Silverton Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm that provides institutional capital and mentorship in Austin. Silverton's investment team comes from an operating background. The firm was founded in 2006 by Bill Wood and Morgan Flager and is based in Austin, Texas, United States.

Silverton Partners

Picus Capital is an early-stage technology investment firm with a long-term investment philosophy. We work together with daring technology companies to build successful, global companies challenging the status quo and shaping tomorrow. We want to become the closest partner of our portfolio companies by working together on key strategic decisions and operative challenges. As a privately financed venture capital investor with long-term and flexible capital we are looking for exceptional founders who are committed to building category leaders throughout the next 5-10+ years. We invest in early-stage technology ventures with a focus on financial services, HR, energy & climate, healthcare, logistics & mobility, real estate & construction, crypto & web3, deeptech and e-commerce. Picus makes initial investments in pre-seed, seed and series A ventures thereby starting to work together with entrepreneurs in various stages of their companies ranging from ideation phase to initial traction. We follow a very long-term investment approach investing significant amounts throughout the lifecycle of the companies. We have invested in over 50 companies to date. At Picus we work in a culture combining the discipline of a financial investor with the creativity and pragmatism of an entrepreneur. We follow a comprehensive and well-structured investment approach in order to identify the most attractive and ambitious investment opportunities in our target industries and geographies. Within our core investment team every member has a distinctive industry competence and a functional or geographic focus. We are working closely together with our portfolio companies to develop large and successful market leaders. This comprises in particular leveraging our marketing & sales expertise and our global market perspective to provide strategic advice, providing HR management to grant access to top talent, connecting our portfolio companies with our broad B2B & investor network as well as supporting the fundraising process.

Picus Capital

Silicon Badia is a venture capital firm investing in technology companies globally.

Silicon Badia

GFC is a globally oriented, stage agnostic venture capital firm that empowers gifted entrepreneurs. The firm seeks to invest in companies that operate within the internet, retail, financial software, media, communication, and information technology sectors. It was founded by Oliver Samwer in 2013 and is based in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Global Founders Capital

Interplay is a startup ecosystem where ideas scale. Our mission is to accelerate humankind’s potential by streamlining the journey of the entrepreneur.  Our ecosystem consists of five business lines that fall under three divisions: Capital, Studio, and Platform. Capital: Our venture capital arm invests in early stage, technology-enabled businesses in North America. We back startups that have demonstrated quantifiable financial and operational fundamentals, including a scaling customer base, early product-market fit and real revenue growth. Separately, our family office provides members full-service portfolio construction and investment management, with an emphasis on alternative assets via direct and fund investments. Additionally, members receive advisory-services for estate planning, philanthropic engagement, emergency planning, and tax optimization. Studio: We cofound and incubate companies. When we cofound a company, we’re typically starting from scratch – taking our own ideas and building them out of our foundry. Through our incubator, we support the growth of other teams by providing mentorship, enabling them to scale their company. Platform: Our platform consists of five service companies that provide core operating business solutions, including accounting, marketing, legal, professional development and outsourcing. In addition to the above services, we create educational content to help founders turn their vision into reality. Our two flagship pieces of content are a podcast that focuses on integral startup lessons for founders and a book about the rules of fundraising. We also manage a number of startup communities, including the largest entrepreneurship community associated with Columbia University called the Columbia Venture Community. To learn more visit our website and engage with us at interplay.vc/engage.

Interplay

FJ Labs is a stage-agnostic investment firm that focuses on marketplaces and consumer-facing startups. Their investments are seed and series A. The investment range of the company is $50,000 to $5,000,000. It invests in Alibaba Group, Beepi, BrightRoll, Betterment, Adore Me, and Earnest.

FJ Labs

Hannah Grey they make investment's for business development.

Hannah Grey

Early stage venture capital fund focusing on investment opportunities in the U.S.

Unbound Ventures

Motley fool Ventures is a $150 million tech-focused venture capital fund. It focuses on Series A companies leveraging technology to drive scale, efficiency, or access in large and growing markets.

Motley Fool Ventures

Bennie

Bennie is on a mission to provide everyone with access to better benefits. With an easy-to-use app and world-class brokerage services, Bennie is designed to make benefits less complex and more accessible. Our proven team of industry innovators & experts have come together from top benefits firms, technology startups, and insurance carriers to help people live healthier lives.

Bennie’s web and mobile app enables employees and employers to view employee benefits information. It also offers an on-demand healthcare concierge service named Ask Bennie that provides personal assistance to users with insurance and coverage-related issues. Bennie's Marketplace offers discounted rates on a range of health and wellness solutions, family planning tools, and insurance policies. The company claims that enterprises are able to save 45 minutes per employee inquiry utilizing its Ask Bennie service. As of April 2024, the company was a licensed broker across 50 US states.

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

Remote Work Infrastructure

Atlanta Retailer Bennie’s Shoes to Close After 114 Years

Bennie’s web and mobile app enables employees and employers to view employee benefits information. It also offers an on-demand healthcare concierge service named Ask Bennie that provides personal assistance to users with insurance and coverage-related issues. Bennie's Marketplace offers discounted rates on a range of health and wellness solutions, family planning tools, and insurance policies. The company claims that enterprises are able to save 45 minutes per employee inquiry utilizing its Ask Bennie service. As of April 2024, the company was a licensed broker across 50 US states.Bennie acquired People 1st Health Strategies in<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10957"> June 2022</a> for an undisclosed amount. People 1st Health Strategies offers SME employers, employees, and brokers integrated benefits services, which include underwriting, plan design, third-party administration (TPA) services, and plan funding and cash flow management. Through the acquisition, Bennie announced a new self-funded suite of products, “Better Health Plan,” which includes medical, dental, and vision plans. Better Health plans enable employers to choose their monthly payments for health plans and evaluate, administer, and run their own programs. It also integrates with the existing Bennie app to provide benefits, information, and support.Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, Bennie served over 51,000 employees across notable brands such as BMW, Airbnb, and Formstack, among others. Further, the company had over 80 marketplace vendors, and 170+ insurance carriers and administrators it partners with, to offer its services.Funding and financialsIn April 2023, Bennie raised USD 13 million in a funding round led by Motley Fool Ventures. Funding utilization remained undisclosed.

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

Bennie

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