Participated · Seed · Apr 2024

Lockchain.ai provides an AI-powered blockchain risk management platform that delivers always-on due diligence and risk monitoring for asset managers and traders. The platform examines custodians, counterparties, and assets to surface security status and risk recommendations at scale. Since launching in April 2024, the company has gained traction with clients such as Broadridge and GSR and provides risk management recommendations to portfolios with an aggregate value of more than $2B. Lockchain.ai plans to use new capital to expand functional areas including material event detection, accelerated data discovery, automated custom frameworks, and regulatory compliance automation (including MiCA). The company is led by CEO Andrew Howard and is based in Athens, GA, with offices in New York City. The product is positioned to support listing, due diligence, and regulatory framework mapping for institutional users in the blockchain ecosystem. Lockchain.ai offers a SaaS platform that performs due diligence and continuous risk monitoring to deliver real-time security status of traded assets. The product examines custodians and counterparties and helps asset managers reconcile on- and off-chain balances, addressing key compliance concerns as Bitcoin ETFs come online. The platform uses end-to-end generative AI to consume and analyze thousands of data sources, producing real-time risk views, instant notifications of on- and off-chain events, and actionable insights on potential impacts. It provides predictive contagion-impact analysis and plans to add an automation engine with pre-built playbooks and exit strategies. The company is headquartered in Athens, Georgia, with offices in New York City, and was co-founded in 2023 by Aidan Kehoe, Andrew Howard, and Matt Higgins. Lockchain.ai raised $4.6M in Seed funding to expand operations and development efforts.

Led · Seed · Aug 2016

MikMak provides e-commerce marketing, analytics, and retail insights that give traditional consumer brands real-time views of activity across online retailers such as Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Its platform helps brands like Colgate, Dreyer’s, and Hershey’s manage online retail strategies and capture sales intelligence. Founder and CEO Rachel Tipograph launched the company in 2014 as a “QVC for Snapchat,” and the business pivoted to its current model in 2017. MikMak has been cash flow positive since 2018 and reported that consumer demand during the pandemic boosted its revenue by 50% from March to the present. With roughly 60 employees today, the company plans to triple headcount by year-end while advancing its product roadmap, expanding its retail footprint, and offering services to international companies. Following increased VC attention during the global pandemic, MikMak is positioning to gain market share. MikMak creates and distributes short-form “mini-mercials” that let users shop directly through video content. The company launched in May 2015 and initially offered SMBs and retailers the ability to list products on the MikMak app while MikMak handled all production costs and took a small percentage of each sale. MikMak produces videos by hiring up-and-coming comedians and actors and operating a studio production-line that shoots back-to-back on multiple products. Its distribution network includes publishers such as BuzzFeed. MikMak plans to launch a SaaS product in the coming months to let retailers own customer data, integrate with preferred shopping carts, select SKUs for mini-mercials, and customize videos to their brand voice. Pricing for the SaaS product has not been disclosed.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2015

North Technologies is an incubator for mobile and social apps that has launched two products, ephemeral photo-sharing app Tiiny and Watchville. Watchville has seen rapid adoption, with more than 2.2 million screenloads and over 750,000 sessions in the six weeks following its launch. When North officially launched in August 2014, Kevin Rose downgraded his role at Google Ventures; after the new funding he stepped away from investing to work at North full-time while remaining an advisor to GV. North recently raised $5 million in a seed round led by True Ventures. The funding is intended to support the company's continued development and launch of mobile and social apps.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2009

DailyBooth is a social communication platform that connects people to their friends in real time using pictures and status updates. Its web and mobile applications encourage users to snap photos with front-facing cameras, targeting a youth audience that prefers sharing pictures over text or video. The platform hosts approximately 14 million photos ("booths") and more than 47 million comments. The company plans to use new financing to accelerate distribution and audience-acquisition efforts and to develop the DailyBooth platform and mobile applications. Hiring world-class technical talent is a stated top priority to support scaling and ongoing innovation. DailyBooth emphasizes the front-facing camera experience as a driver of mobile photo publishing across iPhone, Android and tablet devices. DailyBooth, launched in February 2009 and YC-funded, is a real-time photo-blogging site where users post webcam-shot photos as short-form updates. Users treat the service like Twitter but with photos, driving strong viral adoption. The site reports about six million monthly unique visitors and monthly user growth of roughly 35%. Its core audience skews 15–25-year-old women and is concentrated in the U.S., UK and Canada. The founders plan to use new capital to scale the service first and consider monetization later. Potential monetization directions mentioned include media-based businesses, premium offerings and offline distribution such as photo-printing.