It has been a productive and memorable year. In 2014 we added Revolution Foods and Handy to our expanding Revolution Growth portfolio, and made several follow on investments in our portfolio. The team, led by Steve Case, Donn Davis, and Ted Leonsis, continues to focus its efforts on finding and investing in a select number of innovative, high-growth companies, and building the existing companies in the portfolio. Our strategy remains one of focus, and we enjoy spending time with each company as they grow and find new approaches to disrupt large industries.

We are proud of our companies and the entrepreneurs behind them and look forward to what the New Year brings. In case you missed it, here are new and follow on investments made this year and recognitions received by our partners and portfolio companies:

NEW INVESTMENTS:

Revolution Foods: In June of 2014, Revolution Foods announced a $30 million investment from Revolution Growth to expand its school meal service to new markets and line of ready-to-eat Meal Kits into new schools and stores. What’s happened since announcing the investment?

• They claimed the #19 spot on Inner City 100 List published by Fortune.
• The company’s co-founders, Kristen Groos Richmond and Kirsten Saenz Toby, were named two of the ‘Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink’ by FORTUNE.
• Revolution Foods feeds over 200,000 meals a day to children in more than 1,000 schools around the country with over 75% of meals going to low-income students.

Handy: Not only did Handy announce a $30 million investment from Revolution Growth, it also rebranded(formerly Handybook), and announced a milestone of $1 million a week in bookings just two years after launching.

• Co-founder Oisin Hanrahan was named ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Week’ by The Huffington Post UK.
• Handy was named one of the ‘Hottest Startups of 2014’ by Forbes.
• Handy opened its first international office in London and acquired London-based Mopp to launch and expand operations abroad.

RECOGNITIONS & MILESTONES:

• sweetgreen was among those recognized as the ‘Most Powerful Brands’ in Washington by theWashington Business Journal.
• Virginia-based CustomInk was named Fortune magazine’s ‘Top Retail Workplace’ proving they are well versed in keeping their 1,113 employees healthy and happy on the job.
• Lolly Wolly Doodle (#318), Bigcommerce (#1997), and Resonate (#1611) each ranked on the 2014 Inc. 5000 List, which highlights the fastest-growing privately-held companies in America and helps recognize an important part of the American economy – entrepreneurs. Lolly Wolly Doodle was also #17 on the ‘Top 20 Retail Companies’ and #6 on the ‘Top 20 North Carolina Companies’.
• Tobin Moore of Optoro, Bryan Gernert of Resonate, and Nicolas Jammet, Jonathan Neman,and Nathanial Ru of sweetgreen were named as finalists in EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 for the Greater Washington region.
• Optoro was also a Venture Deal of the Year finalist at the 2014 Corporate Growth Awards by The National Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth, NVTC’s Hottest VC Deal, Emerging Firm of the Year finalist at The Tech Council of Maryland’s (TCM) 26th Annual Industry Awards, and #229 on the Fastest Growing Companies in North American on Deloitte’s 2014 Technology Fast 500.
• CustomInk and sweetgreen were also named 2014 Corporate Growth Award finalists by The National Capital Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG).
• This year, Resonate was recognized as one of The Washington Post Top Workplaces and named among OnMedia 100 Top Private Companies by AlwaysOn.
• The online marketplace for government agencies, FedBid, launched B2Buy.com with American Express, which is an e-marketplace for its commercial clients designed to provide an online escrow service to protect buyers and sellers.
• When Echo360 announced their Series C round in November they also announced their new Active Learning Platform to provide their 625 universities and colleges with better tools for learning and analytics.

FOLLOW-ON FUNDING:

Revolution Growth will finish the year with multiple follow-on investments in existing portfolio companies including Optoro, Bigcommerce, sweetgreen, and Echo360. These investments illustrate our belief that these companies are reaching a tipping point as they gain momentum, build their brand, and achieve mainstream appeal.