• Mycocycle

  Participated · Seed · May 2024

  Mycocycle cultivates white-rot mushrooms to break down waste and produce renewable, bio-based polymers and materials. The company selects fungal strains via natural selection and does not genetically modify them. It operates bio-processors that maintain optimal temperatures (about 60–80°F) for roughly two-week cycles and kills the fungi at the end of a run to prevent continued growth. Outputs can be used as insulation, acoustic panels, or filler; fungi can encase rubber in mycelial webs that Mycocycle can reprocess. The startup is refining a process to recycle crumb rubber from old tires and demonstrated its system on scrap drywall from a Meta data center. Founder and CEO Joanne Rodriguez, who started the company in 2018, aims to capture a portion of the large plastics market and compete with legacy materials companies. Mycocycle expects to bring in over $1 million in revenue this year and says it will be margin positive. Mycocycle leverages a patent-pending, fungi-driven process to detoxify and transform building and industrial waste—including asphalt shingles, insulation board, crumb rubber, gypsum drywall, and fibers—into a renewable, low-carbon mycelium-based raw material. The company blends lab-cultivated fungi with debris at the point of waste generation to neutralize petroleum-derived contaminants and reduce environmental contamination from burial or burning. Its process is designed to drive circularity in the construction supply chain, divert waste from landfills, and lessen the need for virgin material extraction. Since launching, Mycocycle has treated 12,000 pounds of material through paid pilots with customers across waste management, recycling, and manufacturing, and with building owners and contractors such as META and Lendlease. The startup plans to validate reuse of its biobased byproduct and scale deployment within the built environment. Led by founder and CEO Joanne Rodriguez, the company was founded in 2018.

• Aleph Farms

  Participated · Series A · May 2019

  Aleph Farms grows beef steaks from non‑genetically engineered cells isolated from a living cow, producing whole cuts without harming animals. The company released the world’s first cultivated steak in December 2018 and a cultivated ribeye in 2021. Co‑founded in 2017 by Didier Toubia, The Kitchen Hub of the Strauss Group, and Professor Shulamit Levenberg, Aleph Farms is headquartered in Israel. Its global investor network includes L Catterton, DisruptAD (ADQ), BRF, Thai Union and Cargill, and it recently announced an investment from Leonardo DiCaprio, who joined its advisory board. They cite an independent Life Cycle Analysis projecting cultivated beef could reduce climate impact by 92%, air pollution by 93%, use 95% less land and 78% less water versus industrial beef production. Aleph Farms positions its product to deliver familiar meat qualities while eliminating antibiotics and reducing risks of pathogens through an automated, sterile manufacturing process. Aleph Farms grows beef steaks from non-genetically engineered cells isolated from a living cow, producing meat without harming animals and with a reduced environmental impact. The company was co-founded in 2017 by Didier Toubia, The Kitchen Hub of the Strauss Group, and Professor Shulamit Levenberg from the Technion. Aleph is based in Rehovot, Israel. It raised $105M in a Series B to scale up manufacturing and expand operations internationally ahead of an initial market launch planned for 2022. Near-term milestones include scaling up manufacturing, growing operations internationally, and expanding its product lines and technology platform. The company is working with regulatory agencies on its plans for market entry. Aleph Farms produces real meat cuts grown from cow cells and operates a slaughter-free process to make steaks in large, clean bio-farm facilities similar to dairy operations. Its non-GMO technology, co-developed with Professor Shulamit Levenberg of the Technion, isolates the cells responsible for muscle regeneration and grows them outside the animal to form the same muscle tissue typical of steaks. The company intends to use recent funding to accelerate product development and to transform its prototype into a commercial product. Aleph was co-founded by The Kitchen Hub and Didier Toubia, who serves as CEO. The company is based in Ashdod, Israel and has positioned its platform for scale-up in controlled bio-farm environments.

• Peloton Technology

  Participated · Series B · Apr 2017

  Peloton’s core product is a driver-assistive platooning system that links the active safety systems of paired trucks and connects them to a cloud-based Network Operations Center to limit platooning to appropriate roads and conditions. The system requires best-in-class forward collision avoidance and other active safety features to improve safety both in and out of platoon. Peloton plans to roll out the world’s first commercial two-truck driver-assistive platooning system later in 2017 and to continue developing more advanced automation solutions. Several U.S.-based Fortune 500 fleets plan to trial the system within the next year, and Peloton is accelerating vehicle integration projects with OEMs including Volvo Trucks North America and Tier 1 suppliers. The company emphasizes collaboration with a broad investor mix and partners to bring solutions to international markets. Financially, Peloton closed a $60 million Series B and has raised $78 million in total since inception. Peloton Technology builds the Peloton Truck Platooning System, which electronically couples pairs of trucks using vehicle-to-vehicle communications, radar-based active braking and proprietary vehicle-control algorithms. The system is overseen by a cloud-based Network Operations Center that monitors safety and approves linking only under suitable conditions while drivers retain steering control. Peloton reports the system has logged more than 15,000 platooning miles and been demonstrated in multiple on-highway tests and fleet pilots across U.S. states. Independent SAE J1321 Type II testing by the North American Council for Freight Efficiency showed fuel reductions of about 10% for the rear truck and 4.5% for the front truck. The company is Silicon Valley–based (Mountain View, Calif.) and is backed by several large strategic investors, including multiple Fortune Global 500 transportation and technology companies. Peloton is commercializing its technology through additional demonstrations and planned fleet pilot deployments later this year to accelerate adoption in U.S. and international trucking markets.

• InsideSales

  Led · Series B · Jan 2013

  InsideSales builds a sales-focused AI platform called Neuralytics, described as a predictive and prescriptive self-learning engine that advises salespeople when and how to contact prospects to increase sales. The product combines predictive analytics with prescriptive guidance to prioritize outreach and improve sales outcomes. The company raised a $50 million round in the reported financing, bringing total capital raised to over $250 million, and the CEO said the round was flat or nominally up from prior rounds. During a March 2015 announcement the company’s value was described as “north of $1 billion.” InsideSales is deepening a strategic partnership with Microsoft to gain access to product, go-to-market and partner teams, and is leveraging an investment from the Irish Strategic Investment Fund to gain entree into Europe, tap Irish academic data-science talent, and build a presence there. CEO Dave Elkington said he is not focused on an immediate acquisition or IPO but wants to ensure employees and investors are ultimately rewarded. InsideSales.com provides predictive analytics for sales teams through its Neuralytics big-data sales platform, which analyzes more than 14 billion sales interactions to produce predictive and prescriptive suggestions. The platform identifies the best leads and offers actionable guidance including how and when to contact prospects and which words to use to close deals. The company has sustained very strong revenue growth, doubled headcount to 600, and grown its customer base to more than 2,000 companies including ADP, Sprint, Fidelity, Microsoft, Groupon and Marketo. Founded in Utah in 2004, InsideSales has raised just over $200 million to date and is valued "north of $1 billion" per CEO Dave Elkington. Management plans to use new capital to expand support for the Salesforce and Microsoft platforms, serve larger enterprise customers, fuel international expansion and potentially pursue strategic acquisitions. The company also intends to add another 300–400 staff this year to scale operations and deepen its enterprise focus. InsideSales.com offers SaaS products—notably PowerDialer and mCall—that integrate with Salesforce to provide sales communications, gamification, predictive analytics and visualization. The company positions itself between marketing automation and CRM vendors to act as a sales acceleration platform. InsideSales reported 107% growth in the prior year and about 1,000 customers, including Fidelity, Microsoft, Groupon, McGraw-Hill and Marketo. Leadership says the new capital will fund product expansion, moves into new markets and possible acquisitions in the sales-acceleration space. The company is founded and headquartered in Provo, Utah. To date InsideSales has raised $143 million in total funding. InsideSales.com builds a predictive-analytics platform that tells inside-sales reps who to contact, when to contact them, and how to tailor messages. The company serves small and medium-sized businesses and earlier executive comments said customers increased from about 600 to 900 in August, though the company would not disclose a current total. Previously self-funded, InsideSales.com has 177 employees and anticipates growing to 350–400 people in 2013. Its algorithms and machine-influenced approach are positioned to professionalize inside sales and change traditional enterprise sales techniques. The article frames InsideSales.com as part of a growing group of enterprise SaaS companies that appear bound for significant exits such as IPOs or acquisitions. InsideSales.com builds big-data predictive analytics and sales force automation (SFO) technology that tells inside sales professionals who to contact, when to contact them, and how to tailor messages. The company plans to use the new funding to grow its SFO product and analytics capabilities. Before taking this round it was profitable and had not previously taken outside investment. InsideSales serves small and medium-sized businesses and has recently begun expanding into the enterprise market, winning customers such as Dell and ADP. The company has grown headcount from 65 to 140 employees and expanded its customer base from 600 to 900. InsideSales.com is based in Provo, Utah.

• Grokr

  Participated · Equity · Dec 2012

  Grokr offers a predictive, Google Now–style search and personalized news app for iOS that proactively surfaces weather, traffic, sports, trending headlines, and local recommendations. It ingests signals from users' social profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and combines them with location, time of day, interests and intent to personalize alerts and results. The company built a knowledge graph on top of Freebase and augmented it with 50–75 additional data sources, aggregating roughly 700 million facts and 25 million entities, and uses machine-learning algorithms to rank entities. External data sources cited include Yelp, Factual and Rovi among others. Grokr is keeping notifications limited for now but is exploring integrations with services such as calendar and email while deliberately excluding contacts for privacy reasons. The Sunnyvale-based startup is backed by $4.2 million in funding from NEA, U.S. Ventures, Triple Point and Lerer Ventures. Grokr is a newly formed startup that, per its placeholder website, aims to “unleash the cognitive Web for a post-PC world.” The company has not publicly described a specific product or service beyond that tagline, and TechCrunch noted there is “absolutely no telling what Grokr is going to be all about.” An SEC filing shows founder Srivats Sampath has raised $1.5 million for Grokr. The filing and article do not disclose the financing instrument or any participating investors. Sampath is an Executive-in-Residence at U.S. Venture Partners and a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Mercora, previously founded and led McAfee.com, and was a vice president at Netscape. Grokr is poised for launch later this month, with further details expected at that time.

No current team members are available.