Participated · Equity · Jun 2023

Pebble is a California-based EV startup founded in 2022 by former Apple, Cruise and Zoox engineer Bingrui Yang. Its flagship product is the 25-foot Pebble Flow, an all-electric travel trailer that sleeps up to four and features a 45 kWh LFP battery, 1 kW of rooftop solar, AC/DC charging, regenerative braking and bidirectional power for home or appliance backup. A companion mobile app controls lighting, climate, locks and fully automated camp setup, while an optional “magic pack” ($125K total price) adds a dual-motor drivetrain that propels the trailer to preserve the tow vehicle’s range and enables remote, self-propelled maneuvering. The base model starts at $109K, and customers can place a refundable $500 preorder. Pebble debuted a working alpha prototype in October 2023, will show it publicly at the LA Auto Show in November and targets first customer deliveries by the end of 2024. Earlier this year the company raised $13.6 million to complete development and enter production. Pebble faces competition from other electric RV startups such as Lightship and Grounded.

Participated · Debt Financing · Nov 2016

Bonusway operates an e-commerce loyalty service that offers cash rewards and online shopping inspiration to consumers in Finland, Sweden, Turkey and Russia. For e-commerce businesses the merchant-independent platform provides loyalty programs intended to drive repeat purchases and attract new customers. The service reports more than 1.5M users and 3,500 e-commerce partners worldwide. Led by CEO Tatu Koistinen, Bonusway plans to use recent funding to increase marketing for user acquisition and retention and to make online shopping more social. The company combines consumer-facing rewards with merchant tools to boost customer engagement.

Participated · Series B · Jun 2016

Verto Analytics is a media measurement and behavioral analytics company that provides a platform giving brands and companies a holistic view of consumers' behavior, demographics, lifestyles, attitudes, and interests. The company owns and operates single-source, passively metered panels in multiple countries that measure behavioral changes across all media second-by-second, and it layers triggered surveys on top of the panels. Brands, publishers and researchers use Verto’s services to benchmark against competitors and the market, fill gaps in the consumer journey, and identify ways to increase engagement and loyalty. The company is led by founder Dr. Hannu Verkasalo and Pat Brennan, president of U.S. operations, and is based in Helsinki and New York City. In January 2020 Verto raised $16m in its third funding round. It plans to use the funds to accelerate the commercial rollout of new syndicated and custom solutions and to make strategic improvements to customer service. Verto provides a media measurement platform built on a single-source, passively metered panel that measures behavioral changes second-by-second across all media, giving a holistic view of consumers. The platform links behavior with demographics, lifestyles, attitudes and interests and is used by brands, publishers and researchers. Verto has clients including Microsoft, Intel, Google, Netflix, CNN and Kargo and has extended its methodology into syndicated research services. The company has three granted patents and 13 additional patents under consideration in European and U.S. patent offices. It maintains commercial hubs in San Francisco, Seattle, Cincinnati and New York City and plans to invest in its Helsinki-based Verto Data Lab as a center of excellence. The company said it will use new funding to accelerate growth in the media measurement market and to boost customer success and commercial account management. Verto Analytics provides single-source audience measurement solutions that monitor consumer behavior across every device, app and platform to inform marketing, competitive intelligence, media buying and product strategy. Its services include Verto Content Watch, Verto Device Watch and Verto App Watch, each focused on cross-device digital media properties and publishers, digital devices and platforms, and mobile apps. Launched in 2013 and led by CEO Dr. Hannu Verkasalo, the company is NYC-based with offices in San Francisco, London and Espoo, Finland. Customers named in the article include Microsoft, EA, Cisco, Yahoo and YuMe. The company raised $16.1m in a Series B and has $23.9m in total funding to date; it plans to use the new capital to scale services globally and expand operations across digital media, mobile app and gaming, adtech and Internet sectors. Board changes accompanying the round include Ben Feder joining as Chairman and Henrik Landgren of EQT Ventures joining the board. Verto Analytics is a New York–based digital media measurement company that combines cross-platform digital media measurement and audience research for multi-platform devices in real time. Its offering targets measurement across desktop PCs, mobile, tablets, smart TVs and is positioned to address demand for wearables measurement as that market grows. The company competes with firms such as Effective Measure and SocialBro. Financially, Verto disclosed a $5.4M Series A in April from Conor Venture Partners and has now secured additional capital. The most recent financing consists of a $2.4M follow-on investment led by Open Ocean Capital with participation from Conor Venture Partners and angel investors. No debt or other instrument details were disclosed in the articles. The disclosed funding this year totals $7.8M when combining the April Series A and this follow-on round.

Led · Equity · May 2016

OptoFidelity provides robot-assisted test solutions that simulate and test user interactions for smart devices, used in product development, production and quality assurance. Its platforms combine humanlike robotics with software tools for test parametrizing, results analysis and reporting. Most of the world’s leading device manufacturers are customers, with references including Google, China Mobile and Atmel. The company nearly quadrupled net sales to €20m in 2015 and is profitable. OptoFidelity plans to accelerate international expansion by opening new service centres in the USA and China and to speed up development of its production testing offering by strengthening R&D resources in Finland. It launched new production testing solutions at Display Week in San Francisco and emphasizes Industry 4.0 and smart-factory digitization as core strategic elements.

Led · Equity · May 2014

Fjuul is an iOS app that calculates activity intensity using iPhone sensors and algorithms to produce a single Fjuul Points metric that aggregates different locomotive activities. It does not require additional hardware or rely on GPS or the M7 chip, and runs in the background to capture motion data best when the phone is in a pocket. The app converts estimated METs to calories using the Mifflin St Jeor equation and uses 15-second intervals to approximate energy cost; it can notify users when activity reaches health-relevant levels. Fjuul aims to make fitness part of daily casual life by counting shopping, gardening, walking and other everyday activities as exercise and suggesting personal goals. The startup launched v1 last July to learn and refine and is now doing a full global launch with v2; the app is priced at $2.99/£1.99/€2.69. Fjuul was founded in 2012 by Sascha Wischek, who began the underlying academic research and is currently studying for a PhD at Cambridge University.