Urban Innovation Fund

Founded in 2016, the Urban Innovation Fund is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, CA. The firm backs companies enhancing the livability, sustainability, and economic vitality of our cities. With 81% of Americans living in cities, and two-thirds of the world's population urbanizing by 2050, there are a growing number of challenges facing urban dwellers. The Urban Innovation Fund provides capital and regulatory support to entrepreneurs creating scalable solutions to tough urban challenges – helping them grow into tomorrow's most valued companies. The firm invests at the Pre-Seed and Seed stage in the following sectors: transportation, energy & sustainability, proptech, future of work, edtech, business services, fintech, public health & safety, govtech, and food systems.

Brenner, Clara Sophia Loos

Co-Founder and Managing Partner

Lein, Julie

Managing Partner and Co-Founder

54 past transactions

Finli

Seed Round in 2022
Finli is the payment management system for service businesses. We help them get paid timely, easily and affordably. We are ideal for small business owners, freelancers, independent workers, professional coaches/trainers, home services providers and more.

Solarcycle

Seed Round in 2022
Solarcycle is a solar technology company that builds a circular economy for solar and renewables. The company offers an affordable and eco-friendly service for recycling and reusing decommissioned solar panels and technologies, catering to solar asset owners. Leveraging its patented technology, it can retrieve up to 95% of precious metals such as silver, silicon, copper, and aluminum from solar panels, as well as repurpose or recycle panels that are currently in use.

Allocate

Series A in 2022
Allocate is platform that enables investors to discover and invest in high-quality venture funds.

Jeeves

Series C in 2022
Jeeves is a fintech that brings financial solutions to empower businesses globally. Jeeves is building international fintech infrastructure from scratch; this includes a global switching layer across countries and the ability to run all the company spending corporate cards, notecards and cross-border payments on Jeeves. The company was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in the United States.

PairTree

Seed Round in 2022
PairTree engages in modernizing the adoption process. It uses future-forward technology to connect adoptive parents with birth moms.

Optiwatt

Seed Round in 2022
We connect home electricity rate data with EV battery metrics to show you the cost of every charge. Securely login to your EV's app, automatically find your electric utility costs using your home address, and see your EV's impact on your electric bill. We also get rid of range anxiety with charge forecasting, and use home electricity rates and real-time gas prices in your area to accurately calculate the amount you save by driving electric.

Kyte

Series A in 2021
Kyte is a technology and operations company that offers on-demand cars delivered to customers for as long as they need them — for a day, a few days or a few weeks or months. Kyte is operating in 10+ cities in the US and growing at rapid pace. Francesco Wiedemann, Ludwig Schoenack, and Nikolaus Volk formed the company in San Francisco, California in 2019.

Dataships

Seed Round in 2021
Dataships is a data privacy software and services company, specializing in automating GDPR and CCPA compliance. The company, which is co-located in Dublin and San Francisco, was founded by Ryan McErlane and Michael Storan in 2019.

Builders Patch

Seed Round in 2021
We work with builders to manage their deal from acquisition to finance on one collaborative platform that allows all partners to access all information, analytics in real time. We help raise construction finance efficiently and easily through our marketplace.

Malloc

Seed Round in 2021
Malloc is a US, Cyprus-based cybersecurity startup.Malloc's mobile app monitors and prevents anyone from recording or transmitting data without you knowing. Malloc has raised a seed round in August 2021, after joining and receiving investment by Y Combinator.

Coinrule

Seed Round in 2021
Coinrule is an automated trading platform - a smarter way of AI investing across many investment platforms and assets. The company was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in London, England.

Allocate

Seed Round in 2021
Allocate is platform that enables investors to discover and invest in high-quality venture funds.

PairTree

Seed Round in 2021
PairTree engages in modernizing the adoption process. It uses future-forward technology to connect adoptive parents with birth moms.

Joyride

Seed Round in 2021
Joyride powers the largest global network of micromobility operators. They offer turnkey software solutions for dockless bike-share and electric scooter operators. Their platform includes a white-label mobile application for end-users and a web-based dashboard for fleet operators. They currently power customers in 100-plus markets worldwide, and their management software enables an any-sized business to launch their fleet within 24 hours and seamlessly scale their operations from five to 500,000-plus vehicles.

Catch

Venture Round in 2021
Catch is redesigning benefits to put people at the center of their own financial stability and security. For freelancers, contractors, and workers without access to employer benefits, Catch automatically handles tax withholding, builds long-term investment savings, and provides critical insurance products. In creating a personalized safety net, Catch envisions a world where individuals can leverage data-driven curation and timely insights to gain full agency over changing needs.

Jeeves

Series A in 2021
Jeeves is a fintech that brings financial solutions to empower businesses globally. Jeeves is building international fintech infrastructure from scratch; this includes a global switching layer across countries and the ability to run all the company spending corporate cards, notecards and cross-border payments on Jeeves. The company was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in the United States.

Ethic

Series B in 2021
Ethic is a developer of a data-driven technology platform designed to offer simplified financial planning services and portfolios. Their platform leverages investment consulting technology that creates sustainable portfolios that are optimized to reduce tracking error for the underlying passive index against well-established benchmarks, enabling family offices, health advisers, and endowment foundations to provide customized sustainability insights and optimized passive portfolio construction for their clients.

Popl

Seed Round in 2021
Popl is the only AI-powered event lead capture + digital business card platform designed to help teams maximize every conference, expo, and trade show.

Visage

Series A in 2021
Visage automates candidate discovery and engagement while enabling teams to increase productivity by building predictable candidate pipelines, increasing hiring efficiency, and simplifying team-based work management. With AI and human-powered sourcing capabilities, Visage is able to identify the most relevant skills and experience and deliver large batches of high quality candidates who can be moved through the pipeline with automated engagement tools that fully integrate with top ATS systems.

Kyte

Seed Round in 2021
Kyte is a technology and operations company that offers on-demand cars delivered to customers for as long as they need them — for a day, a few days or a few weeks or months. Kyte is operating in 10+ cities in the US and growing at rapid pace. Francesco Wiedemann, Ludwig Schoenack, and Nikolaus Volk formed the company in San Francisco, California in 2019.

Codi

Seed Round in 2020
The commercial real estate industry is stuck in the past. Companies are shifting towards workplace flexibility, and long-term leases with an antiquated search process don’t fit their needs. Codi is solving this problem with private offices built for the way people work today. With easy move-ins, turnkey spaces, and no long-term leases, every company can find a space where their team can thrive. More than a space provider, Codi becomes companies' long-term growth partners, adapting their spaces to the team culture and growth needs.

Grain

Seed Round in 2020
Grain provides a digital credit card that empowers users to manage their credit responsibly. It can be accessed through an existing debit card without issuing a card. It analyzes cash flow and instantly pre-approves for a line of credit.

Ride Report

Series A in 2020
Ride Report is a technology company. They help in processing, anonymizing, aggregating mobility data, and viewing mobility vehicle location in real-time and provide an automated alert report immediately when an operator is over their cap or if a scooter is parked in a no-ride zone, enabling users to manage policies and compliance, analyze historical travel patterns, track and invoice operators for fees, and more.

Electriphi

Seed Round in 2020
Electriphi develops end-to-end energy management and fleet operations software for light, medium, and heavy-duty commercial fleets. It helps to ave energy costs, optimize infrastructure, and ensure fleet's operational readiness with Electriphi's managed charging software built on AI and machine learning technology.

Range

Seed Round in 2020
Exploring how software can cultivate healthy, inclusive, and creative organizations.

Codi

Seed Round in 2020
The commercial real estate industry is stuck in the past. Companies are shifting towards workplace flexibility, and long-term leases with an antiquated search process don’t fit their needs. Codi is solving this problem with private offices built for the way people work today. With easy move-ins, turnkey spaces, and no long-term leases, every company can find a space where their team can thrive. More than a space provider, Codi becomes companies' long-term growth partners, adapting their spaces to the team culture and growth needs.

Fabrica

Seed Round in 2020
We envision a new era where buying your house, refinancing your mortgage or running your real estate business will be powered by technology instead of paperwork and rubber stamps. As it happened in other industries, software will give us more freedom by unlocking full control and flexibility of what we own. Our mission today is to enable Online Real Estate Transactions.

OpenLattice

Series A in 2019
OpenLattice supports public servants in making more informed decisions using integrated data. It's enabling data-driven decision-making for jurisdictions of all sizes. The platform is assisting in the fight against mass incarceration and the opioid epidemic by allowing state and local governments to implement interventions based on data-driven workflows deployed against structured data from across government systems. OpenLattice was established in 2017 in Redwood City, California.

Monarch

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Offering convenient, customized and experienced support during your journey from pregnancy to parenthood.

Ethic

Series A in 2019
Ethic is a developer of a data-driven technology platform designed to offer simplified financial planning services and portfolios. Their platform leverages investment consulting technology that creates sustainable portfolios that are optimized to reduce tracking error for the underlying passive index against well-established benchmarks, enabling family offices, health advisers, and endowment foundations to provide customized sustainability insights and optimized passive portfolio construction for their clients.

Voatz

Series A in 2019
Voatz is an award winning mobile-first elections platform backed by cutting-edge security, biometrics and a blockchain-backed infrastructure. Voatz has successfully served more than 5 million voters across 140 elections in 7 countries. In 2018, Voatz ran the first mobile vote in U.S. Federal Election history, and, in 2020, Voatz became the first smartphone app based system to be used for voting in the U.S. Presidential Elections. Voatz was selected by 15 cities in Canada for the 2022 Ontario Municipal Elections and was recently used in the historic 2024 Presidential Elections in Mexico.

Ride Report

Seed Round in 2019
Ride Report is a technology company. They help in processing, anonymizing, aggregating mobility data, and viewing mobility vehicle location in real-time and provide an automated alert report immediately when an operator is over their cap or if a scooter is parked in a no-ride zone, enabling users to manage policies and compliance, analyze historical travel patterns, track and invoice operators for fees, and more.

APANA

Series B in 2019
APANA develop an Intelligent Water Management Platform that works on real-world problems faced every day. The company uses technology as a proprietary, cloud-based analytics platform to SCAN, PINPOINT, and GUIDE resolution of water waste by instantly alerting frontline staff. By working with APANA, any business can analyze, manage, and account for its overall water footprint, and get real-time information to the frontline to save water and money. Industrial and commercial companies of all sizes and all sectors can use APANA's fully automated solution to reduce compliance risk and strengthen operational sustainability.

Catch

Seed Round in 2019
Catch is redesigning benefits to put people at the center of their own financial stability and security. For freelancers, contractors, and workers without access to employer benefits, Catch automatically handles tax withholding, builds long-term investment savings, and provides critical insurance products. In creating a personalized safety net, Catch envisions a world where individuals can leverage data-driven curation and timely insights to gain full agency over changing needs.

Jiffy

Seed Round in 2019
Jiffy Inc. is an online platform based in Toronto, Canada, that connects homeowners with third-party service professionals for various home maintenance tasks. Launched in April 2015, Jiffy enables users to easily find and request a wide range of services, including appliance repair, plumbing, lawn maintenance, and junk removal, among others. The platform prioritizes user convenience by offering real-time connections based on the proximity and availability of service providers, all of whom are pre-vetted for quality assurance. Jiffy also supports service professionals by automating essential business tasks such as marketing, lead generation, appointment scheduling, and payment processing, facilitating a seamless experience for both consumers and providers.

3DEN

Seed Round in 2019
3DEN is a network of pay as you go urban sanctuaries, with everything needed to work, relax, freshen-up, shower and replenish.

Catch

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Catch is redesigning benefits to put people at the center of their own financial stability and security. For freelancers, contractors, and workers without access to employer benefits, Catch automatically handles tax withholding, builds long-term investment savings, and provides critical insurance products. In creating a personalized safety net, Catch envisions a world where individuals can leverage data-driven curation and timely insights to gain full agency over changing needs.

Safari AI

Seed Round in 2018
Safari AI uses computer vision to provide enterprises the ability to auto-measure the most important physical activity in their operations. Our clients point their own IP cameras inside and outside their theme parks, stores, buildings and other property to gather mission-critical data and insights using Safari AI's proprietary technology. Safari AI's clients are finally getting reliable and automated counts, throughput, utilization, dwell times, live wait times, and a number of other KPI's, replacing manual measuring, antiquated hardware and oftentimes no measuring at all. Safari AI is serving category-defining companies in Theme Parks, CRE, Transportation, Hospitality, Retail, and QSR/Restaurants. Click on the media below for specific client use cases. The company is venture-funded led by General Catalyst & Initialized Capital and operates distributed with team members residing in the US, Canada and Brazil.

Ethic

Venture Round in 2018
Ethic is a developer of a data-driven technology platform designed to offer simplified financial planning services and portfolios. Their platform leverages investment consulting technology that creates sustainable portfolios that are optimized to reduce tracking error for the underlying passive index against well-established benchmarks, enabling family offices, health advisers, and endowment foundations to provide customized sustainability insights and optimized passive portfolio construction for their clients.

The Minte

Seed Round in 2018
The Minte offers hotel-style housekeeping services. It uses a building-centric model for staffing housekeepers. The Minte's services can be booked via app or by pressing a dash-like button out the door. It began operation in 2017, with its headquarters in Chicago in Illinois.

Milk Stork

Seed Round in 2018
Milk Stork is the first breast milk shipping company. Milk Stork was inspired by all the breastfeeding super moms who work, travel, and love their babies like crazy. The reality is that most moms are working moms. And, for moms who return to work after maternity leave, the commitment to breastfeeding comes with numerous daily challenges. As working moms, we are faced with enough tradeoffs and compromises. Providing our babies with the best possible nutrition — breast milk — shouldn’t have to be one of them. That’s why I created Milk Stork.

Bumblebee Spaces

Seed Round in 2018
Bumblebee Spaces is creating a new way to live by thinking about space in cubic feet instead of square feet. The company multiplies usable space by using modular robotics systems to store and retrieve objects in the ceiling. Combining this with AI, sensor fusion and contextual awareness, Bumblebee Spaces safely and intelligently organizes your life, making space for what matters. Using smart robots and an AI stack, the company increases usable space and reduce footprint by storing, managing, and retrieving objects on-demand in your ceiling.

BookNook

Seed Round in 2018
BookNook is a provider of synchronous learning technology and virtual high dosage tutoring, supporting hundreds of school districts in their efforts to provide scaled programs for k-8 reading and math that are fun, rigorous, and effective. It has quickly spread across schools and after-school programs.

codeSpark

Seed Round in 2018
codeSpark is a high-tech company engaged in creating educational software and games for young children. Its game mechanics appeal to a broad range of learning styles and are specifically designed to be inclusive. Millions of kids in 201 countries have played codeSpark games. It is the developer of a learning platform known as codeSpark Academy with The Foos. codeSpark Academy is a mix of structured challenges and creative play where kids are only limited by their imaginations. After mastering fundamental computer science concepts, kids put those ideas to work designing, coding and sharing their own video games. CodeSpark was established on March 11, 2014, based in Pasadena, California.

Voatz

Seed Round in 2018
Voatz is an award winning mobile-first elections platform backed by cutting-edge security, biometrics and a blockchain-backed infrastructure. Voatz has successfully served more than 5 million voters across 140 elections in 7 countries. In 2018, Voatz ran the first mobile vote in U.S. Federal Election history, and, in 2020, Voatz became the first smartphone app based system to be used for voting in the U.S. Presidential Elections. Voatz was selected by 15 cities in Canada for the 2022 Ontario Municipal Elections and was recently used in the historic 2024 Presidential Elections in Mexico.

Visage

Seed Round in 2017
Visage automates candidate discovery and engagement while enabling teams to increase productivity by building predictable candidate pipelines, increasing hiring efficiency, and simplifying team-based work management. With AI and human-powered sourcing capabilities, Visage is able to identify the most relevant skills and experience and deliver large batches of high quality candidates who can be moved through the pipeline with automated engagement tools that fully integrate with top ATS systems.

Local Bushel

Seed Round in 2017
Local Bushel is a Restaurants and other wholesale buyers should purchase food from nearby farmers. competes with commercial food distributors in terms of pricing and level of convenience while providing produce, meat, and dairy products of farmer's market quality. Transform the food distribution sector by making transparent, sustainably sourced food the standard.

Stop, Breathe & Think

Seed Round in 2017
Stop, Breathe & Think's mission is to inspire the world to practice mental wellness every day. Their app is a free mindfulness, meditation and compassion-building tool that is simple, fun and easy to use. Check in to how you are thinking and feeling, and select emotions that guide you to recommended meditations.

The Town Kitchen

Seed Round in 2017
The Town Kitchen delivers corporate lunch through a partnership with chefs and food artisans. The company connects low-income Oakland youth, aged 16-24, with local chefs and artisans to plan, prepare, box, and deliver curbside lunches. The Town Kitchen was founded in 2015 and is based in Oakland, California.

Dropcountr

Seed Round in 2017
Dropcountr connects people and their utilities on the mobile devices they use everyday. Our unique mobile and web applications help water utilities and their customers save water, save money and save time.

BookNook

Seed Round in 2017
BookNook is a provider of synchronous learning technology and virtual high dosage tutoring, supporting hundreds of school districts in their efforts to provide scaled programs for k-8 reading and math that are fun, rigorous, and effective. It has quickly spread across schools and after-school programs.

APANA

Series A in 2017
APANA develop an Intelligent Water Management Platform that works on real-world problems faced every day. The company uses technology as a proprietary, cloud-based analytics platform to SCAN, PINPOINT, and GUIDE resolution of water waste by instantly alerting frontline staff. By working with APANA, any business can analyze, manage, and account for its overall water footprint, and get real-time information to the frontline to save water and money. Industrial and commercial companies of all sizes and all sectors can use APANA's fully automated solution to reduce compliance risk and strengthen operational sustainability.

Valor Water Analytics

Seed Round in 2016
Valor Water Analytics has developed customized financial data and dashboard tools for water utilities and businesses. The company’s software including a hidden revenue locator, leak detector, and cutoff analyzer — helps utilities understand water usage patterns and opportunities for conservation. It was founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Francisco, California.
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