Participated · Equity · Dec 2025

Founded in 2017, Automotus has built a computer-vision platform that lets municipalities and airports track curb activity, generate data analytics, and automate payments for commercial vehicles, ride-hail drivers, and delivery fleets. The system, already deployed in dozens of U.S. markets, supplies real-time insights that cities have used to redesign parking policies, as demonstrated by a deployment in Lincoln, Nebraska. By addressing the surge in ride-hailing and e-commerce deliveries, the company aims to make streets safer, more efficient, and more sustainable. Automotus’ business model centers on selling its software and camera hardware to public-sector agencies managing increasingly congested curb space. The company plans to use its newest capital to deepen product capabilities, expand into additional markets, and bolster customer support. Including the latest equity infusion, Automotus has raised $26 million in equity funding to date, alongside the newly secured credit line.

Led · Equity · Feb 2025

HDVI’s core product, HDVI Shift™, leverages real-time telematics to assess driving behavior and deliver personalized commercial auto pricing, claiming up to 20% savings upfront and on monthly premiums for safe fleets. Since launching HDVI Shift in 2021, the company has amassed over 7.5 billion miles of telematics data and reports a 107% CAGR and a loss ratio well below the industry average. In 2024 customers logged nearly one million miles of safe driving daily and saved $3.2 million (three times the prior year), and nearly 90% of customers see safety improvements within their first policy term. HDVI integrates telematics with FMCSA and other data sources and plans to expand use of AI tools across the commercial auto policy lifecycle to improve underwriting, pricing, claims, and agent tools. The company is headquartered in Chicago with additional offices in Greenville, South Carolina, and Columbus. High Definition Vehicle Insurance (HDVI) delivers fleet-focused insurance that bundles high-quality telematics with an integrated suite of software and support. The company packages those services within the cost of a smart, competitive insurance policy so fleets receive more value for the same premium. HDVI targets commercial fleets and emphasizes operational value and risk-management through its telematics-enabled offering. The business was founded in 2018 and is based in Chicago. The article reports a $16M Series A financing, reflecting its current fundraising status. No operating metrics such as revenue or user counts were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2024

Coterie is a Cincinnati-based insurtech MGA that enables independent agents and brokers to write instant small-business insurance across all 50 states and D.C. The company uses data-backed underwriting to deliver accurate pricing and a fast submission-to-bind experience. Led by CEO David McFarland, Coterie plans to use the $27M growth funding to expand its business reach. The round was led by Hiscox alongside existing investors Intact Ventures, Weatherford Capital and RPM Ventures, among others. Coterie has now raised over $102M in total funding and reported revenue growth of over 200% in 2023. In 2023 the company also expanded its reinsurance panel, adding two leading reinsurance markets rated A or better by S&P Global. Coterie Insurance is an insurtech company that enables quoting and binding of small-business insurance policies online. Led by Co-Founder and CEO David McFarland, the company offers APIs that let digital insurance platforms, agents and brokers streamline and digitize quoting and binding. Coterie combines insurance expertise with data analytics to simplify small-business coverage and the purchasing experience. The company intends to use new funds to expand operations and broaden its business reach. Financially, Coterie has raised a total of $75M to date since its 2018 founding, including the recent Series B. Coterie builds data-driven technology to simplify buying small-business insurance by integrating coverage into platforms and processes businesses already use. Its approach automates quoting, underwriting, and binding to deliver fast, accurate, and affordable coverage either embedded in partner platforms or via agents. Coterie has partnered with platforms such as Intuit QuickBooks and Thryv to enable embedded insurance purchases. The company has also launched solutions for independent agents and brokers and announced partnerships with Independent Market Solutions and First Connect to extend capabilities to thousands of agencies. Coterie reported strong company growth and recently closed an oversubscribed Series A-1 financing, bringing total funds raised to $25M. CEO and co-founder David McFarland emphasized the company’s goal of making business insurance simple and available where small businesses already operate. Coterie is a commercial insurance API provider that distributes general liability, professional liability, and business insurance via a B2B2C model, partnering with third-party sites. Established in 2018 and based in Cincinnati, the company operates with a team of 18 and also allows business shoppers to get quotes online. It competes in the same space as AP Intego and Thimble and has partnerships that include Homee. According to SimilarWeb and SEMRush the site does not enjoy substantial direct traffic, and the company emphasizes platform partnerships to acquire customers more cheaply than relying on paid search. The usefulness of Coterie’s API is tied to the carriers and products it links to. Financially, Coterie has raised a total of $11.65 million in venture funding to date after the latest $8.5 million Series A.

Led · Series B · Dec 2022

Stellar is a technology-driven marketplace that enables property managers and contractors to resolve home maintenance issues across the single-family rental (SFR) market. The platform leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to make maintenance fast, scalable, and quality-guaranteed. The company serves 10 of the 11 largest SFR operators across 150,000+ properties, has created work for 8,000+ contractors, and has resolved 200,000+ issues. Stellar plans to use its Series B proceeds to enhance its technology and platform, build a new mobile app, invest in talent, and expand into additional U.S. markets. It intends to nearly double headcount by the end of 2023 across Operations, Sales, Marketing, and Technology, and recently appointed Renaud Casanova as CTO. Founded in 2016 and based in Dallas, the company has raised $35M in total venture capital to date.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2022

PayIt is a cloud-based SaaS provider that helps governments accept digital payments and deliver services across web, desktop, and mobile. Its solutions are purpose-built for the public sector with modules spanning Motor Vehicle, Taxes, Courts, Utilities, and more. Led by founder and CEO John Thomson, the company counts customers including the City of Toronto, Florida’s Palm Beach County, and North Carolina. PayIt recently released a configurable platform architecture and ProSight™, a backend dashboard for management and insights. The company has also expanded its executive team, appointing Jean Nobile as senior vice president of operations and Kelly Davis-Felner as chief marketing officer. The business is pursuing continued growth and product innovation supported by new financing. PayIt offers a platform that takes payments and produces related documentation for government services through web and mobile interfaces. Its U.S.-operational platform covers use cases including courts and citations, environmental services, health and human services, motor vehicle, parks and wildlife, professional licensing, public safety, taxes, turnpike and tolling, and utilities. The platform integrates multiple backend systems into a single front end, uses a wallet for payments, stores sensitive information in the cloud, and reduces the need for users to re-enter details. PayIt says it handles a small but rapidly growing percentage of the market. The company plans to expand its use-case list, win more U.S. business, and begin breaking into international markets. Founded in 2013 and run from Kansas City, PayIt sits at the intersection of fintech and govtech, aiming to modernize legacy public-sector processes. PayIt provides a patent-pending mobile platform for citizen-government payment processing for state and local services such as the DMV, permits and licensing, turnpike passes, income tax and traffic citations. The company is based in Kansas City, MO and is led by co-founder and CEO John Thomson. The Kansas Transportation Authority deployed the PayIt Kansas mobile app, allowing K-TAG account users to access and manage their accounts from smartphones. PayIt completed a $4.5M Series A funding round and intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations. Backers in the round included Advantage Capital Partners, Weatherford Partners, Royal Street Ventures and Missouri Technology Corporation.