T-Shirts from Bow and Drape
Time flies when you are having fun! That saying definitely rings true for the XFactor team. We can’t believe it’s already been 90 days since we launched XFactor Ventures to focus on investing in early-stage companies with at least one female founder addressing billion dollar market opportunities. Over the past 3 months, as we reviewed nearly 400 deals and met with over 100 companies, we have been floored by the quality and quantity of female founders in the tech ecosystem. We have also hosted events in both New York and San Francisco for female founders, found a methodology for sharing and making investment decisions as a team, AND most importantly, closed our first 8 investments which we are are thrilled to introduce today:
Founded by Maran Nelson and Michael Akilian, Clara is a human-in-the-loop assistant that schedules meetings. XFactor’s Danielle Morrill led the investment in the company which was part of a $7M Series A financing that was led by Basis Set Ventures and joined by Slack Fund, Sequoia and First Round Capital.
Founded by Kristina Jones and James Jones Jr., Esq., Court Buddy is a legal tech platform that instantly matches consumers with vetted solo attorneys for flat rates based on their a-la-carte court-related needs and budget. XFactor’s Aubrie Pagano led the fund’s investment in the company as part of a $1M seed round that was led by LDR Ventures and joined by LSS Fund/Lightspeed, UpHonest Capital, GingerBread Capital/KKR, Equipo Ventures, and several angels.
Ellen and Paul’s new Startup
Founded by Ellen Chisa and Paul Biggar, Ellen and Paul’s New Startup (ok, that’s a working name!) is the first investment we closed in XFactor Ventures. The company is building a cloud platform with a simple, yet ambitious goal: make it possible to build a complete scalable app in an afternoon. XFactor’s Erica Brescia led the seed investment in the company.
Founder by Brandon Holley, Everywear is a B2B software solution for ecommerce that personalizes the customer shopping experience by understanding preferences, behaviors and shopping patterns. XFactor’s Anna Palmer led the investment in the company as part of a $1M seed round that closed in August.
Founded by Lisa Fetterman, Nomiku creates tools that enable everyone to cook the best food possible. Nomiku is onto its third generation sous vide device that is the most powerful home immersion circulator on the market, beloved by top restaurants and chefs worldwide. This year they launched a delivery food system that harnesses the precision of sous vide cooking. XFactor’s Ooshma Garg and Erica Brescia led the investment in the company that was part of a $3M strategic round led by Samsung.
Founded by Andrea Barrica, O.School is a shame-free community platform to learn about sex, pleasure, and identity, powered through live streaming and live chat. With a smartphone, anyone in the world can participate in live classes from the best sex educators in the world. XFactor’s Jessica Mah led the pre-seed investment in the company.
Founded by Melissa Pancoast and Matthieu Tourne, The Beans automates financial planning and support for America’s middle class. With joy, smart design, psychology, and machine intelligence, the team is transforming how we feel about our money. XFactor’s Jessica Mah and Erica Brescia co-led the pre-seed investment.
Founded by Megan Nunes and Tomas Svitek, Vinsight is a YCombinator Winter 2017 company that has developed an artificial intelligence platform to more accurately forecast crop yields, 4x better than industry standard, for the agricultural industry. XFactor’s Danielle Morrill led seed financing that closed in July 2017.
As you can see, we have had a broad participation across our investment team. Six of the nine XFactor partners made an investment in the first quarter. Equally broad is the spectrum of markets covered — fintech, ag tech, fashion tech, legal tech, AI, application development, future of work, health tech, and hardware. We could not be happier with the diversity of the fund, the level of innovation at each company and the size of the markets being targeted by each.
Thank you all again for the support and introductions and for all the female founders we have met for your talent, perseverance and grit. As always, if you are interested in speaking with our team, please email us at hello@xfactor.ventures.