Participated · Equity · Oct 2024

Ozlo sells Sleepbuds, a compact pair of sleep-focused earbuds that support streaming and reuse licensed IP and design expertise from former Bose sleep-product engineers. The buds sit flush with the ear, use soft compliant tips with small wing tips for retention, and come in a puck-shaped charging case. Ozlo priced the Sleepbuds at $299 and began shipping units to early backers while making them broadly available for purchase. The company says it will use new capital to develop a second-generation Sleepbuds product and to pursue FDA clearance for a tinnitus therapy. Ozlo’s positioning ties the hardware to a broader health play within wearables rather than being a pure hardware-only maker. The team and product lineage trace back to former Bose executives and licensed Bose IP, which helped accelerate the product’s development and market entry. Ozlo Sleep is a Boston, MA-based science-driven sleep and audio technology company focused on clinically enhancing rest without pharmaceutical intervention. It was co-founded by three ex-Bose employees, including CEO N.B. Patil, COO Brian Mulcahey, and CPO Charles Taylor. The company's core product is Ozlo Sleepbuds, a headphone designed specifically for sleep that leverages acquired and licensed proprietary sleep-related technology from Bose Corporation. Ozlo emerged from stealth after completing a $10M Series A and plans to launch the Sleepbuds later this summer. The funding round was led by LifeArc Ventures and ARTIS Ventures, and board seats were added for Dr. Imran Hamid and Vasudev Bailey. Ozlo's stated mission is to improve wakefulness and the quality of mental and physical well-being by enhancing rest through audio and sleep science.

Led · Series B · Oct 2021

Rally securitizes unique, high-value collectibles, splits them into shares, and offers them as equity investments to retail users. The platform covers 15+ asset classes including sports memorabilia, trading cards, historical documents and classic cars, with offerings starting around $10 a share. Rally says it has over a quarter of a million users and that investors participate daily in offerings. The company frames its mission as democratizing alternative-asset investing by providing access, liquidity and transparency to markets that were previously limited to a select few. As part of growth plans, Rally is partnering with Wheelhouse on content and talent initiatives, including a podcast on collectibles and placements on the History Channel’s Pawn Stars. Financially, the company has raised over $65M in equity capital to date following the latest $15M strategic follow-on. Rally is a platform that securitizes unique, high-value collectibles and sells fractional equity shares to retail investors using Reg A+ offerings, with shares available for as little as $1. The company launched with collector cars in 2017 and now lists more than 300 assets either available to trade or coming soon across 15 categories. Rally has added more than 10 categories in the last year and reported strong user growth and trading activity: new investors in Q1 2021 rose 575% versus the same quarter the prior year, and Q1 transaction volume increased 450% year-over-year. The product roadmap includes expansion into cash-flow producing assets such as intellectual property, royalties, and real estate, plus one-of-one digital assets (NFTs) and a new real-time trading experience slated for later this year. Rally plans to use new capital to accelerate category expansion, fuel user acquisition, build its team (technology, digital content, compliance), and resume and expand in-person experiences including reopening its NYC flagship museum and up to 10 additional locations. Rally operates a mobile and web platform that lets owners list rare collectibles and retail investors buy fractional shares in those items starting at $1. The company custodians, insures and stores listed assets while consignors retain ownership; investors can cash out when items sell or trade shares on Rally’s secondary market. Categories include classic cars, wine, sports memorabilia, comic books, watches and more; typical listings have included a 1937 Heisman Trophy ($460,000) and a Mike Trout rookie autograph card ($225,000). Rally reports about 200,000 users investing across roughly 120 "IPOs," representing more than $15 million in assets, with average investment per offering around $300 and transactions growing 195% year-over-year. The platform says sports memorabilia has recently been the most successful category, and Rally has experimented with physical showings of collections. The new funding will be used to invest in technology, grow the business and expand categories through partnerships; the company also announced a leadership change with George Leimer named CEO and co-founder Christopher Bruno moving to president.