• Fort Health

  Led · Equity · Nov 2024

  Fort Health is an in-network, virtual pediatric mental health provider that integrates primary and behavioral health care. Led by founding CEO Natalie Schneider and built in partnership with the Child Mind Institute, the company delivers evidence-based therapy, psychiatry, and parent coaching through partnerships with pediatricians, nurses, and school staff. Its services are covered by insurance. Fort Health currently operates in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania and plans to enter additional states later this year. The company raised $5.5M in the reported round, bringing total funding to $16M. Management intends to use the new capital to expand into Texas and Illinois via a partnership with NovaWell. Fort Health operates a virtual mental health clinic that partners with pediatricians to provide telehealth-based behavioral care for children. The startup was created at Redesign Health and built in partnership with the Child Mind Institute, which helped develop a proprietary four-week clinical training program. Clinical staff include licensed child therapists and board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrists who deliver assessments, therapy, and psychiatry services. Fort uses a fee-for-service model, accepts Aetna, Optum/UnitedHealthcare and Geisinger Health Plan, and also offers a cash-pay option. It currently operates in New Jersey with plans to expand into New York and additional states later this year. The company employs five therapists and three child and adolescent psychiatrists, is hiring weekly, and plans to have more than 50 therapists by year-end; it secured a $4.5 million investment from Blue Venture Fund to support growth.

• Allara

  Participated · Series A · Oct 2023

  Allara is a telehealth platform focused on diagnosing and treating women’s hormonal conditions, including PCOS, endometriosis, and hypothyroidism. Rachel Blank started the company after leaving her role at Ro more than four years ago, building a service that bundles appointments with specialists — doctors, nurse practitioners, dermatologists, and registered dietitians — so patients receive coordinated care in one place. The company began as an out-of-pocket subscription service but in the last year formed partnerships with major insurers including Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana, and United Healthcare, which now cover services in 10 states. Allara’s average patient age is 30, and it tends to serve younger women dealing with chronic conditions before infertility or menopause. In 2024 the company grew revenue fourfold. The team plans to use capital to expand insurance coverage nationwide and may eventually broaden offerings to infertility and menopause care. Allara operates a virtual care platform offering a monthly subscription that provides ongoing medical, lifestyle, nutrition, and emotional support for hormonal, metabolic and gynecologic conditions. The company assembles care teams including OB-GYNs, women's health nurse practitioners, endocrinologists and registered dietitians, and is advised by experts such as Dr. Heather Huddleston. Allara reports that 75% of patients start to feel better within one month and that its patient base grew fivefold in the past year. It has partnered with major insurers — Cigna, Anthem, Aetna, Empire and United Healthcare — across eight states, covering roughly 30 million lives. The startup has expanded from specialized PCOS care to broader comprehensive services and now offers research-backed supplements and mental health services. Financially, Allara raised a $10M Series A that brings its total capital raised to $17.5M. The company plans to use the proceeds to extend insurance coverage, launch partnerships with health systems, conduct clinical research and scale operations. Allara is a New York-based startup offering a collaborative care management platform for women with PCOS. The company bundles gynecologists, nutrition plans, mental-health support and other specialty services into a single membership. New members complete a virtual onboarding visit with a medical provider who can arrange labs (covered by insurance) and review medical history; prescriptions and lab costs go through traditional insurance. Allara charges $100 per month for access to its care team, provides quarterly check-ins, and offers ongoing text-based access to registered dietitians. The company launched out of stealth after operating as 'Astrid,' says it has more than 35,000 women in its community, and has begun seeing patients. Founder Rachel Blank, formerly a director at Ro, frames Allara as a specialty care platform focused on managing risk and centralizing care across clinicians.

• Stay Ai

  Participated · Series A · Jul 2023

  Stay Ai, founded in 2021 by Gina Perrelli, Pierson Krass and Taylor Cawiezell (originally called Retextion), provides a recurring-commerce enablement platform for subscriptions, clubs and memberships across the Shopify ecosystem. Its ExperienceEngine is an AI-powered system that enables merchants to run A/B tests, leverage predictive analytics and apply machine-learning models to optimize retention and lifetime value. Feature sets include SMS chatbots, surveying, rewards and loyalty programs designed to reduce cancellations between initial and subsequent orders. The company cites client results such as Olipop increasing subscriber revenue by 35% within 90 days of using Stay Ai’s tools. Stay Ai is deployed by roughly 300 Shopify merchants, including Vita Coco, Momofuku and Snow, and reports revenue pacing 10x from 2022. It charges $500 per month plus 1% and $0.19 on subscription transactions and plans to expand its team, accelerate product innovation and pursue acquisitions (it has acquired RetentionEngine and Bellwethr).

• Nowadays

  Participated · Seed · Apr 2022

  Nowadays produces a crispy plant-based riff on chicken nuggets made from seven ingredients, including pea protein, wheat flour, sunflower oil and yeast and mushroom extracts. The company uses a low-moisture extrusion process to create fibrous whole-cut products that are formed into nuggets now and intended for tenders and cutlets in the future. It partners with Standard Meat to access existing finishing lines and plans its own manufacturing facility capable of producing roughly six to 60 metric tons of meat per day when fully running. Commercial plans include a summer launch of cutlets direct-to-consumer and in select restaurants, expanded foodservice distribution, placement in certain Whole Foods Market stores later this year, and a gluten-free breading debuting this year. Elder would not disclose revenue, but Nowadays reports a repeat purchase rate of over 20% from early direct-to-consumer sales and has products in restaurants in New York and Los Angeles. The company is using recent funding to scale manufacturing, broaden distribution, and accelerate new product commercialization. Nowadays has launched a plant-based nugget positioned as a healthier alternative to conventional processed meat snacks, claiming the product contains just seven ingredients. The nuggets' key ingredients are yellow pea protein (non-GMO, grown in the US), wholewheat flour, sunflower oil, plant-based fibre, yeast extract, and mushroom extract. The company says the product delivers chicken-like flavour and texture, is high in protein, low in sodium, and free of saturated fat and sugar. Founders Max Elder and Dominik Grabinski bring roughly three and a half decades of combined food-industry experience; Grabinski previously worked for ingredient companies including Cargill and DSM, and Elder has advised Nestlé, General Mills and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Nutrition Program. Nowadays is organized as a Public Benefit Corporation with social and environmental responsibilities written into its charter. The nuggets are available to order online in California with national shipping planned, retailing at $39.99 for a 2 lb box (about 50 nuggets) and a $29.99 introductory price for first purchasers. The company plans to launch a gluten-free version later this year and add plant-based "chicken" tenders to its lineup.

• Cleancult

  Participated · Series B · Sep 2021

  Cleancult is a NYC-based sustainable cleaning brand founded in 2019 by Ryan Lupberger and Zachary Bedrosian. It offers a full lineup of home cleaning essentials—liquid hand soap, laundry detergent, stain stick, all-purpose cleaner, dish soap, bar soap—made with biodegradable plant-based formulas, many featuring its patented CocoClean Technology. The company emphasizes zero-waste packaging, using recyclable milk cartons and offering reusable glass dispensers instead of plastic bottles. Cleancult closed a $25M Series B with investors including Reynolds Channel, Anchor Capital, Box Group, Vanterra Capital, Blue Scorpion Investments, Hartbeat Ventures (Kevin Hart), and Rachel Zoe Ventures. As part of the financing, Seth Cohen (Managing Partner, Reynolds Channel) and Mark Zurcher (former CEO of Angie's BOOMCHICKAPOP) will join the board. With the new funding the company plans to add retailer partners and expand into an additional 2,500 stores, growing its retail presence to over 5,500 stores across the U.S. and Canada, including CVS, Bed Bath & Beyond and Meijer.

No current team members are available.