Participated · Seed · Aug 2026

Proxy Foods AI offers an agentic AI platform designed to accelerate food and beverage R&D, formulation, and commercialization for CPG, foodservice, and ingredient companies. The platform leverages institutional R&D knowledge and predictive models (including Expert Guided Bayesian Optimization) to reduce iterations, compress prototype timelines from months to days, and lower reformulation cost-of-goods by 2–10%, with customers reporting up to 80% fewer iterations. Customers and partners named include Barilla, Gefsinus, MISTA (owned by Givaudan), CAVA, and a Demo Day relationship with Tyson Foods; the company says its average platform customer has over $1B in annual revenue. Proxy Foods AI has established research collaborations with Stanford University, Food System Innovations, the Federal University of Paraná, McGill University, and work funded by the Good Food Institute on cultivated meat media development. The company also emphasizes enterprise-grade security, citing a partnership with Aperio Global to add a Zero Trust, quantum-resilient layer for computation on encrypted data. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Proxy Foods AI maintains labs and offices in San Francisco and Greece and plans to continue expanding capabilities and global enterprise adoption.

Led · Series C · Jan 2024

UrbanStems is an NYC-based floral gifting company that creates and delivers floral designs and gifts. The company serves seven major metropolitan cities: Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New York City, Jersey City, Chicago, Atlanta, and Miami, and offers coast-to-coast next-day delivery. Led by CEO Meenakshi Lala, UrbanStems combines floral design with logistics to provide timed gifting options. The company raised $5M in a Series C funding round to support growth. UrbanStems intends to use the funds to expand operations and broaden its business reach. Investors in the round include SWaN & Legend and DF Enterprises alongside existing backers. UrbanStems is a modern floral and gifting company that launched on Valentine’s Day 2014 with the aim of disrupting an outdated floral delivery system. It offers expressive bouquets, plants, and curated gift options, working with designers to create a gift-like experience including personalized notes and packaging. The company provides coast-to-coast next-day delivery and same-day courier service in NYC and DC, and has grown to a team of over 100. UrbanStems reported 130% growth in 2020 and says it has grown 500% since its Series B in 2018; it entered its biggest revenue week approaching Mother’s Day. The brand has formed partnerships with Vogue and Bumble and engages in philanthropic partnerships with organizations including the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Trevor Project, ACLU, World Central Kitchen, and Baby2Baby. With the new funding, UrbanStems plans to continue hiring, build on its gifting technology platform, and scale infrastructure to support accelerated growth. UrbanStems sells flowers, plants and curated gift boxes through two delivery models: bike couriers who provide two-hour delivery in NYC and Washington, D.C., and a third-party shipping partner that offers next-day delivery nationwide. The company has expanded its assortment beyond bouquets to include plants and curated gift boxes, with retail price points mentioned in the article (flowers from $35, plants $50, gift boxes $55). UrbanStems recently partnered with Vogue for editor-created bouquets and says gifting product expansion is a key growth area. The company does not charge an extra delivery fee regardless of delivery method. UrbanStems has been using new funding to push national expansion while continuing to deploy bike-courier operations where demand warrants. Seth Goldman, who joined as COO in 2017, became CEO in May of last year and is leading the growth efforts. UrbanStems operates a D.C.-based flower delivery service that sells seasonal and limited-edition bouquets directly to customers. It launched a collaboration with Vogue that lets customers choose from eight seasonal collections designed by Vogue editors, including Sally Singer, Nicole Phelps, Selby Drummond, Hamish Bowles, and Anna Wintour. The limited-edition bouquets are seasonal and priced at $138. The article highlights three inaugural arrangements — The Sally, The Nicole, and The Selby — each styled by a Vogue editor. UrbanStems has pursued brand partnerships before, including a summer collaboration with 2Chainz. In June the company raised a $6 million funding round to support long-term changes to its delivery model after a challenging Valentine’s Day in 2017. Led by Ajay Kori, UrbanStems operates an on-demand flower delivery service that designs bouquets in-house and works directly with Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms. The company hand-delivers seasonal bouquets by bike messengers, promising delivery within one hour. It leverages a vertically-integrated supply chain to reduce waste and eliminate unnecessary costs. UrbanStems intends to use new funding to accelerate growth in New York City and Washington, D.C., and to expand to other major U.S. cities starting with Philadelphia and Baltimore. The service is positioned to address common industry problems such as dead flowers, late arrivals, and high prices. No revenue or user metrics were reported in the article.

Participated · Series B · Jul 2021

Class Technologies builds virtual and hybrid classroom software that adds teaching and learning tools to the Zoom Meetings platform. Its product enables instructors to take attendance, hand out assignments, give quizzes and tests, grade work, proctor exams and hold one-on-one conversations. Led by co-founder and CEO Michael Chasen, the company launched less than a year ago and is already deployed in the United States and more than 20 countries. The system recently reached full general availability across Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iPad and Android tablets. Class raised a $105M Series B, bringing total funding to over $160M in under a year, and plans to use the funds to accelerate growth and expand into new markets globally. In conjunction with the fundraise, Kristin Bannon of SoftBank Investment Advisers will join the board of directors. Class Technologies offers a software platform that layers teaching and learning tools on top of Zoom, effectively creating a digital classroom experience. The product is built on Zoom and was fast-tracked during the pandemic to meet rising demand for online teaching. In the seven months since launch, more than 7,500 K‑12 and higher‑education institutions and corporations have reached out expressing interest. The company recently raised an additional $12.25 million and has secured over $58 million in investment in the past year. Proceeds from the new investment will be used to accelerate the rollout of Class software and to support increased global demand. High-profile backers are presented as validation of the product’s market opportunity and adoption momentum. Class Technologies is a Washington, DC-based company that built Class for Zoom, a software platform integrated with the Zoom Meetings platform to provide classroom tools for teachers. Led by CEO Michael Chasen, the product helps teachers take attendance, hand out assignments, give quizzes or tests, grade work, proctor exams, and hold one-on-one sessions. The company simplified its corporate name from ClassEDU to Class Technologies. It plans to use the Series A proceeds to expand operations and business reach and to launch Class for Mac, Windows, Chromebook, iPad, and Android Tablet. The company raised $30.75M in the Series A, bringing total funding to date to $46M. ClassEDU's first product, Class for Zoom, is a teacher-facing interface that integrates instruction tools (live assignments, quizzes, polls, private teacher-student chat, whiteboard) and management tools (attendance, participation tracking, CMS integration) directly into a Zoom call. The company is independently owned and is a certified Zoom reseller, earning commission when districts buy Zoom through them. Class for Zoom launched on macOS first and is rolling out a beta and waitlist with plans to expand support to Chromebooks, Windows, Android and iPhone. The product intentionally combines synchronous teaching features with classroom management capabilities to replace ad-hoc use of general-purpose video conferencing in schools. The platform includes attention- and desktop-monitoring features for exams and participation; students can opt out of tracking but administrators can require it, which raises potential privacy concerns. ClassEDU announced a $16 million pre-launch seed round to fund product development and cross-platform support; pricing is undecided but the company plans a subscription model.

Participated · Series F · Apr 2021

Cava Group, Inc. closed a $190 million Series F round on April 27, 2021. The financing was led by T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. and included participation from Lighthouse Investment Partners, Mousse Partners, Equilibra Partners Management LLC, and Declaration Partners LP. Returning investors in the round included Revolution Growth, SWaN & Legend Venture Partners, and The Invus Group, LLC. The round was raised from a group of investors and closed the transaction the same day. The financing set a post-money valuation of nearly $1.3 billion. Cava Grill operates fast-casual restaurants and a prepared food wholesale business built around a Mediterranean menu. Founded in 2006 by Ike Grigoropoulos, Ted Xenohristos, and Dimitri Moshovitis, the company is led by CEO Brett Schulman. It has several locations in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and California. The company raised $30m in funding and will use the proceeds to expand operations. Investors in the round included Revolution Growth, SWaN & Legend Venture Partners, and The Invus Group. The business combines restaurant operations with wholesale distribution of prepared Mediterranean food. Cava operates fast-casual restaurants and a consumer packaged goods line offering Mediterranean flavors inspired by founders Ted Xenohristos, Ike Grigoropoulos, and Chef Dimitri Moshovitis. Led by CEO Brett Schulman, the company runs 11 locations in the Washington, D.C. metro area and is opening its first of several Los Angeles restaurants. Its CPG products are sold in over 200 Whole Foods Market locations across the east coast and midwest, with expansion to southern California planned. Cava raised $45m in a Series B to fund growth, technology initiatives, community partnerships, and enhanced team member benefits. The company intends to use proceeds to enter new markets and open additional locations on both the east and west coasts.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2019

Showfields operates a curated, large-format retail space that helps online brands move into offline brick-and-mortar by giving each brand its own dedicated, customizable area. Brands sign up online and can provide input while Showfields designs and builds their pop-up space, choose which products to sell and highlight via touchscreen displays, and opt for dedicated or shared staff. Showfields charges brands a monthly fee with a minimum four-month commitment and does not take a cut of product sales, instead providing performance data to brands. Its flagship location in New York City's NoHo occupies a signed lease for 14,000 square feet, and the first floor already houses brands including Boll & Branch, Cityrow and Quip. The company positions its spaces around different goals—driving sales or building awareness—and bills the store as "the most interesting store in the world." Showfields says it plans to open more locations in additional cities before the end of the year.