JERUSALEM and NEW YORK, May 4, 2023 — Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), a leading Venture Capital fund, today announced that it is expanding its team in New York, welcoming Shlomi Hagai as Partner and Head of the international JVP Cyber-Climate-tech center in NYC.

Shlomi brings over 25 years of experience as a CEO and CFO of leading fast-growing international technology companies, and we have the privilege of working with him in some of the JVP portfolio companies.

For the past 4 years, Shlomi was the group CFO of Contentsquare a French -US – Israeli global leader in digital experience analytics, which has hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, and its AI-powered platform provides rich and contextual insight into customer behaviors, feelings, and intent.

Shlomi will be working closely with JVP’s scaleup companies, as they are building their marketing and Sales organizations in New York and become international market leaders.

Erel Margalit, Founder and Executive Chairman of JVP and Margalit Startup City said, “We are excited to welcome Shlomi Hagai as our new Partner to lead the JVP New York office and to spearhead our international cyber-climate-tech center in NYC. JVP partners and the senior management team wish Shlomi great success in his new role and look forward to continuing to build together global market leaders on the West, East Coast, and internationally”.

Commenting on his new role, Shlomi Hagai said: “I am grateful to Erel for the great opportunity to join one of the leading funds in the world.  After spending 25 years working in international technology companies, I am eager to embark on a new venture with JVP. I have a longstanding relationship with many of the JVP partners and the team. JVP is home to companies from Israel, and with New York serving as a crucial hub for the global market, I find this opportunity incredibly thrilling. My aim is to drive JVP towards significant growth and profitability, to strengthen our presence in the ecosystem, provide support to our portfolio companies that are based in New York, and identify new investment opportunities.”

About JVP:
Founded in 1993 by Dr. Erel Margalit, JVP is an internationally renowned VC fund. It is among the pioneering firms of the Israeli VC industry and has raised over $1.75bn and invests in companies in the early and growth stages. Over the years, JVP has built over 160 companies and has been listed numerous times by Preqin, as one of the top six consistently performing VC firms worldwide with portfolio companies that drive global markets today. JVP’s winning strategy combines company creation with early and late-stage investment.

JVP has been instrumental in building some of the world’s largest companies to emerge, orchestrated dozens of industry acquisitions to leading international companies including IPOs on NASDAQ in the areas of communication, cyber, AI & enterprise, fintech, including CyberArk ($5.5 billion), Qlik ($2.5 billion), Netro ($5.5 billion), Chromatis ($4.8 billion), Cogent ($2.5 billion). The core areas of the fund’s investments are Cyber, Enterprise & AI, Fintech & Insurtech, and Foodtech & Agtech, now adding ClimaTech.Over the past decade, JVP has spearheaded the creation of international Centers of Excellence, including the AI and Media Center in Jerusalem, the Cyber Center in Beer Sheva, the FoodTech Center in the Galilee, the Digital Health Center in Haifa, the Fintech Center in Tel Aviv and the International Cyber and Climate-tech Center in NYC.  Visit the JVP Website https://www.jvpvc.com.

 Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2069632/JVP.jpg

SOURCE JVP

The round included participation from Fin Capital, Great Oaks, Mantis, WndrCo, Ethos and Jaws

NEW YORK, May 4, 2023 — Setscale, a fintech startup revolutionizing purchase order financing for SMBs, today announced it has raised a $9.5M seed funding round, as well as secured up to $70M in debt.

The company’s CEO and Founder, Daniel Fine, saw the opportunity for Setscale after he and his team built a nine-figure business, but left millions in orders on the table due to lack of funding options for small businesses. With this new endeavor, the Setscale team aims to mitigate this issue for SMBs by providing alternative financing options that enable them to scale. Round participants include Fin Capital, Great Oaks, Mantis, WndrCo, Ethos and Jaws along with executives and founders from top Fintech and SaaS companies.

Banks have nearly always underserved SMBs and the fallout from Silicon Valley Bank has put more strain on this issue. Setscale provides a flexible alternative, enabling companies to fulfill existing and forward demand through an underwriting model intended to help companies scale. Rather than relying on traditional and legacy institutions, SMBs can use Setscale independently or in partnership with existing capital to fund their inventory and purchase orders.

Coming out of stealth, Setscale’s leadership team is rounded out by Jesse Roth, Chief Business Officer and General Counsel, Tami Mohney, Chief Strategy Officer, Don Renyer, Chief Product Officer, and Tim Bjorkman, Chief Technology Officer.

“As a business owner, I’ve experienced the struggles of financing purchase orders first-hand,” said Fine. “There’s clearly a need for more financing options for companies that might be overlooked by legacy financial institutions, even though there is market demand for their products. This is a critical time for companies to understand how and from where they will access capital – it’s an exciting challenge and with the support of our partners, our team is poised to help product-based companies thrive and meet consumer and B2B demand.”

Setscale will use the funding to expand its current tech offerings, continue building out its team, and double down on marketing efforts. The debt facility enables Setscale to deploy capital to its partners to finance product purchases from credit worthy end buyers.

“We are committed to supporting repeat founders and Daniel’s vast experience in many business endeavors gives him a unique perspective on what business owners need, especially in this challenging climate,” said Logan Allin, Founder and Managing Partner of Fin Capital. “Setscale’s innovative approach to purchase order financing is exactly the type of B2B fintech Fin Capital is excited about, bringing scalability to businesses.”

Setscale has helped companies across the CPG, ecommerce, health and wellness, medical and manufacturing spaces, enabling transactions for dozens of entities.

To learn more about Setscale, please visit https://setscale.com/

About Setscale:
Setscale is a fintech startup solving the trade financing dilemma for small businesses. Small businesses frequently get purchase orders, but don’t have the money to fill them. Through its PO financing technology, Setscale finances the cost of those goods, allowing small businesses to focus on product and sales, enabling them to scale. Setscale is an ideal partner for SMBs, coming in where traditional financial institutions won’t, enabling SMB’s to finance their growth. Setscale funds supply. You meet demand.

SOURCE Setscale

MILWAUKEE, May 4, 2023 — EVEN is on a mission to build equity in the music industry by empowering Artists and Fans to invest in each other. EVEN allows Artists to sell their music directly to fans before uploading their music on streaming platforms. In turn, Fans are rewarded like never before with access to exclusive content, merch, tour tickets, and one-of-a-kind experiences with their favorite Artists.

EVEN believes there needs to be a shift to the existing paradigm for emerging and established talent, particularly Black and Brown artists to earn their fair worth for their contributions to the music industry. “I’m encouraging artists to go through EVEN and use their system because as an artist, people should buy your art from you.” – LaRussell. EVEN’s MVP artist launch with Hip Hop artist LaRussell resulted in approximately $100,00 in revenue and a + 2000% increase in his overall streaming revenue. To put it into perspective, on streaming platforms, an artist would typically need over 200,000 fans per month to generate $5,000 in revenue. Built on the Blockchain technology, EVEN ensures that artists and their teams are paid immediately and transparently after each transaction.

“We are excited to champion EVEN’s vision to capsize the music industry and thrilled to be leading their seed round investments. EVEN has built an elegant solution connecting artists with fans in a direct and profitable way for all parties,”- Steve Mech, CSA Partner. EVEN has raised a $2.2Million seed round led by CSA partners with participation from a diverse group of investors including gener8tor, VC414, gAngels, Daniel Rotman, Adie Akuffo-Afful, Donte Murry, and Ogo.

“At EVEN, we are passionate about evening out the playing field for Artists and Fans. Artists should be able to earn fairly for their artistic contributions, and OG Fans should not be edged out of concert tickets and access to their favorite artists. With our new funding, we will be accelerating our platform with innovative tools to connect and build authentic community between artists and fans,” – Mag Rodriguez, EVEN, Founder & CEO.

The Future of Music is EVEN
EVEN was founded on two simple but powerful beliefs: Artists should be paid fairly for the music they create, and Artists and Fans should have a direct connection. We believe that Artists and Fans want to be connected in inspiring ways, and this is the foundation of EVEN’s mission and how we build technology to support these communities.

New Product Features to include:

• EVEN Chat, an on-platform destination for Artist-to-Fan communication but also fan-to-fan communication. Currently in Beta
• EVEN Fan Connect, a tool allowing Artist teams to send SMS and email notifications directly to fans on EVEN. Currently in Beta

Following EVEN’s beta launch projects with: French Montana, Destin Conrad, Kota the Friend and Xavier Omar, the future of music at EVEN is even more exciting with Spring & Summer music launches and partnerships to include:

• Grammy nominated Artist, Omarion
• Grammy nominated Artist, Jidenna
• Emerging Artist, femdot.

EVEN will be launching over 600 artists before the end of the year, with a current waitlist of 4,000+ artists.

Media Contact: Tomi Talabi, [email protected], +19174952484

SOURCE Even

MENLO PARK, Calif. and BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 4, 2023 — Oak Hill Capital (“Oak Hill“) has committed $150 million in primary capital to Lit Communities (“Lit”) to further fund and accelerate the construction of Lit’s fiber-based network in unserved and underserved communities across the United States. Lit’s existing shareholders, including Stephens Capital Partners (“Stephens”), The Pritzker Organization (“TPO”) and the Lit management team, are all remaining shareholders and plan to continue to support the business going forward.

Lit was founded in Birmingham, AL, in 2019 and leverages public-private partnerships with local governments and municipalities to build and operate last-mile fiber networks. The company now has networks in place, under construction or in planning in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

“Lit Communities is already in a strong position with the backing from Stephens and TPO – their experience in the industry and understanding of our model has been paramount in our success to date.  We’re thrilled to partner with Oak Hill to further strengthen our position by benefiting from their long-standing experience and expertise in our space,” said Brian Snider, Chief Executive Officer at Lit. “I could not be prouder of the Lit team; they are what truly sets us apart. The future is extremely bright at Lit.”

“This is a pivotal point for our company,” said Andrew Massey, Chief Financial Officer for Lit. “We’ve spent years developing an expertise in collaboratively working with local governments and municipalities to determine where and how to efficiently build networks. The Oak Hill investment provides us the capital and expertise to accelerate our plans of providing ultra-fast, reliable, and affordable broadband service in the communities we partner with and serve.”

In partnership with local communities and vendors, Lit has successfully built and currently operates fiber networks reaching approximately 20,000 homes and businesses. Oak Hill’s investment will enable Lit to bring state-of-the-art, high-speed fiber-to-the-home networks to more than 200,000 locations over the next few years. Oak Hill is an experienced investor in broadband expansion through fast-growing, independently owned networks in multiple states. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Brian and his talented team, alongside Stephens and TPO, to support the expansion of Lit’s fiber network to many more underserved American communities,” said Adam Hahn, Principal at Oak Hill. “We believe that reliable, high-speed access to the Internet is fundamental to driving economic growth and equal opportunity in local communities across the country,” added Jeff Butler, Vice President at Oak Hill.

Bank Street Group LLC served as exclusive financial advisor and Latham & Watkins LLP and Maynard Nexsen served as legal counsel to Lit Communities and existing equityholders in connection with this transaction. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP served as legal counsel to Oak Hill.

About Lit Communities

Lit Communities provides a full, turnkey solution for building broadband infrastructure in communities of all sizes, enabling them to create digital equity for their residents, businesses, and municipalities. We partner with real estate developers, municipal, county, and other governmental entities, as well as a variety of private partners to deploy last-mile fiber optic network infrastructure. Our networks also support a wide variety of other services in addition to internet, including but not limited to voice, telehealth, home security, home automation, small cell, DAS, and wireless backhaul, and public safety applications. For more information, please visit www.litcommunities.net.

About Oak Hill Capital

Oak Hill is a longstanding private equity firm focused on the North America middle-market. Oak Hill is a specialist, theme-based investor dedicated to investing in the following industry sectors: Media & Communications, Industrials, Services, and Consumer. The Firm implements a highly systematic approach to theme development, proactive origination, and value creation in partnership with management to build franchises of lasting value. Over the past 35+ years, Oak Hill and its predecessors have raised over $20 billion of initial capital commitments & co-investments and invested in approximately 100 companies representing an aggregate enterprise value at acquisition of over $60 billion. For more information, please visit www.oakhill.com.

About Stephens Capital Partners

Stephens Capital Partners LLC (“SCP”) is the principal investing arm of the Warren A. Stephens family and Stephens Inc. SCP identifies opportunities to work with industry-leading management teams with a long-term perspective. SCP provides public and private companies with capital for purposes of growth, recapitalization, and leveraged buyouts. For more information, see www.stephenscapitalpartners.com. 

Stephens Inc. is a full-service investment banking firm headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas serving a broad client base of corporations, state and local governments, financial institutions, institutional and individual investors throughout the United States and overseas. The firm is a member of the New York Stock Exchange and SIPC. For more information, see www.stephens.com.

About The Pritzker Organization

The Pritzker Organization is focused on partnering with exceptional leaders to create value across a wide range of industries. For more than 60 years, TPO has overseen and guided the development of dozens of portfolio companies across a wide variety of industries, including telecom, manufacturing, logistics, life sciences, hospitality, healthcare, and services. Additional information can be found at https://pritzkerorg.com/.

SOURCE Lit Communities – LW

“We look forward to this next phase of growth as we continue to define the emerging connected worker software category,” said Sundeep Ravande, Founder and CEO of Innovapptive. “Vista has significant experience scaling enterprise software businesses and emerging technologies. We are thrilled to have them lead our Series B investment and work alongside our team to advance and scale our vision, product innovation and go-to-market efforts. This partnership will enhance our platform capabilities to integrate with enterprise systems, capture actionable insights, make recommendations for productivity and safety, and close the loop between assets and people.”

The investment in Innovapptive was made by Vista’s Endeavor Fund, which provides growth capital and strategic support to market-leading, high-growth enterprise software, data and technology-enabled companies that have achieved at least $10 million in recurring revenue. Endeavor partnerships focus on growth, market strategy, talent and customer success – building enduring businesses designed to scale. Founders and management teams benefit from the expertise and support of Vista and its global ecosystem to deliver unparalleled value to their customers, unlock the potential of their employees and accelerate market leadership. Ben Benson, Senior Vice President at Vista, will join Innovapptive’s Board of Directors effective immediately.

“Innovapptive is a high-growth, emerging leader in the connected worker software category. Its mission-critical solutions satisfy the growing demand from asset-intensive industries to connect front-line and back-office data sources for enhanced business operations, well positioning the Company for long-term growth and success,” said Rachel Arnold, Co-Head of Vista’s Endeavor Fund and Senior Managing Director. “Sundeep and his team possess the vision, talent and deep institutional knowledge to shape the future of connected worker solutions; we look forward to our partnership and helping them achieve their goals,” added Benson.

About Innovapptive

Innovapptive is a global leader for industrial connected worker solutions that brings front-line workers, back-office and assets together. The company uniquely unlocks all aspects of an enterprise’s work management processes with its flagship patented no-code connected worker platform and integrated suite of apps that tightly integrate with enterprise ERP’s, enterprise asset management (EAM) and asset performance management (APM) systems. The platform empowers operators, maintenance and warehouse teams to seamlessly collaborate and communicate to carry out work identification to work management workflows. Today, Innovapptive serves some of the world’s largest asset intensive customers and helps them attract and retain the best talent with it’s platform’s end to end digital solutions to improve operational efficiencies, safety, compliance, asset uptime, and reliability. Innovapptive is headquartered in Houston, TX, with offices in Australia, and India. Learn more at www.innovapptive.com.

About Vista Equity Partners

Vista is a leading global investment firm with more than $96 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2022. The firm exclusively invests in enterprise software, data and technology-enabled organizations across private equity, permanent capital, credit and public equity strategies, bringing an approach that prioritizes creating enduring market value for the benefit of its global ecosystem of investors, companies, customers and employees. Vista’s investments are anchored by a sizable long-term capital base, experience in structuring technology-oriented transactions and proven, flexible management techniques that drive sustainable growth. Vista believes the transformative power of technology is the key to an even better future – a healthier planet, a smarter economy, a diverse and inclusive community and a broader path to prosperity. Further information is available at vistaequitypartners.com. Follow Vista on LinkedIn, @Vista Equity Partners, and on Twitter, @Vista_Equity.

Innovapptive Media Contact
Sri Karthik
[email protected]
(317) 361-2007

Vista Equity Partners Media Contact
Brian W. Steel
[email protected]
(212) 804-9170

SOURCE Innovapptive

NEW YORK, May 4, 2023 — OKX Ventures, the investment arm of the second-largest crypto platform by trading volume and Web3 technology company OKX, today announced that it has invested in community-based NFT marketplace and aggregator AlienSwap.

Since the AlienSwap beta version was released two months ago, its cumulative trading volume has exceeded USD$50 million. Currently, AlienSwap ranks third in daily active users and fifth in daily trading volume on the Ethereum network. With this round of funding, AlienSwap will officially begin its scaled growth and aim to become the top NFT marketplace.

OKX Ventures Founder Dora Yue said: “With the total trading volume of NFTs reaching approximately USD$24.7 billion in 2022, OKX Ventures is optimistic about the long-term development of the NFT sector and we’ve already laid out plans for multiple NFT projects. OKX Ventures hopes that this investment can help AlienSwap become a more efficient NFT marketplace and reshape the competitive landscape of the industry.”

AlienSwap Founder Ying Mu said: “The new investments will be used to expand the AlienSwap engineering team, develop innovative liquidity tools and trading products for NFTs, and increase investment in NFT infrastructure to enhance the community’s trading experience. The core team of AlienSwap and all investors share a consistent goal: to build a leading NFT trading platform in the industry and inject new vitality into the NFT ecosystem through product innovation and community building.”

About OKX Ventures
OKX Ventures is the investment arm of the second-largest crypto exchange by trading volume and Web3 technology company OKX, with an initial capital commitment of USD 100 million. It focuses on exploring the best blockchain projects on a global scale, supporting cutting-edge blockchain technology innovation, promoting the healthy development of the global blockchain industry, and investing in long-term structural value.

Through its commitment to supporting entrepreneurs who contribute to the development of the blockchain industry, OKX Ventures helps build innovative companies and brings global resources and historical experience to blockchain projects.

Find out more about OKX Ventures here.

About OKX
OKX is a world-leading technology company building the future of Web3. Known as one of the fastest and most reliable crypto trading platform for investors and professional traders everywhere, OKX’s crypto exchange is the second largest globally by trading volume.

OKX’s leading self-custody solutions include the Web3-compatible OKX Wallet, which allows users greater control of their assets while expanding access to DEXs, NFT marketplaces, DeFi, GameFi and thousands of dApps.

OKX partners with a number of the world’s top brands and athletes, including: English Premier League champions Manchester City F.C., McLaren Formula 1, The Tribeca Festival, golfer Ian Poulter, Olympian Scotty James, and F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo.

OKX is committed to transparency and security and publishes its Proof of Reserves on a monthly basis.

To learn more about OKX, visit: okx.com

SOURCE OKX

Led by Iron Pillar, the round saw participation from Uncorrelated Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Chiratae Ventures, Next47 and prominent angel investors.

SAN JOSE, Calif. and CHENNAI, India, May 3, 2023 — Supply chain software leader, Pando, today announced its Series B funding of $30 million, bringing total capital raised so far, to $45 million. The round was led by marquee Silicon Valley investors Iron Pillar and Uncorrelated Ventures, with participation from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Chiratae Ventures and Next47. Several prominent American CEOs and angel investors also participated in this round including David Dorman, Chairman of CVS Health and Director on the Boards of Dell and Paypal, Tom Noonan, Director on the Boards of New York Stock Exchange and SalesLoft, Scott Kirk of Bain Capital, Paul Brown of Dunkin’, Baskin-Robbins and Neiman Marcus, Nick Mehta of Gainsight, and Amar Goel of Pubmatic. The fresh funds will be used to drive Pando’s growth across geographies and industries.

In the last few years, supply chain disruptions have peaked, hindering business growth and consumers’ access to quality products. According to a recent Deloitte survey, over 70% of manufacturing executives reported that their companies have been impacted by supply chain disruptions in the past year, with 90% of those companies experiencing increased costs and declining productivity. With global enterprises investing in supply chain technology to improve agility, efficiency and resilience, the logistics tech market is estimated to grow to $25 billion by 2025. Pando is well-positioned to ride this growth wave, and drive supply chain agility for the 2030 economy.

Investors see Pando’s platform as critical in the modern supply chain toolkit to bring innovation and resilience to the industry. Mohanjit Jolly, Partner at Iron Pillar who led the Series B, believes that Pando is uniquely positioned to be a global leader in this growing category. “The Logistics Tech market is ripe for disruption – there is high demand caused by volatility, legacy competition that is trying to catch up and a trend towards bundling point solutions. Pando addresses the problem holistically and, with its world-class talent in India and the US, takes a global view to IP-led product development. Their growth with multiple Fortune 500 companies is testimony to the quality of the product and management team, but their focus on building a large long-term business is what got us excited to partner with Abhijeet and Nitin. Iron Pillar is eager to leverage its global network of customers, partners, strategic capital and more to help accelerate Pando’s journey.”

Pando’s recently launched Fulfillment Cloud is a ‘single pane of glass’ to streamline the end-to-end order-to-fulfillment process of manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and 3PLs. This AI-powered, no-code platform for collaborative fulfillment has proven itself globally, improving service levels, and reducing carbon footprint and costs for several Fortune 500 enterprises such as Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Nivea, Accuride, Danaher, Perfetti Van Melle, and BP Castrol.

“Pando’s Fulfillment Cloud has been proven across several industries in the last few years, with strong revenue growth, marquee customer logos, high CSATs, and a fully built-out enterprise-grade platform. Pando is now expanding into new industries and geographies, especially the US.” said Abhishek Sharma, Managing Director at Nexus Venture Partners who seeded the company in 2018.

Parvesh Ghai, CRO – Asia Pacific, agrees, “Since Pando’s Series A in 2020, our revenue has grown 8x, and our customer base, 5x. We’re scaling our North America and Global business with marquee customer wins and a network of strong partners.” John Zimmerman, CRO – North America & Europe, adds, “Many large companies in North America and Europe are consolidating their supply chain technology from siloed point solutions to unified platforms, and in-sourcing their logistics from 3PLs. Pando’s solution is timely – its end-to-end capabilities and quantifiable value-driven success stories with marquee global brands is driving significant traction in the US market, where supply chain leaders are clamouring for change.”

“Most of the brands we love and live with are weighed down by legacy logistics tools that make their products less affordable, accessible and eco-friendly. Pando’s platform allows these brands to automate manual processes, modernize legacy systems and plug the gaps between tools without multi-year transformations, delivering change here and now,” said Nitin Jayakrishnan, Pando’s CEO.

Pando’s CTO, Abhijeet Manohar, said, “Whether we take HRMS, CRM, ITSM or SCM – ultimately, enterprise processes are data problems. Enterprises are struggling to piece together a comprehensive view of their supply chain. Just like how the world evolved from legacy applications to new-age cloud technology in these categories, supply chain software is evolving towards Pando.”

About Pando: 

Pando is a global leader in supply chain technology with its AI-powered, no-code Fulfillment Cloud platform. Pando’s Fulfillment Cloud provides manufacturers, retailers, and 3PLs with a single pane of glass to streamline the end-to-end order-to-fulfillment process to improve service levels and reduce carbon footprint and costs. As a partner of choice for Fortune 500 enterprises globally, with a presence across APAC and the US, Pando is recognized by Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum (WEF), and as one of the fastest-growing technology companies by Deloitte.

If you are embarking on digital transformation for your logistics operations, reach out to Pando at https://www.pando.ai.

SOURCE Pando

Fedi Building New “Federated Operating System” Category With Initial Rollout to Builder Community

AUSTIN, Texas, May 3, 2023 — Fedi, Inc., a U.S. based developer of community-empowering financial and data technology, announced today that it has raised $17 million in a Series A round of financing, and is set to pre-launch an Alpha version of Fedi for builders later this month.

CEO Obi Nwosu said: “We are excited that with so much interest in this round, we were able to select investors who are fully aligned on the future we are trying to create with Fedi, the world’s first federated operating system.”

Fedi aims to be the world’s first federated operating system. It will empower individuals to collaborate through “federations”—made up of friends, families, neighbours, nonprofit organisations, social clubs, businesses, conferences and other forms of community—to take control of their money, their data, and their digital lives while still protecting user privacy and autonomy. It provides a resilient, privacy-protecting, and simple way for people who don’t have access to or don’t trust centralised alternatives to secure and use their data and money.

Because Fedi is built on the open-source Fedimint protocol, it makes it easy for developers to build additional apps and modules to complement Fedi’s offerings and give more options to users.

“The Bitcoin community already knows the tremendous potential of the protocol,” Nwosu said. “But what’s most exciting about Fedi is that you don’t have to be an existing Bitcoiner, or even particularly tech-savvy, to quickly start using this to solve real problems within your community.”

The financing round was led by Ego Death Capital, with participation from TBD, part of Block, Kingsway, Trammell Venture Partners, and Timechain. The Series A brings the total amount raised by Fedi to $21.21 million. Earlier seed round investors included Ten 31, Hivemind, Steve Lee, and Recursive Capital. Fedi is led by CEO Nwosu, who co-founded the company with Eric Sirion and Justin Moon….[READ MORE]

About Fedi

Fedi aims to be the first federated operating system, and is also the name of the company building it. Fedi empowers people to collaborate within their communities to take control of their money, their data, and their digital lives while protecting user privacy and autonomy.

For more visit fedi.xyz/aboutus and fedi.xyz/series-a or contact [email protected]. 

SOURCE Fedi

LOS ANGELES, May 3, 2023 — Henry Rose, a genderless fine fragrance brand founded by Michelle Pfeiffer, announces a Series A investment led by Sandbridge Capital. The partnership marks the brand’s first external investment since its launch in 2019.

Henry Rose sets a new precedent for safety and transparency in fine fragrance by disclosing 100% of its ingredients. It was created based on the strictest and most comprehensive health, safety, and environmental standards set forth by two industry leading non-profit organizations, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Products Innovation Institute. It is the first and only fine fragrance to receive both distinctions of EWG Verified® and Cradle to Cradle Certified™.

Since launching with five fine fragrances via a direct-to-consumer model, Henry Rose has now grown to include 11 fine fragrances and multiple product categories, including home and body. The brand has experienced exceptional revenue growth, more than doubling its new customers year over year and building a loyal community that identifies with the brand’s mission. It has expanded into retail distribution with luxury beauty retailers including Credo, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom.

This partnership will be leveraged to further grow Henry Rose’s retail distribution, expand its team, and fuel marketing efforts to increase brand awareness. Henry Rose recently tapped YARD NYC to develop the brand’s first major advertising campaign, set to be unveiled early this Summer. The campaign will debut with a billboard in Times Square, with additional rollouts planned across OOH and digital platforms.

“We are thrilled to partner with Michelle and her inspired Henry Rose team. There is a tangible groundswell among consumers for ingredient transparency paired with timeless storytelling across the clean beauty landscape,” said Ken Suslow, Founder and Managing Partner of Sandbridge Capital. “Michelle has thoughtfully captured this balance, artfully blending her pure mission-driven approach with a compellingly modern offering of best-in-class fine fragrances. We very much look forward to engaging our global brand building expertise in support of Henry Rose’s already impressive growth trajectory.”

“I founded Henry Rose based on my belief that we shouldn’t have to sacrifice quality for safety,” said Michelle Pfeiffer, Founder and Creative Director of Henry Rose. “We partnered with Ken and the Sandbridge Capital team not only for the expertise they provide as beauty industry investors, but also for their commitment to our brand’s mission. This partnership underscores our shared belief that greater transparency is the future and everyone has the right to know what’s in the products they use.”

“Over the past four years, Henry Rose has established itself as a disruptor in the beauty industry by challenging the status quo,” said Debi Theis, President of Henry Rose. “The brand’s evolution to date has been extremely intentional, so it was important to find a partner that would champion, rather than shy away from, our bold stance on ingredient transparency, safety, and sustainability. Ken immediately embraced our values as non-negotiables, and we are thrilled to usher in this next phase of brand growth together.”

The Sage Group served as financial advisor to Henry Rose.

For more information, please visit www.henryrose.com.

Press Contact:
Factory PR
[email protected]

About Henry Rose
Henry Rose operates on the belief that ingredient transparency is essential, and was founded to set a new precedent in fine fragrance by disclosing 100% of its ingredients. Henry Rose creates complex and evocative genderless scent experiences based on the strictest and most comprehensive health, safety and environmental standards set forth by two industry leading non-profit organizations, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Products Innovation Institute. It is the first and only fine fragrance to receive both distinctions of EWG Verified® and Cradle to Cradle Certified™.

About Sandbridge Capital
Sandbridge Capital is a private investment firm with offices in Los Angeles and New York that invests exclusively in high growth global consumer brands, including ILIA, Youth to the People, Thom Browne, Peach & Lily, U Beauty, Farfetch and Rossignol. Since its founding with the backing of an iconic group of consumer industry operators and advisors, Sandbridge has been strategically partnering with brands in the beauty, luxury, health and wellness, and disruptive consumer-based technology segments. For more information on Sandbridge, please visit http://www.sandbridgecap.com.

SOURCE Henry Rose