Shasta Ventures invests in startups in sectors. Their program consists of a proven methodology and a set of comprehensive playbooks that dive deep into the obstacles and challenges of early-stage startups. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to early-stage, so this agile program allows founders to tap into the resources they need when they need them.

Shasta Ventures

Matrix Partners works with product people from day one to help you win. Recent Matrix investments include Fivetran, Canva, Side, Afterpay, Markforged, CTRL-Labs, Oculus, Zendesk, Hubspot, Apollo GraphQL, Flock Safety, GOAT, Postmates, Acacia Communications, and Sila.

Matrix

InterWest invests an average of about $7 - 15 million over the span of their involvement with each company in their portfolio. They invest in companies through the full range of venture investment stages, and investments may be staged over several rounds of financing. Although they generally begin their involvement in the early stages of a company's development, they pursue attractive opportunities based on their individual merits rather than their investment stage.

InterWest Partners

500 Global is a multi-stage venture capital firm with US$2.4 billion in assets under management that invests in founders building fast-growing technology companies. We focus on markets where technology, innovation, and capital can unlock long-term value and drive economic growth. We work closely with key stakeholders and advise governments on how best to support entrepreneurial ecosystems so startups can thrive. 500 Global has backed over 5,000 founders representing more than 2,800 companies operating in 80+ countries. We have invested in 35+ companies valued at over US$1 billion and 160+ companies valued at over US$100 million (including private, public, and exited companies). Our 190+ team members are located in over 25 countries and bring experience as entrepreneurs, investors, and operators from some of the world’s leading technology companies. (*as of June 30, 2023)

500 Global

Elevation Capital is an early stage private investment company established in 2010. Funds are co-invested to facilitate participation in a diverse range of business ventures whilst spreading costs, risks and rewards for our shareholders.

Elevation Capital

Square Peg invests in emerging technology companies across the internet economy in Australia, Singapore and Tel Aviv. The fund supports outstanding entrepreneurs solving big problems in a unique and differentiated way. The company is a group of individuals united by a passion for technology and its potential to change the world. It partners with outstanding entrepreneurs that are building online and technology leaders of tomorrow and support them by leveraging their decades of experience building, investing in, and advising technology businesses, from start-up to multi-billion dollar public enterprises. We focus on Australia and New Zealand, South-East Asia, and Israel.

Square Peg Capital

Blackbird is an Australasian venture capital firm whose mission is to invest in wild hearts, with the wildest ideas, right at the beginning.  We back generational ambition with generational ownership by raising funds and investing in the best startup companies all the way through their journey from idea to beyond IPO. Blackbird was founded in 2012, with a small first fund of $30M from the community of Australian technology founders. That fund invested in the very first rounds of Canva, Zoox, CultureAmp and SafetyCulture and has a TVPI of more than 35x. Today, our portfolio is worth over $7B and includes more than 100 companies across Australia and New Zealand, including rising stars like Propeller, Gilmour Space, Halter, Eucalyptus and Harrison AI.

Blackbird Ventures

Founders Fund is a venture capital firm that invests at every stage in companies building revolutionary technologies. It has been investors, founders, and early employees of prominent technology companies. It has historically invested in a wide variety of sectors, including aerospace, artificial intelligence, advanced computing, energy, health, and consumer Internet.

Founders Fund

Investible is an 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 realise their potential on a global scale. Founded in 2014 and with offices in Sydney and Singapore, its unique approach to early-stage tech investment globally 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 11 countries and 20 sectors.

Investible

Blackbird Ventures is a principal investment firm specializing in investments in diverse businesses including emerging technology companies and real estate development. Blackbird Ventures is based in La Jolla, California.

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

Airtree is a venture capital firm backing Aussie and Kiwi founders, building the iconic technology companies of tomorrow. We’re powered by our network, dedicating extraordinary resources to help founders shortcut company-building firsts and accelerate their journey from idea to global household name. As one of the largest and most active early-stage investors in Australia and New Zealand, Airtree’s 100+ portfolio features the region’s breakout tech companies, including Canva, Go1, Employment Hero, Pet Circle, Immutable and Linktree.

Airtree Ventures

Felicis Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. The firm invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors and industries reinventing core markets, as well as those creating frontier technologies. Felicis currently manages over $2B in capital across 8 funds. The firm is an early backer of more than 40 companies valued at $1B+. More than 90 of its portfolio companies have been acquired or gone public since the firm was founded by Aydin Senkut in 2006.

Felicis

Founded in 2014, Vayner/RSE is a marriage of builders: Gary Vaynerchuk, VaynerMedia and RSE Ventures. VRSE invests in teams building tomorrow's companies through unique consumer insight and relentless drive.  Our sweet spot is in the first round of institutional financing, funding either as lead investors or as part of a syndicate. Beyond capital, we support our community with access and insights derived across both our investment portfolio and the operating companies we oversee on a daily basis.  Our team has a diverse background of starting, growing and operating companies across a variety of industries and life stages and we leverage this mental elasticity to help our entrepreneurs through the gamut of challenges that accompany building companies.

Vayner/RSE

Sequoia Capital China is a VC firm focused on seed-stage, mid-stage, late-stage, and growth investments in the fintech sector. Sequoia Capital China has offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Shenzhen. Over the past nine years, Sequoia Capital China has an impressive and diverse portfolio comprising about 300 dynamic companies that deliver high returns on investment using differentiated technologies and innovative business models, including Alibaba, VIPshop.com, Sina.com, Didi, JD.com, Ourpalm, Qihoo 360, Jumei, Momo, SINNET, Dianping.com, Meituan, Meilishuo, Toutiao, AutoNavi, Ganji.com, DJI, VanceInfo, Noah Private Wealth Management, Wanda Cinemas, Alibaba Pictures, Plateno Hotels Group, Deppon Logistics, ZTO Express, Beta Pharma, Snibe Diagnostic, BGI, WEGO, and Yuwell Medical.

Sequoia Capital China

General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that provides early-stage and growth equity investments. The company provides ongoing momentum that accelerates ideas, careers, and companies toward standout success.

General Catalyst

Bond is a venture capital firm that supports visionary founders of high-growth Internet companies throughout their life cycle of innovation and growth. The firm, a spinout of the Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund, was launched in January 2019 and founded by Mary Meeker with Mood Rowghani, Noah Knauf.

Bond

Bessemer Venture Partners helps entrepreneurs lay strong foundations to build and forge long-standing companies. Their portfolio includes pinterest, shopify, twilio, yelp, linkedin, pagerduty, docusign, wix, fiverr, and toast, and has $19 billion of assets under management.

Bessemer Venture Partners

Canva

Upollo is to develop more quickly and create more useful products, and helps them convert, keep, grow, and understand their users.

Calven is the first B2B SaaS platform to manage hybrid work, real estate and workplace experience in a unified way. The platform: •           Makes hybrid work, work ; by frictionlessly allowing employees, teams and the organisation to work transparently and effectively in a distributed way •           Optimises the office; by creating an office experience that is streamlined, convenient and appealing. Simplifying access to services and maximising real estate •           Amplifies employee experience; by facilitating and maintaining a vibrant, engaging culture no matter where everyone works

Canva is a graphic design software solutions provider that helps users to design presentations, social media graphics, and more with various layouts, images, photo filters, icons and shapes, and fonts. The platform combines a drag-and-drop design tool with a stock library of photographs, illustrations, and imagery. It was founded in 2012 and headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales.

<div><p>Co-founded by noteworthy Philanthrapist Melanie Perkins, Canva is one of the most popular web-based graphic design platforms that helps users to design presentations, social media graphics, using drag-and-drop&nbsp; design tools. The platform also includes a stock library of photographs, illustrations, and imagery. In September 2021, the firm announced the launch of a video editing suite as it extends its capability into video content creation.     As of March 2023, the platform operated in more than 190 countries with a customer base of over 120 million monthly users including companies like Blackbird, GivingTuesday, Philadelphia Eagles, Upworthy,     PayPal, UCDavis, Baxter, Gucci, and Danone.</p></div>

Creating affordable content for the digital age

Content Creation Tools

<div><p>Canva is an Australian graphic design company that facilitates project collaboration by providing tools to design presentations, social media graphics, posters, and logos. In<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17289"><u>March 2023</u></a>, Canva introduced a suite of new features including AI-powered tools and a Brand Hub. The new assistant tool enables users to search for design elements, get recommendations for graphics and styles, and access AI-powered design tools such as Magic Write, Magic Design, Magic Edit, and Beat Sync. The platform also introduced new features such as draw, layouts, styles, layers, and alt text support based on user requests. The new Brand Hub included tools that help users create brand templates, folders, and design guidelines.</p></div>

The tools that power remote work are define the next generation of enterprise software.

Remote Work Tools

<div>
  <p>
    Co-founded by noteworthy Philanthrapist Melanie Perkins, Canva is one of the most popular web-based graphic design platforms that helps users to design presentations, social media graphics, using drag-and-drop&nbsp; design tools. The platform also includes a stock library of photographs, illustrations, and imagery. In September 2021, the firm announced the launch of a video editing suite as it extends its capability into video content creation. 
    As of March 2023, the platform operated in more than 190 countries with a customer base of over 120 million monthly users including companies like Blackbird, GivingTuesday, Philadelphia Eagles, Upworthy, 
    PayPal, UCDavis, Baxter, Gucci, and Danone.
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Funding and Financials&nbsp;</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    In April 2021, the firm raised USD 71 million in venture round funding led by Dragoneer Investment Group and T. Rowe Price. Just 5 months later, Canva raised an additional USD 200 million&nbsp; by T. Rowe Price and was valued at USD 40 billion, making it the 5th most valuable startup in the world. The firm claims to be on track to hit USD 1 billion in annualized revenue for 2021. During 2022, the firm plans to utilize its funding to double its team size from its current 2,000+ employees.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


<div>
  <p>
    Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant technology that works seamlessly across multiple platforms and devices. The platform includes a grammar checker, plagiarism checker, essay checker, tone detector, style guide, snippets, analytics, and brand tones. It integrates with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and Forbes. Grammarly serves over 30 million people and more than 30,000 teams globally. It provides suggestions in desktop applications and sites across the web, including emails and messages, documents and projects, and social media. It is a privately held company.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Grammarly

<div>
  <p>
    Picsart is a digital creation platform for editing photos and videos. It creates, remixes, and shares billions of visual stories using powerful and easy-to-use editing tools. Picsart’s product line comprises a photo editor, video editor, mobile apps, and business solutions. The business offers API services, platform integrations, co-marketing, and custom enterprise solutions. Some use cases include making YouTube banners, Pinterest pins, brochures, and gift certificates. Picsart serves over 150 million users and processes more than one billion edits per month. The privately held company acquired DeepCraft in 2021 and Code Republic in 2022.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Picsart

<div>
  <p>
    Typeform is a no-code SaaS platform for creating customer forms, quizzes, and surveys. Typeform claims to drive more than 500 million digital interactions per year and its platform integrates with workflow and marketing campaign automation tools including  HubSpot, Calendly, Slack, and Mailchimp. The firm provides templates for use cases including marketing as well as enterprise solutions for brands to deliver customer interactions at scale. As of April 2022, brands using Typeform's tools include L'Occitane, Headspace, Hermes and Lyft.
  </p>
  <p>
    <b></b>
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Funding and Financials</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    In March 2022, the firm raised USD 135 million led by Sofina, and had a post-money valuation of USD 935 million. The new funding will be used for product development and to add further integrations. The firm claims to have grown its revenue by 3x since 2018 and reached an ARR of USD 70 million in 2021. 
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Typeform

<div>
  <p>
    Ceros is a cloud-based design platform for creating and managing customer web experiences that can be embedded anywhere on the web and is compatible with most CMS platforms. The platform's features include no-code content creation tools, a content marketplace, and data asset management (DAM).  Through a series of acquisitions the firm has extended its capabilities to include solutions for gathering customer feedback across multiple channels (Markup), content team management tools (Oroson),  and an online chart-building tool (Chartblocks). The firm also has a team of 40+  consultants to provide guidance on content strategy. As of April 2022, the firm had more than 550 clients including Conde Nast, Pinterest, Terminus, Pendo, and McKinsey.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Ceros

NLP automates the creation of personalized written media content for different use cases

For written and visual content creation AI/ML is a core part of the end result

Uses generative AI to automate the creation of personalized content across multiple media formats

Offers tools to create pictures, videos, animations, and other visual media.

<div>
  <p>
    Canva is an Australian graphic design company that facilitates project collaboration by providing tools to design presentations, social media graphics, posters, and logos. In 
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17289">
      <u>March 2023</u>
    </a>
    , Canva introduced a suite of new features including AI-powered tools and a Brand Hub. The new assistant tool enables users to search for design elements, get recommendations for graphics and styles, and access AI-powered design tools such as Magic Write, Magic Design, Magic Edit, and Beat Sync. The platform also introduced new features such as draw, layouts, styles, layers, and alt text support based on user requests. The new Brand Hub included tools that help users create brand templates, folders, and design guidelines.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company launched &ldquo;Canva Whiteboards&rdquo; (
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12496">
      <u>August 2022</u>
    </a>
    ) which allows users to brainstorm and collaborate with colleagues within the platform by integrating with Canva presentations. This comes with additional features such as a synced timer that keeps track of session timings, Canva&rsquo;s library of over 100 million images videos, and templates such as kanban boards and flow charts. Further, Canva&rsquo;s quick-flow automation allows users to add pre-connected elements and shapes such as sticky notes. In 
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13009">
      <u>September 2022</u>
    </a>
    , Canva launched a new suite of digital workplace products including Canva Docs, Canva Websites, Canva Whiteboards, and Data Visualization in an attempt to transform itself into a productivity management software.&nbsp;&nbsp;
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Key customers and partnerships</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    As of March 2023, the platform operated in more than 190 countries with a customer base of over 120 million monthly users including companies like Blackbird, GivingTuesday, Philadelphia Eagles, and Upworthy.
  </p>
  <p>
    Canva has partnered with companies like FedEx, Hubspot, Office Depot, and Officeworks.&nbsp;
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Funding and financials</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    In its latest funding round (September 2021), Canva raised USD 200 million in a funding round led by T. Rowe Price, bringing Canva's valuation to USD 40 billion. The fresh funding was expected to be used to build out its product, which will include a new website design product, a new video editor, and an offline mode.
  </p>
</div>


<div>
  <p>
    Hive is a productivity platform for project management and collaboration. The platform provides automated workflows, project planning layouts, and action templates to assign and keep track of project tasks. Hive focuses on improving task execution with instant feedback cycles for editing and approvals. Additional features include note taking (Hive Note), instant messaging, online meetings, and file sharing.
  </p>
  <p>
    Hive offers a variety of ways for teams to organize their projects, including Gantt charts, Kanban boards, tables, and calendars, with updates made in one view automatically reflected in all others. The platform allows team members to create action cards with files, sub-actions, dependencies, and comments to stay on top of their objectives, and have access to a personal to-do list that compiles all assigned tasks from all projects. Managers can use Hive to assign approvals, share proofs, provide feedback, and collect project forms from clients and customers. Hive also uses AI and machine learning to provide insights on team productivity and identify potential risks, and to optimize resource allocation and client billing.
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Key customers and partnerships</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    The company&rsquo;s customer base includes Uber, Marriot, Starbucks, The Economist, Compass, Omnicom, Harvard, New York University, and WeWork. Hive offers integrations over 1,000 SaaS platforms, including Asana, Trello, Basecamp, and Smartsheet, allowing users to import tasks from these platforms.
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Funding and financials</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    Hive raised USD 10.6 million in&nbsp; raised USD 10 million in a funding round led by Rembrandt Venture Partners in August 2021. The funding round included Zoom as well as existing investors Tribeca Venture Partners and Angelpad. Hive is one of the first startups to receive an investment from Zoom&rsquo;s recently launched Zoom Apps Fund (a USD 100 million global venture fund). The fresh funds were allocated toward platform development.&nbsp;
  </p>
</div>


Hive

<div>
  <p>
    Grain’s software allows users to record and share online meeting content from tools such as Zoom in an effective manner. The content can be in the form of recorded videos or transcripts from the call. In addition, the shareable content can be clipped and tweaked to create summary videos of lectures, workplace meetings, etc. Grain operates a subscription-based model with a free-to-use version, a paid plan priced at USD 19 per user per month, and an enterprise plan with custom pricing. The company’s products focus on distributed teams, sales, product and user research, and hiring teams.
  </p>
  <p>
    In its latest funding round (
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9759">
      <u>April 2022</u>
    </a>
    ), Grain raised USD 16 million in Series A funding led by Tiger Global Management. The funds were raised to expand operations and develop its ​​video meeting system of record for content, which allows employees to collaborate around insights, topics, relationships, or teams. 
  </p>
</div>


Grain

<div>
  <p>
    Air is a creative operations system that enables designers and marketers to create, store, search, collaborate, and review image and video content. Air&rsquo;s smart search function is equipped with image recognition, automated tagging, and search filters to reduce time spent on manual processes. Kanban-style project management tools that integrate with third-party tools like Asana and monday.com are also included in Air to manage visual content planning, production, and distribution workflows. Further, Air supports collaboration and the review process through version stacks and features like annotations, which can be&nbsp;timestamped and shared publicly. As of January 2022, Air offered a free version with a storage capacity of up to 5 GB for three members and paid subscription plans starting from USD 10 per month/per user.
  </p>
  <p>
    Shane Hegde and Tyler Strand, both Stanford graduates, founded Air in 2017. Hegde was the former chief digital officer at TV network Revolt Media (an American music cable television network). Strand&rsquo;s previous venture hostess.fm (a live-streaming company) was sold to LA-based events company SFX Entertainment in 2014.
  </p>
  <p>
    Although it was founded in 2017, Air launched in March 2020. In its first four months since launch, it reported weekly paid user growth of 10% and attracted 200 clients as of September 2020. As of January 2022, the company&rsquo;s revenue in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) and ecommerce markets had seen more than 500% YoY growth in the preceding 12 months. Air&rsquo;s free product is used to manage nearly 20 million creative assets, 25% of customers use the product daily, and customer revenue has doubled every six months, as of January 2022.
  </p>
  <p>
    In its most recent funding round in 
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8139">
      <u>January 2022</u>
    </a>
    , Air raised USD 10 million in an &ldquo;Operator Round&rdquo; led by Headline with participation from Tiger Global, Lere Hippeau, and 50+ strategic founders and marketing executives including Peter Rahal (Co-Founder, RXBAR), Kipp Bodnar (CMO, HubSpot), and Joe Thomas (CEO, Loom), valuing the company at USD 110 million. The company considers the Operator Round to be unique, as its backers included Air&rsquo;s existing customers, potential customers, and prominent product advisors. The fresh funds will be used to accelerate Air&rsquo;s go-to-market activities and growth.
  </p>
</div>


<div>
  <p>
    Acapela was co-founded by Roland Grenke, founder of Dubsmash, a video sharing social media app. Acapela facilitates online meetings without real-time interaction between participants; instead, members contribute to meetings over time. 
  </p>
  <p>
     Acapela provides voice and video messages integrated with popular productivity tools such as Asana, Google Workspace, Notion, and Atlassian. Additionally, meetings will generate tasks and meeting summaries automatically. The company identified distributed tech teams as its initial target segment and plans to shift focus toward small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and larger enterprises eventually.  The product is currently in invite-only beta.
  </p>
  <p>
    In October 2020, the company exited stealth mode with a USD 3 million seed funding round led by Visionaries Club. The round included Entrepreneur First and other notable individual investors, such as Christian Reber (founder of presentation software Pitch) and Taavet Hinrikus (founder of online money transfer service TransferWise). 
  </p>
</div>


Acapela

<div>
  <p>
    iObeya is a French company that has begun its global expansion starting with the United States. The company focuses on visualization tools for management, such as lean, agile, and manufacturing, often in the form of Gantt charts, whiteboards, and post-it notes. The platform currently has more than 300,000 users across 350+ clients, which are mainly large enterprises.
  </p>
</div>


iObeya

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

Some solutions in the virtual office and video conferencing segments are based on AR/VR

Facilitates hybrid workforces by offering tools for employees to collaborate regardless of location

Meeting transcription and note-taking apps, design, and project management tools use AI/ML for product development

Platforms that facilitate task delegation and tracking with board, timeline, and kanban style views.

Platforms that provide standalone presentation software, prototyping and web development software, templates, and design workspaces.

Canva

Content Creation Tools

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EDGE Insights

Canva: Transforming visual communication landscape with innovation

Content creation tools: affordable content for the digital age

Recent Updates

Canva launches AI-powered tools and Brand Hub

Canva launches digital productivity tools

Australian graphic design platform Canva launches new Whiteboards feature

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