Q2 was a busy month for making new investments, with five new companies joining the RevUp portfolio. We are thrilled with the diversity and quality of these companies and excited to welcome them into the RevUp family!
Investing into great companies led by women and people of color is a priority for RevUp. We are pleased to report that 5 of our last 7 investments have a woman or person of color as a founder. With these investments, we are on path to meet / exceed our diversity goals for 2021. Here's a peek a the new additions to the RevUp portfolio:
GoCoach
Founders: Kristy McCann (CEO) and Rebecca Taylor -- Philadelphia
GoCoach is an upskill/performance coaching platform serving enterprise customers. GoCoach rides the wave of the demand in the marketplace for individualized coaching for employees typically excluded from analog modes of executive coaching. GoCoach provides an easy to use platform that connects companies, coaches and coachees to deliver cost effective employee development at scale.
GoCoach is among the category of HR-technology seeing rapid growth post-covid, as organizations rush to adapt to the new (and perhaps preferred!) realities of distributed teams, upskill / retain workers in a very tight talent market, and satisfy a generation of workers that see training and developments as a “must-have” and not a nice-to-have amenity for senior positions. The founders are experienced in the space and have demonstrated good instincts and execution capabilities through tumultuous times.
Everlasting Love
Founders: Sylvenia Lewis (CEO) and Jerikia Fisher -- Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
Everlasting Love is an integrated ecommerce fulfillment and services company focused on black-owned brands, as well as those owned by women and other underrepresented founders (LGBTQ+, etc). To deliver on this mission, ELL offers both traditional fulfillment and distribution services, as well as market facing support to their customers.
Black brands face unique challenges getting to market and finding success. Unlike white counterparts, black and brown entrepreneurs are under funded and often less able to use personal or family wealth to fund their early days. Understandably so, there is also mistrust in the market and founders of these brands see unique value in leveraging a distribution partner that is inherently tuned into the experience of black entrepreneurs. As market partners and big retail partners like Target make significant commitments to featuring black brands on their shelves, the demand for black-owned 3PL has surged. The team at ELL is the right team to take this business to the next level!
Stack Influence
Founders: Laurent Vincent (CEO), William Gasner and Ayor Abushuwashi
An increasingly crowded social advertising space and the boom in ecommerce have led to a tremendous rise in influencer marketing. Although much attention has focused on mega-influencers and their impact, micro-influencers (<10K followers) are functionally more effective at impacting the shopping behaviors of their audiences. Stack Influence is a platform for micro- and emergent brands to source and manage these influencer campaigns.
Their model is simple and innovative; micro-influencers create product posts in exchange for free product. Stack Influence’s platform manages a 100% rebate or guarantee system that ensures the influencer does not receive a product until a post is completed. Stack Influence has grown quickly with the boom in ecommerce in 2020. As experienced ecommerce power sellers and previous founders this fast growing team is well positioned to take this company to the next level!
Creation Crate
Founders: Chris Gatbaton (CEO) and Ryan Afflito -- Austin, TX
Creation Crate makes and sells educational subscription boxes to customers that want to increase their knowledge of electronics and computing through hands-on projects. Having originally launched as a hobbyist box, Creation Crate has found their lane in older elementary and middle school aged kids and their families. COVID accelerated their growth, nearly doubling the company in 2020. In 2021, CC will launch a standards-aligned chemistry box subscription, and is experimenting with bulk sales to schools, home school groups, and after-school programs.
Excited to be working with these great companies and founders and excited to keep you updated on all of their progress so stay tuned!
More About RevUp Capital
RevUp Capital invests in B2B and B2C companies that are revenue-driven and ready to double down on growth. We deploy cash and capacity to help companies grow from $1-3M to $10-30M, quickly and efficiently, using a non-equity, revenue-based model. Companies enter our portfolio with $500K-$3M in revenue, a strong growth rate, and a team that’s ready to scale. Our typical investment range is $300K-$500K. We invest into a company's market-facing activity using a cash and capacity model. We pair our cash investment with 12-months of dedicated support from the RevUp Growth Platform: a powerful resource to build a data-driven growth engine, delivered by people who get the work done. Rather than take equity, companies return investment through a small percentage of revenue over time. More at www.revupfund.com