The Venture Codex

Led · Seed · Jun 2024

Honeycomb Credit is a FINRA-regulated funding portal and bank-replacement platform that provides loans to smaller businesses by leveraging the Reg CF securities exemption. The platform allows anyone to invest in those loans and supports underserved communities. Based in Pittsburgh, Honeycomb serves small firms and investors around the U.S. Since 2018 the company says it has helped more than 400 businesses across 38 states raise nearly $30 million. Honeycomb’s team cites consolidation of community banks as a driver for its tech-enabled, scalable relationship-lending model. The company plans to use new funding to boost its mobile experience for in-store investing and to expand its reach to support more small businesses nationwide. Honeycomb Credit operates a Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) platform that lets community members lend directly to small businesses by issuing securities under Reg CF. Investors may participate for as little as $100, and the platform positions itself as a bank-replacement marketplace to fill gaps left by declining community banks. Since its founding in 2017 and based in Pittsburgh, Honeycomb has run more than 100 investment crowdfunding campaigns across 18 states and reports that over 80% of businesses that crowdfunded through the platform have reached their funding goals. The platform's average loan is roughly $40,000; more than 57% of businesses in Honeycomb offerings are owned by women or minorities and 55% have been in low-to-moderate income communities. Management says the new funding will allow the company to accelerate partnerships with investment funds and financial institutions. Honeycomb frames its model as creating circular economies that build community wealth by returning loan repayments to neighbors and local supporters.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2024

Conservation Labs develops acoustic sensors that attach to plumbing in residential, multifamily and commercial properties and translate pipe sounds into usage statistics, leak alerts and conservation recommendations. Its algorithmic platform is trained on thousands of hours of water acoustics and the company filed a related patent in 2016. The company sells sensors for $129 and offers a cloud subscription at $36 per sensor per year; it reported "seven digit" annual recurring revenue in 2023 and serves roughly 150 companies. Conservation claims typical users see about a 20% reduction in water usage after installation and has expanded its product line to include acoustic monitoring for industrial machines. The startup is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and plans to release a second-generation water monitoring sensor while scaling its AI platform and commercial efforts. Conservation today has a 22-person team and intends to hire eight more employees to reach a 30-person headcount by year-end. Conservation Labs develops H2know, a smart water monitor that tracks water use and delivers actionable water insights. The product uses a sensor and app to provide leak alerts and custom conservation recommendations. Led by founder and CEO Mark Kovscek, the company plans to launch H2know in early 2020 to commercial customers, starting with multi-family properties and restaurants before expanding to the residential sector. Conservation Labs is a graduate of the Alexa Accelerator, powered by Techstars. The company raised $1.7M in seed funding to support the product launch. Lauren DeLuca from IrishAngels will join the board as part of the round.

Participated · Series A · May 2022

Elemeno Health provides a cloud solution delivering hyper-localized, bite-sized support (how-to video, interactive decision guides, and updates) tailored to each team’s workflows and resources. Designed by former nurses for nurses, the product acts as an information hub that lets provider organizations update clinicians on changing protocols, policies, and departmental matters. Elemeno’s content is accessible, digestible, and customized to hospital departments, and is available just-in-time on any device to drive consistent delivery of care. The company reports deployments in major U.S. health systems including UCSF Health, El Camino Health, LCMC Health, and OSF HealthCare. Reported outcomes tied to Elemeno usage include up to a 50% reduction in turnover, replacement of up to 90% of in-person competency-verification interactions, and decreases in medical errors and hospital-acquired conditions by up to 75%. Elemeno is led by founder Dr. Arup Roy-Burman and was awarded the American College of Emergency Physicians’ 2021 Emergency Medicine Innovator of the Year. The company announced a Series A equity financing amid heightened demand for tools to support stressed frontline staff. Elemeno Health is a U.S.-based SaaS medical information platform that delivers context-driven microlearning to frontline healthcare teams. Its cloud-based platform is accessible from desktop to mobile and provides institutional best-practice guidelines, up-to-date checklists, and how-to videos. Social and gamification features enable recognition, friendly departmental challenges, and a feedback loop for leadership to learn what works. The company says it transforms complicated practices into bite-sized steps to improve practice consistency and reduce medical errors. Elemeno claims its product has improved patient outcomes and saved providers millions. The company is raising funds via a Regulation CF campaign to continue growth and platform development. Elemeno Health offers a cloud-solution app that functions as a virtual coach for frontline medical professionals, delivering best-practice guidelines, up-to-date checklists and how-to videos accessible from any device. The software simplifies complicated protocols into bite-sized, just-in-time learning and includes social and gamification elements to motivate team members. The app does not use patient data and is designed to meet strict HIPAA security standards. The company plans to use recent funding to further develop and invest in its proprietary cloud solution for frontline teams. Elemeno was founded in 2016 by Arup Roy-Burman, MD, who serves as CEO, and is based in Oakland, CA. No operating metrics or revenue figures were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Equity · May 2022

Line issues instant emergency cash lines — as little as $10 — without interest or proof of credit history, and increases customers' access over time as they repay. The service is subscription-based (starting at $1.97/month) and functions as a revolving line: users often repay within the same month and can immediately reuse their line. Line says it came out of stealth last July and has 500,000 registrants across more than 5,200 cities in all 50 states, with registrations growing 100% month over month. The startup reports it is profitable and that revenue is growing 300% quarter over quarter. Its user base is roughly 60% women, and the internal team is 40% women; parity is an explicit goal. Line’s underwriting and algorithm weigh factors like inflation, caretaking responsibilities, and hourly jobs to tailor access, and the founder has positioned the company as mission-driven and not a neobank.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2021

Solstice develops customer acquisition, enrollment, and subscriber management solutions for the community solar industry, including financing innovations to expand access for underserved communities. The company created EnergyScore, a machine learning–based qualification metric that combines utility payment history and customer data to better predict subscriber bill payment behavior. Solstice says EnergyScore outperforms FICO in early analysis of nearly 875,000 customer records, reducing default rates by 1.9 percentage points and increasing qualification of LMI households by 14%. The company plans to design dynamic monitoring and evaluation frameworks to mitigate bias in the model and to recruit pilot partners with residential solar financiers or developers later this year. Solstice offers a frictionless subscriber management software platform and aims to bring community solar to households that cannot support rooftop systems. Founded by women of color in 2016 and originally based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Solstice positions itself as an advocate for energy equity. Solstice Power Technologies is a Cambridge, MA-based software and customer management company that connects households and community organizations to community solar. Its platform lets local residents enroll in portions of centralized shared solar farms for free without home installations and offers guaranteed savings on monthly utility bills. Solstice’s software manages the end-to-end customer experience for the life of 20-year renewable energy projects on behalf of developers and financiers, from customer enrollment to billing/crediting and ongoing engagement. The company has generated demand for 111 MW of clean energy across 25 community renewable projects, representing the environmental equivalent of not burning 31 million pounds of coal. Solstice closed a $3.1M funding round and intends to use the funds to expand operations to additional states in 2021. Led by Co-Founder and CEO Steph Speirs, the company is initially focusing on Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Maine, and New Jersey.