For years, individuals, and sometimes corporate teams, have participated in charity runs and walks to raise funding and awareness for causes they believe in. In most cases, the organizers of these events (large and small) have taken on the administrative and infrastructural onus of setting up the philanthropic portions that allow individuals to set up their own fundraising initiatives. What if a SaaS platform could facilitate individuals to partake and structure charitable giving, without relying on other parties, at the employer/employee level? Enter Groundswell, a recently launched philanthropy-as-a-Service platform that provides charitable fundraising tools and administrative solutions as an employee benefit. Employees are able to create and contribute to the pool of their choice (donor-advised funds), for causes that resonate with them, with employers providing tax-advantaged matching/gifting funds. Traditionally, corporate social responsibility and charitable endeavors have been concentrated on a handful of opportunities that are selected at the highest levels within the company. Groundswell’s innovative approach decentralizes corporate giving, creating enhanced engagement among employees and stakeholders. LA TechWatch caught up with Groundswell Chief Product Officer Tammy Hahn to learn more about the company’s launch, strategic plans, latest funding round from investors that include GV, Human Ventures, Moonshots Capital, Felicis, and Core Innovation Capital, and much, much more…
Startups
Mustard Raises $1M for its Video-Based Food Discovery Platform and Social Network
The pandemic forced restaurants to accelerate their digital adoption in order to be accessible to consumers during lockdowns. It was no longer enough to have a simple menu offering on a website along with a few photos; restaurants needed to develop e-commerce like options and quickly. As restaurants increased these platform-based capabilities, investment in the space flourished as did innovation for food discovery. Mustard, a new entrant, is a video-based food app that makes uploaded food videos instantly shoppable. With increasing attention paid to social when it comes to food, Mustard’s video network and social community of food enthusiasts has provided a much-needed platform that lets you visualize each individual dish to get a real sense of what you’ll be ordering. Integrations with the major food delivery services (Postmates, Uber Eats, Grubhub, et al) allow for seamless one-click ordering. The company partners with key food creators and allows them to syndicate their video content from TikTok and Instagram seamlessly to the Mustard app and collect affiliate fees. LA TechWatch caught up with Mustard Cofounder and CEO Diana Might to learn more about the inspiration for the company, strategic plans, and recent round of funding from investors that include Operate Studio, Newfund, The Fund VC, and the Great North Ventures Capital.
Open Scores $9M for its Mindfulness Studios That Offers an Elevated Wellness Experience
The relative calmness of the pandemic gave an opportunity for many to reassess their personal development. For many, mindful practices helped combat the anxiety that emerged from the calamity and uncertainty of a locked-down world. Now as we put the pandemic in the rear-view mirror, many are looking to make these practices lasting, embedded in their new routines. Open is an operator of mindfulness studios and an online platform that offers a blend of breathwork, meditation, and pilates programming to help people be more present and improve their wellbeing. Open’s first studio is located in Venice with various daily programming that focuses on building an elevated and consistent wellness experience centered around community. Membership for the online platform is $20/mo with a $120M annual option available. In-person classes start at $20/session, making them more accessible than many of the alternatives. LA TechWatch caught up with Open Cofounder and CEO Raed Khawaja to learn more about the importance of mindfulness in relation to overall mental and physical health, the company’s future plans, recent round of funding from investors that include Founders Fund and A.Capital Ventures, Susa Ventures, Aglaé Ventures, Jack Dorsey, and Tony Xu.
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Tala Raises Another $145M to Enable Credit Access and Banking Services for the Underbanked Globally
The advent of mobile money services has led to 1.2B people across the globe opening accounts for the first time since 2010. Yet there are still 1.7B unbanked adults; 3.4B are underbanked. Technology will be the primary driver to ensure that financial inclusion will continue to rise globally. Tala is focused on providing financial and banking services to the underserved in emerging markets with its expanding suite of financial services. Since 2014, the company has provided instant microloans in Mexico, the Philippines, India, and East Africa without requiring any formal credit histories. By leveraging AI, the company has built a sophisticated underwriting system that doesn’t need the traditional loan assessment inputs found in places where lending is more formalized. Since its founding, Tala has served over 6M customers that have borrowed in excess of $2B. With foundational customer relationships already in place and with the trust of the communities served, the company is now expanding its offering to provide more services beyond loans to ensure that people are able to access the financial services including payments, savings, and enhanced credit facilities without having to work with analog and inaccessible banks or predatory providers. LA TechWatch caught up with Tala CEO and Founder Shivani Siroya to learn more about what led her to build tech-enabled solutions to address the massive market opportunity to serve the underbanked globally, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding from investors that include Upstart Stellar Development Foundation, Kindred Ventures, J. Safra Group, IVP, Revolution Growth, Lowercase Capital, and PayPal Ventures
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