Quake Capital Partners is a venture capital fund and startup accelerator that makes Seed investments in new and early-stage ventures across a wide range of industries. Working closely with key advisers, and tapping into exclusive relationships developed over the last twenty-plus years, its team boasts unparalleled access to the top universities, graduate programs, and collegiate entrepreneurs.  The company was founded in 2016 with offices across the U.S. and Europe. Its accelerator programs in Austin, Los Angeles, and New York City recruit teams from all around the world, and its newest facility in Cologne, Germany was formed with leading European partners including Deutsche Telekom and RTL.

Quake Capital Partners

Kapor Capital is an investment firm that invests in early-stage tech-enabled startups. They are an Oakland-based fund that understands that startup companies have the ability to transform entire industries and to address urgent social needs as they do so. It was founded in 1999 and headquartered in Oakland, California.

Kapor Capital

Morgan Stanley, from the number of their offices and employees to the experience of their management and the quality of their financial results, the facts about Morgan Stanley tell an impressive story.  Morgan Stanley and its people have helped redefine the meaning of financial services. The firm has continually broken new ground in advising its clients on strategic transactions, pioneering the global expansion of finance and capital markets, and providing new opportunities for individual and institutional investors.  Morgan Stanley maintained comprehensive corporate governance guidelines for years before corporate governance became headline news.

Morgan Stanley

Pipeline Angels is changing the face of angel investing and creating capital for women and non-binary femme social entrepreneurs. Since Pipeline Angels launched April 2011, over 200 members have graduated from our angel investing bootcamp and have invested more than US$4M in 40+ companies via our pitch summit process. Our members serve as the friends and family round for entrepreneurs who may not already have support at that critical stage. Pipeline Angels is currently accepting applications for its signature bootcamp for new investors and for its signature pitch summit for entrepreneurs looking for funding.

Pipeline Angels

Sterling Road is a venture capital firm that invests in pre-seed stage B2B startups. They provide ongoing coaching, fundraising introductions, hiring help, and additional capital for their later rounds.

Sterling Road

Andav Capital is a New York-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage tech-enabled companies. Andav Capital partners with portfolio companies, deploying the firm's global network and cross-functional experience for capital-efficient growth, de-risking portfolio companies through substantial and symbiotic partnerships with management teams, and introducing prudent operational and corporate governance practices.

Andav Capital

Chicago Early Growth Ventures (CEGV) invests in early-stage startup companies, with a particular focus on Chicago-based entities.

Chicago Early Growth Ventures (CEGV)

Concrete Rose Capital operates as an early-stage investment platform that primarily invests in companies serving underrepresented consumers and helping early-stage companies build diverse teams. It was founded in 2019 and headquartered in Bay Area, US.

Concrete Rose Capital

Black Ops Ventures, LLC (Black Ops), founded in 2020, is the first venture capital fund of its kind, managed and led by an all-Black team of founders. Black Ops leads seed-stage investments in Black-led tech companies and may also co-invest in Series A rounds or at the pre-seed stage. Black Ops invests in founders who are resilient, have a unique perspective on their market and possess the conviction to win their space. Managed by partners with operator experience, vast networks, and the skills necessary to help scale companies, the fund provides more than capital. Black Ops provides a roadmap to success for Black founders, and aims to create the most billion-dollar valued companies ever founded by Black people.

Black Operator Ventures

Cleveland Avenue invests in seed-stage, early-stage, later-stage, and growth-stage deals focused on food and beverage companies, lifestyle consumer brands, AgTech, and technology companies.

Cleveland Avenue

Alumni Ventures Group provides high-quality, diversified venture portfolios to individual investors who previously haven't had access to VC. It helps accredited alums from top entrepreneurial schools invest together in the ventures of fellow alums. The firm backs companies with an alumni connection and an institutional lead investor with expertise in the space. AVG also offers focused funds that allow any accredited investor access to a venture portfolio, diversified by type, sector, stage, and geography. Beth Obermiller, Michael Madden, and Mike Collins co-founded the firm in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2013.

Alumni Ventures

The Slack Fund is an investment fund to support slack teams building products that enable more productive workplaces.

Slack Fund

Diverse Angels is an angel group for current & aspiring investors from underrepresented and diverse backgrounds (People of Color, Women, LGBTQ+) to come together and share access to opportunities for ownership in early-stage tech companies. The mission to increase representation of diverse investors as a means to address the systemic wealth gaps, notably the racial wealth gap in the US. With a focus on bridging wealth gaps & disparities, Diverse Angels is a B-Corporation that is supported 100% by volunteers and charges no fees to the community though its 0/00 model.  This innovative 0/00 model (0% management fees are charged and 0% of carried interest - i.e. profit) was put into place to remove barriers and costs that could prevent diverse angels (especially first-timers) from participating in deals. The 0/00 model also ensures that the angels’ maximum amount of capital is deployed to allow for the maximum amount of upside. In search of the best founders, Diverse Angels leverages the size, strength, and diversity of its member base to maintain high standards of investment rigor. There are intentional efforts to source & meet founders from all backgrounds and it is a priority that the majority of Diverse Angels’ investments are made into Diverse Founders (People of Color, Women, LGBTQ+).

Diverse Angels

Five to Nine

Five to Nine manages & evaluates virtual event programming so you can focus on building the employee experience.

Five to Nine is a women and minority-owned event management platform that enables organizations to create, structure, manage, and evaluate the performance of workplace events and programs, including Employee Resource Group (ERG) initiatives. Five to Nine integrates with popular workplace tools such as Okta, Workday, and Slack, and its clients include Yahoo, Expedia, Upwork, and Webflow, as of June 2022.

Distributed workforces require new solutions for office operations, HR, payment, and more.

Remote Work Infrastructure

Five to Nine is a women and minority-owned event management platform that enables organizations to create, structure, manage, and evaluate the performance of workplace events and programs, including Employee Resource Group (ERG) initiatives. Five to Nine integrates with popular workplace tools such as Okta, Workday, and Slack, and its clients include Yahoo, Expedia, Upwork, and Webflow, as of June 2022.Funding and financialsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10988">June 2022 </a>, Five to Nine raised USD 4.25 million in a seed funding round led by Black Ops Ventures. The fresh funds were raised to expand its product and engineering teams, invest in sales capabilities, and introduce new customer solutions.

ActivTrak is a cloud-based productivity monitoring software provider. The platform offers data and analytics which can be used to detect workplace productivity gaps. The platform collects data from employee activity logs and computer screenshots, although it does not log keystrokes or record video of a user’s screen. ActivTrak also facilitates a range of tasks for admins such as blocking websites, flagging suspicious activities, IP address connections, and monitoring web, and app traffic.Other features offered include productivity reports and coaching, headcount and workload management and personal insights. In November 2023, the company added capabilities to measure the usage of AI tools, automatically detecting and classifying the use of such tools and websites to help organizations manage and improve AI adoption across the workforce.Activtrak generates revenue via monthly subscriptions (USD 10 and USD 17) per user, and custom pricing for larger enterprises.Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, over 9,500 enterprises used ActivTrak’s platform, notably including Allstate, asembia and Nobu. ActivTrak closed 2023 with a 40% growth in its customer base (adding ~2,200 customers).Funding and financialsIn November 2020, ActivTrak raised USD 50 million in a Series B round led by Sapphire Ventures. Sapphire Ventures CEO and managing director joined ActivTrak’s board as part of the deal. The new proceeds were earmarked for scaling global sales and marketing campaigns, expansion of its platform using AI driven analytics, and improving integration with its technology partners.

ActivTrak

inFeedo is a people predictive analytics company based in India. The Y Combinator-backed startup founded in 2013 is currently focused on “Amber” (launched in 2016), an AI-enabled bot that helps manage employee engagement, predict attrition, and get a pulse on company culture in real time. The company also offers AI-driven exit surveys and analytics to improve retention.Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, over 700,000 users across 250 organizations utilized inFeedo’s platform. Notable clients included GE Healthcare, Puma, Tata Group, and Lenovo.Funding and financialsIn its latest funding round (<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9099">March 2022</a>) inFeedo raised USD 12 million in Series A funding led by Jungle Ventures, reportedly tripling its valuation from less than 18 months ago. The fresh funds will be used for its second employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback for all employees and its go-to-market activities in North America. Further, the company claims it has achieved annual revenue of USD 1.6 million as of November 2020.

inFeedo

Donut provides solutions to keep employees engaged with casual conversations. Its first product, Intros, makes connections between teammates via Slack to emulate quick meetups and in-person introductions at work, which are now virtual.Donut’s new product, Watercooler, launched in October 2020. It attempts to reinvent the micro-interactions between employees at the office watercooler online. The product will integrate with Slack, where a newly-designated channel for Watercooler will be created. The product will post questions automatically within the customers’ desired frequency and pre-selected topics.The company uses a freemium subscription model with paid plans starting at approximately USD 2 per user per month.Key customers and partnershipsThe company claims it has supported four million connections (one million since the Covid-19 pandemic) across its 12,000 customers, including companies such as Okta, Zapier, Slack, The New York Times, and Invision.Funding and financialsDonut announced a USD 12 million funding round led by Accel, along with its new product, Watercooler. The USD 12 million raised was accumulated over multiple rounds before the Covid-19 pandemic, with proceeds earmarked for product development.

Donut

Matter is an employee feedback platform founded by Brett Hellman. Hellman was the founder of messaging app “Hall”, which was founded in 2011 and later sold to Atlassian for USD 20 million in 2015.Matter uses 360-degree feedback to evaluate skills in employees which are linked to career success. The platform links skills such as influence, inclusiveness, empathy, resourcefulness, and multitasking to evaluations. Matter is currently available in beta.

Matter

Mesh is a Y Combinator-backed company that allows employees to set goals, track tasks, share feedback, and engage in one-on-ones. The company also offers an AI coach (Mesh Maven) to help employees stay in line with their key objectives, improve the quality of feedback provided and summarize 1:1s. Mesh also offers nudges and surveys to improve employee engagement alongside relevant analytics.The company generates revenue via monthly subscriptions per user, priced at USD 4 (Base) and USD 7 (Premium).&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, the company served over 100+ enterprises, including NTT Data, Grant Thornton and Groww. The platform also offers integrations with third-party software such as Gmail, Microsoft Teams and Slack, among others.Funding and financialsIn its most recent funding round (<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9768">April 2022</a>) Mesh raised USD 11 million in Series A funding led by RTP Global. The fresh funds were earmarked to expand its global footprint across the US and APAC regions. In line with this, the company planned to expand its headcount across the engineering and sales departments.

Mesh

Companies offering tools to infer employee morale (through surveys and quick assessments) and productivity, including functions for goal setting, review, and feedback.

Companies that offer the entire spectrum of HR tools including payroll processing benefits, onboarding, compliance, analytics, scheduling etc

Companies providing either standalone or combined payroll and benefits services to businesses.

EoR - Companies that assist businesses in hiring distributed teams globally in compliance with foreign labor laws. EoRs become the legal employer of offshore employees. Solutions include payroll, benefits, and taxes.

PEO - Companies that offer similar services to EoRs but establish a co-employment arrangement with businesses and do not become the legal employer.

Companies offering tools such as chatbots, surveys, games, and other activities to infer, assess and improve employee morale and sentiment.

Companies that provide a centralized space for employees to access internal and external resources, enterprise applications, and enable workers to communicate across departments, and stay up to date on organizational announcements.

Solutions in this industry hub are predominantly offered under a B2B SaaS model

Employee and performance management solutions use AI/Ml to infer engagement insights and sentiment analysis

Offers tools for companies to hire contractors globally, and conduct employee and performance management

Five to Nine

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