The Venture Codex

Led · Equity · Mar 2025

Loxo offers a horizontally integrated suite of data-driven, AI-powered products designed to manage the full recruitment life cycle through a single system-of-record platform. The company emphasizes AI-driven features, user experience, and ease of implementation, and was rated highest in net promoter score among the largest ATS in a market study commissioned by its lead investor. The recent growth investment is intended to expand Loxo's market reach and accelerate product and AI development. Leadership is being strengthened with the addition of Paul Bartlett as Executive Chairman to guide expansion plans. Company statements position the funding as transformative and validating of Loxo's vision to deliver advanced talent intelligence and recruiting tools. The platform is marketed to recruiters in the US and UK and aims to scale globally through the new partnership with its investor.

Led · Equity · Jan 2023

Founded in 2011 by Jordi Torras, Inbenta evolved from a consulting shop into a conversational AI provider offering Chatbot and Messenger, Knowledge, and Search products. The company says its proprietary, patented AI toolkit operates in 35 languages and has been advanced through billions of customer interactions, with models curated by analysts and computational linguists and controls for anonymization and data deletion. Inbenta serves more than 250 brands across industries including financial services, travel, e-commerce, insurance, auto and telecom. It employs more than 160 people and plans to grow headcount to more than 200 by 2024. Management declined to disclose revenue when asked. Inbenta competes with vendors such as Quiq and Ada in chatbots, Sana in knowledge, and Hebbia in search. Inbenta, founded in 2005, develops AI and natural language processing software aimed at improving customer engagement, increasing retention and driving sales. Its products are used by more than 200 customers worldwide, including Ticketmaster, B&H, CA Technologies and 8×8. The company has offices in Spain, France, Brazil and Chile, delegations including the United States, the Netherlands and Japan, headquarters in San Mateo, California and an R&D center in Barcelona with about 100 employees. Inbenta employed 160 people at the time of the report and targeted reaching 175 within the year. Sales in the last reported year grew about 40% versus 2016, and the 2018 revenue forecast was roughly €12 million. The company intends to use new funding to expand headcount, strengthen its international presence (focusing on Europe, the US and Japan) and accelerate R&D to further develop its product. Inbenta develops enterprise-grade natural language processing (NLP) technology that powers search, chatbots and self-service solutions for customer support and e-commerce. Founded in 2005 by Jordi Torras, the company is led by him and is based in San Mateo, CA, with offices in Spain, France, Brazil and Chile. Its products are used by over 200 customers worldwide, including Ticketmaster, B&H, CA Technologies and 8x8. The company intends to use the funds to expand sales and marketing and to further drive product development for its technology. The article highlights a Bitcoin marketplace, Xapo, as a customer using an Inbenta chatbot to educate consumers and answer account or trading questions. Inbenta develops virtual assistants capable of parsing natural language and responding autonomously to user inquiries. The company operates offices in Brazil, France and Silicon Valley. The $2M round closed in 2014 is intended to fund expansion in Latin America, with a new operations center to be located in Chile. Inbenta reported $2.6M in revenue in 2013 and projected $4.2M for 2014. Its business plan envisages a Series B of around $10M in two to three years.

Led · Series B · Nov 2022

Qwick operates a marketplace that connects hospitality professionals with food-and-beverage shifts in real time, using a matching algorithm that considers distance, VIP availability and supply. Workers complete a profile, a five-minute virtual orientation and a one-to-one interview before gaining access to the app; Qwick also employs a two-way, five-star rating system. The platform serves thousands of employers — including stadiums, senior living facilities and corporate catering — and is active with over 7,000 businesses across 23 metro areas. Qwick says its app has been downloaded by hundreds of thousands of professionals and has facilitated over 500,000 shifts to date. The company reports workers earn, on average, $9 above minimum wage in the cities where they work. After pandemic layoffs that cut the team by 70%, revenue has since grown 10,000% over the past three years and the company employs just over 270 people, with plans to expand to about 300 by year end. Qwick is a Phoenix, AZ-based on-demand staffing platform that connects service industry professionals with hospitality shifts in real time. Workers provide their work experience and availability while businesses post shifts that need filling; Qwick texts workers shifts that match their skills and schedules. The company is led by co-founders Jamie Baxter (co-founder and CEO), Blaine Light (co-founder and COO) and Chris Loeffler (co-founder). Qwick raised $1.3M in funding from a group of investors including Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, UA Venture Capital, Moving Capital, Desert Angels and XG Ventures. It intends to use the funds to hire five additional people across engineering, operations and business development in the next month. The company plans to expand to four additional cities in 2019, including San Diego in January.

Led · Series A · Oct 2022

CharterUP operates a proprietary marketplace that connects customers to local bus operators with instant booking, on-demand quotes, embedded payments, real-time availability and live trip tracking. The platform offers dynamic pricing and self-serve tools to simplify group transportation bookings for corporations, individual users and government partners. CharterUP connects to over 500 operating partners nationally and reports a virtual fleet of more than 3,000 fully integrated charters. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Atlanta, the company has grown over 100% annually and surpassed a $150 million annual revenue run rate in 2022. Its customer base includes an expanding roster of Fortune 500 clients. CharterUP plans to use the funding to invest in go-to-market strategies, expand into new and existing markets, and grow its product and engineering teams.

Led · Equity · Dec 2020

Jane operates a curated e-commerce marketplace focused on women’s fashion, accessories, home décor, children’s clothing and related products. The platform features hundreds of new products daily and empowers small businesses—both online sellers and brick-and-mortar shops—to reach an active community of shoppers. Jane says its loyal user base has purchased more than $1 billion of goods through the marketplace and the company regularly exceeded 80% growth during 2020. The business has been recognized six times on the Inc. 5000 list and on Utah Business’ Fastest Growing Companies; it also received a Great Place to Work award. Under CEO Taleeb Noormohamed, Jane emphasizes curation and personalization and has adopted a remote-work culture that enabled hiring across Vancouver, Toronto and the U.S. Going forward, Jane plans category expansions, geographic (including international) growth, and new marketplace features for boutique sellers.