Participated · Seed · Feb 2022

Aramid Technologies offers SmartCert, a supplier collaboration platform that streamlines how companies prepare, manage and share quality certifications. The platform focuses on quality certification management in global supply chains and supports processes that underpin trillions of dollars in global commerce. The company raised $2M in seed funding to accelerate growth. It plans to use the funds to optimize sales and onboarding processes and expand the reach of SmartCert. Aramid also intends to strengthen its technology team and broaden its product offering. The company is led by Co-Founder and CEO Lyndon Lattie alongside Lonni Kieffer and Paul Decker.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2020

EarlyBird operates a community-focused app that lets parents create custodial UGMA accounts to invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other securities on behalf of their children. The platform emphasizes social features: every investment can include a video memory to contextualize the gift. EarlyBird currently focuses on the 0–7 demographic but plans to serve the full 0–18+ lifecycle and to transition teens to take ownership at 18. Product roadmap includes multiple customized portfolios, the ability for parents and children to pick individual stocks together, and exploration of integrating 529 college-savings plans. The company reported total funding of $10.9M and will use the new capital to scale its community-based investing features and expand its investment services. EarlyBird positions itself as both a savings vehicle and a time-capsule for family milestones. EarlyBird is a Chicago-based gifting platform that enables parents, family, and friends to collectively invest in a child’s financial future. In minutes, parents can set up an investment account, choose from a range of diversified portfolio options, and start investing on behalf of their child. The platform also lets a child’s broader network send gifted capital accompanied by video and photo memories for birthdays, holidays, and other occasions. EarlyBird plans to expand its community-first approach to childhood investing and to broaden the types of assets users can gift and invest in, including cryptocurrencies. The company intends to use new funding to grow its engineering, product, marketing, and operations teams. The product and roadmap details reflect the company’s current focus rather than disclosed financial metrics or user counts. EarlyBird offers a mobile app that simplifies creation and management of custodial UGMA accounts, enabling parents to invite family and friends to contribute investments and attach short video “memories” to gifts. The product includes fixed and customizable ETF-based portfolios from conservative (bond) to aggressive (equity), a rebalancing engine, and age-based financial literacy features that progressively expose children to their accounts. Accounts are held with Apex Clearing Corporation, a registered broker-dealer and SIPC member, which protects investments up to $500,000; EarlyBird plans to transition to its own broker-dealer in time. The company charges a $3 per month management fee (and $1 per month for each additional child) and is currently a very early-stage startup only weeks old. EarlyBird says it will expand into 529 plans within a year and may add brokerage lending and other revenue programs once it has a sizable user base and assets under management. The app is free to download on iOS. The company was founded by CEO Jordan Wexler and COO Caleb Frankel.