Participated · Series A · Feb 2022

OpenNode provides bitcoin payment acceptance and payout solutions for businesses, platforms and people, offering payment buttons, hosted checkout, e-commerce plug‑ins and optimized APIs. The company focuses on building Bitcoin and Lightning Network payments infrastructure to enable secure, instantly settled payments globally, 24/7. OpenNode targets onboarding every business, platform and individual seeking Bitcoin and Lightning payments. The firm is based in Los Angeles, CA. In February 2022 it closed a significant funding event that affirms market confidence in its product and growth plans. The company intends to use the funds to expand its development efforts.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2021

7th Ave is a community platform that aggregates the Black digital experience into a single, shareable space. The product lets users integrate content they consume across the internet and curate their profiles by creating boards similar to Pinterest. It offers a range of audio features that connect users based on shared interests to foster faster, deeper relationships. The company is led by Brylan Donaldson and Diaundra Jones and is focused on mindful discovery, discussion, and community among people with similar life experiences. 7th Ave raised $2.5M in seed funding and intends to use the proceeds to expand operations and broaden its business reach. The platform’s core aim is to be a one-stop shop for curated Black digital content and community building.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2021

Facemoji builds a plug-and-play SDK that helps game and app developers add avatar systems to their products. The startup uses its own lightweight rendering pipeline instead of relying on Unity plugins and provides a full, diverse set of avatar art out of the box. The team is developing plug-and-play NFT storefronts so developers can let users buy accessories for their avatars. Facemoji emphasizes easy, developer-friendly integration rather than creating a cross-platform metaverse identity layer. Founders and CEO Robin Raszka are interested in metaverse and NFT trends and see platforms like Twitter as prime real estate for avatar expression. Financially, the company closed a $3 million seed round led by Play Ventures with participation from Twitter, Roosh Ventures and angel investors.

Participated · Series F · Apr 2021

Mohalla Tech is the parent entity of the vernacular social media platform ShareChat and the short-video entertainment app Moj. The company raised an additional $16 million in debt financing from Singapore-based EDBI. That injection brings the total amount raised in its ongoing financing round to $65 million. The financing reported in the article is structured as debt. The report also states the company laid off approximately 5% of its staff. ShareChat is an Indian social media startup focused on live-streaming and has grown in part through acquiring rival MxTakaTak. The company recently secured $49 million in debt financing from existing investors to fund bonus ESOP grants and boost employee morale. Its valuation plunged from nearly $5 billion to below $2 billion after a new funding round. Management has implemented aggressive cost-cutting measures even as the company reports revenue growth. ShareChat faces challenges monetizing a user base with limited purchasing power and carries a high expense-to-revenue ratio. The firm's ability to adapt—particularly around live-streaming—will be pivotal to its competitive prospects in the Indian market. ShareChat, under parent Mohalla Tech, operates social and short-video platforms and includes apps Moj and the recently acquired MX TakaTak. The company reported 180 million monthly active users for ShareChat and a combined user base of 300 million across Moj and MX TakaTak. It has previously raised capital, including a $266 million funding round that valued it at $3.7 billion and included investors such as Alkeon Capital and Temasek. In the current deal Mohalla Tech secured nearly $300 million in fresh funding from Alphabet's Google, the Times Group and Temasek, valuing the firm at nearly $5 billion. The investment is set to be announced soon and marks Google's second major bet in India's short-video space after backing Josh. ShareChat also counts Twitter and Snap among its investors. ShareChat is a Bangalore-based social network that offers its app in 15 Indian languages and runs Moj, a short-video app launched shortly after India banned TikTok. The company claims more than 160 million users and a 50 million+ creator community; Moj reportedly logs 4.5 billion views per day and average user sessions of about 34 minutes. Moj is described by management as the firm's fastest-growing product and is expected to potentially become bigger than ShareChat. ShareChat has raised over $911 million to date and recently closed an additional $145 million tranche as part of its Series F, bringing its valuation to nearly $3 billion (TechCrunch headline lists $2.88 billion). The business competes in short-form video with players such as MX TakaTak, Glance’s Roposo and DailyHunt’s Josh. Management says it will continue to invest in AI capabilities, scale its global AI organization, build advanced editing tools and help creators monetize on the platform. ShareChat is a Bangalore-based social network that offers apps in 15 Indian languages and targets users in smaller cities and towns across India. The company claims more than 160 million users and has expanded its product suite to include Moj, a short-form video app with over 80 million monthly active users. Moj was built rapidly after TikTok’s exit and integrates Snap’s Camera Kit to strengthen its short‑video offering. ShareChat is experimenting with monetization through commerce interactions in audio chat rooms and launched a fantasy sports app called Jeet. The company says it aims to grow its ecosystem of products toward 1 billion+ cumulative MAUs as internet penetration deepens in India. To date ShareChat has raised about $765 million in funding.

Led · Equity · Jun 2016

SoundCloud is a creator-led music streaming platform often described as the “YouTube of audio,” hosting over 200 million tracks from roughly 25 million creators with listeners in 190 countries. The company emphasizes tools and features that deepen connections between creators and listeners to fuel discovery and career growth. It maintains an ad partnership with Pandora (owned by SiriusXM), which resells SoundCloud’s inventory on its programmatic platform. SoundCloud reached a forward revenue run-rate of $200 million in Q4 2019 and had previously raised $404 million before this round. The new funding is intended for product development and launching new services to accelerate its roadmap. Founded in Berlin in 2007, SoundCloud has undergone restructurings and leadership changes but continues to expand its creator and listener base. SoundCloud operates a streaming service built around user-uploaded tracks, remixes, and DJ sets, with a catalog the company says exceeds 170 million tracks. The company is positioning itself as an "anti-Spotify," emphasizing a $5 tier of ad-free access to independent music, legally grey remixes and DJ sets, and new commerce tools to help artists earn beyond royalties. After laying off 40% of its staff and securing $169 million in emergency funding, SoundCloud has runway to execute product and positioning changes. Its first product push is a home-screen redesign that prioritizes curated and personalized discovery over a social feed. The refreshed home highlights featured playlists (e.g., Hip Hop Supreme, In The Mix), a Discover-Weekly-style personalized list called The Upload, algorithmic recommendations like More Of What You Like and Artists You Should Know, plus charts and editorial collections such as New & Hot, Top 50, Fresh Pressed, SoundCloud Next Wave, and Playback. CEO Kerry Trainor frames the change as a way to "elevate and celebrate the incredible talent" on the platform and make SoundCloud more accessible to new users while improving discovery for longtime listeners. Soundcloud is a platform where creators post and share music and other audio, hosting around 150 million tracks and reaching approximately 175 million listeners across free and paid tiers. The company is unprofitable; its February report covering fiscal 2015 showed losses of €51.22 million on revenues of €21.1 million. A filing and company statements project revenue rising to €52.75 million this year, and Soundcloud said it expects 2.5x year-over-year growth in 2017. The annual report noted theoretical runway until December 2017 but warned that risks could cause the company to run out of cash earlier. The company plans to use new financing to build more technology, hire personnel and build a financially sustainable platform. Soundcloud was founded by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss out of Berlin, has offices in New York, and its business is registered in the UK. SoundCloud is an audio streaming platform used by many emerging artists to self-promote. Its core product includes on-demand audio streaming and a recently launched $9.99 monthly subscription, SoundCloud Go, which the company is rolling out globally. The company has been signing licensing deals with music labels to support the subscription offering and to drum up interest. Despite its popularity, SoundCloud has struggled to convert that attention into sustainable revenue and earlier said it needed a cash infusion to stay alive. Twitter’s venture arm made a $70 million investment in SoundCloud at a $700 million valuation, reuniting the two firms roughly two years after a botched buyout attempt. SoundCloud said the investment will enable it to remain focused on building value for creators and listeners and to continue the global rollout of company initiatives. SoundCloud is a music streaming platform and community known for remixes and yet-unheard artists. The company has roughly 150 million registered users and a growing younger audience, according to Bloomberg and comScore. In November it launched a dedicated app for creators and has recently debuted an ad-free subscription service to pursue monetization. SoundCloud has not disclosed revenue since 2013, when it reported $14M in revenue and a $29M loss. To support its growth, the company secured a flexible credit line with Tennenbaum Capital Partners early in 2015. Competition from Apple, Google, Amazon, Pandora and Spotify is intense, but SoundCloud positions itself as a differentiated product in the streaming ecosystem.