Participated · Equity · Jul 2018

Squadle offers Digital Checklists™, ZeroTouch™ sensor automation, and machine-vision technology to help multi-unit operators simplify complex operations and maintain food safety. The company combines proprietary digital checklists with patented Bluetooth sensor automation and vision features to deliver out-of-the-box ready products. Squadle says its Checklists product has stored more than one billion records and completed tasks, while ZeroTouch has measured over 40,000,000 Bluetooth temperatures. Squadle reported ARR growth of 700% year over year and expanded its full-time workforce sixfold over the prior 12 months. Its customers operate tens of thousands of locations worldwide and include some of the largest brands in their industries. The company plans to invest the Series A proceeds in its product and increase focus on customer success. Squadle is a next-generation AI operations platform focused on enhancing multi-unit restaurant operations. Its product, Squadle Genius, is an AI/machine-vision add-on to checklists that analyzes in-store camera feeds to detect issues such as empty display cases, misplaced marketing materials, leftover food on tables, or overflowing trash cans. The system has been used over the past year by closed-beta customers, and the company reports nationwide deployments with multi-unit franchisees of McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Brands, and other Fortune 500 chains. Squadle plans to use the newly raised funds to grow its team and augment its products with additional machine vision capabilities. The company is led by co-founder and CEO Le Zhang and is based in Cambridge, MA, with offices in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. Founders include alumni of MIT, Boston College, and Johns Hopkins, and the article reports a $3M funding round led by a private family fund with participation from Companyon Ventures and Walnut Ventures.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2018

Voatz builds a mobile voting and citizen engagement platform offered as a software-as-a-service product for election jurisdictions. The company works with state and local governments to conduct elections and provide related election management and cybersecurity services. Voatz has run more than 30 pilots, including two in West Virginia and a Denver municipal pilot in May restricted to active-duty military, their eligible dependents and overseas voters. The company is Boston-based, about four years old, and currently employs 17 people. Voatz has been the target of security criticism in coverage such as a Vanity Fair piece, but it has continued to attract government pilots and investor support. It previously raised $2.2 million led by the venture arm of Overstock.com and has now closed a $7 million Series A. Company leadership said the Denver post-election audit will begin shortly and that the next phase of pilot programs will be announced later in the summer. Voatz provides a mobile voting platform that leverages biometrics for security and blockchain technology for tamper‑proof recordkeeping, identity verification and auditing. The platform enables citizens to vote in many types of elections and voting events via a secured smartphone or tablet. Several leading universities, labor unions, state political parties, church groups and non-profits have deployed Voatz for internal elections, convention voting and other voting functions. Led by Co‑Founder & CEO Nimit Sawhney, the company is focused on expanding adoption across different organizations and voting contexts. Voatz raised seed capital to support growth and product development. The company plans to use the funding to build out its business development team, expand its reach across the United States and accelerate development of new product features.

Participated · Seed · Dec 2015

Streamroot builds a WebRTC-based peer-to-peer layer that lets viewers download parts of video streams directly from other users, reducing load on origin servers. Its technology is transparent to end users and requires no installation because modern browsers support WebRTC features on desktop and mobile. The approach is particularly effective for handling traffic spikes on popular videos and can fall back to traditional servers for obscure content. Customers include Dailymotion, Canal+, Eurosport and Russia Today. Streamroot powers 400 million video sessions per month and reports that 50–80% of customers' traffic now uses its distributed infrastructure. The company raised $3.2 million from Partech Ventures, Techstars Venture Capital Fund, Verizon Ventures and R/GA. Streamroot is a French, web-first startup that uses peer-to-peer technology to supplement traditional servers during video playback. Its core product integrates a proprietary peer-to-peer module with WebRTC and HTML5 video embeds to enable adaptive-bitrate playback directly in browsers without downloads or plugins. The technology also supports live streams and is designed so portions of video are delivered from other concurrent viewers, reducing bandwidth pressure on origin servers. Streamroot does not replace servers but reduces delivery costs and helps sites handle peak-hour demand more smoothly. The company recently raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Partech Ventures with participation from Walnut Venture Associates, Cherrystone Angel Group, Jean‑David Blanc and Bpifrance. The funding positions Streamroot to further deploy its WebRTC-based solution across video publishers seeking to cut CDN and bandwidth expenses.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2012

Playrific curates and personalizes digital content—videos, online games, books, songs, drawing and coloring apps—using a team of educators, experts and algorithms to match each child’s interests. Accounts are regularly refreshed based on a child’s browsing history and the viewing habits of children with similar tastes. The company offers a free web app and an iOS app, and expects to release an Android app commercially soon. Playrific positions its product as an out-of-the-box family experience for tablet manufacturers and a channel for brands to engage families digitally. The company intends to use new funding to accelerate growth and expand sales, marketing and product development while scaling its partnership program. Playrific is based in Boston.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2011

ezCater offers a purpose-built platform for businesses to centralize and manage their food spend in a single, customizable solution. The service connects companies to a network of 82,000 restaurants across the U.S. for needs ranging from daily employee meals to sales meetings. Customers include JLL, RingCentral, and The San Francisco 49ers. Led by co-founder and CEO Stefania Mallett, the company intends to use new funding to expand operations and broaden its business reach. The Series D-2 round brought total funding to $425M and a post-money valuation of $1.6 billion. ezCater operates an online marketplace for business catering, partnering with 60,500 restaurants and caterers to fulfill corporate orders without owning food or making deliveries. Founded in 2007 by Stefania Mallett and Briscoe Rodgers, the platform has grown roughly 100% annually for the past eight years. The company has raised more than $300 million in equity to date but is not yet profitable. Management said it held "quite a lot of money in the bank" from the prior round and raised again to hedge against a potential funding winter. EzCater recently acquired Monkey Group to bolster its catering management software. The company plans to use new capital to accelerate international expansion, pursue further M&A, and may consider an IPO or other strategic outcomes. ezCater operates a nationwide marketplace for business catering, offering online ordering, on-time ratings and reviews, and customer service to connect businesspeople with reliable local caterers. Its platform is used by organizations of all sizes, including AstraZeneca, Redfin, Tesla, and 90% of the Fortune 500. More than 60,000 restaurants and caterers partner with ezCater, from local independents to chains such as California Pizza Kitchen, Firehouse Subs, and P.F. Chang’s. The company has launched a catering product suite for restaurants — ezOrdering, ezManage, and ezDispatch — to enable online orders, manage catering operations, and connect to vetted delivery companies. Founded in 2007, ezCater says it has doubled revenue at least annually for six years and will use new funding to deepen products and continue rapid expansion. The company plans to extend market leadership and pursue international expansion. ezCater is the only nationwide marketplace for business catering, operating an online platform that connects businesspeople to local caterers and restaurants for meetings and events. Its platform features online ordering, on-time ratings and reviews, and award‑winning, five‑star customer service. Founded in 2007 and based in Boston, ezCater now lists nearly 50,000 restaurants and caterers in its marketplace and says it has helped provide food for more than 16 million businesspeople. The company has doubled headcount to 175 employees in the past 18 months and positions itself as a market leader in a U.S. business‑catering market worth $21 billion. Financially, ezCater has raised $35M in this round, bringing total capital raised to $70M. It intends to use the funding to accelerate product development, expand customer support, and bolster sales and marketing to continue growing its network. ezCater operates an online marketplace that lets business customers find and order catering with on-time delivery ratings, reviews, and 5-star customer service. The platform connects more than 43,000 caterer and restaurant partners and surfaces nearly 300,000 reviews and on-time delivery ratings to guide buyers. Customers range from Fortune 500 companies to local startups across industries such as construction, finance, and pharmaceuticals. ezCater offers enterprise features including centralized payment, visibility and controls, and integrations with expense reporting to help finance and procurement teams manage catering spend. The company emphasizes guaranteed reliability, nationwide coverage, and responsive customer support as core differentiators. With new funding, ezCater plans to scale operations and accelerate development of additional features and functionality for its marketplace.