Portfolio Spotlights

The Future of Work

How we work is changing rapidly, from how companies hire and engage with talent, to how automation and robotics is changing jobs and skills, to how remote work solutions are changing how we connect and collaborate from afar. We are excited to back the companies that will help shape a more productive, flexible and inclusive future.

Chris Herd

Chris joined our NYC cohort in early 2020. His company, FirstBase, provides remote worker setup for companies. FirstBase raised a $2M round at the end of our program and with sales skyrocketing, raised a $13M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz only 9 months later. And within 2 years of joining Forum, they raised a $50M Series B led by Kleiner Perkins.

Krish Ramineni & Sam Udotong

Fireflies.ai is an AI assistant for meetings that records and transcribes voice meetings. Co-founders Krish and Sam joined our San Francisco program in July 2017. Today, their team operates out of 5 continents. They raised $5M in seed funding in late 2019 led by Canaan Partners, and in 2021 raised a $14M Series A led by Khosla Ventures.

Mike Fulong

Indio is an insurance technology platform that’s setting out to “modernize” the insurance application and renewal process. Indio joined our San Francisco program in 2017 and in 2019 they raised their $20M Series B led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from 8VC. Indio was acquired in 2020 by Applied Systems.

Kate DeWald

Oncue is a software and booking service for moving companies to make it easier for them to run their business from anywhere. Oncue joined our San Francisco program in Jan 2019 and we were the first check into the company. They have since gone on to raise $12M+ in funding across a seed and Series A round from funds like Bowery Capital, Crosslink Capital and Rethink Impact.

Vertical SaaS

The digitization of every industry is upon us and there will be massive opportunity for founders with a unique perspective on how to drive change within a specific vertical. We've backed vertical SaaS companies across Healthcare, Real Estate, Construction, Transportation, HR, Financial Services, Insurance, Government, Airports, Restaurants and many more.

API First Companies

Companies like Stripe and Twilio have paved the way for the massive growth we will continue to see for API first companies and products that enable core functionality for applications.

Troy Goode

Troy Goode is the founder of Courier, the fastest way for developers to add notifications to their app. Troy has been a long time mentor for Forum Ventures and was previously the CTO & Head of Product at Winmore. Forum invested in Courier’s seed round alongside Matrix Partners, YC and SaaS Venture Capital. Just 6 months later, Courier raised a $10M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners. In 2022 they raised their $35M Series B led by GV.

Sean Thorne

People Data Labs enables companies to build innovative, trusted people data driven products at scale. Sean and his team joined our San Francisco program in August 2015 and we were the first check into the company. They have since gone on to raise more than $55M across a seed, Series A and Series B from funds including Susa Ventures, Craft Ventures, 8VC and Founders Fund.

Chaz Perera & John Cottongim

Roots Automation is a cognitive process automation company that enables companies to add Digital Coworkers. Chaz was the CTO at AIG and John was the Automation Center of Excellence Lead at AIG. After seeing first hand how hard it was to implement RPA, they left to start Roots Automation and joined our NYC program in January 2020. They then went on to raise $11M in Seed funding from Vestigo Ventures, Right Side Capital, and Gutbrain Ventures.

Ronan Burke & Conor Burke

InscribeAI is building an API to enable companies to detect fraudulent documents for things like loan applications. Ronan and Conor joined our San Francisco program in December 2017 and Acceleprise was the first check into the company. Inscribe then went on to do Y Combinator and subsequently has raised $13M across a seed and Series A round from funds like Uncork Capital, Crosslink Capital and Foundry Group.

Applied AI

The next generation of great companies will leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance software and drive more automation across businesses. There will be incredibly large opportunities across the board to solve real business problems leveraging AI and we are excited to work with founders who are working to do just that.

Supply Chain / Logistics Enablement

The Supply Chain and Logistics markets are measured in the trillions of dollars and they are in the midst of being transformed by technology to meet the increasing expectations of today's consumer. Our Managing Partner was an early (small) angel investor in Flexport and we believe there will continue to be massive opportunities across supply chain and logistics enablement.

Felix Orwa & Meka Este-McDonald

Sote is building the operating system for trade in Africa. Meka and Felix, two incredibly driven and ambitious founders with a very big vision for how Sote can impact Africa, joined our San Francisco program in January 2020. We invested across both the accelerator and their seed round. They have since gone on to raise $7.65M across pre-seed and seed funding from funds like Backstage Capital, MaC Venture Capital and Unshackled Ventures.

Kate Alexander, Ram Radhakrishnan & Vishnu Nair

Silq is powering global manufacturing with local expertise. They leverage their technology platform to help brands manage sourcing, quality inspections and manufacturing. Ram, Kate and Vishnu all worked together previously at Flexport and when they came to us we knew we wanted to invest in them straight away given their founder-market fit. Forum invested in their seed round alongside RTP Ventures, SV Angel and others, and they quickly went on to raise a $17.6M Series A.

Emiel Bril

Emiel joined our program in Toronto in January 2020. We were the first check into VendorPM. During the program, we saw early signs of product market fit and a founder who showed a relentless drive to build a big business. In August 2020, we co invested in their Seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Less than 9 months later, revenue grew over 10X and they raised a $20M Series A.

Mariel Reed

CoProcure is building a platform that makes it easy for local governments to find and use cooperative contracts for anything they purchase. CoProcure joined our San Francisco program in July 2018 and we were the first check into the company when it was little more than an idea. They have since gone on to raise $22M in Seed and Series A rounds from funds like Leadout Capital, Neo and Forerunner Ventures.

B2B Marketplaces & eCommerce

As consumers, we increasingly buy things online but so much of B2B purchasing is still done offline through manual processes and/or brokers. We believe so much that the massive spend by businesses across every industry will move to more efficient, digital first experiences and that companies building B2B marketplaces have a big opportunity ahead.