CreativeCo 2023 activity: 15 investments and 3 exits

CreativeCo, a growth equity studio based in Charlotte, is pleased to announce 15 investments in early-growth stage B2B software companies and 3 portfolio exits in 2023. CreativeCo has now invested in 37 companies since we started in March 2020.

Nine new companies joined our portfolio since our last blog post at the end of 2022. We started 2023 with investments in Atlanta-based Cloverly, a carbon offset platform, and Dallas-based Transitiv, a SaaS analytics and data solution for franchise brands. We then invested in two Charlotte-based early stage companies: Zinnia, an AI play for sales teams, and Foresight, a SaaS solution for managing the value prop in software companies. We then invested in New York-based BusRight, a SaaS platform for managing school bus operations, and Jacksonville-based UrbanSDK, a SaaS traffic data management business. We followed that with investments in Raleigh-based Arpio, a SaaS disaster recovery solution for cloud workloads, and Atlanta-based StartProto, a SaaS MRO/ERP platform for small to medium sized manufacturers. We most recently invested in Wyoming-based Mia Share, a SaaS + payments play in the trade school space.

We were also pleased to continue to support our portfolio with six follow on investments. We doubled our initial position in CivicEye to support CEO Khristian Gutierrez and the team’s continued progress. We leaned into Aiwyn with an $600k follow on investment in their Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, reflecting CEO Justin Adams and team’s momentum. We then invested an incremental $1.8M in DebtBook, adding to our top holding on our continued conviction we have with cofounders Tyler Traudt and Eric Pelletier and team there. In November, we added to our positions in Texas companies Krista Software and Apty. This week, we invested an incremental $600k in Pittsburgh-based IRA software upstart IRALogix.

Three portfolio companies were acquired this year. Seattle-based Fullcast, a SaaS platform for sales operations, sold to a rollup sponsor in this space. Atlanta-based Medxoom, a SaaS third party benefits administration platform, was acquired in a strategic deal by Allied Benefit Systems. Miami-based Aura Salonware, a platform for multi-location salons, was acquired by a leading SaaS + payments consolidator, demonstrating continued strong strategic interest in vertical SaaS + payments. We’ve now had 5 exits in total.

Given that we’re seeking a very specific spec of high growth and capital efficient B2B SaaS companies between $500k and $1.5M ARR, sourcing is the most important aspect of our business. While we’re quite active in the Southeast, we’re building our portfolio across the country as the pic below illustrates.

Early next year, we’ll be launching CreativeCo Fund III to build on the progress we’ve made in the early growth equity segment. This fund will allow us to write bigger checks and be more impactful for our portfolio.

We’re closing in on four years since we started CreativeCo. We very much appreciate everyone that works closely with us to make this all happen — our LPs, our management teams, our friendly firms, and our extended operational team. We wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and best of luck heading into 2024. (from left to right below— Christian Czentye, Ashley Gautreaux, Artem Orlov, and Travis Parsons)

CreativeCo portfolio companies

• Aiwyn — SaaS and payments for professional services firms
• Allstacks — SaaS for engineering team performance
• Apty — SaaS for digital adoption management
• Arpio — SaaS for cloud workload disaster recovery
• Aura Salonware — SaaS and payments for beauty salons (exited)
• BusRight — SaaS for school bus operations
• Case Status — SaaS for legal client automation
• CivicEye — SaaS for municipal law enforcement
• Cloverly — Platform for carbon credits
• Coginiti — Collaborative SQL editor for enterprises
• Dalia — SaaS for high volume recruiting automation
• DebtBook — SaaS for debt and lease management
• DriverReach — SaaS for driver recruitment and compliance
• Foresight — SaaS for software value proposition success
• Fullcast — SaaS for sales operations planning (exited)
• IRALogix — SaaS for IRA investment firms
• Krista — SaaS for AI-driven automation
• Leasecake — SaaS for location lease management
• Mia Share — SaaS and payments for trade schools
• Medxoom — SaaS for third party insurance administrators (exited)
• NVISIONx — enterprise data inventory and security platform
• OneRail — SaaS for same day delivery
• Pointivo — SaaS for autonomous asset inspection
• POS Nation — SaaS POS and payment processing (exited)
• Rabbu — platform for single family property investors
• Rent Ready — multi-family apartment turn management
• ReturnLogic — SaaS for e-commerce returns
• SingleOps — SaaS for landscaping businesses (exited)
• Social Studies — influencer marketing
• Speedscale — SaaS for Kubernetes software testing
• Spotio — SaaS for field sales teams
• StartProto — SaaS for manufacturing operations
• Tracks N Teeth — aftermarket construction equipment parts
• Transitiv — SaaS for franchise business intelligence
• UrbanSDK — SaaS for traffic data
• Ziflow — SaaS for collaborative content review and approval
• Zinnia — AI for sales teams