Participated · Series E · Jan 2020

Catalant Technologies operates an Expert Marketplace and a SaaS product that connect companies with freelance professionals as an alternative to traditional consulting firms. The company says it works with 35 percent of Fortune 1000 companies, including Pfizer and DuPont. Catalant positions freelancers as cost-effective, more agile options for strategic work in areas such as supply chain, data analytics, and project management. The company called 2020 a “watershed year” with record demand on its platform and said the pandemic accelerated an existing shift toward independent work. Catalant plans to use the new funding to scale its business and team to meet rising demand. The eight-year-old, Boston-based company has raised more than $100 million to date. Catalant Technologies offers a software and services platform for managing strategy execution, work planning, resource management, and insights and reporting. Its Resources module provides access to more than 65,000 independent experts and 1,000 consulting firms in 127 countries, supporting enterprise portfolio management and transformation workstreams. Customers include Anheuser‑Busch InBev, MassMutual, Highmark Health and Pfizer. Founded in 2013 as an online marketplace to match companies with consultants, Catalant has expanded into software for centers of excellence, organizational redesigns, post‑merger integrations, and agile transformations. The company recently raised a $35M Series E and expanded its debt facility to scale its product offering and enter new global markets, bringing total equity and debt funding to more than $100M. The financing and debt expansion are intended to scale the product and accelerate global expansion. Catalant provides a suite of software products that combine clients’ internal talent with a global network of more than 40,000 independent consultants and boutique firms to form dynamic talent pools. The platform matches companies to experts for work across research, strategy, marketing, finance, sales, operations and product initiatives. Led by co-CEOs and co-founders Rob Biederman and Patrick Petitti, Catalant serves thousands of global clients, including nearly one quarter of the Fortune 100. The company plans to use newly raised funds to further develop its software products and matching capabilities and to educate corporate decision makers on incorporating dynamic talent into strategic plans. Financially, Catalant has raised more than $73M in total financing to date and maintains a debt facility for ongoing financing needs. HourlyNerd is a Boston-based on-demand staffing platform that provides programming and other skilled staff for short-term projects without companies having to recruit or hire. The company is shifting toward enterprise customers and is updating its platform to include analytics and services to help customers manage time, work product and staffing requirements over time. At its core it matches skilled workers to project needs and is building tools to measure performance and incentivize on-demand talent. HourlyNerd currently has 65 employees and claims around 10 percent of the Fortune 500 as customers, including Pfizer and GE. The firm sees a future of more project-based skilled work and is positioning its platform as a full-service solution for large companies. Financially, it has raised a $22 million Series C and had previously raised around $12 million in total. HourlyNerd is a Boston, MA-based online talent marketplace that links elite independent freelancers and top MBA students who have worked at leading consulting firms and investment banks with businesses. Led by co-CEOs and co-founders Rob Biederman and Pat Petitti, the platform attracted over 4,500 companies using more than 10,000 consultants from around the country and the world within a few months via referrals, social network mentions and word of mouth. The company raised $7.8M in a Series B round led by Highland Capital Partners, with participation from GE Ventures, Greylock Partners, Intuit founder Scott Cook, the Kraft Group, angel investor Semil Shah, former Etsy CEO Maria Thomas, Rent the Runway Founder/CEO Jennifer Hyman and Suffolk Equity Partners. HourlyNerd said it will use the funds to continue to expand its technology platform. The Series B follows a Series A financing 11 months earlier led by Highland Capital Partners and Greylock Partners and an earlier seed round led by angel investor Mark Cuban.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2019

Pensa develops a retail inventory visibility system that combines artificial intelligence, computer vision and autonomous drones to see and understand products on store shelves. Its solution detects stockouts with 98+ percent shelf accuracy and has demonstrated up to 40% more accuracy in stockout detection versus industry practice. The system is designed to be simple, flexible and low-cost-per-store, enabling scalability across multiple store locations. Pensa has completed pilots and expanded into commercial deployments with major retailers and global brands, including Anheuser-Busch InBev. The company announced an additional $10M seed financing and has now raised $17.2M total. Pensa says the new funds will accelerate delivery and deployment of its retail inventory visibility system.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2019

Pensa Systems offers a retail inventory visibility system that uses advanced computer vision, patent-pending artificial intelligence and autonomous drones to see and understand store shelves. The system detects stockouts with 98+ percent shelf accuracy and is designed to be scalable across store locations via a simple, flexible, low-cost-per-store deployment model. Pensa’s solution aims to help brands and retailers minimize stockouts, optimize product planning and increase revenue. The company has completed pilots with major retailers and global brands, including Anheuser-Busch InBev. Pensa intends to use the new funding to accelerate deployment of its retail inventory visibility solution. Financially, the company has now raised a total of $17.2M. Pensa Systems delivers a scalable system that automatically and systematically tracks in-store inventory using advanced computer vision, patent-pending artificial intelligence and autonomous drones. Led by president and CEO Richard Schwartz, the company has completed multiple live trials with major consumer brands and retailers. Notably, Anheuser-Busch InBev participated as a strategic investor through its ZX Ventures unit. Pensa intends to use the new funds to accelerate deployment of its system for retail inventory visibility and to expand store trials with large retailers and CPG brands in North America and abroad. The company has raised a total of $7.2M to date and will apply this capital toward commercial rollouts and additional trials. Its technology aims to help brands and retailers minimize stockouts, optimize product planning and increase revenue. Pensa Systems is an Austin, Texas–based provider of autonomous perception systems for inventory visibility. The company offers a software solution that gives retailers and manufacturers an automated view of retail shelves using autonomous vision capture on the front end. On the back end it applies a novel AI approach to predict out-of-stock products. Pensa is led by Richard Schwartz, President and CEO. It is currently conducting customer field trials and plans to release further product details at a later date. The company intends to use new funding to accelerate product development and support market demand.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2017

PartyWith (formerly Party with a Local) is a revamped mobile app that helps users discover and join nightlife events and meet new people in person. The app emphasizes events — clubbing, live music, festivals, bars and genre-specific nights — with listings added primarily by users. PartyWith has tested brand partnerships and sponsored events with Budweiser, TimeOut and Thrillist, though it does not yet have formal relationships with event organizers. The founder, Dan Fennessy, says the app is not for dating and the team removed gender filters to discourage hookup use. The company reports more than 170,000 users and a team of five from five continents, and the new version is available as a free download on the App Store. Longer-term plans include expanding into other verticals such as meals, sports and broader social meetups.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2017

Founded in 2014 by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, Starship Technologies has created the world’s largest autonomous delivery network, with more than 2,700 Level-4-autonomous robots operating across 270+ locations in seven countries. The robots have completed over 9 million deliveries, covering more than 12 million miles and preventing an estimated 650 tonnes of CO₂ emissions versus traditional delivery methods. Starship’s core product is an AI-powered, sidewalk-level delivery robot that integrates with platforms such as Grubhub, Bolt, Wolt and Foodora, enabling sub-30-minute, low-cost last-mile service. The company claims positive gross margins today, driven by the cost efficiency of autonomous delivery compared to human couriers. Looking ahead, management plans to scale the fleet from 2,700+ robots to more than 12,000 by 2027 and expand from U.S. university campuses and 30+ European cities into major American urban markets. Its unmatched dataset—generated by robots making two autonomous road crossings per second—continually refines safety, routing and reliability, reinforcing a competitive moat. To date, Starship has raised over $280 million to cement its leadership in delivery robotics.