Waterman Ventures Community Newsletter — July 2022

Content at the intersection of entrepreneurship, venture capital, and our Brown community.

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IN THIS ISSUE: Our investment in Switchboard, deals in our current portfolio, portfolio companies in the news, and more.

Waterman Portfolio Spotlight

Switchboard is an error-monitoring and incident-response platform for the two most widely adopted no-code integration tools: Zapier and Make (formerly Integromat). Waterman Ventures deployed capital in the company’s recently announced $13.8 million seed round led by Sequoia. Other participating investors include XYZ Ventures, The General Partnership, and more.

Why Invest in Venture Capital

In this video, Ludwig Schulze breaks down the two primary reasons investors choose venture capital — to make money and diversify their portfolios.

Waterman Ventures Portfolio Overview

There are 22 investments in Waterman’s current portfolio. Check below for a summary of each investment.

  • Spartan is an automotive radar system solutions provider
  • JumpCloud has developed a directory-as-a-service platform that provides users secure, frictionless access from any device to any resource anywhere
  • ZenBusiness empowers the next generation of entrepreneurs, small business owners, and freelancers by making it easier to start, run, and grow a successful business
  • Pacaso makes buying, owning, and selling a vacation home easier and more affordable through 1/8th fractional ownership
  • Merit provides a digital credentialing system for issuing, verifying, and tracking credentials issued by governments, companies, and other public and private organizations
  • Arc Technologies provides SaaS companies with fast, non-dilutive growth capital, delivered through a seamless, consumerized enterprise technology experience
  • Quantum Machines has developed a hardware and software ‘Quantum Orchestration’ platform designed to increase the productivity of quantum computers and the teams that run them
  • Ellevest is a transformative financial technology company created to help women achieve their financial potential
  • Grata is a developer of data intelligence and prospecting software to help BD professionals discover SMB companies
  • Satellite Bio is a life science company engineering cell therapies to eradicate complex diseases
  • 8base is a low-code, full stack development platform helping entrepreneurs and creators in established companies bring their product visions to life faster, better, and more economically
To Be Announced:
  • A company making it easier for families to record, preserve, and share their stories
  • A company working to change how logistics companies operate by building robotic manipulation solutions for the industry
  • A platform enabling companies to secure their industrial infrastructure and minimize cyber risk
  • An infrastructure platform that empowers more companies to launch and scale consumer fintech features
  • A company discovering, developing, and delivering next-generation psychoactive compounds to treat some of the most pressing mental illnesses
  • A platform tracking companies, professionals, and market activity with a new approach to business and personnel intelligence
  • A digital mortgage marketplace committed to modernizing and simplifying the mortgage application process
  • Follow- on investment in a company helping organizations and individuals solve problems faster by allowing them to quickly find and analyze data
  • An interactive, remote, and physician-supervised virtual cardiac rehabilitation program designed to reverse the impact of heart disease and heart attacks
  • A lead-generation and audience identification platform that ingests customer data for B2B companies, enabling marketing and sales teams to identify and reach customers across all channels and boost conversion rates
  • A B2B SaaS platform / marketplace that helps companies ideate, book, and manage events — all in a single platform and at a fraction of the normal cost

We look forward to sharing more information as companies publicly announce their funding rounds.

FOR CURRENT INVESTORS

Thinking of becoming an investor? Access Materials »

Visit Your Club Portal

We invite existing investors to visit your Club portal for updates from Managing Partner Ludwig Schulze and our team, including webinars and events, Syndications, portfolio news, and exclusive content.
Visit Club Portal »

Campus and Community Update

In support of a plan to grow its overall research activity, Brown University has purchased a portfolio of properties in Providence’s Jewelry District neighborhood from the Care New England health system. Read More »

Stay Tuned for Waterman’s Next Fund!

We continue to add new companies into our current fund (overview above). We look forward to sharing more information as we grow our portfolio of ~20-30 deals. If you missed your chance to invest and are still interested in joining us, our next fund is opening soon!

AV Talent Referrals

Interested in joining a cutting-edge startup or know someone who might be? Our portfolio companies are growing and always looking for high-caliber talent. Check out their open positions on our job board. If you find a match, fill out this short form, and we will try to make a personal referral. Visit Job Board »

Contact [email protected] for additional information. To see additional risk factors and investment considerations, visit av-funds.com/disclosures.