Participated · Series B · May 2021

Hearth operates a SaaS platform that provides tens of thousands of home improvement contractors with financing solutions, invoicing, payment collections, insurance products and other business tools in a single system. The product is tailored specifically for the home improvement industry and aims to digitize an industry that generates over $100 billion in annual revenue. The company says the new funding will enable it to provide digital financial services to more home improvement professionals. Hearth has grown since starting the business four years ago and serves contractors nationwide. Financially, the company recently closed a $23M Series B and had previously raised $28M from earlier investors.

Participated · Series F · Jul 2020

Coursera operates a large online learning marketplace offering courses to individual learners and a separate enterprise arm that delivers training to companies. The company launched the Coursera Campus Response Initiative, which signed up over 1 million students, and said enrollments quintupled year over year during the pandemic. Its enterprise business serves more than 2,500 companies and grew 70% year-over-year. Coursera plans to expand internationally and hire more employees. Starting this fall the company will charge roughly $250–$400 per student subscription for certain offerings. The pandemic has been a key growth driver for the platform and its recent operational metrics reflect sustained demand for remote learning. Coursera operates an online learning platform that offers free and paid short courses, skills certifications and full degrees in partnership with universities and businesses. The company hosts about 3,200 courses and 310 specializations with partners including Columbia University, Johns Hopkins and the University of Michigan. Some 40 million people have taken classes on Coursera, and the company has moved into corporate training and vocational programs such as a Google IT certification and a health vertical introduced in January. CEO Jeff Maggioncalda, who joined in 2017, says Coursera intends to expand its product portfolio across open courses, microcredentials, bachelor’s and master’s degrees and other offerings. The company is using recent growth to explore next steps such as helping paying learners with job placement and deeper partnerships with employers. Financially, Coursera’s valuation has risen from around $800 million to “well over” $1 billion per sources cited in the article. Coursera is an online learning platform that hosts 2,000 courses, 180 specializations and full master’s degree programs in areas such as business and computing. The company reports 26 million registered users and works with 150 university partners and around 50 companies that offer courses through the platform. Its offerings span short courses, specializations and newer full online degrees, with the majority of users currently in short-course programs while masters programs are in early cohorts. Coursera also serves enterprise and nonprofit customers across multiple countries, and lists corporate customers including BCG, BNY Mellon, L’Oreal, PayPal and Air France KLM. Management says it will use new funding to develop AI to personalize learning, expand its range of full online degrees, and grow its enterprise and nonprofit training business. The company was founded in 2012 and has raised capital previously, bringing total funding to just over $210 million after this round. Coursera, co-founded in 2012 and based in Mountain View, CA, offers a platform for open-access courses from universities and educational organizations. The company provides more than 15 million registered learners access to over 1,400 courses and 80 Specializations from 130+ institutions. Coursera’s core product is its online learning platform that aggregates university course content and Specializations. The company raised $11.6M in the second close of its Series C financing, bringing total Series C funding to $61.1M after a $49.5M first tranche announced in August 2015. The second close investment was made by EDBI, the corporate investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board. Coursera will use the funding to expand efforts to source new, career-relevant content and improve the learning experience to meet the needs of learners in Asia, one of its fastest-growing markets. Coursera operates an online education platform that offers 1,100 courses to nearly 15 million users. The company serves large international audiences—about 1 million users each in China and India, with Brazil and Latin America also sizable—and the majority of its staff (98 percent) is based in Silicon Valley. Coursera's primary revenue source is its multi-course paid specializations program, and it is testing alternative monetization strategies. The company plans to use new funding to fuel international expansion, expand its content offerings, and continue product innovation. Management has highlighted priorities such as improving assessments and learner interactions and launching additional specializations with industry partners.

Participated · Series C · May 2020

Aspiration is a platform that delivers automated sustainable-impact financial products and services to consumers and companies, positioning itself as a leader in "Sustainability as a Service." The company says it has earned the trust of more than 5 million members by integrating ESG-driven spending, saving, shopping, and investing features. Recent strategic partnerships include Hanwha Life and Hanwha Solutions to expand into South Korea, a strategic agreement with Qatar Free Zones Authority and Doha Venture Capital to set up operations in Qatar Free Zones and expand across the Middle East and North Africa, and a multi-year partnership with Athletes Unlimited to enable a carbon-neutral sports league. Aspiration is pursuing a business combination with InterPrivate III (a publicly traded SPAC) and expects the transaction to close in Q1 2022, subject to shareholder approval and closing conditions. Financially, Aspiration secured $315 million of incremental equity financing and now expects cumulative net proceeds exceeding $700 million inclusive of these financings and an earlier $200 million common-stock PIPE, assuming no redemptions from InterPrivate’s trust account. The company is a certified B Corp and is positioning its brand and technology to scale growth in the intersection of fintech and sustainability. Aspiration is an LA-based fintech that markets sustainable banking and investment products aimed at conscious consumers. It launched with an investment management service that lets customers choose their own fees and guarantees portfolios that exclude fossil-fuel companies. The company offers an Impact Measurement Score to show the social impact of spending, a tree-planting matching feature for rounded-up debit purchases, and a premium subscription tier with recycled-ocean-plastic debit cards that provide higher cash back, higher interest, and carbon-offset features. Aspiration has partnerships with socially conscious brands like Toms and Warby Parker to deliver extra cash-back rewards. Per the article, the company has 1.5 million U.S. users and has processed $4 billion in transactions, and the recent $135 million cash infusion brings total capital raised to $200 million. Investors say the funding will fuel Aspiration’s durable growth and lasting impact as it expands its sustainability-focused offerings. Aspiration’s core product is the Summit personal banking account, a checking account that pays 1% interest, is fossil-fuel free, and lets customers track a sustainability score tied to where they spend. The company also offers investment and retirement services and uses a pay-what-you-want fee model rather than traditional bank penalty fees. Customers’ accounts total about $350 million in savings, and roughly $2 billion per year is transacted across the Aspiration platform. Aspiration donates 10% of its earnings to charitable micro-loans and mentorship programs for low-income Americans. The founder and CEO, Andrei Cherny, frames the business as an inversion of the typical bank model, aiming to align consumer spending with corporate ethics. The company says it will use the new capital to develop a suite of credit and lending products to expand its banking services. Aspiration is a two-year-old, L.A.-based investment and banking startup led by CEO Andrei Cherny that markets itself as a "Merrill Lynch with a conscience." Its core products include a low-risk mutual fund (managed by Emerald Asset Management) with a $500 minimum, free checking with no ATM fees, and a forthcoming sustainable-investments product. Customers can optionally pay management fees up to 2% of assets under management or up to $6 per month for checking; the company reports 90% of its customers are paying for services. Aspiration pays 1% interest on checking accounts and donates 10% of its revenue to Accion, a nonprofit microloan provider. The company partners with Radius Bank to operate its checking product and relies on traditional banking spreads from loans funded by customer deposits. At the time of the article the 16-person company had just passed $5 million in assets under management and reported rapid user growth from 700 customers two months after its April launch, doubling the user base every six to eight weeks. Aspiration Partners LLC, founded by Andrei Cherny, intends to give everyday investors access to investment products historically limited to the wealthy, including strategies similar to those used by hedge funds and private equity. Cherny says the firm aims to level out volatility and replicate arcane strategies for retail investors. He began building the business two years earlier and worked with the SEC for the past year as the company prepared for a November launch. Over that period Cherny quietly raised $4.5 million in capital from undisclosed angel investors. Joseph N. Sanberg has joined as an advisor, and the company has recruited high‑profile advisors including Alexis Maybank and Jeff Skoll. The team includes former executives from Blackstone, Ryan Seacrest Enterprises, Nest Labs, Merlin Securities, and Cantor Fitzgerald.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2013

Jamf provides Apple device management solutions for businesses, education and government organizations. The company serves more than 13,000 customers, including 8 of the top 10 technology companies and 15 of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies. Jamf was founded in 2002 and is led by CEO Dean Hager. The company announced a majority investment from Vista Equity Partners, with financial terms undisclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2017. Management said the investment will be used to accelerate growth and innovation and support strategic acquisitions. JAMF Holdings, the parent of JAMF Software, provides Apple device management solutions through its Casper Suite platform. Casper Suite allows administrators to manage Macs, iPhones and iPads via a flexible management platform. Founded in 2002 and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, JAMF serves over 4,000 customers across commercial, education and government verticals. Those customers manage more than 2.8 million Apple devices with the company’s software. The company intends to use the funds for product development and to expand industry partnerships. Leadership includes Chip Pearson as managing partner.