Alumni Ventures Group Makes Initial Post-COVID Fund Investments

Tembo Health provides specialty medical care (e.g., cardiology and psychiatry) to specialty nursing facilities via a proprietary video chat platform, and Betterview offers a software platform for insurers to remotely assess and underwrite property risk.

AVG’s Post-COVID Fund is focused on investing in entrepreneurial companies working to shape and accelerate the world’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. The fund is investing in venture companies directly or indirectly addressing the multiple impacts of the virus while demonstrating resilience in the face of COVID- and recession-related challenges. Target sectors for AVG’s Post-COVID Fund include healthcare, technology, services, data monitoring and analysis, learning, payments, communications, entertainment, and others.

“COVID-19 has without a doubt changed our world forever, and both of these companies are poised to successfully address those changes now and in the future,” said Michael Collins, CEO of Alumni Ventures Group. “Tembo Health is reimagining specialty healthcare delivery to a vulnerable population in a way that’s more efficient, safer, and less costly. Betterview is removing the need for human property inspection by leveraging AI and deep learning. These are smart solutions to problems that are only more acute in our new reality.”

AVG’s Post-COVID Fund offers accredited investors the opportunity to invest in a portfolio of approximately 20-30 ventures aligned to the fund’s investment thesis. The fund co-invests exclusively with established venture firms and includes follow-on investments in AVG’s existing portfolio of more than 430 companies, as well as new investments vetted and secured by AVG’s 16 university alumni funds and team of investment professionals.

Tembo Health brings specialty medical care to nursing facilities via a proprietary, video chat platform. Nursing homes pay no out-of-pocket costs, and save money through reduced patient transportation and logistical expenses, while improving the quality of patient care. In the face of the pandemic, Tembo has launched several initiatives including expedited onboarding for facilities, growing its roster of clinicians, and offering clinicians the ability to work from home. AVG co-invested in Tembo Health alongside Resolute Ventures.

Betterview’s platform allows insurers to remotely assess and underwrite property risk. By leveraging deep learning and computer vision on third-party aerial imagery and data from public and private sources (e.g., building permits, assessor reports, etc.), the company allows underwriters to automatically approve or reject properties remotely rather than require in-person human judgment. Betterview raised a convertible note from Guidewire Software, the leading software company to the P&C industry. Other existing investors joined the round: ManchesterStory, Nationwide Ventures, EMC Insurance Companies, MaidenRe, and Winklevoss Capital.

“Venture has not traditionally been accessible to individual investors, but AVG and this fund in particular offer an opportunity for accredited investors to build a diversified venture portfolio while investing in companies that can positively impact society,” said Collins.

Since 2014, AVG has been providing venture capital portfolios for some of the more than 10 million accredited Americans who have historically been unable to access a professional, diversified venture portfolio. AVG now offers more than 20 private venture funds, primarily for alumni from leading academic institutions including Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, MIT, Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth. The Post-COVID Fund is open to any accredited investor.

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About Alumni Ventures Group

Alumni Ventures Group offers accredited investors a smart, simple way to invest in venture capital — a key asset class missing from the portfolios of many sophisticated investors. Since launching its first venture fund in 2014, AVG has grown to offer 16 alumni funds and 5 focused funds, serving a network of 500,000 community members and subscribers. Evaluating hundreds of opportunities every year and selecting the most promising for fund portfolios, AVG was ranked by PitchBook as the third most active fund in the U.S. in 2019. AVG funds are private, for-profit, and not affiliated with or sanctioned by any school. For more information about AVG, visit avgfunds.com.