SUM VENTURES
 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER 
 "Helping founders is the best form of diligence."
 

SUM THOUGHTS

Hello friends,

I'm reverting back to my days in the Air Force with our newsletter and using the Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) approach to share the key takeaways. This will save you time and get us all on the same page faster. 

BLUF: SUM Ventures has made significant progress over the past two months, both investing in fantastic startups and expanding our network of LPs and strategic partners. I'm happy to share that Siemens, Antler VC, and Intralink have all recently come on board. These partnerships have yielded positive outcomes, with Siemens offering substantial support to our portfolio company PlantSwitch and exploring potential collaborations with Automotus and Brius. Intralink has actively engaged with our founders, extending support for their expansion into Asian markets. Additionally, Antler VC USA has granted us early access to their accelerator companies, enabling us to make potential investments ahead of demo day.

Furthermore, noteworthy developments have taken place within our portfolio companies. Particularly, Pay Amigo, led by Frank Mastrangelo, has experienced remarkable growth since its launch just a few months ago. Their payment infrastructure technology has successfully served merchants in South America (Brazil and Argentina) and will soon expand to Africa and the Middle East. As Pay Amigo gears up for a Series A funding round in the upcoming fall, we anticipate a significant markup for our limited partners (LPs).

Siemens Partnership Our partnership with Siemens continues to be incredibly fruitful. They have significantly backed PlantSwitch, one of our promising portfolio companies, with a substantial debt facility and manufacturing support. This arrangement not only strengthens PlantSwitch's financial position but also provides a significant boost in terms of production capabilities, speeding up the growth trajectory of the company. A big thank you to Carlos Ortiz for all the work he has already done and to Tammo Mueller for connecting us. 

Intralink Collaboration Intralink is playing an instrumental role in our Asian expansion strategy. Their deep understanding of Asian markets and robust local networks are proving invaluable in helping our portfolio companies navigate these new territories. This collaborative effort is facilitating the global footprint expansion of our portfolio, ensuring they are well-prepared and set for success in these high-growth markets. Many thanks to Alan Mockridge and the team for his immediate follow-up with our founders and to Mark Belinsky for connecting us.  

Antler VC USA Partnership A recent highlight in our strategic partnership development is our agreement with Antler VC USA. As part of this exciting collaboration, we now have early access to Antler's accelerator companies. This opens up an opportunity to evaluate and potentially invest in high-potential startups before they reach demo day, giving us a strategic edge in securing promising deals ahead of the broader investment community. Thanks to Ryan Sommerville and Charles Bell for their support. 

Key Portfolio Updates:

LiveEasy (formerly Move Easy) - The company expanded its services, saving clients $9.8 million and 17,000 labor hours from 2022 to 2023. They generated over $57 million in business for partners and introduced new widgets and APIs, allowing customization. Their newly updated dashboards offer services such as mortgage refinancing advice, home equity assessments, cost-saving opportunities, and daily living requirements.

UNest - Laura Dern joins the UNest team as a Brand Ambassador (article here). This, along with a renewed focus on product-led growth, has resulted in a series of double-digit % moths of growth.  

Purlin - Purlin recently secured an investment from Rice Park Capital Management LP, strengthening their AI platform for the real estate market. Their AI and machine learning tools offer comprehensive solutions for the entire real estate process. Stay tuned for a major announcement with Eklund Gomes next month. 

Automotus - NYC requested a sole source letter, paving the way for an initial deployment of Smart Loading Zones across Manhattan and the Bronx outside public procurement/ Officially released two case studies on their deployments in Pittsburgh and Santa Monica.

Living Popups - In response to the declining reading scores among 4th and 8th graders, LP Bookspace (LPB), an AR-based program, was created. See the white paper here to learn more about the impact LP is making on the industry.

PlantSwitch - With a secured $2.5M line of credit from Siemens, PlantSwitch has extended the runway and is evaluating multiple Series A Term sheets. Dillon and his team are laser-focused on achieving profitability in the next 24 months.

ClearClub - Launched first B2B partnership with dental offices across Miami. Approaching profitability due to strong customer retention through their subscription model. 

DRESSX - The largest meta fashion retailer, DRESSX, has made a significant splash in the digital fashion world. They've collaborated with popular YouTuber Mackenzie Turner to release an exclusive digital fashion collection on Roblox. The unique collection can be worn in all experiences on the Roblox platform.

Brius -  Successfully raised $10 million in a Series A-1 funding round. SUM Ventures participated in this round alongside GT Health Care, Sonder Capital, Woori Ventures (formerly KTB), and Invus Opportunities. The funding will enable Brius to make significant strides toward achieving its goal of improving lingual orthodontic technology.

Learn More

• SUM News Feed, where you can see the latest news from our portfolio companies
• SUM Youtube Channel where you can view our monthly Mtgs and Founder Testimonials
• SUM Deck here (password SUM)

Thanks to our growing team for sharing deal flow, supporting our founders, and helping with diligence.  Mike Van Kempen, Peter Jun, Elizabeth Spears, Peter Mansfield, Marcus Yang, Sally Dewitt, Ian Sobieski, Ksenia Yudina, Mark Belinksky, Ken Borkan, Martha Stein, Stender Sweeney, Adam Korman, Millicent Tracey, Tim Sabean, Frank Mastrangelo, Tammo Mueller, Jon and Jacob Walker, Andrey Kudievskiy, Dan Sachar, Jason Bennett, Kammron Taylor, Kevin Herzberg, John Paglia, Amy Wood, Hunter Ballard, and Aike Mueller. Another big thank you to our strategic partners who support our portfolio founders.

1. Douglas Elliman (Real estate brokerage)
2. Distillery (Software Development)
3. Quantiva (Software/Product Development)
4. UpTech (App Design and Development)
5. Grafted Growth (Lifecycle Marketing and Growth)
6. Pepperdine Most Fundable Companies Program (Deal Sourcing and Diligence)
7. Siemens

Best,

Garrett Gilbertson

SUM Portfolio Updates

Automotus  (PropTech)

• Industry: Transportation + Smart Cities
• Stage: Seed+
• Signed a contract with the city of Aurora's Onlight Aurora for a $2.1M 3-year contract
• Signed $70M 4-year contract with Miami
• 3000+ cameras under contract, each generating $7,000 per year in revenue on average. 
• The Pittsburgh City Council formally approved a two-year contract extension, expanding the Automotus partnership to three years and scaling their deployment to 200 zones. 
• Automotus has entered into public-private partnerships with Fort Lee, NJ; Durham, NC; and San Antonio, TX.
• A distribution agreement with RealTerm Energy is in its final stages, providing access to a wider customer base in Canada and Northeastern US cities.
• Automotus technology has been awarded in SMART grants to Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Miami-Dade County, translating to ~$500k in revenue over the next year.
• The Boston City Attorney's Office has approved a subcontract with Conduent to deploy 100 cameras over three years, with scale-up potential.
• Jordan Justus Automotus (CEO) was featured in Parking Today
• ClearClub launched a brand partnership with former NBA player Kammron Taylor
• Here is a recent report from S&P Global highlighting Automotus' business and technology.
• Terms: Closed $9M Seed Round featured in Tech Crunch here.

Pay Amigo  (FinTech)

• Industry: CleanTech
• Stage: Seed
• Terms:  We invested in the seed at a $12m post-money valuation alongside the founders
• SUM Ventures is the only VC seed investor invited to participate
• Launched Pay Amigo in Brazil and will soon launch in Argentina
• $2M in revenue in the first six months
• Expanding to the Middle East and Africa this year
• Preparing for Series A raise FAll 2023

Plantswitch (CleanTech)

• Industry: CleanTech
• Stage: Series A
• Terms:  We invested $250,000 at a 10% discount to Series A in March.
• Received multiple term sheets and will soon close Series A.
• $307k new revenue, 38 new customers 
• LOI from manufacturing partner Westfall Technik
• Yum! Brands partnership discussions ongoing
• Dr. Aditya Jindal has joined the team as Senior Scientist to lead R&D efforts.
• Collaborations with ADM and Siemens promise advancements in technology and product offerings, including feedstock sourcing opportunities and supply chain monitoring.
• Q1 2023 sales finished up 139% YoY
• Repurpose reached out about switching to our cutlery after we launch our facility,
  an approximately $10M annual opportunity 

DressX  (Web 3.0)

• Industry: Digital Fashion 
• Stage Series A
• Series A announcement in Forbes
• Top selling digital fashion brand in Meta & Roblox outperforming brands like Prada 
• Warner Media and DressX Partnership Vogue article here
• https://www.voguebusiness.com/technology/metas-avatars-just-got-a-fashion-upgrade-with-dressx
• Link to CNN interview of CEO Daria Shapovalova here
• DressX was featured by Mark Zuckerberg at MetaConnect (video link here minute 58:30). 
• Terms: SUM invested $250k alongside 10 other funds/ CVCs, including Slow Ventures. Garrett currently serves as a Board Observer. Stay tuned for exciting funding news next month. 

Purlin (PropTech)

• Industry: Real Estate
• Stage: Seed
• Metrics: Just signed a $4m revenue contract with Douglas Elliman
• Currently profitable with a team of over 40 (largely remote)
• Received $2M investment commitment from Rice Park Capital (strategic customer/partner)
• Securing placement on upcoming Netflix show and investment from Eklund Gomes top-performing US real estate agents 
• Terms:  We co-lead this investment with Douglas Elliman at a $16m pre-money valuation. SUM Ventures received the Board Seat, and Douglas Elliman will serve as Board Observers. Redwood Trust and Eklund Gomes also participated in the financing.

Irrigreen (CleanTech/ PropTech)

• Industry: CleanTech
• Stage: Seed
• 600K per month in revenue
• Since seed funding CAC has dropped in half 
• Tech Crunch Feature
• Making significant progress on longer-range sprinkler systems for commercial use
• Online D2C conversion rates improving, driving down CAC 
• Terms: We completed our $200k investment alongside Ulu Ventures (lead investor). SUM was the last money in the seed round.

• Industry: Real Estate
• Stage: Seed (now raising Series A)
• Terms:  We invested alongside Douglas Elliman at a $15m post-money valuation 
• Move Easy has now closed 4/6 largest real estate brokerages as customers and will soon add  250k agents through two new customers
• MoveEasy recently closed their Series A financing with Travelers Insurance and Moderne Ventures co-leading the investment. They launched a fully integrated home platform that empowers agents to deliver greater value to their clients. You'll be able to read more here. 

Brius  (Healthcare)

• Industry: Medical Device
• Stage: Seed + Series A
• Terms:  We invested in the seed at a $10m valuation and the Series A-1 at $30M valuation
• Closed recent $10M raise
• Multiple patents issued on the device (self-driving braces that sit behind the teeth)
• Significant interest generated from recent AAO conference
• New CEO is the only person to sell a lingual orthodontics company
• A strong network of co-investors, including Sonder Capital, Invus, GT Healthcare, and Woori (Formerly KTB Capital)

 Paperwork (FinTech)

• Industry: Financial Wellness
• Stage: Seed
• Baxter Credit Union (BCU)
• Expect to sign a partnership with a 40M+ member organization (confidential for now), making Paperwork the app solution for members and their marketplace of record--this company is also an investor in Paperwork 
• Launched a partnership with Insuritas to expand into the Credit Union channel
• Late-stage negotiations with a major credit union that aims to white-label Paperwork for members and corporate partners
• Featured at CES in conjunction with AARP see the below photos
• Paperwork team in Chicago working on a release with BCU 300k members and partners (see press release). AARP is next up (40M members)
• Terms: We recently invested in their seed terms ($12m post-money valuation); other investors at these terms are Launchpad Capital and Kickstart VC. Founders previously sold their startup Jemstep to Invesco. 

ClearClub (eCommerce)

• Industry: Healthcare
• Stage: Seed 
• Invested alongside Rogue Venture Partners, Sonder Capital, AOA, and NuFund.
• ClearClub will exceed $2M in revenue (50% subscription revenue) this year
• ClearClub is building the Dollar Shave Club for oral wellness and has 38k customers to date with 3,800 5-star reviews! They are the current market leader in their space, and we expect Pablo (CEO) and his team to build on their leadership position while achieving profitability in the next 6 months
• Onboarding strategic advisor and brand ambassador Kammron Taylor to spearhead sports guard marketing efforts
• Terms:  $6M Post-Money SUM receives a Board Seat. You can view a video of our D.D. call with Rogue and AOA here.

Living Popups (EdTech)

• Industry: EdTech
• Stage: Seed 
• Terms:  We made a $50,000 pre-seed investment alongside strategic angels and received additional warrants (totaling 1%)
• Product Demo
• Preliminary Analytics: 95% of students responded that LP popups increase reading enjoyment. LP is currently running research in Marin County, CA, to further prove the efficacy of LP in increasing literacy comprehension, engagement, and attainment.
• Attended the CUE conference, where LP received positive feedback from educators and received new orders as a result
• LP welcomed new team members, including a fractional CFO and VP of Global Strategy and Operations
• Released a new beginning reader chapter book to support children's social-emotional wellbeing
• Upcoming event: Tina will attend the ASU GSV Summit in San Diego, and LP will be at the Texas Library Association meeting in Austin.

Sweat Pals (Wellness)

• Industry: Health & Wellness
• Stage: Pre-Seed
• Terms:  We invested $ 50,000 at a $6M Post Money valuation alongside Sweater VC, Antler VC, and other strategic angels, including the founder of HotelTonight, early employees at Uber, Snap, and Google, and a syndicate of top CEOs and Fortune 500 leaders in YPO association.
• SweatPals is a platform connecting fitness enthusiasts and communities, streamlining events, payments, and content for a healthier, social lifestyle. SweatPals empowers leaders to organize and manage their communities in a centralized location while offering consumers a vibrant social experience to connect with each other.
• SweatPals has grown organically through word of mouth and referrals (with a $0 user acquisition cost), amassing 200+ active communities and over 8,500 active users 
• Monthly retention among community leaders is 92%, and all users are 63%.
• SweatPals is launching in Miami next month due to demand from users there, then Denver and San Diego. SweatPals aims to launch nine additional markets by early 2024.
• Last month, SweatPals generated $15K in GMV and has had $12K in revenue so far.

Grapefruit Health (Healthcare) 

• Industry: SAAS Healthcare
• Stage: Pre-seed
• Terms:  We invested $50,000 $5M Post.
• Closed $1.3M oversubscribed pre-seed
• Won $250k investment from Barnburner pitch competition, waiting to sign SAFE/wire transfer
• Potentially entering diligence on another $550k+ investment with two investors
• Finalist for AWS Latinx Impact Fund, potentially receiving $125k + $100k in AWS credit
• Sales pipeline at $6M, up from $5M
• Grapefruit Health Raises $1.3M Oversubscribed Pre- seed Round To Address The Massive Staffing Shortage In Healthcare
• DressX announced their Series A covered in Forbes here.
• Contracting with the University of Chicago Medicine, Ballad Health, Optu & San Francisco VA
• Expect to be in contract with 2-3 more by end of Q2

UNest (FinTech)

• Industry: FinTech
• Stage: Series B
• Terms:  We invested in the seed at an $8m post-money valuation and rolled $150,000 of equity into the fund
• Q4 2022 was our best quarter on record. 10% MoM revenue growth through 2H 2022
• Reached over 600K total users (parents and kids)
• Exceeded $17M in total AUM
• Partnership with iHeartRadio to begin in February
• Laura Dern brand ambassador article
• Gross margin 3X since Q4 2021 due to the ongoing focus on efficiency

Skidattl (AdTech)

• Industry: AdTech 
• Stage: Pre-seed
• Terms:  We invested in the seed at a $6m post-money valuation 
• Filed IP to protect beacon technology
• Closed SXSW as the first customer
• Founder (Randy) has four prior exits, with his last company acquired by Apple

SUM Events

SUM Fund Materials

• SUM Ventures video 
• SUM Ventures March Mtg
• SUM Deck (password SUM)
• SUM Fund Summary
• Summary of Terms
• IOI (Indication of Interest Letter)

SUM Mission

Startup Mavericks Ventures (SUM) is a seed-stage venture capital firm founded by Garrett Gilbertson and Mike Van Kempen. At SUM our goal is to be the top-performing seed fund. To be clear, we have no desire to be the largest seed fund; we aim to have the highest IRR. This goal is only achievable with the support of our 50+ LPs, advisors, and strategic partners who have given their time, capital, and guidance to support our founders. Through our collective focus on identifying promising founders early, tracking their progress, and supporting their growth, we will continue to have a deeper insight into the companies we invest in.

Our approach leads to better investment decisions and timing because we identify upcoming inflection points before our peers. Finally, our check size allows us to participate in highly competitive rounds as we continue to build upon our reputation as a significant value add for founders. Please don't take my word for it; listen to our founder updates recorded during our recent Zoom holiday party here.

This newsletter provides commentary on our portfolio founders, the broader venture ecosystem, and upcoming events. I would love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to contact me at Garrett@sum.vc with any questions or feedback.