• Termaxia

  Led · Equity · Feb 2018

  Termaxia emerged from stealth to sell a big-data storage appliance that uses low-power microservers to deliver high performance while reducing energy consumption and costs. The company positions its integrated data-storage solution as cost-competitive with slower options but with markedly better performance. Founders Boon Thau Loo and Changbin Liu led the development while the team included contractors in China. Termaxia spent its stealth period focused on product development and client acquisition and has begun commercial outreach to Internet Service Providers. The company credits early support from StartUp PHL and follow-on capital from Ben Franklin Technology Partners as factors in remaining primarily Philadelphia-based. Loo is also a cofounder of Gencore Systems (later Netsil) and is a professor and associate dean at the University of Pennsylvania.

• Houwzer

  Participated · Seed · May 2017

  Houwzer is a full-service, salaried-agent real estate brokerage and homeownership platform that integrates real estate, mortgage, title, and escrow services on a proprietary end-to-end technology platform. The company uses an all‑W2 compensation model and a $5,000 flat‑fee listing product that it says saves sellers an average of $15,000. Houwzer has helped clients buy and sell roughly 4,000 homes with cumulative sales volume near $2 billion and has saved home sellers about $35 million in brokerage commissions. The company reports a category‑leading Net Promoter Score of 84 and an average client rating of 4.9 from over 1,000 reviews. Houwzer plans to launch three consumer products—Cash Advantage™, Convenience Offers™, and Buy Before You Sell—to give clients a competitive edge in today’s market. The fundraising will also support deeper penetration across its six MSAs in seven states and hiring across Marketing, Product, People, and Home Services. Houwzer is an online real-estate platform that hires agents as salaried employees and charges a flat $5,000 listing fee plus a 2.5% buyer’s broker fee. The company handles business generation, marketing, and administrative tasks for agents and invests in their training and education. Since founding in 2015, Houwzer says it has saved home sellers in the mid‑Atlantic more than $13.8 million and helped buy or sell thousands of homes worth a combined $750 million. Houwzer has grown 100% year‑over‑year and is profitable in the Philadelphia area, with plans to be profitable in the D.C. area within the coming year. With 77 employees (50 agents), the company plans to double its workforce in the next 12–18 months and enter the Orlando market later this year. Houwzer intends to expand its geographic footprint across greater Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, and to broaden services beyond brokerage into mortgage, title, and insurance while doubling down on its technology. Houwzer operates a full-service real estate brokerage that aims to reimagine every aspect of the home buying and selling experience by providing homeowners full service at a fair price. The company leverages technology alongside a team-based brokerage model that uses listing agents to support sellers from consultation to closing and salaried realtors who help buyers find homes. Led by Co-Founder & CEO Mike Maher, Houwzer offers an alternative to traditional commission-driven brokerages. The company announced a $4.5M extension of its seed funding and said it will use the proceeds to continue expanding operations and its business reach. The raise reflects ongoing early-stage financing activity rather than a later-stage round. Houwzer is based in Philadelphia, Pa. Houwzer is a tech-enabled real estate brokerage founded in February 2015 by CEO Mike Maher and based in Philadelphia, PA. The company leverages listing and buyer specialists who receive salaries instead of commissions to prioritize service over sales. Houwzer has saved homeowners more than $2 million in unnecessary listing fees and has booked well over $100 million in sales volume. It currently employs 35 full-time employees with plans to reach 55 by year’s end. The company plans to use its seed funds to grow operations in Philadelphia, expand into a second major metro market in 2017, and launch a new technology platform to improve the home transaction experience for buyers and sellers. The articles report a $2.0M seed raise with $1.6M already closed and the remainder scheduled to close on June 1, 2017.

• Nucleus

  Led · Seed · Oct 2015

  Nucleus sells a smart home intercom device that supports Alexa voice functionality and updates automatically over the air. The company began shipping the device in August and has placed product displays in 500 Lowe’s stores in addition to launching on Amazon. Early traction included purchases from customers in 47 states during the first month of sales, with the average buyer purchasing 3–4 devices. The device is priced at $249 but is discounted to $199 when customers buy two or more. Nucleus plans to use new funding to ramp up product development and has announced an acquisition of Ily to add engineers experienced in the home intercom space. CEO Jonathan Frankel says many buyers come from traditional intercom or caregiving use cases rather than typical smart‑home early adopters. Nucleus builds a voice-activated, frictionless home communication device intended as an easy alternative to Skype or Hangouts. The device is available for pre-order at $209 (market price $249) and is set to ship in spring 2016, with Foxconn contracted to manufacture it. The instant-connection technology was developed by cofounder Isaac Levy, who helped build the technology behind Google Hangouts, and the team uses the product internally. The 11-person team is distributed across the Northeast (including Philadelphia and New York) and Israel, and the product includes features such as a privacy shutter added after parent feedback. Financially, Nucleus has raised capital from multiple investors and continues to sell pre-orders ahead of its launch.

• Real Food Works

  Led · Equity · Oct 2013

  Real Food Works is a healthy-meal startup founded by Lucinda Duncalfe. The company moved from Conshohocken to the outskirts of Chinatown in Philadelphia this summer to meet StartupPHL's residency requirement. It has a staff of ten and focuses on healthy meals. Real Food Works plans to use the new funding for customer acquisition. Prior to the StartupPHL investment, the company received $175,000 from the state-run Benjamin Franklin Technology Partners. The $200,000 StartupPHL investment is the first from the fund and was announced at a press conference with city officials and First Round Capital representatives. Real Food Works is a healthy meal subscription service delivering mainly plant-based (little to no animal products) meals prepared by local restaurants. Led by tech scene veteran Lucinda Duncalfe, the one-year-old startup relocated into a 2,500 sq ft Center City space at 13th and Race Streets, a former art gallery that will host tech events and weekly food tastings. The company has more than 100 customers, has delivered close to 15,000 meals, and partners with about 15 local restaurants. It operates with seven employees; COO Mike Krupit left in late April to free up resources for faster scaling. Real Food Works plans to ramp up Center City restaurant partnerships and to introduce gluten-free meal options. Most recently, Benjamin Franklin Technology Partners announced a $175,000 investment and the company said to expect a funding announcement in the near future.

No current team members are available.