LvlUp Ventures

We're pleased to announce our investment in AMLOK. Lenders make some of their most important decisions with a snapshot: a set of financial statements reviewed once, at the moment of underwriting. But a borrower's risk keeps changing long after the loan is approved. AMLOK builds AI agents that work across the credit lifecycle. They read borrower files and reconcile financials during underwriting, monitor capital after it's deployed, and flag risk as it changes, all inside the workflows lending teams already use. The credit team still makes the final call. Founded by Abdallah Kanaan, AMLOK has validated its models on more than 275K historical deals. Welcome to the portfolio. amlok.io #LvlUpVentures #Fintech #AI #Lending

We're pleased to share that LvlUp Ventures is an Ecosystem Partner of Doers Summit Dubai 2026. On November 25–26 at Dubai Silicon Oasis, under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Doers Summit brings together founders, investors, operators and corporate leaders from Europe, the GCC, Asia and beyond. Our MENA team will be on site at the LvlUp booth, and we'll also be hosting a workshop during the summit. If you're a founder building in the region, come find us. As part of the partnership, we're offering our community complimentary passes, available on a first-come, first-served basis. Use code DS26LVLUP or claim yours here: luma.com/r4oed190?coupon=DS2… #LvlUpVentures #DoersSummit #Dubai #MENA #Startups

Congratulations to KwikMedi on a strong start since launch. KwikMedi is building hyperlocal healthcare delivery in India, bringing medicine to people's doors in as little as 30 minutes from nearby verified pharmacies, with lab tests and diagnostics available at home. Since launching in July 2026, the company has reached 590 paying customers, grown its network to more than 22 active pharmacy partners, and partnered with Redcliffe Labs for doorstep diagnostics. Founder Abhishek Kumar Yadav and the team are building density in Delhi NCR before expanding to more cities. kwikmedi.com #LvlUpVentures #HealthTech #India #Healthcare

🍸 Happening Next Thursday: LvlUp Demo Day & Holiday Cocktail Hour! We’re heading to El Segundo on Thursday, November 12 to celebrate the founders graduating from our 10-week accelerator and close out the year with the LvlUp community. Join us for live founder pitches, product showcases, and the opportunity to experience what these emerging companies are building. Then, stick around as we bring together founders, investors, operators, retail buyers, and builders from across the CPG and tech ecosystems for a holiday cocktail hour. A big thank you to our sponsors SHOPLINE, Western Alliance Bank, Flowspace, Finix, and TriNet for helping make this event possible! 📍 El Segundo, Los Angeles 📅 Thursday, November 12 🥂 Doors open at 6:00 PM PT 🌎 Global livestream begins at 6:45 PM PT Not in LA? You can still join us virtually and watch the founder pitches live! Whether you're a founder, investor, operator, buyer, or simply looking to meet great people, we'd love to have you join us. Register here: lvlup.vc/la-demo-day #LvlUpVentures #DemoDay #LosAngeles #Startups #VentureCapital

Congratulations to one of our portfolio companies, Nearpays, on a standout quarter. Nearpays turns any smartphone into a payment terminal, giving small and mid-sized businesses across Africa a way to accept cards, stay tax-compliant and keep selling even when they're offline. This quarter, the company partnered with GTBank Rwanda, Fidelity Bank Ghana and Visa to scale its SoftPOS product, expanded into Rwanda, and became the first African startup to win both the AI for Good Award and the Money20/20 Middle East Pitch Competition. Nearpays now serves more than 150K paying users and has reached $52K in monthly recurring revenue, with the business close to break-even. Proud to support Victor Daniyan and the Nearpays team as they build payment infrastructure for one of the youngest markets in the world. nearpays.com #LvlUpVentures #Fintech #Payments

We're excited to share some momentum from VaultPay, one of our portfolio companies. VaultPay is a social commerce platform built on payments infrastructure. In one app, users can shop and sell through live streams, share transactions in a social feed, and manage multi-currency accounts and Visa cards. The company is profitable and has passed 64K installs and users across Google Play, iOS and the web. This quarter, VaultPay partnered with Swipelux to offer named bank accounts, began working with SHOPLINE so its merchants can sell through SHOPLINE's commerce tools, and set up an entity in Estonia to access European banking infrastructure. Congratulations to Zakaria and the VaultPay team. getvaultpay.co #LvlUpVentures #Fintech #SocialCommerce #Startups

We're pleased to announce our investment in Tosch.ai. College sports has become a serious business. Athletes are choosing programs with real money and real career stakes on the line, yet the information they need is scattered across thousands of school websites and stat pages. Tosch.ai brings it together in one place. The platform pulls team, player, roster and coaching data from roughly 2,000 colleges across 13 sports, going back to 2021, and uses AI so athletes, families, coaches, athletic directors and agents can compare programs side by side. Founded by Shawne Robinson, Tosch.ai is building what it calls a Bloomberg for college sports. Welcome to the portfolio. tosch.ai #LvlUpVentures #SportsTech #AI #Startups

Steven Howell used to walk the beaches of Santa Monica and see plastic everywhere. A single plastic bottle can sit in a landfill or in the environment for centuries. So he decided to make one that doesn't. He started Whatrr in Los Angeles in 2023 with a simple idea: a bottle of spring water that breaks down in a landfill instead of outliving everyone who drank from it. It caught on quickly. In its first year, Whatrr won the SoCal Startup Day pitch competition. The next year, it landed on the shelves at Erewhon. Since then, it has grown to more than 100 stores. And every case sold has helped fund something real: a turtle sanctuary and a school in Indonesia, forest recovery in India, a new home in Mexico and beach cleanups in California. The next bottle is already on the way. Whatrr's new blue bottle breaks down even faster, and it breaks down in the ocean too. Steven isn't just selling water. He's pushing back against the million plastic bottles the world buys every minute. Here's what he has to say about building with LvlUp Ventures in his corner: "With LvlUp, I have real operators who care about Whatrr succeeding. We have monthly calls, and I can always get time on someone's calendar for advice or an introduction. In the age of AI, relationships still matter most, and that's what LvlUp brings." Before the accelerator, there's Labs CPG. Whatrr's journey with LvlUp CPG shows what's possible, and if you're just getting started, our free, equity-free community is the first step. Apply here: airtable.com/appHH0nL1iTh7pT… #LvlUpCPG #FounderSpotlight #CPGFund #Sustainability

Two days to go: Company Building Series, Building the AI-Native Company, in partnership with Zoom. The most efficient early-stage teams aren't hiring their way through every bottleneck anymore. On Friday, October 30, we're hosting a 30-minute virtual session on how they run with AI and automation instead. We'll cover: What "AI-native" actually means at the early stage Live walkthroughs of real workflows, start to finish Which of your own workflows you can automate right away A first look at ZoomMate, Zoom's new agentic AI work surface You'll leave with a map of AI workflows your team can adopt now, automation ideas for your biggest time sinks, and a simple framework for deciding when a role needs a person and when a workflow can carry it. Friday, October 30 · 11:00 to 11:30 AM ET · Virtual Register: events.lvlup.vc/company-buil… #LvlUpVentures #Zoom #AI #Founders

A lot of founders don't realize how much of their company they've sold until their first priced round. The reason is usually the SAFE stack. Most early rounds today use post-money SAFEs. A post-money SAFE locks in the investor's ownership based on the valuation cap. Put in $500K on a $5M post-money cap, and that investor will own 10% when the SAFE converts. The part that surprises people is what happens next. If you raise another $500K on an $8M cap, that new investor owns 6.25%, and the first investor still owns 10%. Each new SAFE doesn't dilute the earlier SAFE holders. It dilutes you. So two SAFEs that each felt small can add up to more than 16% before a priced round. Then the seed or Series A often adds a new option pool, which in most term sheets comes out of the pre-money valuation, meaning existing shareholders, mostly founders, absorb that too. None of this means SAFEs are bad. They're fast, cheap and founder-friendly in a lot of ways. But they're easy to stack without keeping score. A few habits that help: Model your cap table after every SAFE, not just before the priced round. Track total dilution across all your SAFEs, not each one on its own. Ask early how a future option pool will be sized and where it will come from. The best time to understand your dilution is before you sign, not after. #LvlUpVentures #VentureCapital #Founders #Fundraising

Congratulations to DOSE on a big few months. DOSE is an app for adults and young people with ADHD, built for the moments that are hardest to get through: starting a task you've been avoiding, managing an overwhelming day, or working through an intense emotion. Since we invested, DOSE placed in the top 5 of our Zendesk CX Challenge in July, then took first place at the Stanford GSB LISA Pitchfest in September. Dr. Olivia Skalski, a licensed psychologist, joined as Chief Clinical Officer, and the team launched three new products, including a medication tracker built on official FDA label data. DOSE is profitable, with $21K in monthly recurring revenue and about $189K in annual run-rate, all done without paid advertising. Congratulations to Steev and the DOSE team. getdose.app #LvlUpVentures #ADHD #DigitalHealth #Startups

Two and a half weeks out, and LvlUp Demo Day & Holiday Cocktail Hour is coming together. On Thursday, November 12, we're closing out the year in El Segundo. The brands graduating from our 10-week CPG accelerator will pitch live, their products will be out to taste, and then we'll open the floor for a holiday cocktail hour with our full CPG and tech community. Expect investors, retail buyers, distributors, operators and tech founders from across the LvlUp ecosystem, all in one room. Doors open at 6:00 PM PT. Not in LA? Join the livestream at 6:45 PM PT. Register: lvlup.vc/la-demo-day #LvlUpVentures #DemoDay #CPG #LosAngeles

We're pleased to share an update on GearBrain, a First Check Fund and Marketing Edge portfolio company. GearBrain helps consumers and businesses understand which connected-home devices work together. Its patented compatibility engine powers GearBrain Assistant, an AI product that retailers, manufacturers and service providers can license for their own customers. Since GearBrain applied to LvlUp, monthly revenue has grown almost triple. This year the company signed and implemented an enterprise agreement with Resideo, and GearBrain.com reached more than 550K users over the past 12 months. As AI assistants take on a bigger role in the home, we believe reliable cross-brand device data will become increasingly valuable. gearbrain.com #LvlUpVentures #FirstCheckFund #SmartHome #AI

Most early-stage founders treat email as an afterthought. The best ones use it to win customers and keep investors close. On October 26, LvlUp Ventures and Campaigner are hosting a free virtual session for US-based founders: Company Building Series, Email as Your Growth Engine. You'll leave with: ✉️ A go-to-market campaign built during the session and ready to send 📊 An investor update template that actually gets replies 📰 A newsletter plan built to grow your audience ⚙️ A working Campaigner account that runs all three No marketing background needed. To join, activate your Campaigner free trial and register at the link below. 📅 Monday, October 26 · Virtual · Free for founders Register: events.lvlup.vc/company-buil… #LvlUpVentures #LvlUp #Campaigner #EmailMarketing #Founders #Startups

LvlUp Demo Day & Holiday Cocktail Hour is three weeks away. On Thursday, November 12, we're closing out the year in El Segundo with live pitches from the brands graduating from our 10-week CPG accelerator, followed by a holiday cocktail hour. Guests can try the products, then stay for drinks with investors, retail buyers, distributors, operators and tech founders from across the LvlUp ecosystem. The cocktail hour is open to everyone, whatever industry you're in, so feel free to bring a friend. Doors open at 6:00 PM PT. If you can't make it to LA, the livestream starts at 6:45 PM PT. Register: lvlup.vc/la-demo-day #LvlUpVentures #DemoDay #CPG #LosAngeles

We're happy to share an update on Diva'Me, a portfolio company in the LvlUp CPG Fund. Founded by Nadine Audi and Prashant Prahlad, Diva'Me designs period underwear, swimwear and activewear for women aged 12 to 49, and positions it as everyday clothing rather than a hygiene product. Monthly revenue has grown from about $13K in April to $50K today, and Q3 revenue was more than 40 times higher than the same quarter last year. That growth has come entirely from the UAE, without paid advertising, and about a quarter of customers have purchased more than once. This quarter the company also signed a partnership with Emirates and registered its trademark in the U.S. ahead of launching there. idivame.com #LvlUpVentures #CPGFund #FemTech #ConsumerBrands

Power of the Pitch Week has wrapped. Over five days, 125 companies pitched to our investor panel across AI, B2B, Consumer Tech & CPG and Emerging Companies. Congratulations to the three highest-scoring companies of the week: 1st: Marqea, an AI CMO for small businesses that audits, plans and runs marketing across six channels 2nd: Native Labs, an operating system for AI-run companies, with agents that plan, sell, build and ship alongside one founder 3rd: The Good AI Company, which helps African enterprises adopt AI, built and maintained under one stack Thank you to every founder who applied and pitched, to our judges, and to everyone who joined us online. Apply to pitch at our next Power of the Pitch Week here: lvlup.vc/apply/funding-appli… #LvlUpVentures #PowerOfThePitch #VentureCapital #Startups

When Arslan Ahmad first applied to LvlUp in May 2026, 3DIO had almost no revenue. The company has since grown to more than $300K in ARR. 3DIO helps companies create production-ready 3D assets from images, video and text, for use in games, XR, rendering and e-commerce. It recently launched an API that lets other platforms build 3DIO's generation into their own products, and this quarter it agreed a $200K engagement with a U.S. enterprise rendering customer. As 3D generation becomes more widely available, we believe the value will sit with companies that integrate it into real production workflows. That has been the team's focus from the start. We invested in 3DIO through the LvlUp Marketing Edge Accelerator, and we're glad to be supporting Arslan and the team. ai3dscanning.com #LvlUpVentures #AI #3D #Startups

Power of the Pitch Week ended the way it started: with founders building in places most investors aren't looking yet. Emerging Companies Day, Part 2 brought another round of early teams to pitch live to our investor panel. Your Part 2 winners: 🥇 SuperQueen AI, a women-focused intelligence platform that brings together safety, travel, health and personal AI assistance to help women understand risks before they act 🥈 FOLĒR, a device that measures the scalp directly (follicle imaging, sebum, blood flow) so people treating hair loss can see whether it's working 🥉 Arboresque, an operating system for nature-based carbon projects, from feasibility to AI satellite monitoring to registry-ready reports Congratulations to all three, and thank you to every founder who pitched across five days. Overall results are coming tomorrow. #LvlUpVentures #PowerOfThePitch #EmergingTech #Founders #Startups

Almost six weeks ago, we opened applications for brands to nominate themselves for our first Top 100 CPG Brands to Watch list. We split it in half: 50 Food & Beverage brands and 50 Skincare & Beauty brands. We read every submission. Then we added a few companies from our own portfolio, plus some we've had on our radar for a while. The result is a list of founders moving faster than their categories usually allow. The full ranking is out today. Here's a quick snapshot of the top 5 in each category: Food & Beverage #1 ☕ Laurel's Coffee: A2 dairy lattes that went from launch to 1,800 Target stores in two years #2 ⚡ Neutonic: 7.5M cans sold and a $60M valuation in under three years #3 🍬 Behave: low-sugar candy that sold out on TikTok Shop and landed in ~2,000 Target stores #4 🍺 Bero: Tom Holland's non-alcoholic beer, now on Target endcaps and in the UK #5 🥗 TOSS: two sisters reinventing the dressing aisle, already in Harrods and Selfridges Skincare & Beauty #1 😴 Sleep or Die: sleep strips with zero lavender and a lot of personality #2 💇🏾‍♀️ Ruka Hair: textured hair extensions built on their own patent-pending fiber #3 🫧 Element Eight: oxygen skincare from spine-surgery tech, sold on three continents #4 🥾 Frasé Skin: skincare for "men in boots, not men in suits," built from a regional Australian town #5 🧴 Apostle: a men's tinted moisturizer in 12 shades named after Jamaican towns, already at Ulta Congrats to every founder on the list, and thank you to everyone who applied. The other 90 brands are in the full list: lvlup.vc/post/the-lvlup-cpg-… Building a consumer brand with early traction? Start with Labs CPG, our self-paced program for early-stage brands. You get masterclasses, office hours with the LvlUp team, and discounts on tools for marketing, accounting, banking and shipping. Go at your own pace on a clear path toward LvlUp investment! 🔗 Apply now: lvlup.vc/lvlup-labs-cpg #LvlUpVentures #LvlUp #CPG #ConsumerBrands #FoodAndBeverage #Beauty