First Launch Capital Fund, a pre-seed/seed-stage venture capital fund headquartered in Greensboro, recently closed investments in two Winston-Salem-based companies.
First Launch is investing in Proodos, Inc. and Unbox the Dress, both of which recently relocated to Winston-Salem.
Proodos, the fund’s fourth investment, is a people-oriented project management technology that improves project efficiency by identifying gaps in talent management, skills and communication, then managing them by leveraging predictive analytics. The company’s models adapt to the people in the enterprise by accounting for their skills, work style preferences, and prior work performance to provide tailored predictive analytics that help reduce project management costs.
The company was founded in 2019.
“As a business that moved from Atlanta to the Triad region we are honored to have the support of the fund and to be a part of this emerging startup ecosystem, ” said Proodos President and CEO Josh Pendalwar.
In September 2020, Triad Business Journal reported brothers Josh and Akhil Pendalwar developed and were managing the Proodos app, along with social media platform Firefeed, in their spare time for no money and with no outside capital. They moved to the Triad, they said, because they recognized opportunities in the growth of the tech community here.
“People are the backbone of every great organization, but the software they use is painfully inefficient at identifying and mitigating risk,” said Nathan Powell, FLCF board advisor to Proodos. “By delivering people-oriented project management solutions that help organizations spot risks early, avoid project failure, and save money,”
Unbox the Dress, FLCF’s fifth investment, is the first online service providing brides the opportunity to outsource care and storage of their wedding dress while also offering the ability to repurpose the garment into new family heirlooms and gifts.
The company recently relocated from Ohio to take advantage of the region’s garment manufacturing expertise and skilled workforce.
“I am beyond thrilled to partner with First Launch Capital Fund,” said Unbox the Dress founder and CEO Grace Rojek. “Our values strongly align, and having their vote of confidence in our vision has made a major impact on our fundraising efforts. Their due diligence process created confidence among our other participants in the round.”
“Unbox the Dress is exactly the type of business we expected to find when FLCF was created,” said Clifford Thompson, FLCF board advisor to Unbox the Dress. “They are taking advantage of our region’s trained workforce and the guidance of Winston Starts, and we are delighted to have played a role in this development.”
