Why we invested in Komon: Web3 platform to empower creator communities

Adara

We are pleased to announce our recent investment in Komon, a platform that permits creators to launch NFT-powered communities. Adara participated in the $2 million pre-seed round alongside SamaipataInvereadyShilling, and several business angels.

We are excited to back Komon founders Sebastián Fernández-Medrano, former Principal at Samaipata, and Manuel Bevilacqua, a computer scientist with years of experience in companies such as Capchase, Returnly, and Stubhub.

Both founders share a deep passion for art in all its forms. Beyond their professional experience, Sebastián is a trained actor and Manuel is a professional violinist, which has led them to take the leap to change creative industries through technology.

The challenge: One-sided creator platforms

Digital creators face many challenges, often sacrificing ownership over their audiences and potential revenue depending on the platforms they choose to distribute their work. First-generation models (YouTube, Twitch, Spotify) have helped creators make money primarily through digital ads but still require a significant following and traffic numbers to generate meaningful revenue. And while second-generation models (Patreon, OnlyFans) have helped creators unlock additional revenue by charging fans subscription fees to access content, dependence on any one platform forever limits the creator’s potential audience size, engagement, and revenue.

Enter Komon: Enabling direct creator-community relationships

Komon offers an alternative to these existing models, helping creators regain control over their entire content production, monetization, and distribution processes.

The Madrid-based startup is developing a platform that will allow creators and artists to build and manage a community and engage directly with their audiences. Community members can unlock access and rights to a creator’s exclusive content through utility-focused NFTs, or “Komon Keys,” which are governed by smart contracts. Members can also resell, rent, or give away “Komon Keys” to transfer their community membership to someone else.

Komon will use the funding to develop the platform and build out its team in Europe and the US.

The Adara view: Web3 & and empowering the new creator economy

We’re fascinated to see how Web3 will harness the power of digital communities and the future of commerce. To build and run these communities is time-consuming, costly, and complex, and we believe creator tools and platforms like Komon will catalyze audience engagement in the same way that e-commerce infrastructure has unlocked distribution for D2C brands.

We were very impressed with Sebastian and Manu’s deep “Problem-Founder Fit,” having both experienced firsthand the current difficulties the creative industry faces, and we believe they have a product-first approach to a very large market opportunity. The potential for NFTs to provide creators with more autonomy over how they engage with their audiences and monetize their work is enormous. We are thrilled to support Komon on their mission to help creators worldwide build income in a way that truly enables their creative work.

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Helsinki-based Helppy is revolutionising home care and has picked up €3 million to expand across Europe

Alliance Venture

Elderly home care is a highly personal form of care provision, and its an area that has been in need of a facelift. Empowered by tech, Helppy has developed a platform that will revolutionise the sector and is based around a neighbourhood care model. The concept allows for more personal care, full transparency and higher productivity than the traditional route-based shift worker model.

As proof of its concept, the previously bootstrapped company has just picked up €3 million in a round led by Alliance Venture. Pre-seed investors Icebreaker.vc, Johannes Schildt, the Co-Founder and CEO of Kry/Livi and Elias Aalto, the Co-Founder of Wolt, also participated in the round and continued to back Helppy.

Anders Hallin, Partner of Alliance VC said: “Helppy has completely redesigned the home care model, allowing them to provide better care and better experience for all parties involved. Their model is unique and can solve many of the problems the ageing population in Europe faces from nurse shortage to the rising demand for care services.”

Founded in Helsinki in 2018, Helppy was developed when founder Richard Nordström needed care for his own mother. When his mother sadly fell ill, Richard found that the existing care provisions were too hard to organise and the service too impersonal. Helppy was developed as a tech-empowered neighbourhood model, which allows the senior to be visited by familiar ‘helppers’. From Helppy, the family member gets personal, trustworthy and affordable help for the ageing parent, hassle-free.

Richard Nordström, Founder & CEO of Helppy, explained: “We’re building the next-generation model of home care. With our model, you will get named ‘helppers’ or nurses, know who visits, know their backgrounds, get visit notes and be able to communicate with them. Using tech to make it personal and trustworthy – at the same price or lower than home care in general.” 

The Finnish startup has now helped nearly a thousand families in Finland and attracted over 5000 nurses and personal assistants to sign up on the platform and offer their help to seniors in need.

Richard Nordström, added: “We believe that our type of model will be adopted by a significant part of the home care market in the next few years, and help solve the ongoing nurse shortage. We’re seeing this happening already in the US, but now also emerging in Europe. The home care market only in Europe is worth over €100 billion and growing 8% annually. With the new funding we’re launching operations now in several markets in Central Europe. ”

With the fresh funding, Helppy will now expand beyond Finland, taking its personalised care offering to families in need across the continent. In addition, the startup will welcome former Swappie Head of DACH region Lauri Tevilin to the team to head growth plans.

Riku Seppälä, a Founding Partner of Icebreaker.vc, added: “Helppy’s team has succeeded in developing technology that revolutionizes the quality of the care for the customer. Coming from Finland and having proven their concept in the world’s most developed care market, we see that Helppy can make a real impact on the elderly care system in Europe”.

Johannes Schildt, the Co-Founder of Kry, said: “Helppy innovates elderly care by using technology to make it more continuous, personal and tailored to each individual’s needs. We need great teams who develop our welfare services and Helppy injects innovation into this much-needed part of healthcare, elderly care”.

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Quality Clouds raises £5.5m to support migration to low-code, cloud-based applications and workflows

Adara
Quality Clouds has announced a new round of investment to continue scaling its application development governance platform. The investment was led by YFM Equity Partners (YFM), with participation from Seed-round lead Adara Ventures, plus new investors Aldea and U.K. Future Fund.

We first partnered with Quality Clouds in early 2020, as the first investment from our third fund, and we are excited to be backing the team led by Albert Franquesa and Angel Marquez again.

This round allows the company to accelerate its business plan, onboard a US sales team, and expand the marketing and customer success resources available for newly-incorporated Chief Revenue Officer K.C. Watson.

The new investment will strengthen the company’s offering globally, following strong growth in the US, where 45% of Quality Clouds’ clients are based. It will also help increase Quality Clouds’ ability to help ServiceNow and Salesforce customers unlock the value of their investments.

Importantly, the company is vastly upgrading the resources available to support and coach the founders and management team. Experienced software veteran Mark Sutherland is joining the company as non-executive Chairman, while Kevin Tumulty (formerly EMEA VP at ServiceNow), John McAdam (formerly CEO of F5 Networks), and Sander Daniels (formerly Head of Financial Services Industries – Northern Europe, Germany and UK at Salesforce) join the new Strategic Advisory Board.

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Reema Health Secures $8 Million in Seed Funding Round

New Stack Ventures

Investments in breakthrough community-based health technology platform top $10 million to date.

April 11, 2022 · Portfolio Company

Reema Health, a community-based health technology platform, recently earned $8 million in a funding round led by MaC Venture Capital and DNA Capital. Combined with a previous $1.25 million pre-seed round and earlier preliminary investments, Reema’s has raised over $10 million to date.

58% of low-income Americans report being socially isolated, a factor that impacts their overall health and significantly increases the cost of care. Reema transforms how people navigate the gaps between health care and social care by combining advanced technology with human interaction. Reema’s personalized, community-based approach engages people via Community Guides with a personal understanding of their lives, their crucial needs, and the most impactful resources available. Reema’s technology platform empowers Guides to be more effective, helping them rapidly establish the kind of deep trust proven to promote better health outcomes.

“Technology solutions can create more efficient, and more informed outreach but they can’t build authentic relationships that drive real engagement,” said Justin Ley, CEO of Reema.

“Our experienced Community Guides work one-on-one with the most underserved people in their communities when it comes to social care. It’s the latest data science combined with empathic, in-person relationships, a powerful combination that builds trust fast.” Ley added the inspiration for Reema came from his own personal experiences growing up.

Reema is currently serving health plans throughout the East Coast and Midwest, with plans to expand to several more states this year. The company’s current programs are already reporting member engagement rates of 84% or more, a metric that proves its breakthrough approach is successfully reaching many people who, before Reema, were living without the social care that significantly improves their lives, and the overall health of their communities.

“Health plans, providers and other intermediaries have realized that piling on more and more clinical and social resources barely moves the needle when it comes to driving desirable health outcomes for marginalized, low income population,” said Partha Mishra, Partner at DNA Capital. “Acting as a catalyst, combining technology and human insights, and partnering with existing players, Reema has instead demonstrated that a personalized, community centric approach to build bridges with each member first makes the entire system come alive.”

About Reema:

Reema uses technology to power human relationships with the goal of improving health outcomes for people who are hardest to reach. Reema’s breakthrough health platform uses proprietary technology and predictive data modeling to identify people with the highest level of unmet social needs, and power Community Guides with the right information to engage them meaningfully, connect them with the most relevant resources, and improve their health and their lives. For more information visit ReemaHealth.com.

 

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Indico Data CEO Tom Wilde Joins Forbes Technology Council

.406 Venture

BOSTONDec. 15, 2021  — Indico Data, the unstructured data company, announced today that the company’s CEO, Tom Wilde, has joined the Forbes Technology Council, an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs, and technology executives.

Tom was selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of his experience. Criteria for acceptance includes a track record of successful business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors.

“We are honored to welcome Indico Data CEO Tom Wilde into the community,” said Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, the collective that includes Forbes Technology Council. “Our mission with Forbes Councils is to bring together proven leaders from every industry, creating a curated, social capital-driven network that helps every member grow professionally and make an even greater impact on the business world.”

As a member of the Council, Tom gains access to a variety of exclusive opportunities designed to help him reach peak professional influence. He will connect and collaborate with other respected local leaders in a private forum. Tom will also be invited to work with a professional editorial team to share his expert insights in original business articles on Forbes.com, and to contribute to published Q&A panels alongside other experts.

Finally, Tom will benefit from exclusive access to vetted business service partners, membership-branded marketing collateral, and the high-touch support of the Forbes Councils member concierge team.

“I’m proud to be a member of, and eager to contribute to, the Forbes Tech Council community,” said Tom Wilde, CEO at Indico Data. “In my short time as a member, I have already seen the dynamic and helpful interactions among experts, as we all share the common goal of bringing relevant and powerful new technologies to light for our customers.”

About Forbes Councils
Forbes Councils is a collective of invitation-only communities created in partnership with Forbes and the expert community builders who founded Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC). In Forbes Councils, exceptional business owners and leaders come together with the people and resources that can help them thrive.

For more information about Forbes Technology Council, visit forbestechcouncil.com. To learn more about Forbes Councils, visit forbescouncils.com.

For more information on the Indico Unstructured Data Platform, or to schedule a demo, please visit www.indicodata.ai.

About Indico Data
Indico Data is the unstructured data company. With its innovative AI- and ML-powered software platform, enterprises of all sizes can automate, analyze, and apply unstructured data –– documents, emails, images, videos and more –– to a wide range of enterprise workflows. The Indico Unstructured Data Platform enables companies to gain rich insight and maximize the value of their existing software investments, including RPA, CRM, ERP, and BI, by enabling these systems to work with unstructured data. Indico serves leading insurance, financial services, banking, real estate and other data-intensive enterprises, including MetLife, PNC Bank, Chatham Financial, Cushman & Wakefield and Waste Management. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA. Visit www.indicodata.ai to learn more.

Media contact:
Claudine Caruso
Guyer Group for Indico Data
indico@guyergroup.com

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ThreatX Names Tom Axbey to its Board of Directors

.406 Venture
Boston, MA – December 14, 2021 –ThreatX, the leading web application and API protection (WAAP) platform, today announced the appointment of Tom Axbey to its board of directors. Axbey will serve as an independent board member, assisting the company’s leadership team as ThreatX continues its expansion into the WAAP market. “ThreatX partners with customers around the world to ensure that their web applications and APIs are securely protected against today’s increasingly complex threat landscape,” said Gene Fay, CEO at ThreatX. “As the demand for WAAP coverage continues to accelerate, I’m thrilled to welcome Tom to our board of directors. His experience will prove invaluable to us as we scale the business in 2022 and beyond to build the most comprehensive WAAP platform available in the industry.” 

Axbey has demonstrated an ability to drive growth and build operational excellence in high-growth companies. Most recently, he served as VP & GM of CloudHealth by VMware and served as its CEO prior to its acquisition by VMware. Prior to CloudHealth, Tom served as CEO of Rave Mobile Safety, where he led its turnaround, growth and acquisition. He has also held leadership roles at IBM, Micromuse, Quallaby Corp and American Internet Corporation.  

“I’m excited to leverage my enterprise technology leadership experience to help guide and influence yet another highly-disruptive technology,” said Axbey. “ThreatX is well positioned to seize the web application and API security market with its innovative WAAP platform solution and its experienced team of industry leaders. As the newest member of ThreatX’s board of directors, I look forward to accomplishing great things together.” 

In addition to ThreatX, Axbey serves on several other boards, including Language I/O, Armoured Things, BluStream, Interactions and InSpace and is an operating partner at large for GutBrain Ventures. 

ThreatX was recently named a Visionary in the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Web Application API Protection. To learn more about the ThreatX WAAP platform, please visit www.threatx.com. 

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Seaya Ventures and Cathay Innovation Announce $125M Fund to Invest in Latin America

Seayaventures

Seaya Ventures and Cathay Innovation today announced the first close of a $125M multi-sector fund for startups across Latin America redefining industry and society. Based out of Mexico City, the Seaya Cathay Latam Fund aims to be the direct link for local, purpose-driven entrepreneurs to the worldwide resources needed to build and scale resilient businesses leading markets on the regional or global stage.

The new fund invests in transformative technology companies focusing on Series A and B with reserves for follow-on rounds. It also embeds sustainability into the investment cycle to give startups the tools to grow responsibly while maximizing impact. This includes consumer and enterprise startups in fintech and proptech to mobility, healthtech, food, agriculture, cybersecurity and more. In September, the team made its first investment in Chilean fintech Xepelin’s $230M round. Other previous investments in the region include Mexico’s Kueski and Lana, Brazil’s Facily and alt.bank, Colombia’s RobinFood and Chile’s Fracttal.

“We’re looking for exceptional founders building innovative technologies and business models that will have a lasting, positive impact on Latin America,” said Beatriz Gonzalez, Founder and Managing Partner, Seaya Ventures. “With Cathay’s global reach and Seaya’s local edge, we can bring real value by helping startups capitalize on emerging trends across the world with localized, hands-on support. Our experience helping companies expand to and from Latam, creating global winners, is what sets us apart,” said Pablo Pedrejón, Principal, Seaya Ventures. 

The news follows April’s formal partnership announcement, which brought together both firm’s expansive investment platforms, combining Seeya’s local edge, and Cathay’s corporate ecosystem of investors and strategic partners covering Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Latin America. By fusing local expertise with a global platform under a single fund, Latam startups can gain unique value beyond capital with access to deep, multi-sector insights along with potential corporate partners or customers to fuel business development and activate growth.

“Latam is approaching the tipping point with a burgeoning tech sector and rising middle-class fueling rapid growth,” said Jacky Abitbol, Managing Partner, Cathay Innovation. “Similar to what we saw in China and Southeast Asia, there’s a large equity gap, a growing talent pool and VC allocations. Startups can now adapt innovation to local market needs, building inclusive, digital-first industries from the ground up. With our Latam fund, and a joint platform of $4.6B AUM, we can invest and follow along every step of this entrepreneurial journey — something unique in the market today.”

The teams have proven track records investing in 17 unicorns and several breakout startups including Spain’s Glovo, Cabify and Wallbox (NYSE:WBX) as well as Chime Bank in the US, Paris-based Ledger and China’s Pinduoduo (NASDAQ:PDD). Leading local investments for the Latam fund is Federico Gómez Romero, who brings over 12 years of experience and most recently led Latam activities for seed fintech fund Accion Venture Lab. Previously, he was an investment banker at Lazard before launching several startups and becoming CEO at Credility, an SME lending platform in Argentina.

To learn more, please visit www.sclatam.com

About Seaya Ventures

Seaya Ventures is a leading European & Latin-American Venture Capital firm based in Spain, investing in value-driven founders who are building global technology companies with a sustainable approach. Since raising its first fund in 2013, Seaya manages $350M across three early-stage funds. Seaya Ventures accelerates startup growth by working with the founders to enhance their strategic vision, putting at their disposal its global platform, its strong network of founders, investors and corporates, as well as Seaya’s experience in scaling leading companies such as Glovo, Cabify, Wallbox (NYSE:WBX), Spotahome, Clarity AI, Clicars and Savana.

 

About Cathay Innovation

Cathay Innovation is a global venture capital partnership, created in affiliation with Cathay Capital, investing in startups at the center of the digital revolution across North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Its global platform unifies technology investment across continents, investors, entrepreneurs and leading corporations to accelerate startup growth with access to new markets, invaluable industry knowledge and introductions to potential partners from the start. As a multistage fund with over $1.5 billion assets under management and offices across San Francisco, New York, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore, Cathay Innovation partners with visionary entrepreneurs and startups positively impacting the world through technology.

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bp leads $25m Series A round in EV ride-hailing and charging start-up BluSmart

BP Ventures
  • BluSmart is India’s first and largest integrated EV ride-hailing and charging business
  • It is bp venture’s first direct investment in India and tenth in the mobility space
  • The investment will help BluSmart bring its electric vehicles and charging stations to five major cities

bp ventures has made its first direct investment in India, investing $13 million in integrated EV ride-hailing and charging company BluSmart. It led a $25 million Series A round that also saw support from Mayfield India Fund, 9Unicorns and Survam Partners, alongside other existing investors.

 

BluSmart will use the capital to expand its fleet of electric vehicles and charging stations from its home city of Delhi to five additional Indian cities in the next two years. The investment will help bp move towards becoming a leader in India’s mobility market, and to provide integrated energy and mobility solutions to help customers reduce their emissions across the world.

 

BluSmart is India’s first and largest integrated EV ride-hailing and charging company, and aims to deliver safer, cleaner and more sustainable mobility. It is the first service of its kind with no surge pricing or rides rejected by drivers. Safety and cleanliness are paramount in the Indian market, and customers can view the last time each car was sanitised and driver vaccination status via the BluSmart app. The company also removes the financial burden of vehicle ownership by leasing vehicles to drivers and oversees all vehicle maintenance, to help reduce driver stress.

 

“Our partnership is underpinned by shared values; caring for customers, colleagues and the environment, and with safety at the core of everything we do.”

Richard Bartlett, SVP future mobility & solutions

 

India is now the third-largest startup market globally and its GDP is projected to be the world’s third largest by 2030. Yet with 35 of the top 50 most polluted cities globally, there’s a huge need for low carbon technologies to help make that growth compatible with its climate ambitions.

 

Urbanization is also increasing rapidly, with the UN projecting that India’s urban population size will nearly double from 2018 to 2050, potentially creating further congestion and environmental challenges that electric ride-hailing can help play a part in improving.

 

The industry is forecast to grow significantly, with mobility as a service projected to make up 15% of the 1.1 trillion kilometres to be travelled by passenger vehicles in India by 2030, compared to 5% of the 477 billion kilometres travelled today.

 

With the largest EV charging infrastructure in India and a growing fleet of electric vehicles, BluSmart aims to transform ride hailing in the country. The business is growing quickly in Delhi NCR, which represents 20% of India’s mobility market, which BluSmart estimate has already saved over approximately 1,500 tonnes of CO2, with more than 650,000 passenger trips completed to date.

 

Richard Bartlett, SVP future mobility & solutions, said: “The electric mobility revolution will have a huge impact in reducing vehicle emissions in cities, which in India are growing quickly. BluSmart’s business model solves a number of key barriers to urban EV ride-hailing take-up, from the cost for drivers to the quality of customer experience. Our partnership is underpinned by shared values; caring for customers, colleagues and the environment, and with safety at the core of everything we do. We are excited to have made our first direct investment in India, to grow alongside the BluSmart business.”

 

Anmol Singh Jaggi, co-founder of BluSmart, added: “We believe that electric mobility has huge growth potential, driven in part by the increasingly favourable economics behind electric vehicles. With that in mind we want to redefine ride-hailing with electric vehicles, and our consumer focus has helped us to already establish a strong brand presence in our core market; to date our vehicles have travelled over 21 million kilometres. This latest funding infusion will help us grow as we work with bp to help transform India’s high-polluting cities and redefine ride-hailing with electric vehicles.”

 

Sophia Nadur, managing partner at bp ventures, will join BluSmart’s board. To date, bp ventures has invested almost $800m in more than 60 companies across seven geographies.

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80 Acres Farms: $160 million funding round secured to expand operations

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Orange Wings Investments

10 August, 2021|80 Acres Farms|Press Release|80 Acres Farms

80 Acres Farms 70k Grow

80 Acres Farms, a vertical farming producer, has secured $160 million in additional funding in a round led by General Atlantic and joined by Siemens Financial Services, the U.S. financing arm of tech company Siemens.

The company intends to use the capital for continued expansion and product development, building from its current footprint of vertical farms that yield a diverse offering of high-quality produce.

Thriving for impact
Mike Zelkind, CEO of 80 Acres Farms, said: “We are proud of what our team has been able to accomplish and enthusiastic about the road ahead. We are also honored to be supported by such a high-caliber group of strategic investors who are enabling us to continue to lead this evolving and fast-growing industry.” Mike said the investment is a quantum leap for the business to build more farms both nationally and globally.

80 Acres Farms is building an incredibly exciting vertical farming business that provides high-quality produce through innovative practices,” noted Shaw Joseph, Managing Director of General Atlantic.

Mike Zelkind and Tisha Livingston

Shaw said that with global food consumption increasing and growing threats impacting supply chains and food security, there is a pressing need for healthy, fresh and local foods that are grown in more sustainable and cost-effective ways. He added, “We look forward to working closely with Mike, Tisha and the broader 80 Acres Farms’ team as they scale.”

“The new investment positions the company as the leading proven and profitable technology provider prepared for rapid
expansion,” said Tisha Livingston, CEO of Infinite Acres, and Co-founder of 80 Acres Farms. “In addition, this enables 80 Acres to focus on their operational expertise and deep research and development capabilities beyond leafy greens.”

Combining capital and tech know-how
Jason Thompson, Vice President of Sustainability and Growth Equity at Siemens Financial Services, said, “We are committed to helping scale sustainable vertical farming technology. 80 Acres has demonstrated their ability to build and operate profitable farms.”

According to Jason, Siemens is enthusiastic about the opportunity to support its global expansion with both its capital and technical know-how. Including, their recently established Center of Competence dedicated to supporting companies in realizing their digital transformation.

“We are excited to be partnering with General Atlantic and Siemens to provide growth capital and support to Mike, Tisha and the entire 80 Acres team to help scale their operations within existing and new markets,” said Kayode Akinola, Head of Private Equity Directs at Blue Earth Capital.

New board member
As part of this funding round, Shaw Joseph will join the 80 Acres Farms board. Eli Aheto, former 80 Acres Farms board member, led BeyondNetZero’s contributions to this round. He noted, “I am pleased to be able to continue and grow my support of 80 Acres with this contribution from the BeyondNetZero team. 80 Acres has proven a farm design that is poised to reduce food miles, food waste and the resulting in negative carbon emissions that exist within our food supply chain.”

80 Acres Farms – Romaine

Market Wagon Announces Series A

New Stack Ventures

We are proud to announce that Market Wagon has secured a $5M investment led by our venture partner, Hyde Park Venture Partners.

This investment will help Market Wagon expand to more than 50 markets by the end of the year.

“Market Wagon’s business bringing regionally farmed foods and goods to meet consumers growing appetite for local fare fits right into our logistics investing experience and our love for food tech,” said Guy Turner, managing partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners. “We are excited to partner with the Market Wagon team and support their vision, and we love being customers too.”

Congratulations Market Wagon!

Quotes taken from Inside Indiana Business – see full article here.

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