Participated · Equity · Jun 2023

Gradient Health operates a secure, unified platform that gives researchers and developers access to raw and labeled medical images needed to train and validate AI technologies. The company offers machine-learning-ready formatting, searchable access by disease and imaging modality, and tools to facilitate compliant research and seamless collaborations. It emphasizes state-of-the-art security measures to protect patient privacy and ensure regulatory compliance. Gradient Health collaborates with academic institutions, healthcare organizations, and technology partners to advance medical knowledge and improve patient care. Led by CEO Josh Miller, the company recently raised $2.75M and intends to use the proceeds to continue assembling its comprehensive annotated medical imaging library.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2019

NeedsList operates a real-time needs registry that aggregates requests from vetted nonprofits and matches them with corporate resources to speed, improve efficiency, and increase transparency in disaster relief and humanitarian aid. The platform is led by co-founder and CEO Natasha Freidus and is based in Durham, NC. The company closed a $1M funding round after bootstrapping for its first two years and works with more than 20 partners across philanthropy, academia, and the private sector. NeedsList plans to use the new funding to invest in its technological infrastructure and build predictive analytics to meet needs at scale. Notable partners cited include TripAdvisor, Watkins (legal support), Kagan Accounting, IKEA North York, MIT’s ReACT program, The Shapiro Foundation, Five One Labs, Leaf Global Fintech, 734 Coffee, and Talent Beyond Boundaries.

Participated · Seed · May 2017

OpenInvest is a San Francisco, CA-based tech-enabled SMA asset manager that provides infrastructure technology enabling customization, direct indexing, and ESG investing at scale. Its APIs allow relationship managers to deliver factor portfolios, personalization, and tax optimization while maintaining discipline. The company’s Dynamic Custom Indexing (DCI) capabilities replicate strategies by directly purchasing underlying stocks, enabling direct indexing, personalized ESG investing, and enhanced tax efficiency. OpenInvest launched in 2015 and has formed partnerships including Legal & General Investment Management America and Bank of the West, and a commercial partnership with Resolute. The company intends to use the new funds to expand engineering capacity and grow its business reach across wealth and asset management platforms. Since launching, OpenInvest has raised $23.8M in total funding. OpenInvest provides a platform that delivers customized investment portfolios aligned with an individual’s or institution’s values. Users customize portfolios through cause-based investment screens—such as divestment from fossil-fuel producers, deforestation, the prison industrial complex or weapons—and by supporting themes like gender equality, LGBTQ rights, refugees and low-carbon leaders; they can also include or exclude individual companies. Each user’s portfolio auto-rebalances to track market indices, and the platform offers real-time impact reporting, shareholder voting, transparency, tax-loss harvesting and other features. Clients ranging from $100 to tens of millions of dollars in assets, and their advisors, use the platform to instantly launch portfolios that reflect specific environmental and social concerns while tracking any market index or specified investing strategy. Led by co-founders Conor Murray (CEO) and Joshua Levin (chief strategy officer), the company says it will use the new funding to accelerate growth and support continued technological innovation. OpenInvest is based in San Francisco and recently raised $10.4M in Series A financing. OpenInvest operates an accessible online financial advisory platform that lets retail investors select and combine investment screens tied to social and environmental issues to construct personalized portfolios. Its product allows users to include or exclude individual companies, with portfolios auto-rebalancing to maintain diversification and market tracking. Investment screens cited include climate change, fossil fuels, weapons manufacturers, gender equality, LGBTQ workplace treatment, deforestation, tobacco, companies funding the Dakota Access Pipeline, and companies supporting President Trump. The company was incubated in Y Combinator and is organized as a Public Benefit Corporation. OpenInvest is led by CEO Conor Murray and CTO Phillip Wei. The company raised seed funding and plans to use proceeds to accelerate hiring, grow its customer base, and continue product development.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2016

Nepris operates a cloud-based platform that connects industry professionals with K–16 classrooms via live virtual sessions that are recorded and added to a growing video library. Since being founded in 2014 and based in Austin, Nepris has connected over 70,000 educators across more than 600 school districts and reached over 500,000 students, with nearly 10,000 hours of videos aligned to the U.S. Department of Labor O*NET database. Nearly 62% of students reached come from lower socioeconomic groups, and the platform enables employers and intermediaries to offer virtual tours, mock interviews, and career talks across diverse fields. The company says the new funding will allow it to scale up, expand to new regions, and sign more industry partnerships supporting all 16 CTE clusters. Nepris emphasizes making learning more relevant by exposing students to role models and career pathways and by lowering barriers between educators and industry professionals. The recent financing will support expanded regional reach and partnership growth. Nepris provides an online community that connects educators with industry professionals through live interactive sessions to show students how classroom learning applies in the workplace. Sessions include interactive Q&As with working professionals, virtual field trips, project mentorships, Industry Chats and even live Shark Tanks. Over 65,000 students in 2,200 classrooms have participated, with a focus on STEM and the Arts. The company plans to use new funding to redesign its site to simplify connections, expand work with Economic Development Councils and Workforce Boards, and boost the number of Industry Chats. Nepris also intends to reach more rural and lower socio-economic school districts, where it says students have the greatest need. Co-founder and CEO Sabari Raja framed the raise as a way to scale industry-education connections and broaden outreach. Nepris operates a platform that matches classroom teachers with industry experts for live video sessions that are recorded for future viewing. Teachers request sessions by specifying subject, lesson topics, grade level, curriculum alignment and preferred times; the system notifies registered industry experts who fit the criteria. Sessions typically take the form of Q&A, but have also been used for student project feedback and other engagements; students can ask and text questions during sessions. Launched in April 2014, Nepris says it has a community of thousands of teachers from 600 schools in 45 states and industry professionals from over 400 companies. The company charges $99 per teacher per year for unlimited use, though over half of teachers are sponsored by companies such as Samsung and the Container Store. Nepris is exploring white-labeling and licensing its platform to regional “STEM Hubs” as an additional revenue opportunity and aims to make industry engagement part of the everyday classroom experience.