Innovation, Impact and Imagining the Future: Part 1
As we reflect on the last 5 years as venture investors, we spent some time thinking of the word impact. In the world of VC, impact is typically an overused buzzword that is strewn across pitch decks, newsletters, and LP letters. Just like most things that are overused, they tend to lose or detach from their meaning over time.
We sought to rectify that loss in meaning through a series of Medium articles that celebrate our portfolio companies and highlight the products they’ve built for their customers, the difference they’ve made on their communities, the lives they’ve changed along the way and the role they’ve played in increasing the standards of living for millions of people.
The four-part series will be organized across 9 key investments themes: 1) Financial Inclusion, 2) the Future of Logistics, 3) Advancements in Healthcare, 4) Frictionless Retail, 5) the Future of Transportation, 6) Energy Efficiency, 7) Enterprise Productivity, 8) the New Internet and 9) Insurance Technology.
First off, let’s start with a few high-level metrics on our portfolio:
Since late 2016, we invested in 89 portfolio companies backing 170 exceptional founders. These companies went on to raise $2.8B in capital, of which $2.2B was raised after we initially invested, helping create over 3,000 jobs around the world.
Today, our portfolio companies are valued at $10.5B in aggregate with our top 25 portfolio company positions (by dollars invested) valued at $5.2B. In 2020, our companies generated $430M in revenue and 4 of our portfolio companies, Current, Synthego, Sure and Flutterwave raised 6 mega rounds totaling $821M.
We are proud to share the cap table with over 800 investors of which 50 of them are VC and PE firms with more than $1B in AUM.
Now metrics aside let’s take a closer look at some of these impact stories which helped create our firm’s narrative to-date.
In Part 1 of this 4-part Medium series, we discuss Financial Inclusion and the Future of Logistics.
Investing in Financial Inclusion
Current
Current, a leading US financial technology company serving Americans who are working to create a better future for themselves, has close to 3 million members.
The company delivered stimulus checks to its members a few days earlier than the Treasury and was instrumental in alleviating some of the financial hardships they faced because of the pandemic. Current recognizes that getting ahead is more important than ever to this generation and is committed to improving financial outcomes and building innovative financial products
Funding: We initially invested in Current’s Series A round in 2017 and again in the Series B. The company has raised over $400M from Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, Wellington Management, Foundation Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Avenir Growth Capital, and QED Investors.
Founder: Stuart Sopp
Latest Funding Round: $220M Series D
Headcount: 130
Flutterwave
Flutterwave helps businesses build customizable payments applications through its APIs focused on the African continent. The company, which also helps businesses outside Africa to expand their operations on the continent has 290,000 businesses use its platform including an impressive clientele of international companies, including Booking.com, Flywire and Uber.
Flutterwave’s response to pandemic-induced lockdowns was to introduce the Flutterwave Store which went live across 15 African countries and helps over 20,000 merchants to create storefronts and sell their products online.
This year alone, the company has processed over 75 million transactions worth more than $5.4B.
Funding: We initially invested in Flutterwave’s Seed Round in 2016 and again the Series A. The company has raised over $230M from Tiger Global, Worldpay, Insight Partners, Avenir Growth Capital, Greycroft, Green Visor Capital, Salesforce Ventures among others.
Founder: Olugbenga GB Agboola
Latest Funding Round: $170M Series C
Headcount: 403
Landed
Landed helps essential professionals buy homes. The company’s shared equity down payment program, which helps its customers get to a 20% down-payment without any income restrictions, has helped essential workers build financial security near the communities they serve.
To-date, Landed has invested in over $1B worth of homes and is transacting on over $400M of homes a year and have signed employer partnerships with Stanford University, California State University System and recently went live in Utah, New York and Washington DC.
Funding: We invested in Landed’s Series A Round in 2017. The company has raised over $50M from Initialized Capital, Learn Capital, OMERS Ventures, Navitas Capital, First American, MassMutual Ventures and Ulu Ventures as well as $80M in debt for its down payment assistance program.
Founders: Jonathan Asmis, Jesse C. Vaughan, Alex Lofton
Latest Funding Round: $31M Series B
Headcount: 65
Even Financial
Even Financial is a B2B fintech company that is transforming the way financial institutions find and connect with consumers. As the leading search, comparison, and recommendation engine for financial services, Even seamlessly bridges financial institutions (including American Express, Goldman Sachs, and SoFi) and channel partners (such as MoneyLion and TransUnion) via its simple yet robust API and embeddable solutions.
The company has been on a mission to transform the way financial institutions find and connect with customers while providing them with best user experience.
To-date, Even has facilitated over $3B in consumer credit to 800+ network partners.
Funding: We initially invested in Even’s Seed round in 2016 and again in the Series A and Series B. The company has raised $67M from GreatPoint Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Canaan Partners, MassMutual Ventures, Lending Club, F-Prime Capital, Citi Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Social Leverage and Conversion Capital.
Founder: Phil Rosen
Latest Funding Round: $36M Series B
Headcount: 155
Hearth
Hearth is a financial technology company working with tens of thousands of home improvement professionals. Contractors also use Hearth’s platform to send digital invoices, collect payments, and obtain general liability and workers’ compensation insurance to protect their bottom lines.
Hearth’s flagship financing product enables its customer base of contractors to quote projects as monthly payments in real-time instead of one lump cost, which removes financial barriers for many homeowners facing renovation or repair costs.
Funding: We invested in Hearth’s Seed round in 2016. The company has raised $48M from 8VC, Founders Fund, SuRo Capital, Human Capital, Goldcrest Capital and the Chainsmokers.
Founders: Anthony Ghosn, Joe Lonsdale
Latest Funding Round: $23M Series B
Headcount: 137
Piggy
Piggy is on a mission to democratize personal finance and bring it within the reach of over a billion Indians. It is a consumer fintech company currently building the new age of banking, investment, and payment services for the Indian market.
The company currently has 60K users and $200M in Assets Under Management (AUM) on behalf of its clients and more than 30K users have pre-signed up for the banking app.
With current products on wealth-tech and banking tech; and future plans for credit & crypto products, the company is on the path to offer full-stack financial services to consumers.
The vision is to build a google-like suite of tools for personal finance on mobile.
Funding: We invested in Piggy’s Seed round in 2017. The company has raised $1.1M from Y Combinator, Funders Club, Venture Souq and Next Ventures.
Founder: Ankush Singh, Nikhil Manta
Headcount: 16
Investing in the Future of Logistics
Osaro
Osaro is focused on AI for industrial automation. The company is building technology for the factories, warehouses, and logistics systems of the 21st century and has offices in San Francisco and Tokyo.
The company creates machine intelligence software that combines state-of-the-art perception with powerful adaptive decision-making abilities to help computer and robotic systems act efficiently and intelligently.
By making machines more adaptive, intelligent, and efficient, Osaro frees up humans to focus time, energy, and capital on higher level tasks. Recently, Osaro demonstrated the first robotics solution for automated bagging at the Las Vegas Pack Expo Exhibition and was voted Best Place to Work in San Francisco in 2021.
Funding: We invested in Osaro’s Series A round in 2017 and again in the Series B and Series C. The company has raised $96M from AME Cloud Ventures, Morado Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Zhen Fund, Founders Fund, King River Capital, iRobot and Octave Ventures.
Founder: Derik Pridmore
Latest Funding Round: $30M Series C
Headcount: 67
Shippabo
Shippabo is an ocean freight booking & managing application that provide shippers better visibility & automation. It is the easiest and most predictable way to ship for small to mid-importers and helps avoid last minute inventory surprises or extra shipping charges.
Shippabo provides 360-degree SKU-level visibility from factory to doorstep, and the ability to plan and manage its customer’s supply chain with precision and ease. As the world reels from massive supply chain disruptions because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Shippabo has been instrumental in helping its customers navigate the logistical complexities of the industry. In 2020, Shippabo tracked 7,000 containers and doubled that figure in the first quarter of 2021 alone.
Funding: We invested in Shippabo’s Seed round in 2019 and again in the Series A. The company has raised $9.5M from Slow Ventures, Wonder Ventures, TenOneTen Ventures and Charge Ventures.
Founder: Nina Luu
Latest Funding Round: $6M Series A
Headcount: 22
Yoshi
Yoshi is a customer-centric last mile delivery platform that is currently focused on the automobile. The company delivers fuel, washes, oil changes and more to vehicles across the country with the mission to make car ownership as frictionless as possible.
Yoshi currently operate across 7 states and has safely performed 700,000 vehicle services since inception. Since launching across General Motor sites in June 2020, Yoshi completed over 40,000 fill-ups saving GM’s employees 10,000 “people hours.”
The average consumer spends $4K-$6K and 13 hours per year on their vehicle with half of that spend on fuel alone. There is no common link throughout that journey with horrible customer experience (a negative NPS score!).
Funding: We invested in Yoshi’s Seed round in 2016 and again in the Series A and Series B. The company has raised over $40M from ExxonMobil, General Motors Ventures, Thirty Five Ventures and ZhenFund.
Founder: Bryan Frist
Latest Funding Round: $23M Series B
Headcount: 65
Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Series!
AAF Management Ltd. (AAF) is a leading early stage venture capital firm focused on direct investments into pre-Seed, Seed and Series A stage technology companies in North America. We are sector agnostic but have a core focus on Fintech, Enterprise SaaS, Digital Healthcare, E-Commerce and Deep Tech. AAF has invested in over 100+ venture backed founding teams and has over $100M in AUM.
In less than 5 years, our portfolio companies have raised over $2.2B after we initially invested most notably from over 50 venture capital firms with more than $1B in AUM.
