Led · Series A · Aug 2024

ZBiotics positions itself as the world’s first maker of genetically engineered probiotics, building consumer-facing products that add new functionality to the human body. Its flagship Pre-Alcohol Probiotic Drink mimics the liver by breaking down acetaldehyde, the toxic byproduct of alcohol. The company is led by a team of Ph.D. scientists and emphasizes transparent, responsible genetic engineering for consumer use. ZBiotics has more than doubled sales each year, sold over 5 million units cumulatively, and reached company-wide profitability in 2023. It plans to expand into physical retail and use R&D to bring additional use-case probiotics to market. In the near term it will launch a second product focused on microbial diversity in the gut and is exploring products targeting sleep, vaginal health, and athletic performance. ZBiotics develops genetically engineered probiotics designed to deliver new biological functions in the gut. Its first product is a probiotic that mimics liver function in the gut to neutralize toxic alcohol byproducts. The company is pursuing additional engineered strains aimed at helping the body resist environmental toxins and infections (for example, lead-contaminated water and radiation) and at producing useful nutrients such as fiber and high-quality protein. ZBiotics is led by CEO Zack Abbott, PhD. The company said it will use the new funding to accelerate product development, hire new executives and drive sales growth. ZBiotics is based in San Francisco and has raised a total of $5.7M to date. Zbiotics has developed a genetically engineered probiotic that expresses an enzyme to break down acetaldehyde, the toxic byproduct of alcohol believed to cause hangover symptoms. The product is intended to be taken before or during drinking rather than after. To date the team has demonstrated function in vitro and through limited self-testing, but has not completed placebo-controlled, peer-reviewed human clinical trials. The founders say they have spent over a year on safety testing and will comply with U.S. regulatory frameworks before launching. They are drafting a human clinical protocol with hangover-research expert Dr. Joris Verster and plan a crowdfunding campaign to support a consumer launch in the U.S. The company is building a flexible gene-editing probiotic platform designed to target additional use-cases beyond hangovers.

Participated · Series C · Sep 2023

Transfr provides virtual reality simulations paired with a digital coach to deliver hands-on workforce training and career-development courses, with a focus on middle-skills jobs. Its platform is used by government agencies, Fortune 500 companies, community organizations, workforce development groups, K-12 schools and higher-education institutions. The company reports installations in more than 1,000 U.S. locations, has facilitated almost 400,000 training simulations, operates in over 40 states, and says its customer base more than doubled year-over-year from 2019 to 2023. Transfr monetizes via a software-as-a-service licensing fee; customers must also acquire headsets (notably Meta’s Oculus Quest with Oculus for Business) to use the platform. The company plans to scale the platform, build out its executive team, invest in new training simulations across a wider range of skills and scenarios, and expand Spanish-language offerings and overall content. Founder and CEO Bharani Rajakumar, whose prior company LearnBop was acquired by K12 in 2014, leads the company’s partnerships with educational and workforce organizations. Transfr VR builds virtual and augmented reality simulations that simulate on-the-job training in fully immersive, 360-degree environments. Delivered with employers, colleges, and workforce development organizations, its simulations include a pre-programmed digital coach to enable hands-on, distraction-free training. The company serves industries including automotive, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, health care, and construction. Over five years Transfr expanded from customers in a single state to partners in 36 states and the District of Columbia, and nearly 300 organizations now use its platform. More than 10,000 incumbent workers, job-seekers, and students have accessed its simulations. The company recently completed a $35 million Series B financing led by Lumos Capital Group. TRANSFR VR builds simulation-based, hands-on training experiences using virtual reality to prepare people for technical and skilled-trade roles. The company’s platform pairs curriculum and assessment tools with headsets (the article cites Oculus Quest with Oculus for Business) to recreate on-the-job experiences. TRANSFR says its programs are aimed at boosting economic mobility in regions with acute skills gaps and unemployment and are already used by workforce agencies, schools, colleges, and employers. Customers and partners named in the article include Lockheed Martin, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, and statewide partnerships in Alabama through AIDT and the Alabama Community College System under the JumpstartAL initiative. The company emphasizes connecting schools, workplaces, and governments to make technical careers more accessible and to open pathways to higher wages. TRANSFR was recognized in January 2020 as a “2020 Innovator to Watch” by nonprofit JFF.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2023

Butter Payments offers a patented payments technology platform that selects optimal approval timing and presentation for each transaction to maximize success. The system is designed to prevent legitimate payments from being falsely flagged as fraud or lost in older payment ecosystems. Led by CEO Vijay Menon, the company focuses on improving authorization rates across payment flows. Butter plans to use recent funding to accelerate growth and expand operations. The article does not disclose revenue or user metrics. Butter builds a payments-intelligence platform that uses machine learning to prevent accidental subscription churn by ensuring checkouts go through and by recovering failed payments. The company focuses on two problems: validating payments at checkout and remediating failures, especially for international customers where false declines are common. Butter operates a revenue-sharing model, charging a percentage of the recovery it delivers; it says it helps customers find, on average, $1 million of revenue per year. In about a year the San Francisco-based startup has signed roughly a dozen consumer subscription customers, including companies doing $10 million to $500 million in revenue. Butter plans to use new capital for "top of the funnel optimization" to improve real-time decisioning on checkout payload elements and expects to grow headcount (targeting about 50 employees by end of Q1 2022). Long term the team aims to build an operating-system-like layer for payments that sits above existing payment service providers.

Led · Seed · Apr 2021

PowerX is an environmental startup that has built a multi-sensor suite revealing a home's electricity, gas, and water usage. The suite leverages advanced AI to analyze consumption and automatically optimize utilities. Its product aims to lower household energy costs through automated optimization. The company announced a $4 million seed investment in the reported round. Coverage places the company in Brooklyn, NY. No operating metrics beyond the fundraising are disclosed in the article.

Led · Series A · Oct 2020

Podium Education builds for-credit, online tech courses produced in-house with polished video production and instruction from industry experts. The company partners with university campuses so students meet weekly with peers from their institution and can take the classes for credit; courses are federal financial aid and Pell Grant-eligible. Since launching at the start of 2020, Podium has partnered with over 20 colleges and enrolled more than 1,000 students, and reported five-fold growth in student numbers in its first months. Content includes real-world datasets from companies like Netflix, Spotify and Lime Scooters, and Podium has invested heavily in production and materials. The company charges partner institutions a 50 percent fee per enrolled student, requires no out-of-pocket production expenses from institutions, and can launch programs in as little as two weeks. Podium plans to use recent funding to offer more classes and expand program options—options to minor in web development and digital marketing were enrolling for January 2021.