• Elevate Labs

  Participated · Equity · Mar 2011

  Elevate Labs builds digital mental-fitness products, including its long-standing Elevate brain-training app and a newly launched personalized meditation app called Balance. Balance aims to replicate the experience of working with a live meditation coach by stitching together dozens of short narration clips into individualized meditations and by continuously asking users questions to increase personalization. The app’s initial 10-day course is free; paid access costs $11.99/month, $49.99/year or $199.99 lifetime, and meditations are narrated by coach Leah Santa Cruz with other experts on the team. Elevate (formerly MindSnacks) previously made language-learning games before shifting to brain-training; the Elevate app has been downloaded 25 million times and won Apple’s App of the Year Award in 2014. The company says it was cash-flow positive last year and plans to continue supporting and growing Elevate while launching Balance and building a line of related apps. MindSnacks develops gamified mobile educational apps focused on language acquisition and test prep. Its portfolio includes 14 apps covering SAT help and multiple languages, and the company recently launched an iPad version with six new mini-games and three redesigned classics. Each game uses a personalized learning algorithm and collectively offers 50 lessons and over 1,000 essential vocabulary words, phrases and concepts. MindSnacks builds its games in-house with teams of designers, engineers and educational content specialists. The startup has attracted over five million downloads; users have learned more than 100 million words and phrases, 50% of users actively recommend the apps, and over one-third of users have downloaded more than one app. Looking ahead, MindSnacks plans to expand into additional subject areas like Math and Geography and aims to be a complementary, go-to gamified learning resource. MindSnacks develops mobile learning games that deliver "bite-sized" learning experiences and uses social elements and game mechanics to engage users. Its current apps focus on language learning, with MindSnacks Spanish and MindSnacks French available on the App Store. Each mini-game addresses specific needs such as vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and sentence construction. The company was incubated at Philadelphia incubator DreamIt Ventures. Additional languages and new subject areas, including SAT test prep, are coming soon. MindSnacks raised $1.2 million and plans to use the funding to hire engineers and game designers.

• Wanderfly

  Participated · Equity · Feb 2011

  Wanderfly is an intelligent travel recommendation search engine that matches user parameters (dates, origin, budget, interests) to recommended destinations and curated itineraries. The site presents geographic destinations and suggests flights, hotels, sample activities, and restaurants based on those preferences. Since launching last October, Wanderfly has served more than a half million trips to users in nearly 200 countries. The company has partnerships with Hotels.com for hotel search, Kayak for airfare suggestions, Quintessentially for concierge packages, and Business Traveler magazine for content, and it is planning a Jetsetter partnership. Wanderfly says the new $1 million in funding will be used to add more social functionality, form additional strategic partnerships, and syndicate its technology on partner sites. The product emphasizes a personalized online travel experience and streamlines activity planning into developing trip itineraries.

No current team members are available.