Led · Seed · Jan 2024

NEXT Life Sciences is developing Plan A™, a device-based, non-hormonal male contraceptive that places a biocompatible Vasalgel® hydrogel in the vas deferens to block sperm flow. Plan A™ is designed to provide up to 10 years of pregnancy prevention while remaining reversible via a dissolving procedure. NEXT acquired the worldwide license to Vasalgel® in 2022 and has since optimized the technology toward clinical development. The company plans to start clinical trials for Plan A™ in 2024 and intends to pursue FDA marketing authorization following trials. NEXT’s leadership includes experienced executives and clinicians from medical device and contraceptive fields. Financially, the company recently received a $400K grant from the Male Contraceptive Initiative and completed a prior fundraising round led by Bolt.com founder Ryan Breslow and The Family with participation from Transform VC and angel and early-stage venture investors. NEXT Life Sciences, based in Los Angeles, is a medical device company developing Plan A, a non-hormonal, long-acting, reversible on-demand male contraceptive. Plan A's design utilizes a hydrogel (Vasalgel®) that acts as a flexible filter to block sperm flow in the vas deferens. NEXT acquired the exclusive worldwide license for Vasalgel® in 2022 and aims to advance the technology through FDA authorization and to market. The company plans to start clinical trials for Plan A in 2024, followed by submission to the FDA. NEXT announced an oversubscribed $2.5M funding round led by The Family, bringing total seed funding to date to $4M. Ryan Breslow has joined as a strategic advisor, and NEXT says its executive team has prior leadership experience in medical device and contraceptive commercialization. NEXT Life Sciences is developing Plan A™, a reversible male contraceptive that uses Vasalgel®, a proprietary hydrogel the company acquired. The Plan A procedure is similar to a no‑scalpel vasectomy but inserts a hydrogel filter to block sperm flow rather than cutting the vas deferens. Preclinical studies showed rapid restoration of sperm flow after Vasalgel® was dissolved and flushed from the vas deferens. The company raised $1.55M in seed funding to support development and commercialization of Plan A. NEXT is led by CEO L.R. Fox and has assembled a Medical Advisory Board to guide contraceptive development, including Dr. Charles Carignan. The company aims to initiate clinical trials by the end of 2023.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2020

Founded in 2013, Preply operates an online marketplace that matches language learners with a network of more than 100,000 self-employed tutors. The platform has recently integrated artificial-intelligence features, such as automated lesson summaries, personalized homework, and improved student–tutor matching, to enhance consistency while keeping tutors at the core of its offering. The company reports twelve consecutive months of positive EBITDA, reflecting improving unit economics as it scales. Preply employs roughly 750 people across offices in Barcelona, London, New York, and Kyiv, with about 150 team members continuing to work from the Ukrainian capital despite the war. Management is actively hiring additional AI talent to deepen product capabilities and sees the long-term future of learning as “human-guided and amplified by AI.” Fueled by its latest financing, the company is now valued at $1.2 billion and is beginning to explore, albeit without a set timeline, the possibility of an eventual public listing.

Participated · Seed · Dec 2019

Shipfix connects to clients' email to extract and anonymously aggregate billions of data points using deep learning, turning unstructured emails into a comprehensive market monitor and searchable, structured offers. The platform also provides "augmented directories" (ships, ports, companies, people) and data-driven benchmarks and indices across 430 cargo categories. Primary customers today are charterers, ship owners, ship operators, freight forwarders and brokers; the company plans to onboard commodity traders, insurers, banks, governments and investment firms over time. The startup launched two months after being founded in December 2018 and currently employs 15 people, with a mostly remote team across seven cities and offices in London, Paris and Toulouse. Financially, Shipfix completed a $4.5 million seed funding round led by Idinvest Partners with participation from Kima Ventures, The Family, Bpifrance and strategic business angels.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2019

Bellman has built a technology platform used by its in-house property managers to centralize contact information, bills and documents for residential buildings while providing co-owners with email updates and a central repository. The company pairs software with human property managers rather than attempting to replace the role entirely. It aims to automate repetitive tasks so managers can focus on contract renegotiation and long-term issues. Bellman is currently working with about 100 buildings, representing 2,500 people paying a monthly fee, and remains focused on the Paris area. With the new funding, the startup plans to hire more in-house property managers and expand its software development team. The company raised a $4.5 million seed extension led by Lakestar with participation from Connect Ventures and Financière Saint-James. Bellman provides a technology-driven, full-stack property management service for residential buildings, combining a centralized platform with human property managers. The company focuses on responsiveness and transparency, automating repetitive tasks and centralizing documents, communications, and CRM data. Bellman employs in-house property managers (with five to ten years of experience) who act as a help desk and can manage roughly 50 buildings each; the startup currently manages about a dozen buildings. Pricing is comparable to legacy property management contracts (for example, roughly €20 per apartment per month for a 20-apartment building), and the company also pursues cost savings by renegotiating vendor contracts and detecting anomalies like excessive heating costs. Bellman is available in Paris and nearby cities where managers can visit buildings in person. The co-founder, Antonio Pinto, previously co-founded TV Time.

Participated · Series A · May 2019

SeedLegals provides a database-driven platform that automates the entire fundraising process and related legal documents, including term sheets, shareholder agreements, cap tables, stock option allocations, EIS approvals, hiring agreements and NDAs. The product replaces spreadsheets and Word docs with pre-built knowledge, deal data and document automation to dynamically build outputs. The company says 7,000 startups use the platform, capturing roughly 8% of early-stage U.K. funding rounds, and that users created more than 27,000 contracts on SeedLegals last year. SeedLegals estimates those contracts saved customers about £4.5 million in legal costs versus bespoke lawyer-drafted documents. The startup has introduced two new products, SeedFAST and Instant Investment, to enable quick top-up investment between funding rounds. It was founded by Anthony Rose and Laurent Laffy; Rose remains CEO and emphasizes removing complexity and unnecessary middlemen in fundraising.