Participated · Series B · Mar 2019

Kuli Kuli is an Oakland, CA-based mission-driven company building a business around the superfood moringa. Led by founder & CEO Lisa Curtis, the company sells Moringa Energy Bars, Pure Organic Moringa Powder, Organic Moringa Green Smoothie Mixes, and Moringa Green Energy shots. Over the past five years it has built a sustainable supply chain of small moringa farmers and is selling products in 7,000 stores. The company has begun selling moringa as an ingredient to other food companies in addition to its consumer products. It intends to use the Series B proceeds to launch a moringa ingredient business while continuing to scale its moringa powder, bars, and shots business. Griffith Foods plans to include moringa in its range of ingredient offerings for foodservice customers, processors, retailers and distributors across 30 countries. Kuli Kuli commercializes moringa into consumer products — including bars, powders, tea and energy shots — using proprietary processing technology. The company was founded in 2011 and sources moringa from women farmers in West Africa, South America and the Caribbean, reporting support for 800 women farmers and the planting of 200,000 moringa trees. Kuli Kuli sells through retail (in 3,000 stores, including natural food stores and Whole Foods) and direct-to-consumer channels, and has used crowdfunding and alternative finance (Indiegogo, AgFunder, a Kiva loan) in earlier stages. Management plans new product launches in 2017, initially selling online before rolling out to brick-and-mortar retailers. The business positions moringa as a high-protein, nutrient-dense ingredient and emphasizes both nutrition and farmer-support impact. The recent capital raise is intended primarily to expand distribution into additional retail channels. Kuli Kuli develops and markets moringa-based food products, promoting the nutrient-dense plant as a global nutrition tool. The company is led by founder Lisa Curtis, a returned Peace Corps volunteer from Niger. Kuli Kuli is expanding moringa cultivation in Haiti and other locations and positioning products toward health-conscious consumers (the article cites a "yoga mom" market). Financially, Kuli Kuli previously raised a $500,000 seed round on AgFunder in 2014 and has taken additional funding via Indiegogo crowdfunding. Most recently it was peer-selected through Village Capital’s three-month agriculture accelerator to receive an investment. The accelerator included multi-day workshops in Louisville and New Orleans and concluded with a Venture Forum on January 27. Kuli Kuli processes and distributes moringa-based products, including snack bars, supplement powders and tea, sourced from a women’s cooperative in Ghana. The company expanded U.S. retail distribution to about 500 stores from roughly 30–40 stores in just over a year and reports stronger-than-typical online sales. CEO Lisa Curtis, who discovered moringa while in the Peace Corps, frames the business as a way to bring economic opportunity to parts of the developing world. Kuli Kuli is expanding operations into Haiti through a grant from the Clinton Foundation and a partnership with the Smallholder Farmers Alliance, and plans new product launches there. Financially, the company previously raised $50,000 via IndieGoGo and $500,000 on AgFunder, and is currently marketing a $500,000 seed raise with $100,000 already committed. Most existing backers have been angel investors and high-net-worth individuals, and the company expects venture capital interest ahead of a planned Series A in spring 2016. Kuli Kuli commercializes moringa as a powder supplement and as health-food bars, marketing the plant as a nutrient-dense alternative to kale. The company is already in roughly 150 stores across the U.S. and sources its moringa through a women’s cooperative in Northern Ghana. Founder Lisa Curtis, a former Peace Corps volunteer, started the business to create market demand that could boost West African agricultural economies. Kuli Kuli donates 15% of its sales to nonprofits that work to cultivate moringa and says increased cultivation will help local communities. The startup emphasizes moringa’s nutritional profile in its marketing, and it aims to scale manufacturing and expand sales and marketing. It plans to use recent funding to build out the team and enable larger production runs.

Led · Equity · Jun 2018

Advocatia is a Chicago-based company that supplies hospitals with tools to assist uninsured and underinsured patients, such as solutions that inform patients of health systems' financial assistance policies. The company participated in Village Capital and Kaiser Permanente's Health: US 2018 program, which focused on solutions for the aging population. As a peer-selected finalist in that cohort, Advocatia earned an offer of $75,000 in investment capital from VilCap Investments. The company completed Village Capital's investment-readiness camp, a series of three four-day workshops designed to prepare startups for immediate fundraising and later scaling. Finalist selection was driven by go-to-market readiness as judged by other cohort members. Kaiser Permanente and Village Capital plan to stay in touch with the Health: US 2018 cohort, providing ongoing network and exposure benefits.

Led · Equity · Jun 2018

GoKid is a carpool application that enables families to set up and manage carpools with people they know and trust, offering automated scheduling, driver selection, notifications, chat, GPS and route mapping. The app is available on iOS, Android and web and has begun integrating with select vehicle OEMs. Founded in 2015 by CEO Stefanie Lemcke, the company serves users in 650 cities across 25 countries. GoKid is an alumnus of Techstars Mobility and has been backed by Fontinalis Partners, Jaguar Land Rover’s InMotion Ventures and Deutsche Bahn. In June 2018 it raised $1.5M in equity funding; backers for this round included VilCap Investments (affiliated with Village Capital). The company plans to use the funds to continue expanding operations. GoKid offers a mobile-first app for schools, teams and active families to manage day-to-day schedules and organize carpools within networks of friends, family and neighbors. The app centralizes carpool information on a single platform and lets parents set notification preferences. GoKid’s product forbids strangers and paid drivers, focusing on trusted networks. The company is Techstars-backed and was founded by Stefanie Lemcke. GoKid raised seed funding to expand its operations and scale the business.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2016

MPOWER Financing specializes in originating fixed-rate student loans for international graduate students, with a focus on STEM, business and health programs at leading U.S. and Canadian institutions. Its proprietary underwriting algorithm blends overseas and domestic credit data with projected future earnings to assess creditworthiness. The company partners with more than 500 universities and has served students from over 200 countries, 93 percent of whom say the financing was essential to completing their degrees. To scale its rapidly growing loan book, MPOWER has embraced the capital markets, securitizing more than $600 million of assets to date. Management plans to run a series of programmatic private financings alongside its existing public ABS program to diversify funding sources and widen investor access. Headquartered in Washington, D.C. and employing staff worldwide, the mission-driven lender aims to increase socioeconomic mobility while helping universities recruit diverse talent.

Participated · Series A · Nov 2015

Spensa Technologies develops insect detection hardware and software for precision pest management. Its core hardware product, the Z‑Trap insect sensor, has been on the market for three years but remains at a small‑scale manufacturing level. The company is also building OpenScout, a software platform that aggregates manual observations of insects, disease and weeds to predict pest emergence, economic impact, and optimize spray programs. Proceeds from the recent raise will be used to grow the team (currently 35 employees) and scale Z‑Trap manufacturing through 2017. Spensa has formed strategic partnerships with AgReliant Genetics, Bayer, Syngenta and large agricultural retailers and cooperatives to commercialize its products. The company expected roughly $2 million in revenue in 2015, above initial estimates.