Participated · Series B · Aug 2019

Brightloom is the rebranded continuation of Eatsa, focused on an end-to-end cloud-based SaaS platform that weaves together digital solutions for restaurant brands. Its platform aims to simplify the guest journey from order and payment through the kitchen and pickup, and to support post-visit digital rewards and offers. Management says the company combined its existing technology assets with licensed software from Starbucks’ proprietary digital flywheel to build an industry solution. Brightloom pivoted from operating Eatsa restaurants to being strictly a restaurant technology provider, closing locations and investing resources into its technology. The company has seen adoption and pilots of its systems with restaurants including Wow Bao, Rōti Modern Mediterranean, and a PizzaHut pilot planned for national rollout in 2020. Financially, Brightloom raised a $30 million Series B to support its product and commercial expansion, and Starbucks will take an equity stake and a board seat as part of the licensing arrangement.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2016

Takt is a real-time personalization platform headquartered in San Francisco. Using advanced machine intelligence and applied learning, its platform orchestrates interactions tailored to individual customers' evolving preferences. The company says it pushes past the limits of traditional personalization to enable deeper two-way engagement and help businesses and employees connect with each customer. Takt will use the new capital to accelerate development of its advanced, real-time personalization platform and to bolster company growth. The Series A is positioned with strategic backing from BCG Digital Ventures and includes an investment from Starbucks, which will also act as an anchor customer. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Series D · Sep 2012

Square, founded in 2009 and based in San Francisco, provides a register/point-of-sale service and tools for every part of running a business, including accepting credit cards, sales and inventory tracking, and small-business financing. It also offers Square Cash to send and receive money. The company secured additional outside investments to expand Square Capital, its small-business financing program. Victory Park Capital tripled its original investment and new money came from Colchis Capital. Square Capital gives businesses access to funds by purchasing a portion of future card sales in exchange for a lump sum, with automatic repayment as a set percentage of daily card sales. Repayment scales with sales—businesses pay more when sales are strong and less when they slow—and the total cost to the seller never changes regardless of how long repayment takes. Square is currently available in the United States, Canada, and Japan. Square, founded in 2009 and based in San Francisco, builds payments hardware and software that let merchants accept credit cards on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Its free credit-card reader enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere, anytime. Square Register serves as a full point-of-sale system for businesses to accept payments, track inventory, and share menu and location information. The company also offers Pay with Square, which lets individuals pay with their names at local merchants, discover nearby businesses, explore menu listings, and store receipts. Square says it is revolutionizing millions of everyday transactions between buyers and sellers. Financially, Square has raised $100 million in new funding at a valuation of nearly $6 billion. Square provides payments technology for the offline world. The company processed $20 billion in payment volume in 2013 and is expecting $30 billion this year. Its net is expected to rise from $550 million to $1 billion over the same period, implying improved margins. Square has been exploring liquidity options ahead of an eventual IPO, though sources say a public offering is still some way off and the company could raise another round before going public. Founder and CEO Jack Dorsey recently returned 10 percent of his shares, which could be used for employee equity or acquisitions. The company facilitated a secondary tender offering to provide liquidity to existing, vested shareholders, including employees. Square’s core product is a dongle that plugs into iOS and Android devices to let small merchants accept credit cards, complemented by Square Register and Pay with Square features. The company also offers a merchant‑finder, inventory management tools, and non‑card payment options. In three years Square grew from processing $1 billion to over $8 billion in payments on an annualized basis and has expanded its team from about 150 to over 400 employees. A major strategic partnership with Starbucks will have Square processing card transactions across Starbucks’ roughly 7,000 U.S. stores. Square says it will use a large part of the new financing to accelerate international expansion and plans to announce its first non‑U.S. services later in the year. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in San Francisco, Square is available in the U.S. and is positioning to court larger merchants and global partners. Square provides mobile credit card readers and point-of-sale software that enable merchants to accept card payments. The company has shipped more than 500,000 credit card readers and is processing more than one million transactions per month, exceeding $3 million a day. Square has launched an iPad app intended to replace cash registers, and its devices are sold in Apple Stores. The company is focused on bringing credit card payments to a new class of merchants and, eventually, consumers. The article highlights distribution and product expansion but does not disclose traditional revenue figures.