Investments
In 2023 We Announced 7 New Early-Stage Investments
Slang
Slang AI provides SMBs with a customizable virtual phone agent, transforming the phone into a channel that is intelligent, personal, and delightful for callers.
Slang is the first customer intelligence layer for the phone. With clear proof points around increasing revenue, reducing staff phone time, and resolving caller demands, Slang has grown quickly to over 200 customers, including Zola, Studs, Slutty Vegan, and IGC Hospitality.
Hue
Hue drives sales with shoppable, user-generated video technology, featuring authentic testimonials from everyday people.
Credo, Exa, and Lawless Beauty are already benefitting from Hue’s full-service solution, which comes at a fraction of the cost of traditional influencer agencies. Hue’s comprehensive shoppable UGC technology is creating a 29% conversion increase on websites that feature videos powered by Hue.
Aircon
Aircon is making worldwide air freight consolidation simple for air freight forwards of all sizes.
Aircon is the industry’s first digital platform that enables consolidation across the entire air freight market. Moreover, Aircon optimizes the entire air freight booking, monitoring, and cost-cutting process, while providing rates significantly better than those offered by airlines or other booking platforms.
Darby
Darby is on a mission to make it a joy to deliver magical patient experiences in the home.
Darby is revolutionizing the currently manual, error-prone, and time-consuming at-home-care order process by supercharging intake teams with AI-powered fax automation technology. Darby’s innovative document processing allows teams to focus on what matters, providing quality care experiences.
Hypernatural
Hypernatural is a generative video creation platform for marketers.
Hypernatural uses AI to understand your unique style and generates new, never-before-seen B-roll that aligns with your brand. Hypernatural enables you to add custom-generated captions, animations, and logos to make your videos stand out.
Trove
Trove Health makes it easy for you to access your medical records, when you need them, in a format you can actually use.
Trove Health is building the world’s largest longitudinal, consented database of patients and their health information across geographies and therapeutic areas. Trove Health’s vision is that with the proper authentication, any user can access any healthcare data through any application.
Cenoa
Cenoa has built a “Borderless Super Wallet” to help individuals and institutions build long-term wealth and protect their assets from inflation.
The Cenoa team is making a smartly calculated bet, beginning with decentralized banking in emerging markets, where the value proposition of accessing dollar-based products and inflation-resistant yields is extremely meaningful. The team is bridging the masses to a new financial infrastructure built on blockchain technology.
Portfolio Momentum
We congratulate our portfolio founders on an impactful year of business building and value creation. In turbulent times, they’ve shown resilience, grit, and progress.
The Underscore portfolio by the numbers
Active portfolio companies
Across:
- Future of
Work - Vertical
SaaS - B2B
Fintech - Emerging
Technology
Sourced from...
Measuring what matters
Since becoming a PRI Signatory in 2021, we’ve been measuring what matters and benchmarking the diversity of those we have the privilege to invest in.
47%
Diverse Founders
46% of Underscore’s participating portfolio company founders identify with an overlooked gender, race, or sexuality.
21%
Female Founders
Compared to 11% benchmarkNationally, only 11% of early-stage funding went to female founders.
Source: Crunchbase, 2022
13%
Black/Latinx Founders
Compared to 0.9% benchmarkIn Boston, only 0.9% of early-stage funding went to Black/Latinx founders.
Source: All Raise, 2021
As of 12.5.23 - Based on 68 portfolio company founders who opted into self identifying in Underscore’s D&I survey.
2,000+ Core Members
The Underscore portfolio is strengthened by our Core Community of battle-tested business builders.
- 15
Peer Groups
- 46
Formal Core Gatherings
- 91
Core Summit NPS
2023 Core Leaders
Seijin Mong
Customer SuccessSr. Director of CS, Starburst Data
Rob Zambito
Customer SuccessFounder, Success Scaled
Joseph Alim
ProductVP of Product, Compt
Susan An
SalesVP of Sales, HYCY
Alex Lindahl
SalesSales Director, Chainguard
Shari McGrath
Customer SuccessCS Executive
Anum Valliani
ProductDirector of Product Management, Lambent
Alex Ruiz
ProductHead of Product, LearnLuxUnderscore returns 10% of our profits to members of our community who help us source, select, and build iconic companies.
We call these special members of our community Core Partners. To date, Underscore has 111 Core Partners.
8 New
Core Partners Added in 2023 including...
Samuel Lee
Head of Pricing Strategy and Operations, SnowflakePagos Core Partner
Wendy Wise
GTM Advisor/ConsultantCloudZero Core Partner
Nish Murthy
Founding Partner, Minot Light ConsultingAircon Core Partner
Suresh Bala
VP Product Management, WorkdayClockwork Core Partner
Andy Han
VP Product Management, Veeva SystemsHi Marley Core Partner
Carsten Holm
VP Product Management, SplunkPagos Core Partner
Jay Wampold
CMO, Sixty AICloudZero Core Partner
Joe Morrison
Finance at Collard Advisory GroupCloudZero Core PartnerWe welcomed over 650 Core Members to 12 Sessions
Enthusiastically Sponsored by...
Startup Secrets
Wisdom Shared in 2023
This year, we packaged community knowledge in written, video, and even AI-powered form! Our tools have amassed tens of thousands of views since launching.
Seed Funding Video Series
We made a list of all the most common questions we hear from founders when it comes to raising Seed funding. Then we sat down in front of a camera to answer them all!
How to Announce Your Early-Stage Funding (With Coda AI)
We couldn't resist experimenting with AI.
How to Hire Your First Salesperson
Making your first sales hire is a challenge, especially if you don’t have sales experience. Should you hire an experienced leader? How about someone with specific industry experience? How do you determine whether a salesperson will succeed in your company?
Seed Milestones: How Much Traction Do You Need to Raise Seed Funding?
What counts as traction? Should I be raising a Seed or Pre-Seed? To these questions and more, the answer from many early-stage VCs is: It depends. This piece helps demystify what “it depends” on, so you can identify your strengths and weaknesses and determine if you have “enough” traction.
How to Start a Customer Advisory Board
A customer advisory board (CAB) is a closed, select group of customers that occasionally meets to share ideas, feedback, and insights. We break down how to organize a CAB, and the benefits of doing so.
5 Underscore Insights for the Road Ahead
Lily Lyman
We’ll see healthcare providers get comfortable with generative AI solutions in select back-office use cases including prior authorization, billings and claims, and order management for in-home care delivery. Other use cases like diagnostics and patient engagement will struggle to get adoption because of noise in the market and perceived risk.
Chris Gardner
Growing and efficient B2B/Enterprise software companies are already able to raise now and it will get even more competitive in the new year. AI-powered automation will be the headline, but the real winners will be those bringing proprietary data and AI models to vertical industries. Sectors to watch include cybersecurity, identity and fraud management, healthtech, cloud and AI cost optimization, and supply chain management.
Jimmy Orsillo
In 2024 we'll see continued progress toward unwinding the frothiness of the last market cycle toward something more rational. Later-stage fundraising will still be a slog, given the overall pacing of revenue growth and the tightness of capital markets. This uncertainty will persist at some level, but we should have more transactions to understand pricing floors and where pockets of demand for new investments will be. Startups built in this environment will undoubtedly have a level of resiliency that will endure.
Richard Dulude
Enterprise AI moats—and shareholder value—for foundational model providers, like ChatGPT, will be challenged by open-source equivalents, beginning a tectonic shift in the market. The existing enterprise shareholder value will be destroyed, and the consumer value gained will be massive, and yet inevitable to avoid.
Brian Devaney
In 2024 we’ll experience a natural startup extinction event, which will produce a wave of talent recycling. Resilient Seed to Series C startups that survive will be the benefactors of a flock of layed off talent. In turn, the strong will be strengthened.
In Memoriam
As we reflect on our 2023, we remember the incredible and lasting impact John Pearce has had on our firm, portfolio, and community. Within the Underscore family, we called John “The Legend,” as he was an endless source of experience, sound advice, and amazing stories. We are grateful for the wisdom he shared and the example he set for us all—something we will carry forward as a team in 2024 and beyond.
