Participated · Series B · Jun 2016

Talkspace operates a subscription platform that provides users unlimited messaging access to one of the company’s 5,000 healthcare professionals. The company launched in 2012 and has developed product variations for specific users, such as teenagers and couples. Talkspace also sells services through partnerships with insurance providers and employers as part of a commercial business. It recently announced a partnership with Optum Health that expands its commercial reach to 5 million people. The company says it will use the new funding to accelerate growth of its commercial business and leverages data science to inform therapist matching and predictive products. Total funding to date is $110 million. Talkspace is a NYC-based provider of an online therapy platform that connects people with licensed therapists through its web and mobile apps. Its flagship product, Unlimited Messaging Therapy™, has been used by more than 500,000 people. The company was founded in 2012 by Oren Frank, who serves as CEO. Talkspace closed a $31M Series C financing to accelerate growth. The round was led by Qumra Capital with participation from existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Spark Capital, SoftBank, Compound Ventures and FirstTime. As part of the financing, Qumra Managing Partner Erez Shachar will join Talkspace's board of directors. Talkspace offers therapy through an online platform and app, including an unlimited messaging plan that lets users message their therapist as often as they want. The unlimited messaging plan is priced at $25/week. The company reports 300,000 people are using that plan, with its user base tripling in the last year, and it has grown its therapist network to 1,000 specialists. In October Talkspace launched asynchronous voice and video messaging to compete more directly with traditional therapy. With the new funding the company plans to introduce features including group therapy and to expand geographically. CEO Oren Frank said Talkspace intends to leverage its data to build predictive products and surface best practices for therapists. According to Crunchbase, Talkspace has raised a total of $28 million including this new round. Talkspace operates a web and mobile platform that connects patients with licensed, certified therapists through text-based messaging. The product uses introductory consultations and semantic analysis powered by IBM’s Watson to match users to therapists based on personality, thinking style, and emotional stress. Patients pay a flat weekly or monthly fee to send unlimited messages and receive feedback, allowing more immediate and frequent support compared with traditional weekly in-office sessions. On the supply side, the platform enables therapists to serve multiple clients without dealing with insurance paperwork or renting office space, and provides tools for therapist communication and support. Talkspace reports more than 250 certified therapists on its platform and has seen a high rate of consumer growth. The company says the new funding will be used to expand its tech team and build better technology going forward. Talkspace is a web and mobile platform that connects users with licensed therapists through unlimited messaging for a flat $25/week fee. The service allows users to remain anonymous and to message their therapist at any time rather than scheduling traditional sessions. Talkspace reports over 200 therapists on the platform and around 70,000 members since launch. The company recently launched an Android app in addition to its web presence. It raised a $1M bridge from Metamorphic Ventures to close its seed round, bringing total funding to $3.5M. Proceeds are intended to build enterprise partnerships so employers can set up company-wide Talkspace accounts for employees, and CEO Oren Frank emphasized reducing stigma and improving access to care.

Led · Seed · Feb 2016

viisights develops AI-powered behavioral-recognition video analytics that analyze sequences of images to detect abnormal behaviors and events (for example fighting, loitering, looting, and vandalism) and raise real-time alerts. Its approach focuses on sequences rather than individual images, enabling distinctions between similar-looking behaviors (for example dancing versus fighting). The company sells through a growing network of system integrators and channel partners and has announced partnerships with PSA and Cognyte. Viisights targets safe and smart cities, educational and enterprise campuses, manufacturing and industrial zones, critical infrastructure sites, and transportation hubs. The company plans to expand marketing and product enhancements to penetrate additional target markets and to initiate a new SaaS business model; it expects more than half of its revenue will come from SaaS by the end of 2023. Founded in 2015, viisights employs 31 people in Tel Aviv and New York and 8 people in Ukraine. Viisights develops behavioural understanding systems for real-time video intelligence, led by CEO Asaf Birenzvieg. Its flagship product, Viisights Wise, leverages AI and proprietary video-understanding technology to extract actions, events and scenes from live video feeds. The platform supports use cases including violence and weapon recognition, suspicious-activity detection, crowd management, vehicle and traffic surveillance, indoor/outdoor safety (fire and smoke detection) and resource optimization. The company targets safe and smart cities, smart enterprises, banking and financial institutions, critical infrastructure sites, transportation hubs and ride-sharing vehicles. Viisights plans to use the funding to expand its sales organization, establish a global presence, continue enhancing current products and develop new solutions. The company recently completed a $10M Series A financing to support those initiatives. viisights offers a SaaS-based video data management and intelligence platform for content discovery, brand safety and targeting. The solution serves as a destination for video metadata and user-profile management. It aims to help publishers with large video content libraries expand revenues and to provide advertisers with higher-quality video ad targeting data. The company is led by co-founder and CEO Asaf Birenzvieg and co-founder and chief scientist officer Simon Polak. Following the raise, viisights plans to use funds to enhance its core technology and to expand the team. The company is based in Tel-Aviv, Israel.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2015

LogDog is an Israeli startup offering a mobile app that monitors and helps protect online accounts from being hacked. The app is available on Android now, with iOS planned to follow soon. It works by logging in on users' behalf to services (Facebook, Dropbox, Gmail, Evernote, Yahoo! and Twitter) and continuously checking those services' activity logs. LogDog builds a profile of typical login parameters — locations, times, and device types — and alerts users to anomalies after a seven-day training period. Because it aggregates signals across multiple accounts it can spot cross-service patterns that single services would miss. The apps are free to use; the company plans to charge for additional features and premium support, and it has raised funding to expand R&D and roll out new features.

Led · Equity · Nov 2014

Wannabiz provides a DIY app that enables small business owners to run social marketing campaigns from their mobile devices. Users can create and deliver dynamic content integrated across Facebook, Twitter, a website and blog, and run intelligent online advertising on a micro budget. The company was co‑founded in 2012 by CEO Tamar Shor, COO Yoav Reich and CTO Avi Kapuya. Wannabiz is based in New York. It raised $2.2m in financing to support product launch activities. The company intends to use the funds to launch the app.

Led · Equity · Aug 2013

MySiteApp builds Brow.si, a mobile web add-on that adds app-like functionality to mobile sites, including social sharing, site-wide search, a floating menu, save-for-later (Pocket, Readability, Brow.si), push notifications and an app-like shopping cart. The Brow.si add-on links mobile sites to the Brow.si Reader iOS app and provides merchants with engagement analytics. The company has existing integrations with CMS platforms such as Drupal, Joomla, Blogger and is a WordPress VIP feature partner. It recently announced a partnership with PrestaShop to bring Brow.si’s features to PrestaShop-powered stores, improving m-commerce engagement and reducing cart abandonment. Near-term product plans include rolling out targeted coupons, "hot deals," and product recommendations. Financially, the company has received multiple rounds of backing and recently added new capital to support further platform integrations. UppSite is an Israeli startup that converts a provided blog or forum URL into a native iOS or Android app, performs a staff review, and submits the app to the selected app stores. Users can choose a free ad-supported option or a premium plan that gives 50% of ad revenue back to the user, enables push notifications, and allows greater control over app design. The service is positioned for quick, simple app conversions rather than highly granular customization. UppSite launched at IDG’s DEMO Conference and was selected as a WordPress VIP Partner. The company announced a $2.1 million pre-A funding round from thetime and Matomy Media. CEO Gal Brill said the startup will use the funds to open a new Bay Area office.