The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Jul 2022

Verified treats OTP delivery failures as a data problem, tracking where, when, and why messages drop across carriers, geographies, and device types to build routing intelligence. Its platform selects the highest-probability delivery path for each message in real time, positioning the business as an infrastructure layer between senders and telcos. The company operates across multiple African markets and serves clients in fintech, banking, and digital commerce, though specific client rosters, transaction volumes, and revenues have not been disclosed. Verified competes with regional CPaaS players like Termii and global providers such as Twilio and Vonage, arguing that its Africa-trained routing intelligence offers better performance in local environments. The startup recently raised $5.3 million, which industry coverage suggests could be used to expand carrier integrations, deepen analytics/routing capabilities, and grow sales to secure larger financial institution contracts. Its future ability to scale and convert this raise into a Series A will depend on whether its delivery advantage compounds as it expands.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2022

Livegistics provides core construction companies with a cloud-based material management system that links project stakeholders, contractors, trucks and landfills in a real-time, GPS-tracked network. The platform is designed to improve day-to-day operations and ensure transparency across projects. Its technology is currently operating in six states and 13 landfills around the U.S. The company has over 25 employees globally and is led by CEO and co-founder Justin Turk. Livegistics plans to use recent funding to grow hiring and marketing, scale for national contracts, and launch the platform’s second edition in Q2.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2021

Casted is a B2B audio and video podcast SaaS platform founded in 2019 that provides publishing, transcription, tagging, a fully searchable content archive and cross-channel distribution. The product integrates with marketing and digital platforms such as HubSpot, WordPress and Marketo to surface analytics on individual user engagement for sales and marketing use. Customers include PayPal, HubSpot, Drift and ZoomInfo, and Casted serves as the “system of record” for Salesforce’s 25+ podcasting shows. The startup grew rapidly in 2020, quadrupling revenue, tripling its customer base and doubling headcount; founder Lindsay Tjepkema has said the revenue growth “looks more like 8x year over year.” The company currently has a ~25-person team and plans to use new capital to expand the team and scale the platform with additional integrations and partnerships. Casted offers a purpose-built SaaS marketing platform for branded podcasts that lets marketers host, organize, distribute, and measure shows and episodes. The company launched from the High Alpha venture studio and positions itself as the first marketing platform for branded podcasts. Customers named in the announcement include Drift, Pendo, Terminus, and LogicGate. Casted emphasizes advanced analytics and end-to-end management to help marketers activate each episode and quantify podcast value. The company announced it will use new funding to grow its product, sales, and marketing teams and to expand its platform with new features to meet market needs.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2017

Kumanu provides a wellbeing platform that blends neuroscience research, behavior design principles and machine learning to help individuals increase resilience and achieve lasting behavior change. The company relaunched an AI-driven purpose activation platform and released its flagship application, Purposeful by Kumanu. Kumanu has formed partnerships with technology companies, health care systems, universities and Medicare plans. The company plans to use new funds to accelerate platform and market development focused on mental and social wellbeing, Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), and the application of purpose science to promote pro-social behaviors tied to inclusion and belonging. Kumanu and strategic investor ProMedica will jointly develop solutions to intervene against SDOH-driven risks such as food insecurity, financial strain, housing, behavioral health, transportation, violence risks and childcare. Jool Health offers JOOL Precision Well-Being™, a digital health solution founded on the science of purposeful living, a behavioral approach tied to improved health outcomes. The platform is associated with reduced risk for heart attack, Alzheimer’s disease, and depression, better self-care of chronic conditions, greater resiliency under stress, and increased productivity with fewer sick days. The company is led by founder and CEO Vic Strecher, PhD, MPH. Jool Health is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In April 2017 the company closed a $4.5M seed funding round to support growth. The proceeds are intended to accelerate product development, marketing, and sales efforts, and the company added Robert C. Boylen of CVC to its board.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2017

Groundspeed Analytics offers a SaaS-delivered submission and placement platform that transforms unstructured submission documents into structured, enriched data via a simple API. Its technology, powered by AI, automates ingestion and enhancement of information used by commercial insurance carriers, reinsurers, and brokers to improve risk selection, lower costs, and write more business. Customers access the company's enterprise data pipeline and API to speed and broaden commercial insurance placement and quoting. The company reports strong year-over-year growth in SaaS revenue and continuing market-share gains. Groundspeed will use new capital to invest in product development, artificial intelligence solutions, and international expansion, and for general corporate purposes. The board will add David Spiro of Insight Partners and James Ryans, as part of the partnership with investors. Groundspeed Analytics develops AI and machine-learning products that automatically convert loss runs, exposure documents, and policy files into actionable information for commercial P&C insurers, brokers, and MGAs. Its core product, the Groundspeed Adaptive Data Pipeline™, focuses on unlocking value from unstructured information to improve margins, identify underwriting profit pools, and enhance customer experience. The company states its automation and analytics platform can eliminate 90% of administrative expenses while delivering ten times the data with 99% accuracy, improving underwriting and analytics efficiency. Groundspeed is privately funded, was founded in 2016, and is based in Ann Arbor and Atlanta. It operates a 40-person data science and engineering team. The company plans to use new funding to continue expanding products and reach and to grow its data science and engineering team. Groundspeed Analytics builds data automation tools for commercial property & casualty insurance, using machine learning and artificial intelligence to convert loss runs, exposure documents and policy files into actionable information. Its platform supports all commercial P&C lines, including workers’ compensation, liability, property, automobile, and excess and umbrella. Users include multi-national commercial insurance brokers, third-party administrators (TPAs), and P&C insurance companies. Led by CEO Jeff Mason, the company aims to help customers identify profitable pools of risk and drive better financial outcomes. The company said it will use new funds to expand sales and marketing and to broaden and accelerate product development. As of the announced round, Groundspeed had raised a total of $2.4M since launch.