Rafter Pre-Seed Round: AI-Powered Home Management Platform | National Distribution Partnerships | Webinar Friday 11/13 at 12pm ET
Notable founding team and very impressive commercial traction for a company at this stage.
Red Bear Ventures Community:
We are writing with an investment opportunity in Rafter's $550K pre-seed round, a SAFE with a $12.5M pre-money cap. RBV has been given a $200,000 allocation. The round closes at 5pm ET on Friday November 20th. Rafter's deck is here:
https://docsend.com/view/ugf7fzd2dh6fkeae
Rafter offers an AI-powered home management platform to help homeowners track major home systems, stay ahead of maintenance, and coordinate service providers. The company distributes its platform through national partnerships with insurance companies, employee benefits providers, wealth management consultants, and others.
The co-founders are Cornell alumni with impressive operating pedigrees: Anil Nathan (Air Force Captain, McKinsey Associate Partner, General Manager of Aviation at Uber) and Marcus Cohn (co-founder of Zimride, the precursor to Lyft; VP of Growth at 2U through its IPO).
In the insurance channel, Rafter receives a platform fee from the insurance carrier plus an annual fee per home. Rafter has a signed master agreement with a leading high-net-worth carrier, with a paid pilot slated to start this quarter. Separately, a top-five national insurance carrier has agreed to pilot pricing for approximately 50,000 homes, with a 500,000-home national minimum in the contract structure.
In the employee benefits channel, Rafter is paid by either the employer or the employee. Several national providers have either signed or are in the contract approval process, including one that serves 10 million employees and another that covers 20 million employees.
Prior investors include Logan Green (co-founder, Lyft), Barry Nalebuff (co-founder, Honest Tea), and Matt Banholzer (senior partner, McKinsey). Participants in this round include Hitchhiker Ventures, Colin Higgins (founder, Summitry Wealth Management), and Sarfraz Maredia (formerly Global Head of Autonomous Mobility & Delivery at Uber).
RBV’s one-page returns analysis (MOIC and IRR) is here.
We are excited about Rafter for several reasons:
An experienced founding team with strong operating backgrounds.
Significant go-to-market traction for a pre-seed-stage company.
Noteworthy investors including many who have worked with the founders.
Industry expert signals: the CEO and Chief Growth Officer of a leading high-net-worth carrier are personal members. Testimonial from the head of innovation at a large national carrier: “We have evaluated multiple potential partners and Rafter is far and away the most advanced platform.”
RBV co-founder Gus Warren has tested the service for the past 60 days and has been very impressed by both the responsiveness of the platform and how seamlessly it manages home projects end-to-end.
We will host a webinar with Anil and Marcus on Friday, November 13th at 12pm ET. Investment link to follow. Minimum investment $1,000, maximum $200,000.
Please reply to join the webinar.
Thanks!
Dan and Gus
Red Bear Ventures is an independent organization wholly managed by its Managing Partners. It is neither affiliated with, nor endorsed by, Cornell University.
Red Bear Ventures is a service mark used under license from its owner, Red Bear Angels Management LLC, which operates the angel group, Red Bear Angels. Please see www.RBAngels.com for information.
This email is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Any investment is made solely through AngelList and the definitive documents of the applicable special purpose vehicle, and is available only to verified accredited investors. Private investments of this type are illiquid, highly speculative, and may result in the total loss of capital. Information about the company is provided by the company.
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