizes financial literacy and partnership-style relationships rather than traditional landlord-renter dynamics. The company operates in 29 cities across 11 states and plans to expand to 20 states by next year. Founders Cyril Berdugo and Tom Petit launched Landis in 2018 and are focused on expanding headcount and improving user experience to scale impact. Landis operates a New York City marketplace enabling institutional investors to source and acquire portfolios of single-family homes. The company uses advanced data science and machine learning to source off-market portfolios and match them with relevant buyers. Typical portfolios comprise 10 to 50 properties, allowing buyers to scale quickly in target geographies. Landis counts as clients the largest residential investors in the U.S., which collectively have $200 billion of assets under management. The company was co-founded in 2017 by Cyril Berdugo and Tom Petit and recently acquired competitor GoldenKey. It plans to use new funding to build its team, improve its technology and better communicate its value to real estate owners.

Led · Seed · Sep 2022

Maverick builds a platform that lets e-commerce brands record a 30-second video once and then uses deep learning and audio/video processing to generate thousands of personalized videos. The company emphasizes real humans behind the brand rather than avatars, augmenting messages with customer names for use cases like thank-yous, cart abandonment, first-time conversions and loyalty campaigns. Maverick also provides analytics and attribution to measure engagement and revenue driven by the videos. Founders report returns on investment of $10–$40 for every dollar spent and say they have sent 200,000 personalized videos to date and have a few dozen paying customers. The company was founded about a year earlier and is building out its team while doubling down on product and growth. Near-term priorities are onboarding customers, expanding the workforce, and continuing product development.