Participated · Series A · Aug 2020

Narrative operates a data marketplace and software for managing data transactions and has launched the Data Streams Marketplace to simplify buying and selling data. The new product applies e-commerce and search models so buyers can discover datasets, add them to a shopping cart, subscribe or pay by credit card, accept terms, and check out. Data on the platform is sold by third-party sellers who are vetted by Narrative; buyers can learn about sellers and potentially establish direct relationships to assess compliance and quality. Narrative says it will not universally grade data quality or guarantee regulatory safety, but aims to provide transparency and is building a marketplace of third-party applications that could include data-quality scoring tools. Financially, Narrative raised $8.5 million in a Series A and had previously raised $5.3 million, according to Crunchbase. The company plans to use the new funding to hire in product, engineering, sales, and marketing and has emphasized hiring across North America and outreach to underrepresented groups. Narrative operates a data marketplace and provides software that helps companies buy, sell and manage data transactions beyond the marketplace. Its platform addresses fragmentation in formats and transaction workflows, offering reporting and monitoring tools that many firms historically built in-house. Founder and CEO Nick Jordan says customers use Narrative to perform due diligence and assess GDPR compliance on acquired data. The company saw a drop in data availability in the EU after GDPR, but also reported stronger customer response in Q2–Q3 following the regulation. Narrative positions its product to give full transparency between buyers and sellers and to grow customers’ data businesses. The company plans to use new funding to double down on sales and marketing to demonstrate product–market fit and pursue a larger round if successful. Narrative operates a marketplace where data buyers can browse sellers, bid on data, and sellers can manage transactions. Founder and CEO Nick Jordan, an adtech executive formerly at Tapad, built the company to reduce the cumbersome, one-off nature of data deals. The startup describes its approach as “data commercialization” and distinguishes itself from data management platforms. Its initial focus is adtech, though the team says the platform could be useful in other verticals (for example, commercial real estate). Narrative emphasizes privacy and compliance, performing a “pretty thorough review” of sellers to ensure legal and best-practice adherence. Financially, the company has raised $2.25 million across two seed rounds.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2019

NeighborSchools is a Boston, MA-based child care tech startup that blends technology and community to help early childhood educators go independent, get licensed, and open micro-daycares in their homes. Its daycare-in-a-box platform handles compliance, marketing, finance, and back-office requirements for educators. The company has launched over 70 home daycares across 10 markets and has helped more than 30,000 parents in their child care search. NeighborSchools raised $5M in a round that brings total fundraising to $9M. The round was led by Accomplice with participation from Chelsea Clinton's Metrodora Ventures, HannahGrey, and 186 Ventures. The company, led by CEO Brian Swartz and COO Bridget Garsh, intends to use the funds to scale its model and expand to ten new states in 2022. NeighborSchools operates a platform that assists prospective and existing home daycare providers with licensing, set‑up and business operations so they can run sustainable, licensed home daycares. The company connects parents to thousands of licensed home daycares throughout Massachusetts and says partnered Providers can double their income while offering care about 30% more affordable than large, center‑based programs. NeighborSchools focuses on empowering people passionate about early childhood development to become small business owners and on building a community and platform tailored to both Providers and parents. The platform frees Providers to focus on nurturing children by handling administrative and business tasks. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in Massachusetts/Boston. NeighborSchools plans to use new funding to expand throughout the region and accelerate its vision to make the platform the go‑to way for parents to discover and connect with licensed home daycares.