Participated · Series A · Oct 2022

Tractor Zoom operates a cloud-based marketplace that aggregates real-time price and valuation data to simplify procurement of tractors, combines and other farm machinery for farmers, dealers, auctioneers and lenders. The platform lets auctioneers and dealers list inventory while farmers browse, filter and compare listings from mobile or desktop. Since its 2017 founding by Southern Iowa farmer Kyle McMahon, Tractor Zoom has added over 1,450 equipment suppliers, 600 auctioneers and 1,900 dealer locations, and its user base has grown 400%. The company now holds data on more than $20 billion in equipment sale transactions, a 14x increase from 2020, and it offers financing pre-approval services though it is not a lending institution. Tractor Zoom previously raised $3 million in 2020 and recently secured $5 million in a Series A to fund growth. The new capital will be used to expand data-science products and product development with the goal of building a streamlined end-to-end mobile transaction flow, while continuing to focus on the North American agriculture market. Tractor Zoom operates Iron Comps, a pricing and analytics product that tracks used equipment transactions and provides real-time comparable sales for farm machinery. Its Tractor Zoom marketplace lets farmers enter exact make and model details and find auctions where equipment is being sold. The company monetizes through traditional ad buys, primarily from banks and insurance companies. Tractor Zoom has partnered with over 450 auction companies to market more than 6,300 farm equipment auctions to an audience of over 225,000 buyers across the U.S. The company plans to use new funding to scale Iron Comps and to add four hires to its current team of 12. CEO Kyle McMahon developed the idea after attending over 1,000 auctions and positions Iron Comps as a Kelley Blue Book–style valuation tool for heavy equipment. Tractor Zoom operates a digital marketplace that aggregates farm equipment auction listings and lets buyers search by keyword and set auction alerts. The platform uses natural language processing to repurpose sparse auction descriptions and surface details such as hours run and serial numbers. It launched in 2017 and reports 266 auction companies on the platform, 97,000 subscribers, and 102,000 pieces of equipment transacted through the system. The site is monetized primarily through traditional ad buys, especially from banks and insurance companies, with zip-code targeting for local vendors. Tractor Zoom aims to add an Iowa team and expand into agricultural regions beyond the Corn Belt. The company was founded and led by CEO Kyle McMahon, who built the product from firsthand auction experience. Tractor Zoom is an online marketplace that connects farm equipment auctioneers and buyers, aiming to simplify and speed up auction listing and shopping. The company launched mobile apps in November 2017 and a web app in February of this year, built on an AngularJS web framework and the Ionic framework for mobile. Its platform lets auctioneers list large auctions quickly (the company says auctioneers can list a 2,000-lot auction in under five minutes) and lets farmers browse aggregated inventory to find specific equipment. The company’s genesis followed the founder attending more than 1,000 auctions and speaking to over 300 industry participants to validate the concept. Tractor Zoom plans to hire key staff, expand its geographic footprint across North America, bring in more inventory, and release products for other ag-industry players to “bring the equipment buying and selling experience full circle.” Financially, Tractor Zoom completed a $1 million seed round following an earlier family & friends round; the proceeds will be used primarily for team growth, inventory acquisition and North American expansion.

Participated · Seed · May 2022

Sifter operates a Nutrition as a Service (NaaS) platform and a suite of retailer-facing products designed to help consumers discover and buy foods that match their dietary and medical preferences. Its Sifter Retailer Solutions include a Scan by Diet feature that lets shoppers use their mobile phones at the shelf to find products that match multiple diet profiles. The platform provides regulatory-compliant dietary data, evidence-based filters, meal planning, and family diet profile management to power omnichannel wellness journeys. Sifter positions its offerings as plug-and-play integrations that can work with existing retailer systems to unlock shop-by-diet functionality. The company said the funding will accelerate growth and the launch of tailored solutions for health professionals, consumer goods companies, and wellness groups over the next year. Andrew Parkinson is CEO and co-founder of Sifter.

Participated · Series A · Nov 2021

Cohesion provides a patented smart-building and digital twin SaaS platform that integrates the human aspect, building systems, and environmental elements into a single management and data solution. Its platform simulates building operations and uses AI and predictive modeling to forecast outcomes and optimize environment and health. Cohesion has built one of the world’s largest repositories of commercial real estate data and manages tens of millions of square feet of office space. The company plans product and market expansion to accelerate its digital twin technology and drive the industry transformation to autonomous buildings, while improving tenant experience, efficiency, sustainability, and operational transparency. It is pursuing strategic channel growth with partners such as Morgan Stanley, Transwestern, The John Buck Company, and Riverside Investment & Development. Founded in 2018 as a spin-off of ESD, Cohesion employs about 100 people worldwide. Cohesion offers an IoT- and AI-enabled platform that integrates tenant-facing apps with legacy building engineering systems to streamline operations and surface actionable insights. The platform is designed to boost operating efficiency, enhance tenant experience, and address real-time health and safety needs for building occupants. Cohesion positions itself as an all-in-one solution for owners and operators to centralize building systems and workflows. Its client roster includes The John Buck Company, Transwestern, Frasers Property, and Riverside Investment & Development. The company was founded in August 2018 as a spin-off venture of ESD and is headquartered in Chicago’s Central Business District. Cohesion plans to invest the new funding into its platform and is hiring for about 25 full-time roles across product development, sales, marketing, implementation, and customer success over the next year.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2018

OneCause provides a cloud-based integrated fundraising platform featuring online giving, event management, mobile bidding and peer-to-peer social fundraising. The company was founded in 2008 and is led by CEO Steve Johns. Its suite of solutions has enabled 5,000 organizations and over 15,000 fundraising events. OneCause says it has helped nonprofits raise more than $1.5 billion. The company intends to use new funding to accelerate development of its platform and to expand sales and marketing efforts. It is based in Indianapolis, Indiana. BidPal provides a cloud-based software-as-a-service suite of digital giving solutions for nonprofits, including online campaigns, event management, mobile bidding, Text2give® and an integrated payment platform, SmartPay® Anywhere. Led by CEO Steve Johns, the company combines mobile and payment solutions to help organizations raise funds and manage events. Its platform has enabled nearly 2,800 organizations to raise more than $1 billion through 8,300 events and to connect with over one million unique donors. The company says it will use new financing to accelerate product development for its mobile fundraising platform, enhance integrated payment processing solutions and its analytics suite, and to expand marketing and sales efforts. BidPal’s offering is positioned around enabling digital giving and event-based fundraising at scale for nonprofits. BidPal Network is an Indianapolis-based company that provides handheld devices and software to wirelessly automate auction bidding, donations, and payments for charitable fundraisers. Its handheld bidding devices eliminate paper bid sheets and let guests bid from anywhere, which the company says increases bids per item and streamlines event management. BidPal's software offers real-time monitoring of auction proceeds, no-hassle express checkouts, and post-event reporting. The company is currently available in numerous U.S. markets including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and others, and plans to expand into all major U.S. markets by the end of 2012. In June BidPal introduced a fully integrated, secure payment processing solution, and in August it launched myBidPal Planner Pro, a full event management software platform. The article notes that more than $18 billion is raised annually through charitable auction fundraising events, and BidPal recently received a Series B to support expansion into new markets.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2018

Packback provides an AI-enabled platform that delivers inquiry-based online discussion (Packback Questions) and long-form writing support (Packback Deep Dives). Its proprietary AI acts as a digital writing assistant, giving individualized feedback to students and scaffolded support to make grading more seamless for educators. The platform is grounded in cognitive frameworks such as Bloom's Taxonomy and Self Determination Theory and uses models developed over more than six years to coach students without writing for them. Packback serves over 1.5 million students and more than 10,000 instructors across thousands of K-12 and higher-education courses. Company-cited research indicates improved academic outcomes, increased writing confidence, and instructor-reported improvements in writing quality among users. The company says it is positioned to meet urgent market demand and aims to expand the delivery of timely, high-quality feedback at scale with PSG's support. Packback is an education technology company offering Packback Questions, an AI-supported online discussion platform that supports student curiosity, communication and critical thinking skills. The platform delivers a scalable asynchronous discussion experience using AI for automation of moderation and coaching, features that allow professors to scale their impact and provide service and support. The company raised $2.5M to maintain its growth as it expands its user base and team, with plans to create 45 new jobs. Packback added more than 25 employees in 2018 and expected to grow to 100 employees by the end of 2019. Leadership includes CEO Mike Shannon, CPO Jessica Tenuta, VP of Sales Roberto Torreggiani, and Head of Engineering Dr. Craig M. Booth. Board member Dr. James Caras joined the company's board following the funding announcement. Packback is a Chicago-based developer of an AI-powered online discussion platform used by over 100 U.S. universities. Its platform enables instructors to make student academic discourse a core part of curriculum and coursework and supports the Socratic Method in large lectures and online classes. Packback’s algorithms analyze students’ written questions and responses to quantify and improve behaviors like critical thinking and curiosity. The product incorporates gamification elements, including points and leaderboards, to drive engagement. The company uses a human-assisted approach to AI, training models and data sets with feedback from college professors. Packback recently raised $4.2M in a Series A led by University Ventures. Packback builds artificial intelligence that analyzes students' written questions and essay answers to quantify and improve student success metrics such as critical thinking, soft skills and curiosity. Its product, Packback Questions, is a smart online discussion platform powered by that AI where students engage in rigorous academic discourse as part of coursework. The company plans to use recent funding to continue scaling nationally and expects to pursue a Series A. Packback was founded by Jessica Tenuta and is based in Chicago, Illinois. The article reports a $1.5M financing that the company intends to supplement with additional capital in an upcoming round.