We're looking for startups shaping the future of cities.
This framework guides our strategy, ensuring we have a holistic view of what communities need to thrive.
$ 212M in assets under management
100% woman-owned firm
71 portfolio companies
3 flagship funds over the last nine years
$ 5.3B in enterprise value created $ 1.3B in capital raised
The Urban Innovation Fund is proud to play a role in pushing the industry to be more inclusive. Because good ideas can come from anywhere and anyone. Currently, 75% of our portfolio companies have a woman or person of color on the founding team. And 59% of our portfolio companies have immigrant founders. Our goal is to continue sourcing a strong and highly diverse portfolio.
Our portfolio companies are headquartered in 30 cities, 14 US states, and eight countries.
We invest in startups across the globe. Our focus is on companies either based in North America or those that view North America as their core initial target market.
The percentage of startup pitches we're seeing from SF Bay Area founders has doubled in the last year.
Many of the most highly valued private and public tech companies operate in regulated or politicized spaces — think: Uber, Palantir, and Airbnb.
At the Urban Innovation Fund, managing for regulatory complexity is a core competency and a competitive advantage in both sourcing and advising portfolio companies.
Our team regularly reflects on regulatory tailwinds that can inform investment decisions. Below are some tailwinds that have captured our team’s imagination this past year and informed some of our most exciting new investments.
Both the political right (exemplified by the new Department of Government Efficiency) and the left (exemplified by the Abundance movement) are embracing efforts to streamline government operations. These efforts have been turbocharged by artificial intelligence (AI) tools that can finally tackle complex, unstructured government workflows and datasets.
A recent investment that speaks to our interest in this area is Civic IQ. The company is building the Bloomberg for government data. It uses AI to aggregate municipal, county, and school data. It delivers market intelligence for any company that sells to governments or school districts.
Building new infrastructure is complex. New technologies like AI (coupled with widespread political dissatisfaction) have the potential to deliver efficiency gains that could reshape how we design, build, and maintain the infrastructure that defines modern life.
A recent investment that tracks with this trend is Monterra. The company is building the design and sales platform for the built world, starting with electrical contracting.
Digital technologies and e-commerce platforms have made it possible for businesses of all sizes to reach customers, hire employees, and source materials from around the world. But this opportunity comes with incredible regulatory and operational complexity. The Urban Innovation Fund has built a strong track record of sourcing startups building the rails, tools, and workarounds that make this kind of cross-border commerce possible.
A recent investment that drafts off of this trend is Commenda, which facilitates cross-border tax compliance. The company delivers incorporation and entity management, compliance monitoring, tax filings, and tax optimization – all from a single AI-driven platform.
Overview of our investment strategy by theme, along with some portfolio examples.
Exante, Sent, Popl
Energy
Solarcycle, Ohm, Optiwatt
Proptech
Monterra, Bundle, Builders Patch
Health Cleancard, Ferrum, Plenna
Fintech
Ethic, Jeeves, Allocate
Transportation
Electriphi, Joyride, Route Reports
Regulatory Tech Commenda, Dataships, Variance
Govtech Infilla, Civic IQ
Edtech BookNook, Avela
At the Urban Innovation Fund, we invest in the markets that are to modern life...
...because
On the following pages, we’ve provided examples of the kinds of companies we back. Some of these companies are brand new to the portfolio, and some are later stage companies that have broken out.
Bringing innovation and efficiency to sectors like energy, transportation, and real estate.
Electriphi is building a software solution for electric vehicle fleets. It offers customers seamless charging & energy management tools.
1.5 yrs
The time between the Urban Innovation Fund leading Electriphi’s Seed round and the company being acquired by Ford.
Electriphi was acquired by Ford 1.5 years after the Urban Innovation Fund led its Seed round. It now serves as the backbone of the Ford Pro fleet management offering.
“Electriphi is at the intersection of mobility, energy, and enterprise software. And there are very few investors who understand the complexities of how all of these things interact and play with each other. We love working with the Urban Innovation team because they understand these spaces and they know what it takes to win in each of these segments.”
Muffi Ghadiali Electriphi co-founder & CEO
Infilla is building modern permitting software for city building and planning departments. The company’s vision of building a unified system of record for city planning could fundamentally transform housing and infrastructure development. Infilla’s customers include San Francisco Planning, the New York City Department of Buildings, Permit Sonoma, Richmond, and El Segundo, among others.
$50B+
The permitting process is a $50B+ national bottleneck that slows down housing and infrastructure development.5
The Urban Innovation Fund invested in the company’s Seed round.
“The Urban Innovation Fund has been among the most supportive and proactive investors with valuable introductions, helpful perspective, understanding of both the government and real estate space, and founder empathy. I feel lucky to have Clara and Julie as part of the Infilla team to meet our mission of making more housing happen faster!”
Jenny Song Infilla founder & CEO
Solarcycle recycles and repurposes solar panels. By recycling end-of-life solar panels, inverters, and battery packs, it can extract valuable metals such as silver, aluminum, and solar glass for resale. Today, over 90% of old solar panels end up in landfill. Solarcycle is changing this by creating a circular economy for the solar industry.
Solarcycle extracts 95% of the value in a solar panel and returns it to the supply chain.
The Urban Innovation Fund led Solarcycle’s Seed round and backed it through every funding round, including its $35M Series B from Fifth Wall, Heritage Group, Microsoft & Prologis.
“The Urban Innovation Fund walks the walk when it comes to regulatory value add. They helped us identify and secure a $64M Federal tax credit—this is a game changer for us.”
Jesse Simons Solarcycle co-founder & CCO
Driving major advances in health, education, and public safety.
Cleancard is innovating at the intersection of synthetic biology and artificial intelligence to make cancer detection as easy as a pregnancy test. The firm is working on bringing lab-grade diagnostics and biomarker tracking into every patient’s home.
Cleancard’s 30-minute noninvasive test enables patients to monitor their health at home, on demand.
The Urban Innovation Fund led Cleancard’s Seed round and backed it through every funding round, including its recent $18M Series A from TQ Ventures and Y Combinator.
“Since investing with us, the Urban Innovation Fund team has been super helpful. They move quickly and have repeatedly facilitated catalytic introductions that have helped us move faster. The whole team has integrity, and we trust them as thought partners. The Urban Innovation Fund is building a generational VC firm and we recommend partnering with them to all our founder friends.”
Luca Springer Cleancard co-founder & CEO
Ferrum is a clinical AI governance platform. It gives customers a single system to deploy, manage, and monitor AI in healthcare settings — without creating compliance gaps, integration overhead, or data risk.
77% more cancer detected at the early stage using Ferrum.
23%
23% higher survival rate of cancer patients using Ferrum.
The Urban Innovation Fund co-led Ferrum’s Seed round and invested in its recent $16M Series A from Foundry Group.
“The Urban Innovation Fund team always comes prepared to board meetings, they are our confidants during difficult decisions, and they are the biggest cheerleaders for our company’s successes. We recently closed our Series A, and the Urban Innovation team provided valuable feedback throughout the process and was relentless in telling our story to potential Series A investors — they even ultimately sourced our lead investor!”
Pelu Tran Ferrum co-founder & CEO
Building better rails for regulatory compliance, government service delivery, financial services, and small business operations.
Ethic is a sustainable, tech-driven asset management platform with over $ 7 B in assets. It partners with over 250 institutional clients to reimagine their investment experience.
$64M
$64M Series D led by State Street.
83K
Ethic has supported shareholder engagement by voting on 83K+ proxy proposals on behalf of its clients.
400K
Ethic has helped its clients reduce the carbon footprint of their investment portfolios by nearly 400K metric tons.
$7B+
Over $7B in assets under management.
The Urban Innovation Fund invested in Ethic’s Seed round and has continued investing in every round through its $50M Series C. In 2025, Ethic announced its $64M Series D led by State Street.
“The Urban Innovation Fund team have been terrific partners since the early days of Ethic. In particular, they’ve been tremendously helpful in supporting the growth of our community of institutional investors and advisors, as well as being great thought partners as we continue to expand our offering. Julie and Clara are also amazing people and a joy to work with.”
Doug Scott Ethic co-founder & CEO
Commenda is building the system-of record for cross-border companies. The firm provides incorporation and entity management, compliance monitoring, tax filings, and tax optimization — all from a single AI-driven platform.
26
Commenda currently covers 26 countries.
350+
Over 350 businesses trust Commenda to expand across borders, navigate complex taxes, and stay compliant — wherever growth takes them.
50M
Businesses have no easy way to operate internationally, yet 50M companies are cross-border.
The Urban Innovation Fund invested in Commenda’s Seed round and co-led its Seed II round.
“Clara and the team at UIF had the conviction to invest multiple times in Commenda when the market was otherwise looking the other way. Since working with the team, they have helped us 4x our ARR in the first year working together. They have stepped in at times when I needed support, always flexible on what the business needs, and firm on what I needed to hear.
Spencer Schneier Commenda co-founder & CEO
Allocate is the private markets platform that empowers wealth advisors and family offices to build and manage highquality portfolios — through intelligent curation, tracking, and personalized infrastructure. The firm brings transparency to an otherwise opaque industry, and has excelled at highlighting emerging and diverse managers.
$30M
$30M Series B led by Portage Ventures.
2.8K
Allocate has over 2.8K platform users.
300
Allocate has over 300 wealth advisory firm customers.
$2.5B
Allocate has over $2.5B in assets under management.
The Urban Innovation Fund invested in Allocate’s Seed and Series A rounds. In 2025, Allocate announced its $30M Series B from Portage and A16Z.
“Urban Innovation was the largest investor in our seed round, and Julie and Clara have been the perfect balance of supportive partners and effective truthtellers, always pushing our thinking in ways that lead to better outcomes. The Urban Innovation Fund has gone well beyond what you would expect from a seed investor, and most importantly, they always do what they say they will, which is a rare quality in our industry.”
Samir Kaji Allocate co-founder & CEO
Jeeves is an all-in-one financial platform built to empower businesses in over 30 countries with efficient, cost-effective global payment solutions. The firm helps its customers issue corporate cards, pay local and international bills and vendors, and manage expenses in real time with smart controls.
$265M
$265M raised in equity funding to date.
30
Jeeves services businesses in over 30 markets worldwide, including Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, the US, Canada, the UK, and the EU.
40
Jeeves simplifes accounts payable with fast, automated bill payments and global transactions in up to 40 currencies.
$6B+
Jeeves has moved over $6B in global money to date.
The Urban Innovation Fund led Jeeves’ Seed round and has continued investing in every round through its $180M Series C from Tencent, A16Z, and CRV.
“The Urban Innovation Fund was the largest check in our seed round. They’ve had the conviction on what we’re building since day one. They’ve been very helpful both in terms of intros for companies that are looking to onboard on Jeeves, but also thinking through some of the strategic components of how do you build out a company, how do you get from Series Seed to Series A, and so forth. And they’re all just really good people.”
Dileep Thazhmon Jeeves co-founder & CEO
Sent is a unified API for messaging across SMS and apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. It gives growing companies plug-and-play access to modern, programmable messaging without needing to manage telecom relationships, complex APIs, or channelspecific technical specifications.
33%
Sent is growing its customer base 33% month-over-month.
80%
By dynamically routing messages over lower-cost channels instead of SMS, Sent reduces messaging spend by up to 80% without impacting deliverability.
The Urban Innovation Fund invested in Sent’s recent Seed round.
“Everyone on the Sent team absolutely loves working with Urban Innovation Fund. They've been stellar partners from day one and are uniquely proactive and solution-oriented in their support – whether that's thinking through product strategy, making intros to customers and other investors, or helping us navigate the FCC. Most of all, they're truly awesome people who we can always rely on as a sounding board for advice or to just listen when challenges come up.”
Daniel Vataj Sent co-founder & CEO
the world better for people and our planet by 2030.
6
While the Urban Innovation Fund portfolio companies do not officially report their SDG-related performance, we believe that many of our companies are working on problems that align with the SDGs. 7
Ethic Cleancard, ClimateWells, Ethic, Ferrum, Plenna, Route Reports
Ethic
Chemix, ClimateWells, Electriphi, Ethic, Monterra, Ohm, Optiwatt, Public Grid, Solarcycle
Builders Patch, ClimateWells, Ethic, Infilla, Monterra, Route Reports
Ethic, Solarcycle
Avela, BookNook, codeSpark, Ethic, Listening, TestParty
Bundle, Ethic, Infilla, Jeeves, Monterra, Route Reports
Ethic, TestParty
1. “Annual Equity Report 2024,” Carta. December 17, 2024: https://carta. com/data/equity-report-2024
2. “Annual Equity Report 2024,” Carta. December 17, 2024: https://carta. com/data/equity-report-2024
3. “All In: Female Founders in the VC Ecosystem,” Pitchbook. March 5, 2025: https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/2024-us-all-in-femalefounders-in-the-vc-ecosystem
4. A “founding team” member is someone with a founder or C-level title before the company raises a Series A
5. “Reforming Permitting Requirements to Lower the Cost of Building New Housing and Increase Housing Affordability,” The White House: https:// bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/cea/written-materials/2024/08/13/ reforming-permitting-requirements-to-lower-thecost-of-building-newhousing-and-increase-housing-affordability
6. United Nations, “The 17 Goals.” July 13, 2025: https://sdgs.un.org/goals
7. The Urban Innovation Fund only tracks and reports on active companies here
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