At Foundry, we care deeply about the planet. As hikers, runners, cyclists, skiers, sailors, and anglers, we love to play in the mountains and the oceans. We depend on the outdoors for not just recreation, but for the replenishment that time in nature can provide. 

Our engagement in the outdoors and our involvement and support of environmental organizations has led us to closely follow a new wave of for-profit technology companies working to solve major climate challenges. We’ve monitored many of these companies as our network of partner funds began investing in climate- related entities. We’ve now invested in two companies directly, teaming with our partner funds as they identify some of the most compelling opportunities. Our latest, Sofar Ocean, is a great example of our network model at work.

From its San Francisco offices, Sofar is driving oceanographic research and shipping industry efficiency through its worldwide network of ocean sensors that provide data on currents, weather, water temperature, and a host of other metrics. Sofar’s subscription- based data products provide access to information on all five of the planet’s oceans. Their customers include hundreds of climate and ocean scientists, more than a dozen global shipping carriers, and international government agencies that leverage its IoT- enabled ocean intelligence platform for applications including: climate research; fuel-efficient ocean mobility; offshore energy site and risk assessment; weather models and forecasting; and protection of coastal communities and local economies.

Sofar is run by four co-founders and led by CEO, Tim Janssen, who merged ocean wave measurement platform, Spoondrift, with underwater drone manufacturer, Open ROV, in 2019. The co-founders are scientists and entrepreneurs with complementary backgrounds in software, engineering, and oceanography. They are deeply committed to solving environmental problems with data. 

“At Sofar, we aim to deliver large-scale ocean data to accelerate climate insights….Ocean data and insights are increasingly critical for successful climate mitigation and adaptation…. Over the last few decades, with advances in IoT [Internet of Things] technology and distributed sensing, we’ve become great at collecting data at scale on land and in space. Oceans are now the last frontier….Our mission is to build a more sustainable future powered by ocean intelligence.”

Sofar’s data network and software offerings combine a number of our themes that we’ve seen across our portfolio. We have a long history of working with hardware- enabled software through our HCI theme. Our comfort with the hardware element (ocean sensors) got us excited about the data network and the offerings that could be built on top of it. Sofar’s ocean and weather data as a service offering naturally fits into our Glue theme, enabling other applications and software to be built on top of it. Their initial vertical product, Wayfinder, dynamically optimizing routes for the shipping industry, is a subscription- based enterprise software that we are very familiar with from a go-to-market perspective. Through this, we were able to look at Sofar through the lens of our themes and portfolio experience in combination with the signal offered by our network.

We were introduced to Sofar by Jon Callaghan of True Ventures. We, in turn, introduced Sofar to another partner fund, Union Square Ventures that is investing alongside us in this round. We’ve invested with True and USV across a large portfolio of companies over the life of our respective firms (We joke that Foundry, investing alongside True and USV, creates a “trifecta of goodness”. At least we like to think so!) On its own, we found Sofar’s thesis compelling, but the additional signal provided by our partners solidified our conviction around the investment. We are delighted  to join them in support of Sofar’s mission to deliver a new level of ocean intelligence to the market.

“I love my car insurance company.” Said no one, ever. Today’s car insurance market is broken. Underwriting practices are irrelevant and discriminatory. Customer service and claims-processing are slow. Brands are outdated (and cheesy). The behemoths of the $256 billion auto insurance industry are overlooking major demographic and cultural shifts. Enter, LOOP. 

LOOP is car insurance you’ll love, built for the 21st century. Powered by truly differentiated technology, LOOP is going after the opportunity to serve a massive, yet overlooked and undervalued population. Instead of underwriting policies based on demographic information like credit score, occupation, and education, LOOP’s approach is actually tied to driving. Leveraging real-time data and AI, LOOP measures driver performance, along with weather, traffic, and collision data, to price policies for customers. This results in more competitive rates for underserved populations like millennials, renters, and immigrants.

LOOP launched last month in Texas with a waitlist of over 30,000 drivers drawn to the idea of modern, fairly priced auto insurance. With its commitment to equity and community-building, LOOP resonates with a generation of consumers who think about values and personal connection when making a purchase decision. The company’s “digital everything” approach not only makes the customer experience fast and easy, but also has the potential to help customers drive more safely, which is good for all of us. LOOP is also a B Corp (like us!).

The company is headed by co-founders John Henry and Carey Anne Nadeau. John was previously co-founder and venture partner at Harlem Capital. He also spent time at VICE Media creating Hustle, a show about entrepreneurship. Carey Anne is an expert in urban economics and spatial analysis. Before LOOP, she held roles at MIT and The Brookings Institution. The diverse backgrounds of this duo bring the kind of unique perspective essential to industry disruption. 

Our investment in LOOP is a beautiful example of our network-driven strategy and how we work with our partner funds. We were initially introduced to the team by one of our portfolio CEOs, Craig Lewis (Gig Wage), when LOOP was raising its seed round. It was too early for us at that point (we typically invest at Series A, sometimes later), so we introduced them to Dave Samuel at our partner fund, Freestyle, who had recently mentioned an insurance thesis. Freestyle led the seed round and was joined by another Foundry partner fund, Concrete Rose. We kept a close eye on LOOP and let Dave know of our interest in the next round. When the time was right, we teamed up with Adam Bain and Dick Costolo at our partner fund, 01 Advisors, to co-lead the round. One company, three great Foundry partner funds working alongside us.

LOOP’s mission is to use technology to create equitable insurance for all, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be along for the ride (pun intended). You can read more about LOOP here and get a quote here. 

A few weeks ago I joined the investment team at Foundry, and I wanted introduce myself and share more about why I joined this phenomenal team. 

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in two fairly different worlds. My dad was an immigrant from India, while my mom spent her childhood bouncing between Indianapolis and Spain. Growing up in different cultures and religions taught me to constantly ask why – why did we pray to both Jesus and the goddess Lakshmi? Why did one side of my family eat with a fork and knife and the other half with their hands? Why did one side of my family go to private school and college and the other didn’t? 

My upbringing also taught me how to build relationships with extremely different people. From playing with neighborhood kids in my mom’s hometown to riding the rickshaw with my cousins to school, I realized I could find common ground despite obvious differences. 

I took both those traits into my early career in startups and tech. My time at Clever was particularly formative – I quickly learned that asking questions wasn’t enough. Everyone at a startup is tasked with experimenting with different solutions, and I loved getting to partner with a smart, passionate and diverse set of people to solve problems across the educational system. 

After a few years at Clever, and then Slack, I knew I loved the lean and scrappy world of startup life. After noodling on business school for about three years I finally pulled the trigger and enrolled at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. I knew I wanted to stay within the tech ecosystem but wanted to take some time in an academic setting to do some professional and personal exploration. In my first few months I enrolled in the MIINT impact investing competition and realized there was an entirely different career path (venture capital) which I hadn’t explored and that fit so many of my natural personality traits. 

I love investing for two main reasons. First, founders are some of the most inspiring people I’ll ever meet. In my experience every entrepreneur starts a company to tackle a problem they’ve seen personally. Getting to hear their story, and how they’ve channeled their creativity and drive to solve a problem, is a privilege I hope to never lose sight of throughout my career. Second,  I’ve found a job where my curiosity is rewarded. I get to dig into interesting problems and meet the incredible people who are solving them. I’ve experienced how startups could improve health outcomes for low-income communities during my time at Kapor Capital. I spent time exploring the growing market of Latinx consumers when I worked at Chingona Ventures. And I got to build out the midwest presence for Rough Draft Ventures. 

Interviewing for VC roles is – quite frankly – brutal. Hearing “no” repeatedly and constantly feeling like you could be doing more gives you the smallest sliver of understanding and enormous respect for what entrepreneurs go through every day. But after two years of serious hustle, my interactions with Foundry were refreshing: the team emphasized that they wanted to be helpful, giving me guidance on my job search, making introductions to different funds, and advocating for me during the interview process. Perhaps what stood out the most about the Foundry team was behavior that I’ve come to find is a core value of the firm: “Give first.” 

I’m so grateful to join a team that deeply values relationships and supports founders and GP’s curiosity and drive. I’m already seeing how they channel those same qualities into their relationships with one another and with me.

I’ll be splitting my time between Boulder and New York City and am looking forward to meeting founders and investors across the country. You can reach me on Twitter @AngeliAgrawal or at [email protected].

P.S. Special thank you to VC University – I received a scholarship for their online education program this past spring, through which I met the Foundry team.

Today, our friends at Matchstick Ventures announced their newest fund, Fund III, and we are thrilled to partner with them again. Ryan Broshar and Natty Zola are long-time friends and collaborators with us (you can read about that here), and we couldn’t be happier to share news about their continuing success. They are serial entrepreneurs and Techstars alumni, and we’ve invested alongside them in a number of companies including Stackhawk, Ordermark, and Spekit. 

With this new fund, Matchstick will continue its focus on software-oriented companies based in the Rockies and North regions of the United States at the pre-seed and seed stage. In addition to providing funding, they will roll out a new initiative called Matchstick Strikers, a network of experts to help companies create community, scale efficiently, attract great talent, build diverse and sustainable workplace cultures, and raise additional capital. 

We admire Ryan and Natty for their commitment to walking the talk. Over 30% of the portfolio companies in their last fund are impact companies, which they define as companies that we believe will generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside financial returns. In addition, over half of their portfolio companies are led by at least one underrepresented founder. As members of Pledge 1%, they will donate 1% of Fund III’s returns to local nonprofits. We love to see our partner funds showing such great leadership.

Matchstick is a great example of our network-driven model of investing, and we look forward to continuing our close partnership with them in this new fund. Congratulations, Ryan and Natty! You can read more about their new fund here and here.

People like stuff. Objects hold deep meaning for us, and they provide us with a vehicle for connecting with others and building community. Manifestations of this that quickly come to mind are classic car clubs and vintage guitar forums on the internet. Many objects that capture people’s imaginations have seen their value buoyed by the communities that surround them, so much so that many enthusiasts are no longer able to afford to participate by purchasing them. This is definitely true of sports cards, a nearly $14 billion dollar market worldwide. A 1909 T206 Honus Wagner card sold for over $3 million in 2016, and a Tom Brady rookie card sold for $1.3 million last spring. High price tags, even for the most avid (and wealthy) sport fans. Enter Dibbs.

Dibbs is democratizing access to the world’s most collectible sports cards through tokenized, fractional ownership. Built on blockchain technology, Dibbs creates a non-fungible token (NFT) for each physical card on the platform, and allows users to collect fractional tokens representing partial ownership of the NFT. This allows collectors with virtually any budget to acquire cards previously inaccessible to them. Once a user accumulates 100% ownership of an NFT, they can take possession of the card at any time. Athlete-focused and fan-centric, Dibbs is an accessible and intuitive way for its users to build player collections for their favorite athletes. With easy-to-use mobile and web apps and real-time transaction capabilities, Dibbs is revolutionizing sports card collecting for both legacy collectors and a new generation just getting started.

Evan is a lifelong card enthusiast, and he has spent his career working with a variety of digital assets. After helping launch the WAX blockchain and partnering with iconic collectibles brand, Topps, he saw a tremendous opportunity to reinvent an archaic industry that was unnecessarily cumbersome on the data and cost side. 

We appreciate Dibbs’ scrappy sensibility and how their technology links the physical world to the digital. When our friend, Eric Paley, from our partner fund, Founder Collective, introduced us to the team with an eye toward us leading their Series A round, we were thrilled. Our friends at Courtside Ventures (with whom we are close as well) participated as well; it served as validation for our enthusiasm. And then when we found out that one of our portfolio CEOs, Will Ahmed, in addition to our Mobius colleague, Gary Rieschel, were also investors, we were convinced that our partnership with Dibbs was meant to be. This is a great example of how we like to leverage our extensive network of partner funds (and other friends of Foundry) to find great companies. 

Dibbs’ Series A was rounded out by Tusk Ventures and a syndicate of professional athletes including Chris Paul, DeAndre Hopkins, Kevin Love, Kris Bryant, and Skylar Diggins-Smith. We love to see their commitment to new ways to interact with their fans. You can read more about Dibbs here.