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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis-based venture studio High Alpha on Tuesday announced the launch of a new company—Anvl, a cloud-based software firm that plans to market business-safety applications to reduce and prevent injuries for maintenance workers.
Robin Fleming, Anvl’s co-founder and CEO, joined High Alpha earlier this year as entrepreneur in residence. She most recently was senior vice president of technology at Angie’s List.
“Our focus is helping companies ensure that their workforce returns home, injury free, at the end of the day," Fleming said about her company in written comments. "Our goal is to not only improve the safety of the workforce, but also increase their productivity while reducing costs for our customers.”
The idea for Anvl was originally brought to High Alpha by Cummins Inc., which was looking for ways to enhance safety within its organization, High Alpha partner Mike Fitzgerald said. Cummins is now a pilot Anvl customer, and the Anvl team is collaborating directly with Cummins technicians to help them shape a better product, High Alpha spokesman Drew Beechler told IBJ.
High Alpha officials ran Anvl through its a vetting process in late 2017 and said they were encouraged by its potential. High Alpha officials think the company’s footprint will eventually be global.
Anvl’s platform captures photos, annotations and comments from front-line workers, allowing them to capture and share their knowledge with management and other technicians. Anvl “helps technicians identify risks and implement safety controls in complex maintenance and service environments," and "intervene at the point of risk with custom interventions and stop-work triggers,” a description on its website says.
Anvl’s co-founder has a lengthy list of accomplishments in the tech sector.
In addition to working at Angie’s List, Fleming has held technology and engineering leadership roles at Teradata’s Marketing Applications Division (formerly Aprimo), Match.com, Worksoft and i2 Technologies (acquired by JDA Software Group). She was a 2015 TechPoint Tech 25 winner, a Tobias Fellows Alumni, and a past board member of the Women & Hi Tech. She also currently serves on the board of directors at Clear Software.
High Alpha did not disclose how much it plans to invest in Anvl, but it is part of the High Alpha Studio I portfolio, which gives some clue as to how much the organization will invest. High Alpha Capital I typically invests $250,000 to $1 million per enterprise in Studio I companies. The initial funding—likely a lower amount—will come from High Alpha Studio I.
In July, High Alpha announced it secured $85 million for High Alpha Capital II, a seed and Series A venture fund, and $16.65 million for its High Alpha Studio II, an enterprise-startup studio focusing on software-as-a-service companies.
The more than $100 million raised is almost triple what High Alpha raised in its first fundraising effort—for Capital I and Studio I—in 2015.
Because High Alpha Capital II is much larger than the first iteration, investments in individual companies will be larger, High Alpha partner Kristian Andersen said. Capital II’s investments will be from $750,000 to $2 million, he said.
Tech companies currently in the High Alpha portfolio are Pattern 89 (data science for social media), Doxly (legal transaction management), Zylo (managing SaaS subscriptions), Structural (employee success management), Sigstr (smart marketing through email signatures), Lessonly (employee training software), and Visible (investor relationship management).
High Alpha also launched Clear Scholar, which was acquired by Civitas Learning in June, and Octiv, which was acquired by Conga in March. Financial terms of those deals were not disclosed.
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