Ally Financial and 4S Bay join the growing list of investors supporting women and Black, Indigenous and People of Color entrepreneurs creating clean manufacturing jobs in low- and moderate-income communities

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1, 2023 — The 22 Fund (The 22), a Los Angeles-based impact, early-growth venture fund, today announced multi-million dollar investments from Ally Financial Inc. (Ally) and family office 4S Bay to support The 22’s mission to address needs of diverse entrepreneurs often overlooked by traditional investors. Ally committed up to $10 million in equity investment. 4S Bay committed $1.5 million.

“Helping create pathways for underrepresented communities is one way Ally lives its purpose to do it right and drive equity and economic mobility in communities we serve,” said Jan Bergeson, Ally’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Officer. “Diverse entrepreneurs and fund managers in manufacturing are often overlooked by traditional investors and our investment in The 22 Fund intentionally addresses a rapidly growing need for funding that will lead to more jobs for more Americans.”

The 22 invests in US-based, clean tech, innovative manufacturing companies that have the potential for fast growth and high profitability through an export driven focus. The strategy offers portfolio diversification to investors looking for real impact without financial concessions. The 22 invests with a holistic lens – racial, gender, climate and economic development – while generating above market returns through investing in high potential female and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) business leaders who have traditionally received little access to equity capital. Despite the systemic lack of capital, these business leaders and their diverse teams produce greater returns and higher exit valuations. To date, The 22 has made four investments. Each company is either woman-, BIPOC- and/or LGBTQ-owned.

“We found that as first-time, diverse fund managers, the Small Business Investment Corporations (SBICs) process comes with extreme cost and legal burdens that make it unobtainable. The 22 sees the great potential of Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) funds to address the inequities in venture capital (VC),” stated Tracy D. Gray, Founder and Managing Partner of The 22. “For over twenty years, VC has been stuck at less than 5% of women and 1% of people of color being VCs.”

Under the CRA, banks are encouraged to make investments in low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities and often include investments in affordable housing and private equity funds designated as SBICs by the Small Business Administration. However, barriers to entry in the SBIC program are substantial and have historically left out first time, diverse fund managers. The 22 meets CRA qualifications by supporting job creation, retention and/or improvement for LMI people or areas, as well as providing capital to recently formed or startup small businesses.

4S Bay, a single-family office combatting racism, bias and inequities in society, also joins a growing roster of limited partners who support The 22’s holistic mission. 

“The 22 Fund’s focus on investing in export-oriented businesses creating wealth and manufacturing jobs in BIPOC communities is perfectly aligned with the 4S Bay’s mission,” said Rashid Malik, Chief Investment Officer of 4S Bay.

About The 22 Fund 

The 22 Fund is a holistic impact investor that funds tech-based, US manufacturing companies to increase international sales (exports) and create the clean, quality jobs of the future in underserved and low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities. The 22 intentionally invests in women- and BIPOC-led firms to deliver both high ROI and high social/economic impact without concession or trade-offs. For more information, visit www.the22fund.com.

About 4S Bay Partners LLC

4S Bay Partners LLC is a single-family office that strives to eliminate prejudice and the inequities of our society. We partner with community to create economic opportunities and amplify storytelling of, for, and about marginalized communities. We achieve our mission by deploying creative private capital investments. https://4sbay.com/

About Ally Financial

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) is a financial services company with the nation’s largest all-digital bank and an industry-leading auto financing business, driven by a mission to “Do It Right” and be a relentless ally for customers and communities. The company serves more than 10.5 million customers through a full range of online banking services (including deposits, mortgage, point-of-sale personal lending, and credit card products) and securities brokerage and investment advisory services. The company also includes a robust corporate finance business that offers capital for equity sponsors and middle-market companies, as well as auto financing and insurance offerings through more than 22,000 dealers nationwide. For more information, please visit www.ally.com and follow @allyfinancial.

For more information and disclosures about Ally, visit https://www.ally.com/#disclosures.

For further images and news on Ally, please visit https://media.ally.com.

Contact:
Vanessa Gray
[email protected]

SOURCE The 22 Fund

Funding to Help Fuel Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems Designed to Save Lives

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 1, 2023 — Phantom AI, a Silicon Valley startup providing a comprehensive autonomous driving platform featuring computer vision, sensor fusion and control capabilities, today announced that it has secured $36.5 million in its Series C funding round. Existing investors include KT Investment and Renaissance Asset Management with new investors InterVest, Shinhan GIB, and Samsung Ventures participating in this round.

“This is a very exciting time for Phantom AI as customers are recognizing the critical role driver-assisted technology plays in making automobiles safer for everyone,” said Jay Jinhwan Jeon of InterVest, the lead investor in this round. “We’re thrilled to partner with Phantom AI at this time to help bring this important technology to the market.”

Phantom AI is focused on helping customers reduce accidents and make every day driving more enjoyable while unlocking what’s next for ADAS. While many companies today are focused on building the Robotaxis of the world, Phantom AI believes that the better way to build autonomous vehicles and advance the future of smart cars is to democratize the use of lifesaving ADAS technologies, similar to how seatbelts have been adopted and mainstreamed since the late 1800s.

The new round will be used to accelerate the current series production development with major OEMs. With this new round, the company has raised a total of $80.2 million since its founding in 2017.

“This funding validates investor confidence in not only our mission to save lives through innovative visual perception technology but also our ability to execute on this mission,” said Hyunggi Cho, Phantom AI’s co-founder and CEO. “We’re focused on developing and expanding our product offerings, enhancing our marketing and sales efforts and accelerating our business growth with the goal to give customers the best possible multi-camera vision solutions in the market,” added Cho.

The ADAS market is growing and poised for continued growth in the coming years despite current economic challenges. Government support for the development and implementation of ADAS technologies will help mitigate the impact of the downturn on startups like Phantom AI. 

“This is quite a contrast to L4/L5 full automation areas like Robotaxis, Robo-shuttle, and Autonomous Trucking, where investments scaled back as the automotive community realized that L4/L5 is not easily commercialized for the next few years,” said Cho.

Phantom AI was founded in 2017 by Hyunggi Cho and Chan Kyu Lee, two Korean-born technologists who met at Tesla’s cafeteria a year earlier and shared their mutual desire to unlock the potential they saw in early ADAS technology. Six months later, Cho left Tesla along with Lee to pursue their dream of making roads safe for everyone.

“Phantom AI’s ADAS platform is filling an important market need for highly innovative, effective and affordable driver-assisted technology that is difficult to find in the market today,” said a representative from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation. “The ADAS market remains strong and we see unlimited opportunity for technologies that support autonomous vehicles especially as they become more mainstream.”

About Phantom AI

Phantom AI’s mission is to democratize the use of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) to reduce accidents, save lives and make driving more enjoyable, while delivering tomorrow’s self-driving technology. Founded by a team with deep automotive and AI expertise, Phantom AI provides a comprehensive autonomous driving platform featuring computer vision, sensor fusion and control capabilities. Phantom AI has created the most accurate and highest-performing AI solutions available today that meet car manufacturer requirements, at a much lower price than existing solutions.

Phantom AI Social Media: Twitter || LinkedIn

SOURCE Phantom AI

New funding enables LeafLink to expand its suite of offerings for its industry-defining wholesale cannabis platform 

Ryan G. Smith named Executive Chairman, Artie Minson promoted to President and Chief Executive Officer, Karan Gupta hired as Chief Technology Officer

NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2023 — LeafLink, the leading wholesale cannabis platform, announced it has secured a $100 million Series D financing led by CPMG, L2 Ventures and Nosara Capital, alongside participation from existing investors. The investment will be funded in two tranches. LeafLink has implemented a series of executive leadership changes to drive the Company’s evolution.

Since its founding in 2016, LeafLink has grown to become a significant partner of brands and retailers in the legal cannabis industry, serving approximately 50% of the U.S. wholesale cannabis industry across 30 markets. The Series D investment enables LeafLink to support its customers’ evolving technology and operational needs through enhanced platform functionality.

LeafLink is evolving its executive leadership team with the following changes effective February 1, 2023:

• Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer Ryan G. Smith will be elevated to Executive Chairman. Smith will focus on long-term strategic initiatives, innovation, customer relationships, and government relations.
• President & Chief Operating Officer Artie Minson has been appointed President & Chief Executive Officer. Minson will oversee day-to-day strategy and execution of the business.
• Karan Gupta has joined LeafLink as Chief Technology Officer. Gupta will lead the Company’s engineering efforts. Prior to joining LeafLink, Gupta served in technical leadership roles for more than a decade, most recently as Chief Technology Officer at Shift Technologies.
• Co-Founder and current Chief Technology Officer Zach Silverman has transitioned into a Senior Advisor role. Silverman will continue providing counsel and guidance to LeafLink’s management team and Board of Directors.

“Despite recent headwinds, the cannabis industry is poised for significant growth in the years ahead.  Since the Company’s inception, our team has built solutions that solve some of the industry’s most critical problems. The Series D financing provides us with a strong balance sheet that will enable continued innovation alongside our customers,” said Ryan G. Smith, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors at LeafLink. “I’m proud to have served as CEO since LeafLink’s founding and am excited to transition into the role of Executive Chairman where I’ll remain deeply committed to LeafLink and the industry as a whole. I look forward to supporting and empowering the team in their roles.”

“I’m honored to serve as LeafLink’s next CEO and look forward to working with Ryan, our employees, and our Board of Directors as we continue to deliver best-in-class technology solutions for our customers. As states across the U.S. continue to legalize cannabis, we’re looking forward to growing our partnership with the industry. Our continued goal is to help brands and retailers scale their businesses while operating safely, efficiently and in compliance. Since joining the LeafLink team, I’ve been amazed at our team’s commitment and ability to deploy industry-first solutions for our customers. I’m incredibly excited about broadening our platform’s capabilities and deepening our customer relationships in the next phase of the Company’s growth,” said Artie Minson, incoming President and CEO of LeafLink.

About LeafLink

LeafLink, the cannabis industry’s leading B2B technology platform, is standardizing how thousands of brands, distributors, and retailers manage their operations. The Company’s industry-defining tools streamline the way legal cannabis businesses create, manage, pay for, and ship their orders. LeafLink’s marketplace currently processes approximately $5 billion in annual transactions, representing an estimated 50% of legal U.S. wholesale cannabis commerce.

LeafLink is backed by leading venture capital firms and strategic investors, including Casa Verde Capital, CPMG, Founders Fund, Interplay, L2 Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Nosara Capital and Thrive Capital. LeafLink has raised more than $230 million of equity to date as well as a $250 million credit facility to provide liquidity to the cannabis supply chain. Learn more at https://LeafLink.com/.

Media Contact:
Patrick Messenger, Director of Communications & PR
[email protected]

SOURCE LeafLink

With $28M total funding and a unique breakthrough in plasma technology that will unlock 1000x higher density than other leading solutions under development, the company is expediting the global drive toward commercializing nuclear fusion energy. 

TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 1, 2023 — NT-Tao, the nuclear fusion energy company setting a new standard for the future of clean energy, today announced that it has raised a $22M Series A round led by Delek US – a Fortune 500 downstream energy company – and NextGear Ventures, with additional participation from Honda, OurCrowd and the Grantham Foundation, the lead investor in the company’s seed round. This new funding will enable NT-Tao to continue to scale its team, accelerate prototype developments in the pipeline and build its new research facility. The latest investment round brings NT-Tao’s total funding to $28M.

“NT-Tao is rapidly headed towards developing a high-density, compact fusion reactor to provide the cleanest form of sustainable energy to mitigate the pending climate crisis,” said Oded Gour-Lavie, CEO and Co-founder of NT-Tao. “We’re proud to be the first Israeli fusion energy company pioneering the next generation of fusion energy to enable an era of limitless power and global energy security. With the support of industry-leading investors, NT-Tao is moving at a rapid pace of development to ensure that the commercialization of fusion energy becomes a reality.”

The growing concerns surrounding climate change, soaring energy prices, and increasing geopolitical turbulence have ignited a global urgency to mitigate energy insecurity, control rising temperatures and create a truly sustainable energy future. Renewable energy sources have been acceptable stopgap solutions, however, they’re unreliable and energy dilute, making them insufficient strategies or replacements for fossil fuels in the long run. With a projected $40 trillion valuation, the fusion energy sector represents the future of clean energy. 

NT-Tao is pioneering a new approach to fusion, combining the latest in advanced technologies that will provide the world with access to a compact and scalable fusion solution for all energy needs. To achieve this, the company invented a “Critical Angular Momentum Plasma Stabilizer,” a core component of its proprietary Super Stabilized Confined Plasma (SSCP) technology. Combining this with NT-Tao’s unique ultra-fast heating technology will enable the company to work at a density that is 1000x higher than other leading solutions. This optimal plasma regime yields a fusion reaction that is 1,000,000x stronger, resulting in significantly more efficient energy production. The company will use this investment round to perfect its technology in upcoming prototypes with the aim of achieving energy-breakeven and creating an infinite energy solution that powers the world’s sustainable, decarbonized future.

“We are dedicated to partnering with companies developing breakthrough technologies that will make a significant impact on the world, and NT-Tao fits perfectly into our partnership framework. We not only invested in the company, we also brought in with us top-notch global players to co-invest and open up collaboration opportunities for the company,” said Dr. Tal Cohen, Managing Partner at Next Gear Ventures. “Clean energy sources are an inherent and imperative component of securing a sustainable future. The compact, modular approach pioneered by NT-Tao stands out in a competitive marketplace and represents a game changer not only for the mobility sector but in how humanity will harness and democratize energy and revolutionize the world for generations to come.”

“Honda has high expectations for the future of NT-Tao, a company with advanced fusion energy technology, led by management team members with a high level of expertise,” said Shinji Aoyama, Director and Senior Managing Executive Officer of Honda. “Honda believes that fusion energy technology will be a breakthrough technology for affordable, stable, clean energy, and we envision this technology will become increasingly important as electrified vehicles become more popular. Honda will continue to search for, collaborate with, invest in, and acquire promising venture companies through our global open innovation program, Honda Xcelerator.”

About NT-Tao

NT-Tao is disrupting the global energy sector by engineering a compact and scalable nuclear fusion energy technology with the goal of achieving commercialization this decade. The company’s proprietary ultra-fast plasma heating method will enable it to reach 1000 times higher density than other fusion reactors, thereby making its fusion reaction 1 million times more effective and resulting in significantly greater efficiency of energy production than other leading solutions. Co-founded by Oded Gour-Lavie, Doron Weinfeld, and Boaz Weinfeld, NT-Tao’s mission is to enable the world to transition away from conventional energy sources such as oil, natural gas, and coal and move towards fusion energy technology, which is the cleanest, most sustainable energy source and the surest path to a decarbonized future. Emerging from stealth in 2022 and headquartered in Israel, NT-Tao is dedicated to offering the world a cleaner and safer energy alternative. For more information visit www.nt-tao.com.

About Honda Xcelerator

Honda Xcelerator is an open innovation program promoting collaboration between startups and Honda. Silicon Valley-based Honda Innovations, a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., has been the main driving force behind this global program. For more information visit https://xcelerator.hondainnovations.com/.

Media Contact

Gavriella Weinreb

Campaign PR

[email protected]

 (for media only)

SOURCE NT-Tao

• ONE’s Series B was led by Fifth Wall and Franklin Templeton and marks a fundraising transition from venture to growth equity investors.
• The $300 million of equity financing is joined with $220 million in grants from the state of Michigan for a total of more than $500 million to fund ONE’s battery cell factory.
• ONE has signed ten customer agreements for its products, totaling 36 GWh over the next five years, and is further preparing for phase two factory investments ahead of plan.

NOVI, Mich., Feb. 1, 2023 — Our Next Energy Inc. (ONE), a Michigan-based energy storage technology company, today announced it has closed a $300 million Series B capital raise at a post-money valuation of $1.2 billion. 

The round was led by Fifth Wall and Franklin Templeton, and joined by ONE’s Series A investors and new growth equity investors Temasek, Riverstone Holdings and Coatue. Two undisclosed strategic investors also participated in this round, including a manufacturer of EV technology solutions and a renewable energy provider, representing cell offtake agreements. Two new venture equity investors, AI Capital Partners (Alpha Intelligence Capital’s U.S.-based fund) and Sente Ventures (in conjunction with TR.PE), also participated in the round.

“Closing this fundraising round is an important milestone for ONE as we focus on launching our first LFP cell factory in 2024,” said Mujeeb Ijaz, CEO & Founder of ONE. “We are transitioning from a startup funded by venture capital to a manufacturer fueled by growth capital. That’s important in this environment where urgent demand for U.S. based cell manufacturing is on the rise, supported by the Inflation Reduction Act, in a true public-private partnership.”

ONE Circle is the company’s first battery cell factory. Located in Van Buren Township, Michigan, the factory’s exterior construction was completed in December 2022. 

“Batteries are a fundamental component of the global energy transition economy,” said Peter Gajdoš, Partner & Co-Head of The Climate Technology Investment Team at Fifth Wall. “ONE is firmly at the forefront of driving this systemic shift. We believe ONE’s next-generation mobility and stationary storage applications are a game changer and are set to transform the $100B+ battery market. We’re thrilled to be a part of the company’s category-defining growth.”

In conjunction with Franklin Templeton’s investment in ONE’s Series B, Richard Piliero, a Managing Director at Franklin Templeton, will join ONE’s Board of Directors. Piliero has more than 23 years of private equity experience.

ONE closed a $62.5 million convertible note in January 2022 as part of the Series B. The note was led by BMW i Ventures and joined by Assembly Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Coatue, Flex [NASDAQ: FLEX] and Volta Energy Technologies.

About Our Next Energy
Our Next Energy Inc. (ONE) is a Michigan-based energy storage technology company focused on engineering batteries that will accelerate electrification. ONE’s vision is to: Double the range of electric vehicles; use safer, more sustainable raw materials; and establish a localized supply chain. Visit one.ai to learn more.

SOURCE Our Next Energy Inc.

• $5M seed round led by Investible; $9M in total funding raised to date
• Investment to further accelerate product development in Generative AI Coach ‘Marlee’, the powerful behavioral change app embraced by Canva, Atlassian, KPMG and Baraja
• New third party integrations to offer a ‘Grammarly-like experience’. Users will experience coaching suggestions in real-time within work and collaboration platforms

SYDNEY, Jan. 31, 2023 — Fingerprint for Success (F4S) today announce a new AU$5 million funding round led by Investible with other Australian and U.S. VCs including Five V Capital, and Salesforce Ventures. Together, they join early investor ROCeteer, and other seed investors including Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen, Canva co-founders Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams, as well as former Australian Prime Minister the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull AC and noted Australian tech investor Roger Allen, bringing the total seed investment to AU$9 million.

F4S and AI Coach Marlee is world-first technology pioneering the democratization of coaching, carving a new category for technology driven human development. The Australian founded startup responds to a problem-state where traditionally just 2% of the population, typically the elite or those with the means, have access to personalized coaching.

Confidence in the startup is supported by significant 300% YoY user growth from the US, UK and India. These insights contribute to Marlee’s wider datapool, with more than 900,000 AI coaching minutes delivered, which collectively, have helped users from 194 countries work towards more than 100,000 goals.

Coupled with Founder and CEO Michelle Duval’s 25 years expertise as a pioneer in the professional coaching space, AI Coach Marlee and the F4S platform is built from decades of evidence-based research developed by a team of behavioral data scientists, coaches, and AI engineers. 

The layered technology offers a digital and scalable solution for individuals and teams to understand and bring out the best in themselves, and each other. Already embraced by more than 20,000 organizations including teams from Atlassian, Hubspot, AWS, KPMG, as well as Canva and Baraja, the cutting edge technology gives users a suite of tools to scale cohesive, high-performing teams and culture.

Michelle Duval says companies have historically held an inherited bias for ‘hard’ technical skills, adding:

“There has been a focus until now for companies to prioritize hard, technical skills deemed necessary for performance. Though, it’s actually the ‘soft’ or what we like to call human skills that have proven time and time again to make or break teams and are the most crucial in building goal-oriented, efficient and purpose-driven teams” says Duval.

Michelle speaks to the future of work, adding:

“There’s a driving need to rapidly grow resources and solutions to solve the complex problems Gen Alpha, GenZs and Millennials inherit. F4S’s scalable technology is an always ready, real time solution to optimize the otherwise untapped potential within our future problem solvers helping both individuals and teams to invent and navigate brighter futures.”

Investible cofounder Trevor Folsom shares that belief, adding that the ability to unlock, streamline and enhance soft skills at work is crucial for high-performance teams.

“Michelle and her team at F4S have managed to use technology to shape the future of work by helping businesses build a stronger, more resilient workforce,” shares Trevor.

Reshmi Buthello, VP of People and Culture at Baraja said that F4S has removed the limitations of 1:1 coaching, providing a fully automated and scalable solution that can be deployed across Baraja’s offices worldwide:

“Our team is embracing the F4S experience. With Coach Marlee, we’re seeing a significant increase in team engagement and retention. Our teams have the power of an “always-on” coach that is not only personalized to individual drivers and motivations, but as a powerful cloud-based solution it’s also scalable to support our ever-changing team dynamics.”

The capital raised will be primarily used to make F4S’ real-time personal and team insights and coaching accessible via additional third party integrations within work and collaboration platforms such as Slack and Zoom.

This approach builds on from F4S’ successful applicant tracking integration with HR software Greenhouse, designed to provide hiring managers with intel on candidate suitability and success in the culture of their potential new workplace.

As the world wakes to the power of Generative AI,  building upon F4S’s proprietary and validated Conversational AI models, F4S is uniquely poised to take advantage of ChatGPT’s accelerating momentum.

Michelle concludes, “We’re really excited to welcome investors aligned to our vision to join us in the next stage of growth. We’re looking forward to strengthening our market footprint across the US, the UK and Asia Pacific, and to ship even more value to our users and teams.”

“Coach Marlee is improving personal, team and company performance. We’re building self confidence, self esteem, and helping teams work better together. Ultimately, we’re helping people find meaning and fulfillment at work.”

For more information visit www.f4s.com

PR Contact:
Isabella Donato, PR Manager – Fingerprint for Success (F4S)
+61 (0) 448 002 962 | [email protected] 

About Fingerprint for Success (F4S)
Fingerprint For Success (F4S) is a web-app that uses layered technology, data and conversational AI to empower individuals and teams to achieve amazing things in work, business and life. Based on over 20 years of research, F4S’s revolutionary predictive analytics have achieved over 90% reliability in forecasting personal and team motivations, behaviors, and performance. In 2021, F4S launched the world’s first AI Coach ‘Marlee’ to help users to optimize their talents and bring out the best in themselves and their teammates. For more information visit www.f4s.com 

About Investible
Investible is a global early-stage venture capital firm backing the visionaries advancing humanity through technology. Its mission is to connect ground-breaking companies with the capital, expertise, and networks they need to realize their potential on a global scale.

Founded in 2014 and with offices in Sydney and Singapore, its unique approach to early-stage tech investment sees its VC Funds co-investing alongside members of Club Investible: an active, global investor community. Its group portfolio includes more than 100 early-stage companies across 9 countries and 20 sectors. https://investible.com 

About Five V Capital
Five V Capital is a leading private company investor in the Australian and New Zealand markets. Five V invests across Venture Capital, Growth Equity and Private Equity, with over A$1.4 billion in funds under management (FUM). Five V has made over 40 venture capital investments over the past ten years, investing in the likes of Canva, Siteminder, ROKT, Grow and Cascade. Five V believes in balancing profit with purpose and is B Corp certified. For more information, please visit www.fivevcapital.com 

About Salesforce Ventures
Salesforce Ventures helps enterprising founders build companies that reinvent the way the world works. Since 2009, we’ve invested in and partnered with more than 400 of the world’s most tenacious enterprise software companies from seed to IPO, including Airtable, Databricks, DocuSign, Guild Education, Hopin, monday.com, nCino, Snowflake, Snyk, Stripe, Tanium, and Zoom. Salesforce Ventures leverages our decades of expertise in the cloud and our long-term relationships with key decision-makers at thousands of businesses around the world to give our portfolio companies an unfair advantage, help them build credibility, and accelerate growth. Salesforce Ventures has invested in more than 25 countries with offices all over the world including in San Francisco, Irvine, New York, London, Tokyo, and Sydney. Follow @SalesforceVC and learn more at http://www.salesforceventures.com.

SOURCE Fingerprint For Success

Led by MK Capital, New Funding Will Accelerate Further Research and Development of Optilogic’s Cloud-Native SaaS Solution

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Jan. 31, 2023 — Supply chain design software innovator Optilogic has secured $13 million in financing, led by MK Capital, a venture capital firm focused on supporting innovative B2B software companies. The funding will allow Optilogic to help any enterprise with a physical supply chain get full visibility into the cost, service, and risk of different supply chain design scenarios. With this investment, Optilogic will continue to expand go-to-market programs in consumer goods, retail, logistics, manufacturing, and distribution industries, as well as further development of its Cosmic Frog supply chain design platform.

“Don Hicks and his founding team are pioneers in the field of supply chain design with unparalleled industry experience,” said Mark Koulogeorge, managing partner at MK Capital. “By empowering organizations of all sizes and maturity levels to make smarter, faster supply chain decisions that consider risk, Optilogic is poised to transform the field of supply chain design and dramatically expand the addressable market.”

Traditional supply chain design technologies have complex user interfaces, require costly capital and IT investment, and have lengthy implementation processes. Cosmic Frog, launched in November 2022, was purpose-built to be easy to use and implement. Its unique three-in-one design includes optimization, simulation, and risk engines. It can run even the largest models in a fraction of the time required by traditional design software, and automatically converts legacy supply chain design models.

In addition to major solution enhancements, Optilogic expanded its global research and development, customer success and executive leadership team. The company recently appointed Jennifer Randall as vice president of marketing and promoted Rebecca Janowiak to vice president of product management and Renee Thiesing to vice president of strategy and risk solutions.

“Optilogic is harnessing the most advanced technologies to drive a new and better way to design supply chains—by understanding and balancing cost considerations with service levels and systemic risk to predict the best, most resilient designs,” said Optilogic CEO and Founder Donald A. Hicks. “This latest round of investment will help us on our mission to rethink and rebuild supply chains.”

About MK Capital 

MK Capital is an early-stage lead investor in the software and cloud services industries. The firm’s partners, who average more than 20 years of venture capital experience, actively partner with entrepreneurial management teams to build leading companies that accelerate the digital transformation of the world economy. MK Capital manages more than $300 million in capital and is actively seeking new investment opportunities. For more information, visit mkcapital.com.

About Optilogic

Optilogic was founded in 2018 and has now grown into a global software company with one of the most experienced teams in the industry. Optilogic’s supply chain experts have over 185+ years of experience in the end-to-end supply chain. Together, we’re empowering organizations to rethink supply chain design. By incorporating optimization, simulation, and risk into their strategy, businesses can have visibility into the cost, service and risk of different supply chain design scenarios. Optilogic’s 100% SaaS solution reduces time to value with its next generation technology and intuitive, purpose built interface. Learn more about Optilogic’s innovations at https://www.optilogic.com/product

Press Contact:

Jennifer Randall
218-341-1318
http://www.optilogic.com

SOURCE Optilogic

BURLINGAME, Calif., Jan. 31, 2023 — San Francisco Bay Area-based tech-enabled home renovation company Freemodel today announced it has secured a $19.5 million series A investment led by QED Investors, a leading venture capital firm in the fintech and proptech sector, in partnership with LL Funds, a leading provider of both growth equity and asset-backed debt. Other participants in the most recent round of funding include RWT Horizons, FJ Labs, 1984 Ventures, 1Sharpe Ventures, and Crossbeam Venture Partners. With this latest investment, Freemodel has now raised over $23 million since launching in 2020.

Freemodel, which already covers 90% of the California real estate market, will use the newly secured investment to expand its service to additional states, starting with Texas and Florida in Q1 2023.  They also plan to use the funds to continue developing the proprietary technology platform that empowers their team of local Project Directors to manage home renovations more effectively and efficiently.

“With the increase in interest rates and the slowing real estate market, agents have to go the extra mile to get the best results for their sellers,” says Freemodel CEO and co-founder John Garner.  “Freemodel empowers our agent partners to sell a client’s home more quickly and at a higher price without the hassle or upfront cost of managing the renovations themselves.”

“It’s rare to find a business model in real estate that offers such clear value to its customers in a variety of market conditions”, says Lauren Morton, Partner at QED. “The combined power of ‘easy button’ renovations with a local designer, project management and financing is helping homeowners sell their homes quickly, even in a tough market. QED is proud to back an experienced team with strong founder-market fit. John’s deep background in proptech and keen sales acumen set him apart from other founders we’ve met.”

Since its debut, Freemodel has achieved 500% revenue growth year over year. Freemodel works with over 60 leading real estate brokerages and has helped their agent partners earn their clients over $33M in additional profit. Freemodel delivers a superior customer experience compared to other pre-sale home renovation services by using local, in-person design and project management in every market to deliver high-quality, custom renovations.

“Freemodel has solved for the high financial barrier homeowners face when considering renovations.  Everybody wins with Freemodel.  Real estate agents win more listings, home sellers earn more profit, and home buyers get a beautiful move-in ready home,” says LL Funds Partner Jim Morrissey.  “We’re proud to back a platform that directly delivers value to every stakeholder in a real estate transaction and we are excited to support Freemodel’s expansion to Texas, Florida and beyond.”

To learn more about Freemodel’s services, visit http://www.freemodel.com.

About Freemodel
Freemodel was founded in 2020 with a mission to streamline and improve the residential real estate sale process while giving homeowners a chance to get the maximum possible upside from the sale of their homes. The company partners with real estate agents to design, manage and pre-pay for their clients’ home renovations, then the homeowner pays Freemodel out of escrow once the home sells. Founded by two Silicon Valley veterans with software and residential real estate backgrounds, Freemodel differentiates itself by offering a team of local designers and project managers who act as the main on-site point of contact for agents and clients. Their Project Directors bring deep expertise and local knowledge of the regions they service, making the process easier and more turnkey for realtors and sellers. In addition, Freemodel requires no credit checks and has no pre-determined project budget caps, allowing more flexibility for homeowners to reap the maximum possible profit from their investment. For more information, visit http://www.freemodel.com.

About QED Investors
QED Investors is a global leading venture capital firm based in Alexandria, Va. Founded by Nigel Morris and Frank Rotman in 2007, QED Investors is focused on investing in disruptive financial services companies worldwide. QED Investors is dedicated to building great businesses and uses a unique, hands-on approach that leverages its partners’ decades of entrepreneurial and operational experience, helping companies achieve breakthrough growth. Notable investments include AvidXchange, Bitso, ClearScore, Current, Creditas, Credit Karma, Kavak, Klarna, Konfio, Loft, Mission Lane, Nubank, QuintoAndar, Remitly and SoFi. For more information, visit www.qedinvestors.com.

SOURCE Freemodel

BOSTON, Jan. 31, 2023 — Dalia, a recruitment marketing automation platform that helps employers get more qualified applicants for less, today announced the completion of a $5 million Series A round. The round was led by Lewis & Clark Ventures with participation from the family office of Paul Forster, the co-founder and former CEO of Indeed, SaaS Ventures, FJ Labs, Remarkable Ventures, and others. The capital will be used to expand its product suite, which maximizes career site conversion rates to make recruitment marketing budgets more efficient and invest further in sales and marketing.

Since its founding in 2019, Dalia has streamlined recruitment marketing by helping employers reach and convert their lost job seeker traffic with hyper-personalized engagement at scale. It is now the preferred recruitment marketing automation solution for mid-market and enterprise companies including Compass Group, Ryder, Valvoline, Brink’s, Baptist Health South Florida, PeopleReady, and many others.

“Dalia’s growth is the result of a tight labor market where talent acquisition teams are being asked to be more efficient with their spend and only invest in solutions that drive measurable results,” said Sam Fitzroy, co-founder and CEO of Dalia. “Our fully-automated approach is the most time and cost-effective way to drive qualified applicants. Support from Lewis & Clark, along with the other investors in this round, will allow us to continue building products that increase job advertising efficiency for our customers.”

With Dalia, employers capture job seekers who visit their career sites but don’t apply and bring them back through highly-relevant email and text job alerts to maximize apply rates. Dalia is fully automated, works seamlessly with existing ATS and CRM platforms, and can be implemented in just a few days.

“We are thrilled to partner with the exceptional team at Dalia,” said Brian Hopcraft, Partner at Lewis and Clark Ventures. “The team has a unique understanding of the challenges that frontline and hourly job seekers experience and is taking a data-driven approach to help its customers eliminate friction in their recruiting process.”

“Dalia creates an experience that’s similar to what you might encounter if you were shopping online or engaging with an e-commerce business,” said Jason Whitman, COO of Dalia. “We’re helping companies improve the way job seekers connect, learn about, and apply for their jobs. As a result, they’re getting more qualified applicants with less spend on traditional job advertising.”

About Dalia

Dalia helps employers get more qualified applicants for less. Its recruitment marketing automation platform converts lost job seeker traffic to give talent acquisition teams more qualified applicants and lower their job advertising spend. Learn more at dalia.co.

About Lewis and Clark Ventures

Lewis & Clark Ventures was founded by former operators with the conviction that innovation and entrepreneurial talent are plentiful outside of traditional capital centers. Lewis & Clark invests in the highest potential late Seed and Series A stage B2B software companies. Their vision for success is to become a trusted partner to every entrepreneur that they back and assist in their journey towards scale and significance. Learn more at lewisandclarkventures.com.

SOURCE Dalia