Participated · Series B · Sep 2024

RunSafe Security offers a patented software-immunization technology that inoculates customer systems from entire classes of cyberattacks. Customers integrate the product across build tool chains without developer friction, protecting open-source software and proprietary native code. The process does not change system behavior or add system overhead. RunSafe serves customers across aerospace and defense, energy and industrial automation, transportation and autonomy, medical devices, and high tech verticals. The company has offices in McLean, VA, Huntsville, AL, and Munich, Germany, and is led by CEO Joe Saunders. RunSafe plans to use new funding to accelerate product development and expand into EMEA and APAC. RunSafe Security offers Alkemist®, a patented platform that immunizes software and third‑party binaries by deploying in DevSecOps pipelines across build and deploy toolchains. Alkemist protects firmware, operating systems, containers, virtual machines, and applications while leaving systems functionally identical but logically unique. The product originated from DARPA research and is used across enterprise customers, suppliers and manufacturers, and national security industries. RunSafe is led by CEO Joe Saunders and is based in McLean, Virginia, with an additional office in Huntsville, Alabama. The company plans to use the funding to continue expanding operations and its business reach. Financially, RunSafe has raised $2.4M in seed funding and a total of $9.8M in Series A capital to date. RunSafe Security develops Alkemist, an automated tool that hardens open source, in‑house, and third‑party binaries by applying RASP and moving target defense methods to make each system functionally identical but logically unique. Alkemist was born from a research project for the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense and is designed to preclude exploits from spreading across devices and networks. Customers span the enterprise, suppliers and manufacturers, and national security industries, and integrate the product across build and deploy toolchains with minimal developer friction. The company is led by founder and CEO Joe Saunders and operates from McLean, Virginia, with an additional office in Huntsville, Alabama. RunSafe was a graduate of the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology’s Mach37 Cyber Accelerator (Fall 2017). The company intends to use new funding to expand sales and marketing and to broaden and accelerate product development. RunSafe Security offers a patented cyberhardening transformation process designed to stop attackers and protect vulnerable embedded systems and devices. The company serves customers across critical infrastructure, IIoT, automotive, medical, and national security industries. RunSafe is led by CEO Joe Saunders and is based in McLean, Virginia, with an additional office in Huntsville, Alabama. In May 2018 the company raised $2.4M in seed funding. It intends to use the proceeds to expand operations and broaden its business reach. The core product focuses on hardening embedded systems and devices that are commonly targeted in critical sectors.

Participated · Series B · Dec 2019

Placemakr is a Washington, D.C.-based flexible-use multifamily and hospitality operator and real estate investor. The company leverages a platform that helps multifamily developers and owners convert existing properties into commingled spaces combining multifamily and hospitality uses. Recent launches include Placemakr Wedgewood Houston and Whyhotel by Placemakr, Columbia, and it has a partnership with Bernstein Management Corporation and Urban Atlantic to convert a K Street office building into a hotel-apartment hybrid. Placemakr raised $65M in new funding, bringing total capital raised to more than $350M. The company intends to use the proceeds to double down on property acquisitions and developer partnerships across the U.S. to meet demand for apartment-style hotels, short-term rentals, and flexible-living accommodations. Leadership includes CEO Jason Fudin and the recent appointment of Timothy G. Franzen as Chief Development Officer to expand inventory under management. Placemakr, formerly WhyHotel, operates a hybrid “hospitality living” model that combines pop-up hotels, flexible long‑stay properties, turnkey serviced apartments, and unfurnished rentals with optional hospitality services. The company sources apartment‑style inventory and manages or owns buildings, furnishing a portion for short‑ and mid‑term stays while leasing other units as traditional rentals. Its customers are largely business travelers needing stays longer than hotels but shorter than typical apartment leases; Placemakr also offers corporate housing and turnkey homes. The company emphasizes on-site staff alongside tech‑enabled services and says over 60% of first‑time bookings are direct. Placemakr has begun acquiring assets—buying a 313‑unit building in Nashville and planning a mix of furnished and unfurnished units—and aims to be involved in unit construction in the future. It is Washington, D.C.‑based and positions its blended inventory mix as a way to drive higher average occupancy and operational efficiency. WhyHotel operates 100- to 250-room pop-up hotels with 24/7 on-site staff in newly built, luxury apartment buildings, providing developers a way to utilize units during lease-up and guests an alternative travel stay. Led by CEO and co-founder Jason Fudin, the company runs a hospitality model that integrates short-term stays into residential developments. WhyHotel plans to use new funding to enhance its team, expand its presence nationwide and add products and services for guests. The company has created a new business arm, Hospitality Living, targeted to launch in 2022 to deliver flexible-use development offerings. Financially, WhyHotel has raised over $35M since its 2017 inception and recently closed a Series B round of more than $20M. The company is based in Washington, DC. WhyHotel operates temporary "pop-up" hotels of roughly 100–250 rooms with 24/7 on-site hospitality, security and cleaning staff inside newly built, luxury apartment buildings. The company partners with developers and property owners to monetize units during lease-up while offering guests furnished apartments with building amenities and discounted temporary rates. After several 2018 pop-up launches in D.C. and Baltimore, WhyHotel is expanding to Northern Virginia (Ballston Quarter, Centro Arlington and The Boro) and plans nationwide growth in 2019 with ambitions to move beyond the East Coast. The company raised capital to fund new site launches and to hire across technology, brand, sales and human capital. WhyHotel also says it will pursue additional pop-ups in existing cities to create a more permanent presence despite the temporary nature of individual programs. The company is Washington, D.C.-based. WhyHotel is an alternative lodging service that operates 100–250 room pop-up hotels with round-the-clock on-site staff in newly built, luxury apartment buildings. The company offers long-term renters in those buildings the benefit of an on-site hotel to host friends and family at rates about half the price of traditional hotels. WhyHotel supports the hotel experience with 24/7 hospitality staff and has run successful pop-ups such as The Bartlett in Washington, D.C. After that success, it launched a new pop-up in Baltimore’s Downtown/Inner Harbor area in partnership with Monument Realty at 225 North Calvert Street (150+ units). Led by President and Co‑founder Bao Vuong, the company plans to use recent funding to launch hotels in its pipeline and to source talent for upcoming projects across major U.S. cities. Operations focus on integrating temporary hotel units into existing luxury residential buildings to capture both transient guests and building residents’ needs.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2016

Virgil Security provides a cryptographic software platform that enables developers to build end-to-end encryption, passwordless authentication, and cryptographic verification of data, devices, and identities without cryptographic training. The company offers tools and APIs for application developers to integrate cryptographic features into their products. Founded in May 2014 by Michael W. Wellman, Virgil is based in Manassas, Virginia and also has offices in Kiev, Ukraine. Earlier this year it signed a partnership with Twilio to enable developers to integrate its end-to-end encryption into Twilio’s messaging services. Virgil is a graduate of the MACH37 Cyber Accelerator’s Fall 2014 cohort. It closed a $4M Series A and intends to use the funds to accelerate market adoption, expand developer evangelism and sales teams, and extend its technology into additional vertical markets. Virgil Security is a cybersecurity startup based in Manassas, VA that provides cryptographic software libraries combined with a cloud-based public key management service for developers and end-users. Its technology is designed to enable enhanced privacy and security for desktop, mobile, and web applications, cloud services, and the Internet of Things. The company was co-founded by CEO Michael W. Wellman and CTO Dmitry Dain, alumni of the Fall 2014 cohort of the MACH37 Cyber Accelerator. Virgil closed $525k in seed funding. The company intends to use the funds to continue developing its core cybersecurity technology and to expand its go-to-market strategies and staff.

Participated · Series A · Aug 2015

Filament develops a patented, decentralized network stack that combines long-range, low-power wireless hardware and edge software to enable secure machine-to-machine communication in environments with intermittent or no cloud connectivity. Its platform encrypts down to the hardware level and leverages blockchain technology so devices can discover, communicate, and transact value independent of a central authority. Filament focuses on the networking layer rather than endpoint devices, providing edge processing and compatibility with legacy and multi-vendor systems. The company plans to scale hardware manufacturing and expand platform features, including pinpoint GPS functionality and enhanced smart contract capabilities, and to build a broader ecosystem of delivery partners and integrators. Filament has offices in Reno, Denver, Minneapolis, and San Francisco. As of this financing the company has raised $21.8 million in total venture funding. Filament is a Reno, Nevada-based enterprise technology company building smart industrial infrastructure by connecting existing machinery, equipment and assets to wireless sensor networks. The company is developing new blockchain technologies to allow industrial customers to deploy and operate standalone sensor networks with existing infrastructure, in any environment, with or without the cloud. Use cases cited include controlling city outdoor lighting, monitoring grain silos, and tracking soil conditions across farms. Filament’s networks include hardware devices called “Taps,” which have embedded environmental sensors, USB and GPIO for expanded sensor or machine control, and hardware cryptographic chips for secure accessibility and communication. The company closed a $5M Series A led by Bullpen Capital with participation from Verizon Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Samsung Ventures, Digital Currency Group and others. Filament has additional offices in Denver and San Francisco and is led by co-founder and CEO Eric Jennings.