Participated · Series A · Jan 2022

Seel develops proprietary underwriting software that uses hundreds of signals to predict the probability of a product return as soon as an order is placed. Merchants can add “return assurance” at sale to transfer return liability to Seel; if an order is returned within 30 days, Seel pays the refund. Shoppers can also add the assurance for a small fee at checkout, and about 20% of shoppers are opting in, translating to a roughly 5% conversion lift for merchants. The company reports close to 200 merchants using its software after a private beta that began five months ago and says it has been operating for about two years. Seel is launching a Shopify app and plans to use new capital to grow the team, strengthen the product and expand go-to-market. The company grew from five to 25 employees in 2021 and is on track to double headcount in the coming quarters.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2021

ML Tech operates a non-custodial digital asset investment management platform that lets institutional investors deploy algorithmic trading strategies on high-frequency, low-latency infrastructure. The platform offers 24/7 risk management and advanced performance analytics to support trading teams. Customers gain access to institutional capital (over $100 million to be deployed), low fees across multiple exchanges, and easy integration to crypto exchanges. Led by CEO Leo Mindyuk, the company targets institutional investors and trading teams seeking scalable algorithmic strategies. ML Tech plans to use new funding to add diverse trading strategies, expand into new asset classes, support additional exchanges, and invest in client acquisition, growth, and marketing. The company recently raised strategic funding to support these expansion initiatives. ML Tech operates a high-frequency trading platform for quantitative researchers in the crypto asset space, connecting them with institutional capital. The platform offers low exchange fees, access to large pools of capital, top execution speeds, and robust infrastructure to support strategy development. The company says its trading strategies generated more than $150M in trading volume in the prior month and that successful researchers and large institutional crypto investors already use the platform. ML Tech plans to use new funds to integrate with additional trading venues, scale its cloud infrastructure, onboard more researchers, and enhance financial reporting capabilities. The company is actively hiring to support its fast-growing business. CEO Leo Mindyuk leads the company, which participated in the University of Chicago’s New Venture Challenge and ranked as the top FinTech company there.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2020

Kover provides income-protection products for gig workers, targeting drivers and delivery workers for platforms such as Uber, Lyft, UberEats, and Wonolo. Its product replaces 80% of lost income when a vehicle is out of service or a worker is temporarily suspended by a gig app. The offering includes a 24-hour waiting period and hospitalization claims that can be approved in a few hours. Kover recently partnered with Jobble, an app-based job platform backed by AXA, to offer Jobble Protection to Jobble users. Founded in 2019 and led by CEO Zack Peng, the company has raised capital to support its product and distribution partnerships. The article reports a recent funding event that increases the company’s total financing to date. Kover.ai offers “autonomous coverage” built on decentralized software and smart contracts. It provides an API that enables any business to build and distribute coverage products directly to its customers without involving traditional insurance companies. Premiums collected for each product go into a pool managed by a smart contract, which the company says serves the community of members rather than profit-driven insurers. The company is led by Zack Peng and came out of the 2019 MetLife Digital Accelerator Powered by Techstars. Kover.ai closed a $1.5M seed funding round reported in April 2019.

Participated · Series B · Aug 2019

FinMkt is a New York City–based B2B fintech solutions provider led by CEO and Co‑Founder Luan Cox. The company offers customizable technology for the online lending industry, centered on its multi‑lender Gateway platform that submits loan requests and delivers competitive, pre‑qualified offers from multiple lenders. It targets the home improvement and retail services industries and also operates Lendvious.com and Bizloans.io, which it white‑labels for clients. FinMkt has offices in New York City, Atlanta, San Diego and Hyderabad. The company closed a $5M Series B funding round and plans to use the proceeds to grow and develop products that provide full credit‑spectrum solutions in partnership with bank and non‑bank lending partners. FinMkt is a New York City-based provider of technology and infrastructure for the online lending industry, led by CEO Luan Cox. It offers Lending Gateway, FM Marketplace and FM Portfolio. Lending Gateway is a centralized technology platform that facilitates the submission of online loan requests and the delivery of competitive, pre-qualified loan offers from multiple lenders. FM Marketplace leverages Lending Gateway’s core technology to allow organizations to operate their own real-time online marketplace, and FM Portfolio is an institutional-grade dashboard that tracks aggregated loan portfolio data and provides detailed analytics across multiple online lending platforms. The company also has offices in Hyderabad. It intends to use the $5m in equity financing to continue to grow Lending Gateway. Crowdnetic provides technology and market data solutions to the crowdfunded securities and peer‑lending industries, operating a centralized hub for real‑time market data aggregated from platforms worldwide. The company operates products including CrowdWatch.co and NowStreetWire.com and is a co‑producer of the LendIt conference. In October it launched a real‑time private company content offering with flagship partner Dow Jones' MarketWatch and reports data on more than 2,000 issuers using the 506(c) exemption. Founded in 2011, Crowdnetic says its leadership brings over 15 years of experience building complex, data‑intensive customized solutions. The company closed a $1.6 million seed round to finance expansion of its real‑time global data and technology infrastructure. It added Emily Susskind and Gregory Smith to its advisory board to support continued growth.

Led · Seed · Nov 2017

CFX Markets operates a proprietary secondary-market platform that securely facilitates trades in alternative assets such as REITs, limited partnerships, Regulation D, EB-5, Regulation A+, LLCs and BDCs. Led by managing directors Jordan Fishfeld and Juan Hernandez, the company uses custom-built software to match buyers and sellers and support trading workflows. Since launching in January 2016 the platform has completed thousands of transactions. The company plans to use new funding to expand into new markets and accelerate development of innovations in trading, clearing and settlement, and distributed ledger technology. CFX Markets maintains offices in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City.