The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · May 2023

Ownify offers a fractional homeownership program that lets customers acquire 2% equity on day one and continue buying their home "brick by brick" with fixed monthly payments over five years. After five years customers own approximately 10% of their home's equity. The company raised $7M in Seed funding and intends to use the proceeds to expand operations and broaden its business reach. The $7M round was led by Lobby Capital with participation from Socially Financed, Gaingels and other investors. Frank Rohde is founder and CEO; Ownify is based in Raleigh, NC.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2023

StellarFi is a bill-pay manager that helps members build credit by charging a subscription ($4.99 or $9.99) to manage and pay recurring bills—including rent, subscriptions and utilities—and reporting those on-time payments to Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and Innovis. The company does not require credit checks or deposits, does not charge interest, and claims members see an average 26-point score increase in the first month; the average user score at signup is 580. Launched in late June, StellarFi scaled quickly via affiliate partnerships, neobank contracts and SEO, finishing the year with over $2 million in ARR and hitting $1 million ARR in 134 days. As a public benefit corporation, StellarFi focuses on financially disadvantaged communities and intends to build a marketplace to link members to lenders and provide access to capital through partners. The firm is still developing its mobile app and aims to “conquer the mobile experience” to drive engagement and lender access. Operationally, StellarFi reported zero defaults so far but has encountered significant fraud attempts and says it uses sophisticated algorithms to detect and quarantine fraudsters. StellarFi is a Public Benefit Corporation building a credit-building and bill-pay app that consolidates everyday bills and reports monthly payments to the three main credit bureaus. The company targets the 132 million Americans with poor or no credit and enables users to build credit through rent, utilities and other routine payments. StellarFi also offers rewards and cash back that users can apply directly to connected bills. The startup launched a public beta on March 14, 2022 in Austin, Texas and plans comprehensive money-management tools, partnerships for loan and credit card offerings, and financial literacy resources. StellarFi was founded by Lamine Zarrad, who previously founded neobank Joust (acquired by ZenBusiness) and served as Head of Product at ZenBusiness. The company recently closed an oversubscribed $7M initial funding round to deploy its platform and expand access nationwide.

Led · Seed · Mar 2023

Opkit offers a health insurance verification platform that helps telehealth companies quickly verify patients’ insurance and fetch benefits such as copays and deductibles. The product includes a web dashboard for manual eligibility checks and a documented JSON REST API for programmatic verification. The platform automates eligibility-related tasks including determining whether plans are active, in- or out-of-network, and which benefits apply. Opkit is led by CEO Sherwood Callaway and CTO Justin Ko and is a Y Combinator startup. The company raised funding to accelerate growth, expand operations and broaden its business reach. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2022

Freightpay provides a payments platform that digitizes payments and connects remittance data to reduce AR/AP errors and streamline finance operations for the global supply chain. The company targets customers in global logistics, third-party logistics providers, and freight forwarders. Co-founded by Joe Magee and Brandon Brotsky, Freightpay automates reconciliations and discrepancy workflows between shippers and carriers. The company says its platform enables finance teams to transact more efficiently and improve cash flow. Freightpay intends to use the new funds to enhance its ability to help customers improve cash flow and streamline financial operations by digitizing payments, reconciliations, and discrepancies.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2021

Carats & Cake is a New York-based provider of a financial operating system for the events industry that delivers a revenue optimization platform for venues and property groups. Led by CEO Jess Conroy, the platform includes purpose-built marketing, sales, and customer conversion tools covering contracting, invoicing, and payments, connecting venue discovery through to payment. Its solutions are designed to complement existing CRM and POS systems used on the hotel booking side of the business, addressing workflows commonly run separately. The company plans to use new capital to expand product, engineering, and sales teams as it brings end-to-end revenue optimization software to venues and property management firms. Carats & Cake raised a $10.6M Series A, bringing total equity raised to $19.9M. It also maintains an additional $10M debt facility. Carats & Cake provides an integrated marketing platform combined with digital invoicing and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) financing tailored to event venues and property groups. Its core product links discovery and marketing with point-of-sale financing so venues receive payment up front while consumers pay interest-free installments. The company reports 53% of consumer payments across event types now utilize its BNPL solution, and venues using its invoicing tool see 81% of invoices paid on time (45% paid well ahead of due date). Hosts who select BNPL see average event value increase by 60%. The company says the financing and partnerships improve cash flow, accelerate conversions, and reduce time spent chasing payments. Today’s funding will support accelerating hiring and expanding its role as a full-stack partner to properties and venues.