Refinery Ventures

Refinery Ventures is an early-stage venture firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio, established in 2017. The firm specializes in investing in sectors such as information technology, digital health, and human capital technology. It focuses on early scale companies, providing support and mentorship to teams transitioning from post-seed to Series A funding. Refinery Ventures manages a venture capital fund that targets investments in the United States and Canada, specifically in healthcare technology systems, SaaS, and enterprise software industries. The firm aims to invest in 10 to 12 startups, fostering growth and innovation within these sectors.

Joe Otto

Venture Partner

Stephen Rodriguez

Venture Partner

Timothy Schigel

Managing Partner

Todd Schwarzinger

Venture Partner

Adam Swick

Principal

16 past transactions

FRAYT

Series A in 2023
Frayt (Freight) is a on-demand, final mile delivery platform. Frayt in enables Businesses & Retailers to offer same hour delivery to their customers coast to coast. Frayt is the trusted delivery partner of Party City, Krogers, Sherwin Williams and many more.

Livegistics

Seed Round in 2022
Livegistics is a software company that provides construction and heavy hauling industries with cloud based logistical tracking technologies. The company allows the contractors to operate more efficiently, while also equipping owners/municipalities/construction managers with the real-time data and analytics. Livegistics was founded in 2017 by Darren Fish and Randy Bailey.

Titaniam

Seed Round in 2022
Titaniam provides enterprises and SaaS vendors with a full suite of data security/privacy controls in a single, enterprise-grade solution. This includes highly advanced options such as encryption-in-use that enables encrypted search and analytics without decryption, and also traditional controls such as tokenization, masking, various types of encryption, and anonymization. Titaniam also offers BYOK/HYOK (bring/hold your own key) for data owners to control the security of their data. If attacked, Titaniam minimizes regulatory overhead by providing evidence that sensitive data retained encryption. Titaniam’s interoperable modules can be combined to support hundreds of architectures across multiple clouds, on-prem, and hybrid environments. Titaniam provides the equivalent of 3+ categories of solutions making it the most effective, and economical solution in the market. Titaniam is featured by Gartner, IDC, and TAG Cyber and has won coveted industry awards e.g. SINET16 and at RSAC2022.

TealBook

Series B in 2021
Tealbook, Inc. develops and operates an online supplier knowledge management and procurement platform. The company’s platform offers up-to-date, credible information from suppliers that facilitates teams to identify qualified suppliers for specific needs and collaborate with stakeholders on supplier information and searches. Its platform centralizes and consolidates supplier-shared information, such as company name, contact information, product or service offerings, a brief capabilities presentation, social media feeds, diversity status and certification forms, public client recommendations, and aggregated intelligence from industry peers; and client supplier intelligence, including vendor master, preferred suppliers list, other supplier status listings, legal status and optional secure contract upload, relationships with internal colleagues, and shared notes. It integrates with ERP systems, spend management systems, E-sourcing tools, contract management systems, and portals. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in Toronto, Canada.

RedCircle

Series A in 2021
RedCircle helps creators build, distribute, grow, and monetize their podcast. They are a team of engineers and software people from San Francisco who are passionate about podcasting and building technology that gives power back to the community and its creators. They couldn’t be more excited to work with you.

Edgybees

Series A in 2021
Edgybees Ltd. develops and operates an online platform that delivers augmented reality experience that moves, even at the highest speeds, from drones to cars, trains, and wearable devices. Its Industrial solutions include; search and rescue / homeland security, real estate, architecture and urban planning, construction and urban development, field view: agriculture and land management, industrial facilities, and automotive. The company’s gaming solution include; Droneprix AR, Drone FX, and Sky Skreemers. It caters to fire departments, police departments, and homeland security sectors. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Palo Alto, California.

TealBook

Series A in 2021
Tealbook, Inc. develops and operates an online supplier knowledge management and procurement platform. The company’s platform offers up-to-date, credible information from suppliers that facilitates teams to identify qualified suppliers for specific needs and collaborate with stakeholders on supplier information and searches. Its platform centralizes and consolidates supplier-shared information, such as company name, contact information, product or service offerings, a brief capabilities presentation, social media feeds, diversity status and certification forms, public client recommendations, and aggregated intelligence from industry peers; and client supplier intelligence, including vendor master, preferred suppliers list, other supplier status listings, legal status and optional secure contract upload, relationships with internal colleagues, and shared notes. It integrates with ERP systems, spend management systems, E-sourcing tools, contract management systems, and portals. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Astronomer

Series A in 2020
Astronomer, Inc., founded in 2014 and based in Cincinnati, Ohio, provides a managed platform for Apache Airflow, catering specifically to data engineers. The company focuses on enabling organizations to harness the capabilities of Apache Airflow through its flagship offering, Astronomer Cloud, which is recognized as a leading Airflow-as-a-Service solution. Astronomer is dedicated to enhancing standards of scale, performance, and reliability for enterprise-level data orchestration. Its platform encompasses a comprehensive suite of products and services that facilitate the deployment, management, and scaling of data pipelines. This includes features for isolated resource allocation, user access, and account management, allowing data engineers, scientists, and analysts to efficiently build, run, and monitor pipelines-as-code for effective business analytics.

TealBook

Seed Round in 2020
Tealbook, Inc. develops and operates an online supplier knowledge management and procurement platform. The company’s platform offers up-to-date, credible information from suppliers that facilitates teams to identify qualified suppliers for specific needs and collaborate with stakeholders on supplier information and searches. Its platform centralizes and consolidates supplier-shared information, such as company name, contact information, product or service offerings, a brief capabilities presentation, social media feeds, diversity status and certification forms, public client recommendations, and aggregated intelligence from industry peers; and client supplier intelligence, including vendor master, preferred suppliers list, other supplier status listings, legal status and optional secure contract upload, relationships with internal colleagues, and shared notes. It integrates with ERP systems, spend management systems, E-sourcing tools, contract management systems, and portals. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Winston Privacy

Venture Round in 2020
Winston Privacy, Inc. develops technology which provides consumers with online privacy and data protection from spying and identity theft. It protect all connected devices, including computers, tablets, phones, and smart devices. The company features includes protects all devices, Block Ads, and faster than a VPN. Winston Privacy, Inc. was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Astronomer

Seed Round in 2019
Astronomer, Inc., founded in 2014 and based in Cincinnati, Ohio, provides a managed platform for Apache Airflow, catering specifically to data engineers. The company focuses on enabling organizations to harness the capabilities of Apache Airflow through its flagship offering, Astronomer Cloud, which is recognized as a leading Airflow-as-a-Service solution. Astronomer is dedicated to enhancing standards of scale, performance, and reliability for enterprise-level data orchestration. Its platform encompasses a comprehensive suite of products and services that facilitate the deployment, management, and scaling of data pipelines. This includes features for isolated resource allocation, user access, and account management, allowing data engineers, scientists, and analysts to efficiently build, run, and monitor pipelines-as-code for effective business analytics.

Folio Photonics

Seed Round in 2019
Folio Photonics is developing an optical data storage disc with two Terabyte capacity manufactured using a highly scalable, low-cost method. It also redefines archival data storage with its modern optical solution. Their patented solution, the data film disc is disruptive in cost, capacity, and archival lifetime. The company also develops optical data storage discs and systems. Folio Photonics was founded in 2012 and is based in Solon, Ohio, USA.

ENGAGE Talent

Series A in 2018
ENGAGE is the world’s first AI-powered recruiting platform to combine Talent Mapping, Competitive Intelligence, Passive Candidate Sourcing, and Outbound Recruiting in one brilliant Talent Targeting and Engagement engine. ENGAGE is an AI-powered recruiting platform that helps companies identify and target new talent that they were not finding via traditional methods and in traditional pools. ENGAGE aggregates data from over 30K sources to create talent profiles on 100M professionals and 13M companies. ENGAGE's AI and machine learning engine predicts the likelihood that a candidate will respond to a conversation about a potential job change, and recommends personalized messaging based on factors like their career progression, skills, peer actions, and the news and events surrounding their company. ENGAGE's product helps recruiters connect with new talent pools, at the right time, with the right message. The result is a more efficient and productive talent acquisition team who fills roles proactively by engaging qualified talent instead of waiting for the right applicant to come to them. By leveraging ENGAGE predictions and recommendations, our customers have identified candidates for difficult-to-fill roles in a fraction of the time and doubled their candidate response rates.

Torch

Seed Round in 2017
Torch is a leadership development platform with integrated coaching, software, and feedback to raise high performers to the next level. It was founded by a team of executive coaches and experienced psychologists who are passionate about helping senior leaders perform at their highest level. Torch is on a mission to empower leaders to build high growth, high-performance cultures by building the awareness and skills required to manage and lead effectively. Our proven model blends human intelligence and digital technology to accelerate talent development and deliver measurable leadership outcomes.

Halo Health

Series A in 2017
Doc Halo’s clinical communication platform is transforming patient care by streamlining real-time communication among physicians, nurses and staff. The mobile app and online console provide secure, HIPAA-compliant texting. Robust care coordination tools integrate with hospital systems to allow instant access to EHRs, critical and clinical teams, physician on-call schedules, call centers, labs and directories. Exclusively focused on healthcare, Doc Halo is used by some of the most prestigious organizations in the country.

Fooji

Series A in 2017
Fooji is an experiential technology company that uses on-demand delivery services to power experiential marketing campaigns that acquire and engage fans for big brands. By bringing together social and chat networks with on-demand delivery services, Fooji allows big brands to start a fan interaction online and finish it offline with an instant physical delivery. This results in a meaningful interaction with the fan and great earned and organic media for the brand. The Fooji Fan Experience Platform is used by some of the world's most beloved brands: ABC, Adidas, Amazon Studios, Budweiser, Disney, FOX, GSK, Paramount Pictures, Patron, Pepsi, Sony Pictures, Toyota, Turner Broadcasting, Verizon, and Warner Bros. Fooji was founded by Gregg Morton & Erik Zamudio and has 3 global offices: Lexington, KY (HQ), Los Angeles, CA, and Lisbon, Portugal.