West Quad Ventures invest in startups that aspire to be leaders in their respective category, teams we believe in with an emphasis on what’s good for the world!

West Quad Ventures

Sputnik ATX is a venture capital fund and startup accelerator that funds early-stage maker-founders. It combines capital with training and experience to help startups win and grow. Its investment portfolio ranges in the industry from revolutionary podcasting analytics to cat care. The accelerator program has two cohorts each year, with each company in the cohort receiving between $100-$500k in investment via the Sputnik ATX SAFE note. Sputnik ATX is a top decile VC fund.  Sputnik ATX was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Sputnik ATX

Framework Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that helps founding teams and CEOs build world-class companies. It combines a unique data-driven investment decision process with a high-touch collaborative engagement model designed to help world-class entrepreneurs and CEOs in high-growth global market segments scale.

Framework Venture Partners

Lyra Growth Partners is a Vancouver based Investment Firm providing capital and brand-savvy coaching to help emerging consumer brands accelerate growth and maximize value.  With Lyra, you receive the full package to help your business grow to the next level. We provide non–institutional capital that is free from unrealistic expectations. Our coaching focus is on creating and strengthening a brand’s relationship with their consumers. To ensure our mutual success, we also provide the necessary coaching for igniting both business and personal development. Lyra is looking for fast growing Companies with over $5 million sales. If you have an emerging consumer brand and you want to maximize value while nurturing a positive corporate culture, then we want to talk to you.

Lyra Growth Partners

Bonsai

Bonsai’s mission is to help people find and buy the products they want, as soon as they realize they want them. The company began in 2016 as a streetwear style and news app and turned into content-driven commerce. Bonsai is partnered with 30 publishers and has integrated 1,200 brands.  The company's technology enables users to transact natively while browsing content. It makes the journey from seeing a product to buying it possible in two taps. Bonsai allows merchants to capture customers while they browse content, right when purchasing intent is being formed.

Bonsai is a Toronto-based company that provides an embedded commerce solution for publishers, enabling checkout at the point of discovery. Bonsai's technology allows users to transact natively while browsing content, facilitating an onsite purchase in just a couple of clicks. Publishers can convert affiliate links into an on-site cart and checkout flow using Bonsai's platform, capturing buyer intent and retaining higher margins compared to incumbent affiliate networks. For merchants, Bonsai offers an alternative customer acquisition channel to Facebook and Google.

Bonsai Named to Canadian Business New Innovators List

Marketing Platform & Algorithms

Bonsai closes $21 million to scale embedded commerce solution for publishers like BuzzFeed, Vox

First-Party Data Solutions

BuzzFeed Taps Bonsai to Drive Revenue through Content-driven Commerce

Bonsai Outlet - BigCommerce Marketing Success Story

Bonsai Enables Global Commerce with MyBestBrands Acquisition, Launches Inspiration Commerce Group

A&S alumnus led Bonsai closes $21M to scale embedded commerce solution for publishers like Buzzfeed, Vox

Bonsai Raises $21 Million CAD to Scale Embedded Commerce for Publishers

Creative Signage Agency in Canada

Harnessing the power of social influence to fuel online sales

Social Commerce

Bonsai lays off a third of employees shortly after $21 million Series A, citing shift to growth strategy

Bonsai is a Toronto-based company that provides an embedded commerce solution for publishers, enabling checkout at the point of discovery. Bonsai's technology allows users to transact natively while browsing content, facilitating an onsite purchase in just a couple of clicks. Publishers can convert affiliate links into an on-site cart and checkout flow using Bonsai's platform, capturing buyer intent and retaining higher margins compared to incumbent affiliate networks. For merchants, Bonsai offers an alternative customer acquisition channel to Facebook and Google.
Bonsai's solution has been adopted by notable media companies such as BuzzFeed, Vox Media Group, Well+Good, Refinery29, and PureWow. The company has integrations with over 350 retailers and brands, including household names and direct-to-consumer brands. In October 2021, Afterpay partnered with Bonsai to bring "Buy Now, Pay Later" functionality to online publishers and make Bonsai available to its extensive merchant network. Bonsai boasts one of the industry's most competitive catalog offerings with over 4 million integrated products and thousands of customer orders fulfilled.
In March 2022, Bonsai raised a USD 21 million CAD Series A led by Framework Venture Partners to scale its embedded commerce solution. The company plans to build existing product capabilities, explore new product verticals, expand its retail partner supply into new categories beyond fashion and beauty, and double the size of its team over the next 18 months.
In April 2024, Bonsai acquired MyBestBrands, Germany's leading luxury fashion discovery platform, marking its third acquisition. The combined entity, Inspiration Commerce Group, aims to become the global category leader in the comparison shopping industry, providing shoppers an unparalleled product discovery experience and merchants a single global distribution channel.

Hootsuite is a social media management platform that allows users to schedule, publish, monitor, and analyze social media content across multiple networks from a unified dashboard. Its key product offerings include content scheduling tools, social media monitoring and analytics, team collaboration features, social listening capabilities, and integrations with various social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Hootsuite's core functionality revolves around the ability to streamline social media management processes by centralizing various social media activities into a single platform. Its scheduling tools enable users to plan and queue content for publishing across different social networks, while its monitoring features facilitate tracking brand mentions, competitor activities, and audience engagement. The platform's analytics tools provide insights into social media performance, aiding users in understanding the effectiveness of their social media strategies.
Hootsuite also emphasizes team collaboration by allowing multiple users to access and manage social media accounts, assign roles and permissions, and implement approval workflows for content publishing. Additionally, its social listening capabilities enable users to monitor conversations, trends, and keywords relevant to their brand or industry.
While Hootsuite offers a free trial and a limited free plan, its more advanced features are available through paid subscription plans, with pricing tiers ranging from the Professional plan at USD 99 per month (billed annually) to the Enterprise plan tailored for larger organizations with custom pricing.

Hootsuite

GRIN is a comprehensive influencer marketing platform designed to help brands manage their influencer programs efficiently. It streamlines the entire process, from identifying and recruiting suitable influencers to facilitating product seeding, campaign management, content tracking, and performance reporting. GRIN's key features include a vast creator database, advanced search capabilities, Shopify integration for seamless product fulfillment, automated communication workflows, and robust analytics tools.
GRIN's platform allows brands to discover and connect with influencers across various social media channels, including Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. By leveraging GRIN's extensive database, brands can filter and search for influencers that align with their target audience and campaign goals. The platform's Shopify integration simplifies the process of sending products to influencers, creating trackable links, and generating discount codes.
Once influencers are on board, GRIN enables brands to create and manage campaigns, define deliverables, and automate communication sequences. The platform tracks influencer content, captures user-generated content (UGC), and provides detailed performance metrics, including engagement rates, conversions, and revenue generated. GRIN's reporting capabilities allow brands to analyze the success of their influencer campaigns and make data-driven decisions.
Key customers and partnerships
GRIN has collaborated with notable brands such as MVMT, a luxury watch company, Lume Cube, a specialty lighting brand, tentree, an apparel brand, Darn Good Yarn, Tubby Todd, and Hush Blankets. These partnerships demonstrate GRIN's ability to cater to diverse industries and support businesses in scaling their influencer marketing efforts.

GRIN

Bazaarvoice is a technology company that provides a Social Commerce AI suite, enabling brands to curate and showcase user-generated content across various social media platforms. Its flagship product, the Media Library, serves as a centralized hub for collecting, publishing, and managing social content from customers, influencers, partners, and the brand itself. This tool leverages AI-powered features to sort, tag, and prioritize high-performing media content, streamlining workflow and expediting legal approvals.
The company's Social Commerce AI suite offers a range of solutions to optimize social engagement and drive conversions. It generates on-brand photo captions, surfaces authentic user-generated content aligned with the brand's identity, and identifies top trends and themes for social media strategies. Bazaarvoice's Like2Buy solution allows brands to create shoppable Instagram and TikTok feeds, where visitors can browse products, read posts, and make purchases directly from the social storefront.
Additionally, Bazaarvoice's Showroom feature transforms photos and videos into interactive storefronts, enabling users to discover new products through visually appealing AI-powered experiences. This approach has proven effective, with 46% of Showroom visits converting to ecommerce sessions.
In terms of performance metrics, the company's solutions have demonstrated impressive results. Like2Buy visitors convert to ecommerce sessions at a rate of 59%, and these referred visitors tend to spend more time browsing, view more pages, and have higher average order values compared to average mobile consumers.

Bazaarvoice

NTWRK is a curated live video shopping platform that offers exclusive access to limited-edition products across various categories like sneakers, streetwear, collectibles, and more. It revolutionized the ecommerce industry by combining live streaming with online shopping, creating an engaging and interactive experience for consumers.
NTWRK's platform allows customers to watch live streams hosted by influencers, celebrities, or brand representatives who showcase and discuss the featured products. During these events, viewers can interact through live chat, ask questions, and make purchases seamlessly without leaving the video stream. This innovative approach provides transparency, fosters a sense of community, and creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity around the products on offer.
Since its inception in 2018, NTWRK has partnered with renowned artists, brands, and personalities such as Post Malone, Lewis Hamilton, BLACKPINK, and Takashi Murakami, offering their fans unprecedented access to exclusive collaborations and limited releases. The company has been at the forefront of the live stream shopping industry, which is estimated to reach USD 68 billion in sales by 2026 in the US alone.
In February 2024, NTWRK acquired the popular youth culture media company Complex, marking a significant step in its evolution. By merging Complex's content and reach with NTWRK's ecommerce platform, the combined entity aims to create a comprehensive digital hub for "superfan" culture, encompassing commerce, digital media, and music.
Key customers and partnerships
Through its strategic partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG), NTWRK gained access to industry-leading music labels like Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA) and Capitol Music Group. This collaboration allows NTWRK to deliver exclusive collaborations and cultural experiences directly to passionate music fans, deepening the connection between artists and their audiences.
Notable partnerships include exclusive collaborations with BLACKPINK x Murakami and the Interscope 30th Anniversary vinyl collection, featuring dialogues between visual artists like Damien Hirst, Kehinde Wiley, and Ed Ruscha, and iconic Interscope artists from the past three decades.

NTWRK

ShopShops is a live-shopping platform that allows hosts to showcase and sell products in real-time to viewers through livestreaming. The company primarily focuses on the fashion and lifestyle segment, offering pre-owned luxury and designer brands. ShopShops' business model involves connecting retail brands with creators, referred to as hosts, who can represent and sell the brands' products through live video sessions.
The platform operates as a three-sided marketplace, facilitating the interaction between brands, hosts, and consumers. Brands can hire hosts on an hourly or event basis to showcase their products during live streams, providing a personalized shopping experience to viewers. This approach aims to bridge the gap between traditional retail and ecommerce by replicating an offline shopping experience online.
ShopShops initially launched in China in 2017 and observed consumer behavior similar to the early adoption phase of live shopping in that market. The company entered the US market in 2022, recognizing the growth potential as American consumers become more receptive to this shopping format. ShopShops anticipates that by 2024, major US brands will incorporate live streaming into their marketing strategies, following a similar trajectory to the adoption of platforms like TikTok.
While live shopping in the US is expected to be more segmented across vertical categories compared to China's more centralized platforms, ShopShops believes its focus on the female fashion and lifestyle vertical positions it well for success. The platform aims to expand into other verticals such as home and arts in the future.

ShopShops

Platforms for creating, scheduling, and managing a brand or independent seller’s social media presence. A number of these platforms also provide AI-powered social listening and data analytics tools to gauge customer sentiment.

AI-powered tools for automatically monitoring and responding to customer queries across multiple social media channels.

Platforms for identifying and managing influencers to promote and sell products and services through social media.

Tools typically used by influencers to demonstrate and sell products and services via social media. The solutions are the digital equivalents of live teleshopping programs.

Platforms for curating and displaying customer reviews, recommendations, and product and service feedback on a brand or independent sellers' social media pages and websites.

Tools to create and implement instant shopping features to an image or video advertisement

Increases transparency of the effectiveness of social commerce by providing solutions for attribution and measurement

Relevant for social chatbots segment that uses AI/ML to provide automated responses to customers

Creates virtual assets for Metaverse stores and marketing on metaverse platforms

Social media platforms such as Snap are developing AR solutions for live shopping experiences

Bonsai

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