Participated · Series D · Aug 2021

Human Interest is an SMB-focused 401(k) provider that builds retirement plan products for small and medium-sized businesses. The company reports 70%+ year-over-year growth and says it is approaching cash-flow break-even. Management states it has enough cash on the balance sheet to fund continued growth without additional capital. Human Interest was co-founded in 2015; Roger Lee remains a director on its board. The company has raised multiple rounds, including a $40 million Series C in March 2020, and BlackRock acquired a minority stake in January 2023. Leadership has said it is looking to become a public company “when the time is right,” though no IPO timeline was provided. Human Interest operates a digital retirement benefits platform that lets employers launch a 401(k) plan in minutes and automate administration. The company says it has eliminated all 401(k) transaction fees and serves a wide range of SMBs — from tech startups to law offices, dentists, dog walkers, manufacturers and nonprofits. Founded in 2015 by Paul Sawaya and Roger Lee, Human Interest is based in San Francisco. The startup has raised a total of $500 million to date and a $200 million round led by The Rise Fund in August 2021 propelled it to unicorn status. Since the initial closing of that round the company reported over 400% growth in customers and revenue; executives said in 2021 they were targeting a traditional IPO in 2023 and aiming for $200M+ in run-rate revenue, noting they were at "tens of millions" in run-rate revenue and adding millions each month. Co-founder Roger Lee has since left and launched other projects including Comprehensive.io and Layoffs.FYI. Human Interest provides an affordable, full-service 401(k) platform that automates plan onboarding and administration for small and medium-sized businesses. The company emphasizes accessibility and lower costs—its plans are reported to be 40%+ cheaper than the industry average and it eliminated transaction fees for participants and sponsors. Human Interest reports higher engagement and growth metrics, including eligible-employee participation rates that are 2x the industry average, 4.5x customer growth in the restaurant sector, 2x higher enrollment growth among hourly workers, and tripled hourly-worker assets. Sales have tripled over the prior year, and headcount doubled to 350 with plans to add about 200 employees by the end of 2021, as it invests in product, engineering, and revenue teams. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in San Francisco. Human Interest provides simple, affordable 401(k) plans and administration for small and medium-sized businesses, aiming to make retirement savings accessible to employers that historically could not afford plans. Since launching in 2015 the company says it has helped nearly 3,000 businesses provide plans to more than 80,000 employees. Revenue growth accelerated from roughly $100,000 a month in net new revenue in early 2019 to over $1 million a month today, with a goal of surpassing $2 million monthly by year-end and reaching $100M+ ARR within three years. The company moved its platform from a third-party provider to an in-house system in 2020, which it says doubled margins over the past six months and allowed it to eliminate transaction fees for plan administrators and participants. Human Interest has about 300 employees (up from a little over 100 a year ago), plans to double its engineering team this year, and launched new offerings called Complete and Concierge to simplify administration. Leadership says it will focus on improving platform technology, taking market share from incumbents, and pursuing public markets in the coming years. Human Interest provides technology-driven 401(k) services for small and midsize businesses, enabling lower-cost retirement plans through a software-first approach. The company says its service is typically 30–50% lower-cost than legacy 401(k) plans and that its product carries typical software gross margins (70%+). Human Interest reports strong commercial momentum, with 2–3X year-over-year growth in customer acquisition and some of the strongest sales months in company history. Its gross-margin payback has improved by ~70% in the past 12 months and is now approaching zero for many customers, meaning initial margin contribution covers customer acquisition cost. With the new capital the company plans to double its engineering team and aggressively ramp go-to-market — more reps, partners, and marketing spend. The company has raised roughly $80 million in known capital to date.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2021

Iron Fish is a decentralized blockchain network that uses zero-knowledge proofs to create a user-friendly, private cryptocurrency intended to be as private as cash. The project emphasizes mainstream privacy solutions accessible to everyday users rather than developer-only tools. The team launched its first testnet in April and says it has attracted nearly 2,000 self-identified miners to its community. It is launching an incentivized testnet that will reward participation with leadership points that translate into future mainnet Iron Fish coins. The roadmap begins with a proof-of-work blockchain and native cryptocurrency, then plans to add more assets, stablecoins, cross-chain bridges and layer-2 support. Iron Fish was founded in 2018 by Elena Nadolinski and is based in San Francisco; the project recently raised capital (see deal description). Iron Fish is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that makes every transaction private using zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs). It also uses the Sapling protocol from Zcash and implements cryptographic code in Rust with Typescript for other components. The project launched a public testnet after nearly two years of development; anyone can now run and mine a full Iron Fish node. Leadership says the roadmap includes becoming a shielded layer for multiple assets, adding bridges to other chains, and supporting fully private stablecoins. The team emphasizes developer accessibility and an extensible codebase to encourage contributions from cryptographers and engineers. Iron Fish supports view keys and encrypted memo fields to enable compliance workflows such as the FATF Travel Rule while preserving user privacy.