3Q23 Newsletter

👋 Hello, It's BTV

Welcome back to our quarterly newsletter!

The last few months for Team BTV were action-packed — even more so than usual. 

To start things off, a quick update on the Sheel Wedding Tour:

Most of our team had the chance to attend — and dance the night away at —  Sheel’s main wedding ceremony outside of Mexico City. Oh, and he managed to squeeze in one more wedding, at Burning Man, because why not? 

Toss in Demo Day for our inaugural accelerator cohort, our Annual LP Meeting, our annual founder retreat, and Money20/20…and yeah, like we said, it was a busy quarter.

🚀 The Mint

In October, we finished the 1st cohort of The Mint, our fintech-focused accelerator. It was energizing to work with such driven founders every day in SF! The 7 inaugural "spearmint" companies pitched their startups to >200 investors at Demo Day, and they all made us proud.

Check out Sheel’s Demo Day recap here, our recap video here, and learn more about the 7 companies here.

We’re already planning and accepting applications for the next cohort, which starts in March. Send us your favorite pre-seed founders, or have them apply here!

📈 BTV Portfolio Updates

💰 Fundraising

Caliza (BTV I) raised $5.3 million in a seed funding round. To learn more about why we invested, check out some thoughts from Jake!

Basis (BTV II) raised $3.6 million in a seed funding round. To learn more about why we invested, check out some thoughts from Nihar!

Charlie (BTV II) raised $16 million in a Series A funding round, led by TTV, along with $7 million in debt financing. As a refresher of why we invested, check out some thoughts from Jake!

Kin (pre-BTV) raised $33 million in a Series D funding round led by QED.

Nova Credit (pre-BTV) raised $45 million in a Series C funding roundled by Canapi Ventures.

📰 In the News

Chipper (pre-BTV) launched Chipper ID, an onboarding-and-verification system that has already helped to reduce fraud, expedite verification, and decrease customer acquisition costs.  

Unit (BTV I) 

• Published a guide on how embedded finance is transforming the gig economy.
• Launched a new feature: Cash Deposit, powered by an integration with Green Dot Bank, will allow users to walk into nearly 100,000 retail locations across the United States…to deposit their cash at a register.
• Launched a white-label app, which allows software companies to embed banking and lending into their platform “with only one line of code.”

Ramp (pre-BTV) launched a new Chrome extension that lets startups see how much each meeting costs their company.

Lattice (pre-BTV) launched HRIS, an HR information system purpose-built for the needs of mid-sized companies.

Mercury (pre-BTV) transformed Mercury Raise from a seasonal, cohort-based program, into an always-available platform that provides tools to founders to help raise money, find community, and get expert guidance.

Salsa (BTV I) released a product update, which introduced a range of features to make employer onboarding more versatile, streamline bank account integration, provide insights into employer accounts, and improve the handling of pay schedules.

Hardfin (BTV I) announced the release of its Control Center, which supports financial operations for modern hardware companies. The Control Center “automatically notifies sales, finance, and operations stakeholders of actions needed to keep the business in sync, shortening the billing cycle by 60-70%.”

Charlie (BTV II) announced the launch of Charlie FraudShield, a comprehensive, personalized suite of fraud protection tools built exclusively for the unique needs of 62+ Americans, entirely free of charge for all Charlie customers.

📢 BTV in the Spotlight

Podcasts and articles featuring our portfolio founders:

• Ham (Chipper) was on NYSE Floor Talk, discussing Chipper’s AI day and its lineup of key product launches.
• Ben (Plumery) was on the New Era Fintech Podcast, talking about his journey and plans for the future with Plumery. 
• Hooman (Collective) was on The Power Hour, talking about his entrepreneurial career and his vision for Collective.
• Hooman (Collective) was also on ListenDeck and Bank On It.
• Ravi (Effectiv) was on the Business Podcast by Roohi, talking about his immigrant story, Sheel and BTV, and Google and PayPal Tech Mafias.
• Ema (Pave) was featured in Snowflake’s Startup Spotlight, talking about breaking down barriers to accessible credit and financial lending, how running a startup is like climbing a mountain, and how building on Snowflake gives Pave the data-sharing capabilities it needs to show financial institutions a better way to identify more creditworthy borrowers.

Podcasts and articles featuring Team BTV:

• Nihar was on the Ivey Venture Podcast talking about his story, what motivates him intrinsically, and a glimpse into his world as an early-stage fintech investor.

🤙 Community

October is always our best month of the year. We started with our annual LP meeting and Demo Day for the inaugural cohort of The Mint! We were so excited for Demo Day that we (JC) dyed our hair green!

The next day, we headed into the California Redwoods for our third (!) Camp BTV, our annual retreat for our portfolio company founders. 

Among breakout sessions on business strategy and building company culture, we threw axes, mastered the luge technique down the pool slide, had our very own Olympics, and watched a solar eclipse!

We wrapped up October with Money20/20, where we co-hosted our annual Soulcycle class with a handful of our portfolio companies!

💪 Talent

We continue to expand the BTV talent community and evangelize BTV's portfolio companies and brand with fintech talent. 

This quarter saw close partnership with a handful of companies, including at The Mint, to work on hiring best practices, recruitment strategies, and facilitating key introductions. Notable wins include helping portfolio companies hire a founding engineer, a technical co-founder, and a critical product leader.

As the academic year kicked off, we've also engaged with fintech clubs at top universities to increase our brand awareness, expand our future talent pool, and partner with portfolio companies for intern and/or project-based work opportunities.

🗓️ Coming Up - Let's Hang!

Here’s where you’ll find Team BTV over the next few months:

• Now - Nov 18, Singapore: Sheel is speaking at the Singapore Fintech Festival
• Nov 15-19, NYC: Jake
• Nov 20-30, India: Nihar
• Dec 3-5, Mexico City: Jake
• Dec 7-10, India: Sheel
• Dec 14 - Jan 8, India: Nihar
• Jan 9-12, London: Nihar
• Week of Jan 15, NYC: Sheel
• Jan 23-30, India: Nihar

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Until next time, 
Team BTV