The Venture Codex

Led · Seed · Jun 2025

Quinn provides an AI-driven financial planning and advice platform that embeds real-time, bespoke guidance into existing financial platforms via APIs, co-branded or white-labeled experiences. The product aims to democratize access to advisor-level financial planning by automating core advisory tasks and boosting advisor productivity. Key capabilities include rapid onboarding, instant AI-generated financial plans, and contextual recommendations that drive upsell and cross-sell. Quinn positions its platform to scale personalized advice far beyond traditional advisor-to-client ratios and to free human advisors for high-value work. The company emerged from stealth alongside an $11 million Seed financing led by Viola Fintech. Quinn’s founding team brings extensive fintech and machine-learning experience, which the company cites as foundational to building trustworthy, scalable advice.

Led · Series A · Jun 2025

Baobab Insurance offers insurance products that protect companies from cyberattacks, fraud, and software product failures, leveraging AI-native underwriting and active AI-native risk monitoring. The company says its underwriting and monitoring have helped prevent losses of over €10 million for customers. Baobab launched three years ago and operates from offices in Berlin and Cologne with a team of about 30 people. It raised a €12 million Series A to grow the team, expand its product range, and strengthen its position in Germany and Austria. The company plans to enter additional EU markets within the next 12 months. To date Baobab has raised a total of €20.1 million across pre-seed, seed and Series A. Baobab offers cyber insurance that covers damages from cyberattacks, including business interruptions, liabilities, and service costs, while also providing proactive risk reduction services. The company delivers attack surface management, continuous monitoring, and vulnerability checks to reduce customer exposure to hacks. Its platform uses machine learning models to optimize risk selection, pricing, and mitigation aimed at improving loss ratios. Baobab plans to distribute insurance via broker partnerships and is developing the product in close collaboration with brokers to help them explain cyber threats to clients. The startup was founded in 2020 by Vincenz Klemm and Anton Foth and has already hired senior hires in product, pen testing, and underwriting. The company raised funding to hire insurance professionals and technical and cyber security experts and will launch in Germany in early 2022 followed by other European markets.

Led · Series A · Apr 2025

Blue Onion is a subledger that uses AI-powered reconciliation algorithms to deliver fully reconciled, transaction-level financial data that is accurate, auditable, and ready for automation. The platform integrates with order systems, payment processors, and bank accounts to match orders, payments, and cash receipts, enabling finance teams to close their books daily. Its customers include retail and ecommerce brands such as Supergoop!, BarkBox, and a.k.a brands. Founded in 2020 and led by CEO Lyndsey Bunting, Blue Onion plans to launch new AI-driven features to expand integrations, support more financial accounts, enhance customization, and refine automation for precise bookings. The company is also investing in strategic partnerships, events, and customer education to build a stronger community around its product. Financially, Blue Onion announced a $10M Series A and has raised $17.6M in total to date.

Participated · Equity · May 2024

Ember is a British startup building an embedded tax and basic accounting product for freelancers and very small businesses. Its service fetches customers' recent banking transactions, automatically categorizes them, and enables expense tracking, receipts, invoicing and basic accounting. Ember surfaces an overview of revenue and expenditures, estimates tax liabilities, and calculates available dividend withdrawals for owners. The company offers a free-to-use version embedded in HSBC UK’s online banking portal as a top-of-funnel acquisition channel and also provides paid services including VAT calculations and in-house accountants for complex tasks. Ember is pursuing distribution partnerships with large banks to reach customers at scale and is not exclusive to HSBC; it says a single bank deal could potentially yield thousands of customers. The startup sees regulatory change in the U.K. (“making tax digital”) as a growth catalyst, since many small business owners will need accounting software to comply. Ember is an accounting and tax app that automates heavily manual tax and business-administration processes for business owners. The company was conceived in early 2019 by CEO Aaron Shaw and Chartered Accountant COO Dan Hogan, and combines automation with a support team of qualified accountants who provide plain-English business advice. Ember has built integrations such as filing Annual Accounts directly to Companies House and has addressed complex issues like Foreign Exchange. The product reportedly saves business owners an average of 13 hours a week on business admin. In late 2021 Ember expanded from supporting limited companies to sole traders, launching sole-trader support in November 2021 and acquiring 500 sole traders in January 2022. Future plans noted in the article include a Shopify integration and becoming an HMRC-approved supplier ahead of the Making Tax Digital for Income Tax mandate in 2024.

Led · Series B · Mar 2024

ZayZoon operates an Earned Wage Access platform for SMBs that lets employees get paid whenever and offers employer-facing tools that the company says take 30 minutes to implement and are free for employers. The platform includes educational resources and tools intended to help workers break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle; ZayZoon reports 89% of users experience less financial stress and employers see a 29% reduction in turnover. The company emphasizes product-market fit with SMBs and says it has grown its business by almost a factor of eight in the last two years. ZayZoon positions its offering as a recruitment, retention and financial-betterment tool for small business leaders. Management states the new financing will support continued growth, innovation, and geographic and product expansion. The company has a stated goal of saving 10 million people $10 billion through its services. ZayZoon provides an Earned Wage Access (EWA) and financial empowerment platform for small and mid-sized businesses, enabling employees to access wages on demand and offering educational resources to reduce financial stress. The platform is free for employers, integrates with payroll and HR systems, and supports payout options including bank deposits, debit cards, and fee-free options like Instant Gift Cards and Gas Cards. ZayZoon has seen more than 400% year-over-year growth in payouts and serves franchisees and locations such as Dunkin’, McDonald’s, and Amazon Warehouses, as well as corporate customers like LIDS. Customers report outcomes including 89% of employees experiencing less financial stress and employers seeing a 29% reduction in turnover. The company emphasizes seamless integrations and was named an ADP and PrismHR Marketplace Partner of the Year in 2023. The recent financing will support recruiting, continued growth and innovation, and enhancements to resources and features for employees and employers, particularly in hospitality, retail, and food service. ZayZoon offers an earned wage access (EWA) platform that allows small- and medium-sized businesses to let employees draw part of accrued wages before their payroll date. The service is free for employers; ZayZoon funds early wage requests itself to mitigate employer risk and charges workers a $5 fee to access up to $200 (the company also offers a prepaid Visa card that eliminates the fee). Workers still receive full pay at the end of each cycle and can link bank accounts for spending insights and alerts. ZayZoon says over 3,000 businesses offer the service and that 25%–45% of a workforce may access it regularly; named customers include Sonic, McDonald’s, Domino’s, and Hilton franchisees. The company positions itself as a socially responsible alternative to payday loans while acknowledging regulatory scrutiny of EWA products. With new capital, ZayZoon plans product development and market expansion and intends to grow headcount from about 60 to 85 employees by year-end. Its data and optional rewards program (ZayZoon Boost) involve sharing user information with partners for gift-card payouts, and users can request data deletion via customer support. ZayZoon partners and integrates with payroll companies and employers to deliver a financial wellness platform featuring access to Early Wages On-Demand. The platform gives employees control over their paychecks and aims to enhance productivity. Its Early Wages service is available to more than 2 million employees across North America. Founded in 2014 by Darcy Tuer (CEO) and Tate Hackert (President), the company builds payroll-integrated employee financial solutions. ZayZoon plans to use the new financing to continue expanding its business reach.