Overview
All of the investments we did out of Orange Fund V were in this past year, and most of them are still very early-stage. It is too soon to provide you with information on the unrealized value of the fund, but we commit to sharing the unrealized returns as soon as we start getting data.
Investments we did after our previous post:
- Phenomix Sciences
- Reach
- Skysdweller Aero
- Orchid Biosciences
- Norm
(Read the detailed breakdown to learn what they are about).
Detailed Breakdown
Atlas Mental Health released a wellness journaling app (on both iOS and Android) that helps young adults navigate through life via photo journaling and dynamic content about school, relationships, mental health, and the future.
They believe in the power of truth, and are in a mission to leverage research of organizational incentives and communication to lead teams to increase productivity, innovation, and success. With a team of 6 full-time and 3 part-time employees, they are currently in beta tests to continue improving the tools Balloonr has to offer.
BlitzIQ
They had to shut down operations.
Blair completed YC's summer 2019 program. At the end of 2019, Blair had their 1st three students graduated and are set to begin their repayments within the next 2 months. They’ve closed and launched their 1st two partnerships with a Data Science Bootcamp and a Nursing School. They’ve launched an internal file tool to increase efficiency and security and built a partnership page.
Cactus
They shut down their business and returned most of the funds after the program ended.
Clubhouse
They shut down their business and returned all of the funds after the program ended.
Ensembl received $55,000 CAD in pre-orders within three weeks of sales. They also received their first patent as of November 2019. With three more patents outstanding, we should have updates within the next 18-24 months on their status. Final factory testing has been signed off and they’re projecting that testing will begin the week of Feb 3rd. Once safety certification is received for factory testing, production is targeted to begin early March which is expected to take 60-80 days. At this time, Ensembl has partnered with Whitman Emorson on a rebranding strategy that is set to go live in tandem with Ensembl’s full launch this Spring.
Epoch has had 40% month over month revenue growth (~$140K ARR) with customers like Slack and Postmates. At the end of 2019, they closed out their pre-seed round with Charles Hudson from Precursor Ventures leading the round. Their team also added two engineers.
HaikuJAM combines play, creativity, and emotion to surface powerful insights. So far they've had +800k strangers write +65m lines of people in 163 different countries. They raised their $3.4m Series A in January 2020 — Lightbox led the round with participation of Social Capital and Dunce Capital.
Homer
They shut down their business and will return most of the funds.
Indigo
Pyggybank rebranded to Indigo, but ultimately, the work on the app has been put on pause. Now the team is working on a new idea.
In response to the global outbreak of Coronavirus, KangarooHealth developed an AI-powered remote patient monitoring platform, enabling any companies, agencies, and organizations to remotely monitor health changes of people who might be exposed to coronavirus or under quarantine. It tracks each person’s vitals and symptoms daily and automatically flags people with warning signs. It enables one person to monitor hundreds of thousands of people with ease, without overhead and risks of cross-contamination. KangarooHealth welcomes organizations both public and private to collaborate to control the outbreak of coronavirus. You can contact Dr. Xiaoxu Kang, [email protected] if you want to learn more.
Jarvis increased gross merchandise volume by 351K last fall and decreased their customer acquisition cost from $52 to $32, which is a 42% decrease. They’ve also expanded their operations to Adelaide. They successfully launched an in-platform credit system to allow cleaners to withdraw earned fees whenever, which led to an increase in supply retention. Currently, the team is working to develop scheduling and communication tools. The scheduling tool will allow workers to request changes in visiting times and incorporate personal schedules. The communication tool will be a multi-channel direct communication tool for cleaners to manage all their clients on one platform. At the end of 2019, Jarvis completed its fundraising round.
Jelly Labs is building useful research tools for scientists. The founders' first company, Experiment (YC W13), helped fund the next wave of scientific research, and they are using what they learned to make the scientists' process from idea to publication more efficient, transparent, and fun.
Maisie
Work on Maisie has been put on pause at this time and the team is now working on a new idea.
This lifestyle brand was born to send expert advice and mom-to-mom inspiration to mothers exactly when they need it. In just a few years, the company grew to a team of +60 women and has an online community of more than 2 million people from all around the world. After closing a Series A in January 2020 (they don't want to make numbers public), they are now committed to helping mothers navigate through the coronavirus crisis.
Norm is building adaptable furniture with sustainable materials. Starting with a pre-launch of a desk that adapts to everyone's needs, they already confirmed $250k in pre-order sales, and $1.2m in requests from tech companies like Airbnb, Google, Facebook. Most recently, they were picked as the product of the week in Product Hunt.
Orchid Biosciences
Orchid is a stealth biotech startup that has just closed its seed round. They oversubscribed their original target of $3m, raising a total of $4.4m at a 17m valuation. Zal Bilimoria (from Refactor Capital) led the round, with participation of Nat Turner (CEO of Flatiron Health/exit to Roche for $2B) and Vivek Garipalli (CEO of Clover Health).
Padpiper, now Kopa
Padpiper graduated from Y Combinator and raised their seed round. They rebranded to Kopa. They’ve also hired their first 3 employees putting them at 6 employees total. They have expanded their product offering beyond San Francisco Bay Area to Seattle and NYC at this time. In terms of sales and revenue, the company is on track to process $3M in rent and security deposits with $100K in revenue in 2019. They’re currently developing a mobile app and looking to improve their SEO.
Phenomix Sciences is a Mayo Clinic startup personalizing weight loss. The company creates a blood test for people seeking to lose weight and identifies which treatment options are best for each patient. They closed their $1.5m seed round in March 2020 after winning $500k at the MEDA Million Dollar Challenge.
Quirktastic was accepted to Snap's accelerator Yellow and got 15,000 signups when they launched beta in March 2019.
Reach is a public benefit company in a mission to power a world where progressive grassroots activism beats corporate cash, and its app is meant to leave no voter behind while harnessing the power of all activists. Some campaigns that have used Reach so far are Elizabeth Warren's, and Abdul's for Governor in Michigan.
They can resemble any voice, so it sounds like a real human! They are still very early-stage but have started sharing key metrics and numbers in 2020. Their monthly revenue has been growing 20% month-to-month, and their number of users has grown ~25% month-to-month. They are also in conversations to form partnerships with Disney Technology Innovation Group and draftLine (ABinBev marketing firm) and will start pilots in the near future.
Skydweller Aero
Skydweller is the first aerospace company to make a solar-powered, unmanned perpetual flight vehicle. Simply put, they are building planes that can fly 24/7 without ever needing to land. We joined their Series A in June 2019 — they raised a total of $28m, and the round was led by an Italian investor.
Wonder Hoodie added two more factory locations in Los Angeles and joint-hired eight employees per factory to work on the production. She hired and fired the first sales/marketing executive to direct the new commercial arm, BulletDefense. Gross margins have improved by 65% from R&D efforts. At this time, Wonder Hoodie is two months and thirty samples away from receiving NIJ certification which is necessary to sell to the military and government in bulk. At the end of 2019, the company gained $1.3M in revenue with minimal marketing spend. She is currently working with three video influencers now to promote for free in May 2020.