Precursor Ventures

Akin Mental Health provides education, skill building, coaching, and peer support for families who are struggling to navigate mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression, and related illnesses.

Operator of a recruitment platform intended to hire family caregivers. The company's platform pays family caregivers and provides coaching, community, and financial services to help strengthen social safety nets and prevent the adverse health effects of financial shocks, enabling elderly people to be assisted by someone they can trust and also providing monetary compensation to the family caregivers.

Kudos is a Boston-based company that specializes in the manufacture of natural disposable diapers for babies. Founded in 2019 by Amrita Saigal, Kudos produces diapers made from biobased, renewable materials, including cotton liners, which are designed to be chemical-free and non-toxic. The company's products cater to parents seeking eco-friendly and safe options for their children, particularly for those with sensitive skin. With a focus on clean and environmentally responsible baby care, Kudos aims to provide effective absorption and overnight protection in its diaper offerings.

Pair Eyewear makes wearing prescription and nonprescription glasses and sunglasses exciting, empowering and playful for children. Pair believes glasses for children can be more than a static medical device. Glasses can be a canvas on which children express their evolving interests and growing personalities. Through an e-commerce platform, Pair is redesigning the glasses experience, making it engaging for children and painless for parents. Pair Eyewear is redefining the eyewear experience for children by bringing continual customizability, freedom of choice, and affordability to kids' glasses.

Parento, Inc. specializes in providing parental leave insurance and support programs tailored for employers. Founded in 2019 and based in Wilmington, Delaware, the company offers a platform that facilitates paid parental leave, allowing employees to take up to 16 weeks off. Its services include employer insurance for maternity and paternity leave, new parent coaching, and HR support for managing paid leave budgets. By using a B2B model, Parento provides predictable pricing based on employee salaries and existing leave policies, thereby helping companies in states such as Texas, Illinois, Arizona, Colorado, and Virginia enhance employee retention, productivity, and overall workplace satisfaction.

Carrot Fertility, Inc. provides comprehensive fertility benefits services to employers, supporting employees throughout their fertility healthcare journey globally. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company offers a range of services, including egg freezing, in vitro fertilization, adoption, donor, and gestational carrier services. Additionally, it features Carrot Rx, which facilitates a premium pharmacy experience for fertility medications, and Carrot Pregnancy, providing virtual access to experts and on-demand content. Carrot Card is a flexible benefits debit card that allows employees to pay for their care. By partnering with modern companies, Carrot Fertility enables organizations to customize fertility benefits that deliver financial, medical, and emotional support to employees seeking to become parents. The company also has offices in major cities around the world, including Chicago, New York, Dublin, Geneva, Tokyo, and Seoul.

Kinside Inc. is a Pasadena, California-based company that operates an application designed to connect working parents with a network of daycares and preschools across the United States. Founded in 2018, Kinside provides a dual-sided childcare platform that enables parents to find, secure, and manage childcare options easily. The application offers a variety of features, including the ability to secure spots for children, pay for care online, and access potential tax savings and employer contributions. By partnering with daycares and preschools nationwide, Kinside ensures that parents have access to current openings and a range of affordable childcare options, facilitating a more transparent and efficient process for managing childcare needs.

Monti Kids, Inc. is a company that specializes in manufacturing educational toys tailored for children from birth to age three, focusing on developmental needs across cognitive, physical, linguistic, social, and emotional domains. Founded in 2014 and based in Orinda, California, Monti Kids provides a subscription-based program that delivers a new set of Montessori-inspired wooden toys every three months, along with online guidance for parents. This approach empowers parents to effectively engage with their children using the Montessori method, which is recognized as a leading early childhood curriculum. The company's offerings include not only toys but also instructional materials and videos that explain how to utilize each toy to enhance learning and development during these formative years.

As a mom with a young child over 20 years ago, Simone had a child support collection problem. She learned how to navigate the system and collect her money, making herself her own first customer. After her success, she started helping other moms at her home at her kitchen table, and eventually, she opened a bricks and mortar on a busy street in a store-front and operated it for many years. She has taken her years of experience and packaged it into a tech platform to help women collect the back child support they are entitled to.

Soshe Inc. develops a birth preparation and birth plan application for women. Its application also allows doulas, midwives, and childbirth educators to help their clients think through their birth preferences. In addition, the company’s application includes an online community that allows users to ask questions of their instructor throughout online course and beyond. Soshe Inc. was formerly known as STRAMA INC. Soshe Inc. was incorporated in 2018 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Pair Eyewear makes wearing prescription and nonprescription glasses and sunglasses exciting, empowering and playful for children. Pair believes glasses for children can be more than a static medical device. Glasses can be a canvas on which children express their evolving interests and growing personalities. Through an e-commerce platform, Pair is redesigning the glasses experience, making it engaging for children and painless for parents. Pair Eyewear is redefining the eyewear experience for children by bringing continual customizability, freedom of choice, and affordability to kids' glasses.

Kinside Inc. is a Pasadena, California-based company that operates an application designed to connect working parents with a network of daycares and preschools across the United States. Founded in 2018, Kinside provides a dual-sided childcare platform that enables parents to find, secure, and manage childcare options easily. The application offers a variety of features, including the ability to secure spots for children, pay for care online, and access potential tax savings and employer contributions. By partnering with daycares and preschools nationwide, Kinside ensures that parents have access to current openings and a range of affordable childcare options, facilitating a more transparent and efficient process for managing childcare needs.

Care3, Inc. is a developer of a care-sharing mobile application aimed at enhancing coordination among patients, families, and care teams. Established in 2015 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, the company focuses on reducing health disparities, particularly among seniors, people of color, and individuals with disabilities. The application simplifies clinical care plans by breaking them down into manageable, step-by-step activities communicated in plain language. This approach allows users to share their care plans with both family and professional caregivers, facilitating a supportive environment that enables patients to live comfortably at home and minimize hospital visits.

Carrot Fertility, Inc. provides comprehensive fertility benefits services to employers, supporting employees throughout their fertility healthcare journey globally. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company offers a range of services, including egg freezing, in vitro fertilization, adoption, donor, and gestational carrier services. Additionally, it features Carrot Rx, which facilitates a premium pharmacy experience for fertility medications, and Carrot Pregnancy, providing virtual access to experts and on-demand content. Carrot Card is a flexible benefits debit card that allows employees to pay for their care. By partnering with modern companies, Carrot Fertility enables organizations to customize fertility benefits that deliver financial, medical, and emotional support to employees seeking to become parents. The company also has offices in major cities around the world, including Chicago, New York, Dublin, Geneva, Tokyo, and Seoul.

PandaTree, Inc. is a company that specializes in foreign language learning for children and educators. Founded in 2014 and located in Palo Alto, California, it provides a platform that features live conversation practice through one-on-one video sessions with carefully selected, native-speaking tutors. The service includes Mandarin and Spanish language videos, standards-based content, and interactive word games accessible on both desktop and mobile devices. PandaTree aims to create a fun and engaging learning environment, establishing itself as a trusted source for online language education for kids globally.