• Bellwether Coffee

  Participated · Series B · Sep 2019

  Bellwether builds tech-enabled, zero-emission commercial coffee roasters and a connected online marketplace that lets retailers roast beans on-site. Its hardware and software target cafes, grocery stores, college campuses and other retail locations. Roasters are sold for $75,000 or leased for $1,000 per month, and purchase includes access to the company’s online bean marketplace. The company has roughly 140 customers and reported 6x revenue growth in 2019. Bellwether aims to remove wholesale middlemen by enabling shops to roast their own beans and create a connected farm-to-cup experience. With the new funding it plans to expand manufacturing capabilities, grow its customer-facing team, and pursue launches in Southeast Asia and Europe next year. Bellwether builds a ventless, electric, zero-emissions commercial coffee roaster that it leases to cafés, grocers and other businesses. Customers lease the roaster for about $1,000 per month and receive access to Bellwether’s online bean marketplace. The marketplace curates roughly 20 farms and lets retailers order beans filtered by attributes such as organic certification or woman-owned, and enables consumers and retailers to tip farmers directly. Bellwether positions itself at the intersection of hardware and software, combining in‑store roasting equipment with an e-commerce platform for supply transparency. The company emphasizes traceability and sustainability to give retailers and consumers more visibility into bean origin and farmer compensation. Bellwether has begun commercial roll‑outs to cafés and grocers while continuing to expand its marketplace relationships.

• Crashmob

  Participated · Series B · Sep 2012

  FashionPlaytes operates FPGirl.com, a fashion website aimed at girls ages 5–12 where users can design and purchase clothing. Users can create dresses, t-shirts, tops, and doll clothing, dress a custom avatar, share portfolios, interact in a monitored forum, and learn from fashion-industry experts. Items created on the site can be purchased with prices starting under $20. The company reports 500,000 registered users, an average session length of about one hour, and more than 5 million unique designs created. FashionPlaytes raised $5 million in a Series B from Leo Capital Holdings and Spindrift Equities, with participation from prior backers Fairhaven Capital, New Atlantic Ventures, and Golden Seeds. The company previously raised $4 million in Series A funding. FashionPlaytes operates a website that enables girls aged 5–12 to design and create their own clothing lines, including jean jackets, dresses, tees and hoodies from over 5 million possible design combinations. The site allows users to act as fashion designers and produce wearable items based on their creations. The company launched in 2009 and is based in Salem, MA. FashionPlaytes plans to use new funding to accelerate product development and expand its customer base. To date the company has raised $5.8M, including an initial $1.8M round and a subsequent $4M Series A. In conjunction with the financing, Rudina Seseri of Fairhaven Capital will join FashionPlaytes’ board of directors.

No current team members are available.