Alumni Ventures

Alumni Ventures Group, LLC is a venture capital firm founded in 2013 and based in Manchester, New Hampshire, with additional offices in major cities across North America. The firm specializes in seed, early-stage, and late-stage pre-IPO investments, focusing on companies with an alumni connection and supported by established institutional lead investors. Alumni Ventures aims to provide accredited investors, particularly alumni from top entrepreneurial schools, with access to diversified venture portfolios that span various sectors and geographic regions. The firm typically invests between $0.01 million and $3 million and does not require board or observer seats in its portfolio companies. Through its managed fund families, Alumni Ventures enables investors to participate in a collaborative investment approach, fostering connections among alumni while facilitating investment opportunities in innovative ventures.

Rob Adams

Managing Partner

Gail Ball

Venture Scout

Andrew Baum

Vice President, Treasury and Capital Management

David Beazley

Executive Partner

Ali Byrd

Investor Advisory Council Member

Matt Caspari

Managing Partner, Strawberry Creek and amp; Deep Tech

Matt Castellini

Senior Associate

Helen Chen

CEO Services Analyst

Cainon Coates

Managing Partner

Michael Collins

CEO

Thomas Edwards

Associate

Yev Gelfand

Investor

Mason Hale

Senior Associate, Chestnut Street and Triphammer Ven

Jin Kim

Senior Vice President, Office of Investments

Lucas Kirshenbaum

VC Investor

Ron Levin

Managing Partner, AV Seed Fund and Doctors Innovate Fund

Jess Liu-Brown

Principal

Michael Madden

Co-Founder and Investment Professionals

Jonathan Meltzer

Managing Partner

Tom Meyer

Managing Partner, Nassau Street

Keith Murphy

Director, Video Programs

David Muson

CFO

Aisha Robinson

Comms Team VP of Strategic Communications

Saad Shaheen

Investor Operations Manager

Stephen Stolzenberg

Senior Associate

Justin Strausbaugh

Managing Partner, Lakeshore

Brittney Wade

Senior Associate, Seed Fund

Sarah Worden

Venture Scout

Wesley Yiu

Partner

Henri Yuan

Investor

Michael Yuann

Director of Investment Operations

Past deals in Retail Lending

Benny

Pre Seed Round in 2022
Benny operates an employee-focused lending platform that allows employees of publicly traded companies to access funds for participating in their employer's stock purchase plans. By providing loans specifically designed for this purpose, Benny enables employees to purchase company stock at discounted prices, enhancing their investment opportunities. This service aims to empower employees to make the most of their earning potential through involvement in stock ownership, thereby fostering a more engaged workforce and promoting long-term financial growth.

Fido

Series A in 2022
Fido Money Lending Limited is a financial institution located in Accra, Ghana, and is licensed by the Bank of Ghana. The company specializes in providing fast and accessible short-term loans, known as FIDO Loans, which can be applied for through a mobile device or at a branch. The application process is straightforward, requiring only a one-time verification of identity and bank account, with no collateral or guarantors needed. This enables salaried, contracted, and self-employed individuals to receive credit decisions within minutes, and funds can be disbursed within one business day. Fido's digital financing platform simplifies access to credit, allowing customers without a financial track record to obtain loans efficiently, thereby catering to the needs of individuals and entrepreneurs seeking quick financial solutions.

Bridge Money

Seed Round in 2022
Bridge is a developer of a banking platform used to help achieve financial freedom. It aims to provide a path towards upward financial mobility for the millions of people left behind by the traditional banking system. It was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Obligo

Series B in 2021
Obligo, Inc. is a financial technology company based in New York, founded in 2017, that specializes in providing open banking solutions to simplify the rental process for both tenants and landlords by eliminating the need for security deposits. Its primary offering, Obligo, allows tenants to authorize landlords to charge a limited amount for potential damages instead of requiring a cash deposit. This model enables landlords to receive compensation for claims quickly while allowing tenants to repay any charges in installments. Obligo's innovative approach combines AI-based underwriting with open banking technology, making it a unique non-insurance alternative to traditional security deposits. The platform enhances the tenant-landlord relationship by promoting fairness, trust, and accountability, while also helping property owners streamline their operations and adapt to evolving regulatory requirements.

UpEquity

Series B in 2021
UpEquity is a technology-driven mortgage platform based in Austin, Texas, founded in 2019 by Tim Herman and Louis Wilson. The company aims to enhance the home buying experience by streamlining the mortgage process, making it easier and faster for borrowers. UpEquity offers services such as mortgage and refinance, and its platform allows users to upload documents for pre-approval. By utilizing automated underwriting, free cash offers, and competitive mortgage rates, UpEquity seeks to address inefficiencies in the home buying process and empower customers to close offers quickly. The company gained initial support through Y Combinator's Summer 2019 accelerator program.

Method Financial

Seed Round in 2021
Developer of a loan management application designed to simplify accelerate and make debt repayment more secure. The company's loan management application manages, plans, and empowers real-time data and payment access for consumer liabilities, it also allows lenders, fintech, and financial institutions to build personalized lending and financial management experiences supported by comprehensive real-time credit data, evergreen connections, and integrated payment rails, enabling users to securely connect all of a user's liabilities and retrieve comprehensive data.

BlockFi

Series E in 2021
BlockFi, Inc. is a financial services company focused on providing wealth management products for cryptocurrency investors. Established in 2017 and headquartered in New York, it offers a range of services including the BlockFi Interest Account, which allows clients to earn interest on their holdings of Bitcoin, Ether, and Gemini Dollar. The company also facilitates secured loans in U.S. dollars, backed by clients' cryptocurrency assets, thereby enhancing liquidity in the blockchain asset market. In addition to lending and interest-earning accounts, BlockFi provides a trading platform for exchanging various cryptocurrency pairs and offers services tailored for institutional clients. By holding clients' digital assets with a registered custodian, BlockFi aims to deliver transparency and efficiency in digital financial markets. The company's mission is to address the evolving needs of both individual and institutional investors in the cryptocurrency space.

Sunbit

Series D in 2021
Sunbit, Inc. is a technology company based in Los Angeles, California, that specializes in installment financing solutions to enhance the purchasing experience. Founded in 2016, the company provides a platform that allows consumers to split their purchases into manageable payments, reducing stress at the point of sale. Sunbit's services cater to a diverse range of industries, including auto repair, veterinary care, eye care, dental services, and specialty healthcare. Utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning, Sunbit's technology facilitates quick approvals for a broad spectrum of credit profiles. Additionally, the company supplies retailers with tablets, scanners, and signage, along with informational materials for customers, ensuring a seamless integration of its financing solutions into various service environments.

Method Financial

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Developer of a loan management application designed to simplify accelerate and make debt repayment more secure. The company's loan management application manages, plans, and empowers real-time data and payment access for consumer liabilities, it also allows lenders, fintech, and financial institutions to build personalized lending and financial management experiences supported by comprehensive real-time credit data, evergreen connections, and integrated payment rails, enabling users to securely connect all of a user's liabilities and retrieve comprehensive data.

SoLo

Series A in 2021
SoLo Funds, Inc. is a mobile money exchange and lending platform that connects lenders and borrowers, allowing users to borrow on their own terms and lenders to benefit from their contributions. Established in 2015 and based in New York City, SoLo Funds operates as an alternative financial solution, offering rapid loan options to borrowers while providing lenders with significant value. The platform has evolved from a unique lending marketplace into a comprehensive community banking solution that leverages individual capital, insurance, and banking products, supported by advanced A.I. underwriting technology.

True Link

Series B in 2020
True Link Financial, Inc. is a financial services firm based in San Francisco, California, established in 2012. The company focuses on providing solutions for vulnerable populations, including people with disabilities, older adults, and individuals in recovery. True Link offers Visa prepaid cards designed to protect users from financial exploitation and fraud, allowing families and professionals to monitor and manage their loved ones' finances effectively. Additionally, the firm provides investment management services, including personalized retirement plans aimed at ensuring stable income throughout retirement. Its software platform supports various functions such as budgeting, disbursements, record keeping, and reporting, catering to conservators, guardians, attorneys, and trust companies. True Link's mission is to enhance the independence and quality of life for its clients while safeguarding their financial well-being.

Lily AI

Series A in 2020
Lily AI is the leader in predictive psychographics for retail e-commerce. Consumer spending online for apparel now accounts for over 27% of all clothing sales. Retailers need to understand each consumer’s emotional context while they are actively shopping. Lily AI combines deep product tagging with deep, real-time psychographic analysis to determine the active state of mind of each shopper, and turns that into precise and timely recommendations. These recommendations are proven to lead to higher conversions and lower return rates. Lily AI (lilystyle.ai) was founded by two women who believe clothes to reflect how they feel about themselves. The company is venture-backed and headquartered in Mountain View, CA.

Lily AI

Series A in 2020
Lily AI is the leader in predictive psychographics for retail e-commerce. Consumer spending online for apparel now accounts for over 27% of all clothing sales. Retailers need to understand each consumer’s emotional context while they are actively shopping. Lily AI combines deep product tagging with deep, real-time psychographic analysis to determine the active state of mind of each shopper, and turns that into precise and timely recommendations. These recommendations are proven to lead to higher conversions and lower return rates. Lily AI (lilystyle.ai) was founded by two women who believe clothes to reflect how they feel about themselves. The company is venture-backed and headquartered in Mountain View, CA.

Own Up

Venture Round in 2019
Own Up, operating under Rategravity, Inc., offers a software platform designed to assist homebuyers in financing their homes. Founded in 2015 and based in Boston, Massachusetts, the company provides a solution that eliminates the need for salespeople, allowing users to compare, select, and finalize their mortgage options directly with lenders. The platform caters to a variety of property types, including primary residences, second homes, investment properties, single-family homes, multi-family homes, condos, and townhomes. By streamlining the lending process, Own Up aims to facilitate easier access to low-interest mortgages for consumers.

Deserve

Series C in 2019
Deserve, Inc. is a financial services company based in Menlo Park, California, that specializes in providing credit cards and financial products to international students in the United States. Founded in 2012 and rebranded from Tremus, Inc. in 2017, Deserve utilizes a unique approach to assess creditworthiness by considering factors beyond traditional credit history, such as education, major, cost of education, initial funding sources, and future employability. This innovative method addresses the challenges faced by young individuals who often lack a credit history, thereby enabling them to access fair credit opportunities. Deserve's compliance framework adheres to stringent legal standards, incorporating enhanced identity verification and consistent lending practices to ensure security. The company's streamlined process from application to account management is designed to be simple and efficient, reflecting its commitment to helping customers achieve financial independence.

Oxygen

Seed Round in 2019
Oxygen operates as a digital banking platform that uniquely caters to both personal and business banking needs, addressing the requirements of consumers, small businesses, and freelancers in the modern economy. In addition to its banking services, Oxygen Technical Services offers technology solutions that include computer and network designs, connectivity, website design, and e-commerce solutions. The company's commitment to cybersecurity emphasizes secure data storage, ensuring that backup and recovery processes comply with established standards. To maintain data resiliency, Oxygen implements comprehensive backup strategies and scheduled test restores, safeguarding data from servers, workstations, and various cloud platforms, including Microsoft 365.

True Link

Venture Round in 2019
True Link Financial, Inc. is a financial services firm based in San Francisco, California, established in 2012. The company focuses on providing solutions for vulnerable populations, including people with disabilities, older adults, and individuals in recovery. True Link offers Visa prepaid cards designed to protect users from financial exploitation and fraud, allowing families and professionals to monitor and manage their loved ones' finances effectively. Additionally, the firm provides investment management services, including personalized retirement plans aimed at ensuring stable income throughout retirement. Its software platform supports various functions such as budgeting, disbursements, record keeping, and reporting, catering to conservators, guardians, attorneys, and trust companies. True Link's mission is to enhance the independence and quality of life for its clients while safeguarding their financial well-being.

Sunbit

Series B in 2019
Sunbit, Inc. is a technology company based in Los Angeles, California, that specializes in installment financing solutions to enhance the purchasing experience. Founded in 2016, the company provides a platform that allows consumers to split their purchases into manageable payments, reducing stress at the point of sale. Sunbit's services cater to a diverse range of industries, including auto repair, veterinary care, eye care, dental services, and specialty healthcare. Utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning, Sunbit's technology facilitates quick approvals for a broad spectrum of credit profiles. Additionally, the company supplies retailers with tablets, scanners, and signage, along with informational materials for customers, ensuring a seamless integration of its financing solutions into various service environments.

Better.com

Series C in 2019
Better Holdco, Inc. is a digital mortgage lending company based in New York that offers a streamlined online platform for residential clients in multiple states across the U.S. Founded in 2016, Better.com focuses on providing a transparent and efficient home-financing experience by eliminating commissions, fees, and traditional branch appointments. The company offers a variety of mortgage options, including fixed and adjustable rates for conventional and jumbo loans, as well as refinancing services. In addition to mortgage lending, Better.com features a digital marketplace that provides competitive quotes from various insurance providers and connects clients with leading real estate agents. Since its inception, Better.com has facilitated $7.9 billion in home loans and $1 billion in insurance, aiming to democratize access to home financing.

Lily AI

Funding Round in 2018
Lily AI is the leader in predictive psychographics for retail e-commerce. Consumer spending online for apparel now accounts for over 27% of all clothing sales. Retailers need to understand each consumer’s emotional context while they are actively shopping. Lily AI combines deep product tagging with deep, real-time psychographic analysis to determine the active state of mind of each shopper, and turns that into precise and timely recommendations. These recommendations are proven to lead to higher conversions and lower return rates. Lily AI (lilystyle.ai) was founded by two women who believe clothes to reflect how they feel about themselves. The company is venture-backed and headquartered in Mountain View, CA.

Alviere

Series A in 2018
Developer of an embedded finance platform designed to empower brands to offer financial services to their customers. The company's software and services give businesses a flexible framework to launch new financial service lines of business aimed at increasing profits, enabling customer relationships and insights, and increasing customer satisfaction and retention.

Rize

Seed Round in 2018
Rize builds customer-centric financial applications for fintechs, incumbents, and non-financial brands. Our patent-pending Synthetic Account technology seamlessly integrates checking, saving, and individual brokerage with one flexible platform.

Deserve

Series B in 2018
Deserve, Inc. is a financial services company based in Menlo Park, California, that specializes in providing credit cards and financial products to international students in the United States. Founded in 2012 and rebranded from Tremus, Inc. in 2017, Deserve utilizes a unique approach to assess creditworthiness by considering factors beyond traditional credit history, such as education, major, cost of education, initial funding sources, and future employability. This innovative method addresses the challenges faced by young individuals who often lack a credit history, thereby enabling them to access fair credit opportunities. Deserve's compliance framework adheres to stringent legal standards, incorporating enhanced identity verification and consistent lending practices to ensure security. The company's streamlined process from application to account management is designed to be simple and efficient, reflecting its commitment to helping customers achieve financial independence.

FinLocker

Seed Round in 2018
FinLocker is a financial services technology innovator, founded by a team of veterans and executives across the financial services and technology industries. It provides a personal financial assistant tool that enables loans and financial transactions. With consumer consent, FinLocker captures key borrower data and applies intelligent analytics such as loan product recommendations based on a consumer’s financial profile, asset and income verification, and more. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in St Louis, Missouri.

BlockFi

Seed Round in 2018
BlockFi, Inc. is a financial services company focused on providing wealth management products for cryptocurrency investors. Established in 2017 and headquartered in New York, it offers a range of services including the BlockFi Interest Account, which allows clients to earn interest on their holdings of Bitcoin, Ether, and Gemini Dollar. The company also facilitates secured loans in U.S. dollars, backed by clients' cryptocurrency assets, thereby enhancing liquidity in the blockchain asset market. In addition to lending and interest-earning accounts, BlockFi provides a trading platform for exchanging various cryptocurrency pairs and offers services tailored for institutional clients. By holding clients' digital assets with a registered custodian, BlockFi aims to deliver transparency and efficiency in digital financial markets. The company's mission is to address the evolving needs of both individual and institutional investors in the cryptocurrency space.

Deserve

Series A in 2017
Deserve, Inc. is a financial services company based in Menlo Park, California, that specializes in providing credit cards and financial products to international students in the United States. Founded in 2012 and rebranded from Tremus, Inc. in 2017, Deserve utilizes a unique approach to assess creditworthiness by considering factors beyond traditional credit history, such as education, major, cost of education, initial funding sources, and future employability. This innovative method addresses the challenges faced by young individuals who often lack a credit history, thereby enabling them to access fair credit opportunities. Deserve's compliance framework adheres to stringent legal standards, incorporating enhanced identity verification and consistent lending practices to ensure security. The company's streamlined process from application to account management is designed to be simple and efficient, reflecting its commitment to helping customers achieve financial independence.

RevolutionCredit

Seed Round in 2017
RevolutionCredit, Inc. is a behavioral data and analytics firm specializing in the consumer credit decisioning process. Based in Irvine, California, the company offers innovative solutions such as BeyondMyScore, which captures predictive behavioral signals from consumers at the point of transaction, enhancing lenders' acquisition and account management capabilities across the credit risk spectrum. Additionally, RevolutionCredit provides BackOnTrack, a solution designed to leverage behavioral science for optimizing collections outcomes for creditors. Founded in 2010, the firm focuses on delivering real-time behavioral scores that enable creditors to better risk-segment consumers and encourage positive changes in their financial behaviors.

Upstart

Series C in 2017
Upstart is an online lending platform that utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning to streamline the borrowing process and enhance credit assessment. Founded in 2012 and based in San Mateo, California, Upstart connects consumers with a network of AI-enabled bank partners, allowing for a more efficient lending experience. The platform evaluates potential borrowers using a proprietary underwriting model that considers factors such as education, area of study, and employment history, rather than relying solely on traditional credit scores. This innovative approach enables banks to achieve higher approval rates and lower loss rates while providing a digital-first experience for customers. Upstart offers a variety of loan products, including personal loans, automotive loans, home equity lines of credit, and small dollar loans, catering to diverse consumer needs.

Sunbit

Pre Seed Round in 2016
Sunbit, Inc. is a technology company based in Los Angeles, California, that specializes in installment financing solutions to enhance the purchasing experience. Founded in 2016, the company provides a platform that allows consumers to split their purchases into manageable payments, reducing stress at the point of sale. Sunbit's services cater to a diverse range of industries, including auto repair, veterinary care, eye care, dental services, and specialty healthcare. Utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning, Sunbit's technology facilitates quick approvals for a broad spectrum of credit profiles. Additionally, the company supplies retailers with tablets, scanners, and signage, along with informational materials for customers, ensuring a seamless integration of its financing solutions into various service environments.

FinLocker

Venture Round in 2014
FinLocker is a financial services technology innovator, founded by a team of veterans and executives across the financial services and technology industries. It provides a personal financial assistant tool that enables loans and financial transactions. With consumer consent, FinLocker captures key borrower data and applies intelligent analytics such as loan product recommendations based on a consumer’s financial profile, asset and income verification, and more. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in St Louis, Missouri.
Spot something off? Help us improve by flagging any incorrect or outdated information. Just email us at support@teaserclub.com. Your feedback is most welcome.