Backstage Capital

Backstage Capital is a venture capital fund based in Los Angeles, California, dedicated to investing in startups led by underrepresented founders in the United States. Established in November 2015, the fund primarily focuses on pre-seed and seed stage companies, providing investments ranging from $25,000 to $100,000. Backstage Capital aims to support diverse entrepreneurs who demonstrate exceptional potential, addressing the disparities in access to capital that many founders face. Through its targeted investments, Backstage Capital seeks to foster innovation and promote inclusivity within the startup ecosystem.

Rob Majteles

Investor

Past deals in Los Angeles, CA

Mahmee

Series A in 2022
Mahmee is a care management platform focused on enhancing maternal and child healthcare. The company aims to bridge critical gaps in maternal health by connecting patients with healthcare providers through a comprehensive system that integrates health records for mothers and infants. This platform identifies clinical risks and facilitates collaboration among maternity and infant care practitioners, ensuring that physicians and specialists can share care plans effectively. Founded on the principle that every woman deserves compassionate and respectful support during new motherhood, Mahmee strives to provide ongoing professional assistance to mothers, enabling them to thrive in their parenting journey while promoting the healthy development of their infants in the first year of life.

ROOMBUS

Pre Seed Round in 2021
We're rethinking what "Home" is and happily diverging from the 100-year-old ideology of what it should be. With human-centered design, precision engineering and IoT, we're creating elegant (yet affordable) smart homes that are healthy and happy spaces to live, work and play. We build modular smart homes with fully integrated kitchen appliances and embedded IoT sensors for home automation. Our smart homes are Earthquake Resistant, Hurricane-Proof and Fire-Resistant. Our Smart Homes have an operating system called RoomOS. This system can also be deployed to multifamily dwellings, hotels and other multi-room installations. Our approach: Modern homes are a piece of hardware integrated with components to promote health, safety, comfort and happiness.

ROOMBUS

Pre Seed Round in 2021
We're rethinking what "Home" is and happily diverging from the 100-year-old ideology of what it should be. With human-centered design, precision engineering and IoT, we're creating elegant (yet affordable) smart homes that are healthy and happy spaces to live, work and play. We build modular smart homes with fully integrated kitchen appliances and embedded IoT sensors for home automation. Our smart homes are Earthquake Resistant, Hurricane-Proof and Fire-Resistant. Our Smart Homes have an operating system called RoomOS. This system can also be deployed to multifamily dwellings, hotels and other multi-room installations. Our approach: Modern homes are a piece of hardware integrated with components to promote health, safety, comfort and happiness.

West Tenth

Seed Round in 2021
Discover local, home-based talent in your town and beyond on the West Tenth app. West Tenth is an all-in-one marketplace, connecting consumers with custom services and goods in their own community. Scroll through the storefronts in our digital Main Street to find incredible independent talent, organized by distance from you. West Tenth connects you with local makers and doers who love to collaborate with you to provide just what you need. When you’re transacting with small, home-based businesses, anything is possible! Need a custom-decorated birthday cake? A personal trainer who will come to your house? Design or marketing work for your business? West Tenth is the place to find all that and so much more.

SUMA, LLC

Seed Round in 2020
SUMA, LLC is a financial wellness company based in Los Angeles, California, founded in 2019. The company focuses on promoting financial inclusion within the Latino community by providing a comprehensive platform that combines digital media, financial technology, and virtual experiences. SUMA aims to educate and empower individuals by offering culturally relevant content and tools that simplify complex topics such as investment and debt management. Its mission is to help Latinos navigate financial challenges, enhance their economic knowledge, and build sustainable wealth, ultimately positioning itself as a trusted resource for fostering financial well-being and prosperity.

Kiira Health

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Kiira Health is an advanced AI care coordinator and women's health clinic for young women. Kiira is connecting users to trusted health experts including primary care providers, ObGyn's, nurse practitioners, mental health experts and more via phone, chat, and video. Kiira is available 24/7, 365 days a year.

Lorals

Funding Round in 2019
Lorals is a consumer goods company that specializes in sexual wellness, condoms, and women's health. It features silky latex panties that provide comfort and pleasure during oral sex its designed for protection against STD transmission while being sexy enough for a photo spread in Playboy.

Float

Seed Round in 2019
Float is a mobile-first financial service that helps young consumers access, manage, and proactively build credit. We offer thin-file consumers instant access to an affordable line of credit, direct from any smartphone, no FICO required.

Avisare

Seed Round in 2017
Avisare is a universal supplier management portal connecting large corporations with small and mid-sized businesses for pre-vetting and RFP opportunities. We offer suppliers a centralized database to keep their company information updated, and provide the most robust platform to make sourcing a turnkey process.

Flora

Seed Round in 2017
Flora operates within the technology sector, focusing on health and wellness specifically for individuals aged 16 to 25. Based in Los Angeles, California, the company aims to make mindfulness enjoyable and accessible. Flora offers tools for users to manage their daily wellness through participation in challenges designed to promote personal growth and community engagement. Users can connect with like-minded individuals, fostering a supportive environment for wellness journeys. Additionally, Flora incorporates a rewards system, allowing users to earn coins for their participation, which can be exchanged for various prizes and incentives.

Thesis Couture

Seed Round in 2017
Thesis Couture is a global fashion footwear company that focuses on reinventing the stiletto. The company uses structural engineering principles, advanced material science, and a keen focus on human factors in creating internal architecture of its products. Thesis Couture’s team includes professionals and luminaries across fashion, technology, and anatomy to create new standards in women’s high heels. The design and materials used in its products improve load distribution across the foot, impact shock, and kinematics. Thesis Couture was founded in 2013 by Dolly Singh and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

Mahmee

Seed Round in 2017
Mahmee is a care management platform focused on enhancing maternal and child healthcare. The company aims to bridge critical gaps in maternal health by connecting patients with healthcare providers through a comprehensive system that integrates health records for mothers and infants. This platform identifies clinical risks and facilitates collaboration among maternity and infant care practitioners, ensuring that physicians and specialists can share care plans effectively. Founded on the principle that every woman deserves compassionate and respectful support during new motherhood, Mahmee strives to provide ongoing professional assistance to mothers, enabling them to thrive in their parenting journey while promoting the healthy development of their infants in the first year of life.

NailSnaps

Seed Round in 2017
NailSnaps aims to bring personal creativity back to nail art with custom nail wraps, letting your nails become a gallery for wearable art. Founders Angel Anderson and Sarah Heering combined their expertise in UX and media to address the growing demand for personalized nail art in the 8.5 billion dollar nail art industry. While expanding the mobile/social community of NailSnaps users, the company sells direct to consumer via the free NailSnaps mobile app. Within days of launching, NailSnaps was added to the App Store's Best New Apps list and appeared on the Today Show as one of the best gadgets of 2015. See more at: https://www.nailsnaps.com/press

Fitr Technologies, Inc

Convertible Note in 2017
Fitr. Is a fashion-focused social marketplace that only returns search results that match the user’s measurements. And those results can be filtered even further by brand, price, color, etc.

Frequency Machine

Seed Round in 2017
Frequency Machine Studios operates as an audio storytelling company. It creates podcasts and narrative audio shows. It also creates a travel wing: FM Travel, which produces cinematic, narrative audio shows made for travelers, tourists, nomads, etc. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in Los Angeles, California.

Revry, Inc.

Seed Round in 2017
Revry, Inc. operates a digital media network that streams a diverse array of entertainment content specifically created for queer and allied audiences. Founded in 2016 and based in Glendale, California, the platform offers films, television series, podcasts, music albums, and original productions, all accessible via web and mobile devices. Revry highlights the best of queer culture and voices globally and is available in over 250 million homes and devices through various OTT, mobile, and online platforms, including Samsung TV Plus, The Roku Channel, and Comcast Xfinity X1. The company is led by a diverse founding team with extensive experience in technology, digital media, and LGBTQ+ advocacy, reflecting its commitment to representing queer perspectives in entertainment.

Seed&Spark

Seed Round in 2016
Seed&Spark is an entertainment platform for conscious consumers. Synthesizing subscription streaming with the next evolution of crowdfunding, Seed&Spark delivers truly diverse content for audiences and sustainability for artists. Seed&Spark is built to address the business problems in entertainment that cause the social problem of lack of diversity and representation. Their subscribers not only get to watch an award-winning slate of movies and shows they can't find anywhere else, they also get to vote to fund a new project each month. All the movies and shows on Seed&Spark are actively increasing representation in front of and behind the camera.