When was The Brandery founded?

The Brandery was founded in 2010.

Where is The Brandery's headquarters located?

The Brandery's headquarters is located in Cincinnati (United States).

How big is The Brandery's investment team?

The Brandery has a team of 7, including 7 partners.

How many companies has The Brandery invested in?

The Brandery has invested in 80 companies, including Pear Commerce & AdAdapted.

Which companies has The Brandery invested in lately?

Bright Breaks & PopBase are the latest investments by The Brandery.

How many exits has The Brandery been involved in?

The Brandery's portfolio has seen 1 IPO and 15 acquisitions.

The Brandery - 2026 Investor Profile, Portfolio, Team & Investment Trends

1. Pear Commerce

Provider of marketing solutions for e-commerce businesses. It enables digital marketing by connecting CPG advertisements with retailers. It allows customers to purchase a product or claim an offer from the ad placed on different online stores.

Key facts about Pear Commerce

Founded Year: 2018
Location: Milwaukee (United States)
Stage: Series A
Total Funding till date: $24.1M
Employee Count: 34 as on Aug 31, 2026
Investors: CSA Partners, M25 and 11 Others
Latest Funding Round: Series A, Jun 27, 2024, $*****
Highlight: Editors' Pick

2. AdAdapted

Mobile advertising platform connecting CPG brands with shoppers before they buy. It specializes in digital advertising solutions for Consumer Packaged Goods, connecting brands with high-intent shoppers through pre-shop planning apps and retail media integrations. The platform offers a suite of shoppable ad formats designed to drive awareness and sales, leveraging patented technology to place products into digital carts and lists. It provides solutions for brands, agencies, and retailers, focusing on increasing awareness, influencing purchase intent, and driving sales. The company's technology powers offsite retail media digital advertising with high cart conversion rates. It offers add-to-list and add-to-cart functionality, shoppable video ads, and targeting capabilities to reach shoppers online and in-store. The platform provides data and insights into shopper behavior, including basket analysis and custom data sets. It supports third-party tracking tags and works with various CPG categories. The company offers a managed service, handling ad creation, campaign management, and reporting.

Key facts about AdAdapted

Founded Year: 2012
Location: Ann Arbor (United States)
Stage: Series A
Total Funding till date: $5.1M
Employee Count: 99 as on Aug 31, 2026
Investors: Tappan Hill Ventures, ID Ventures and 12 Others
Latest Funding Round: Series A, May 14, 2020, $*****

3. UpShift

Upshift (formerly known as Pinch) is an on-demand labor sourcing platform. Hourly/shift workers can register on the platform , apply for work and get paid. Company is in beta as of August 2016. Graduated from 2016 class of the Brandery.

Key facts about UpShift

Founded Year: 2016
Location: Cincinnati (United States)
Stage: Series A
Total Funding till date: $4.97M
Employee Count: 340 as on Aug 31, 2026
Investors: Transpose Platform, 500 Global and 4 Others
Latest Funding Round: Series A, Mar 06, 2020, $*****
Highlight: Editors' Pick

4. Roadtrippers

Roadtrippers provide an app and web platform which allows users to pin their bucketlist of destinations and help plan their road trip, not just with basic driving directions but also scouts for any interesting places and things to do along the way.

Key facts about Roadtrippers

Founded Year: 2011
Location: Cincinnati (United States)
Stage: Series C
Total Funding till date: $15.8M
Employee Count: 23 as on Aug 31, 2026
Investors: Vine Street Ventures, Ludlow Ventures and 3 Others
Latest Funding Round: Series C, Jun 02, 2017, $*****
Highlight: Editors' Pick

5. Skip

Provider of smart display for self-checkout at retail stores. It enables the buyers at retail stores to scan and pay the bills through the smart display. It also enables the users to search the products in the store and use available coupons etc. Additionally, provides access to previous purchase history and receipts. Claims to have been integrated with multiple loyalty and POS providers. Also, provides insights on customer buying behavior. Its clientele includes Macey's, Broulim's, Lee's, Honey Bee Produce, and Ridley's.

Key facts about Skip

Founded Year: 2016
Location: South Jordan (United States)
Stage: Acquired
Employee Count: 11 as on Aug 31, 2026
Investors: Frazier VC, Kickstart Fund and 4 Others
Latest Funding Round: Conventional Debt, Dec 16, 2019, $*****
Highlight: Acquired

View the full list of portfolio companies

The Brandery has invested in 80 companies over the last 16 years, with an average of 1 new investment annually in the last 10 years. Its most recent first time investment was in Bright Breaks and most recent follow-on round was in PopBase.

Here are The Brandery's Year-on-Year Investment Trends:

Year	No. of Investments
Year	1^st Round	Follow-on	Total
2026 (YTD)	0	0	0
2025	0	0	0
2024	0	0	0
2023	0	0	0
2022	0	0	0
2021	0	0	0
2020	1	0	1
2019	4	1	5
2018	1	0	1
2017	6	0	6

View all investments by The Brandery

The Brandery has made 54 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $79.2K, 2 investments in Angel stage with an average round size of $310K and 1 investment in Unattributed stage with an average round size of $250K.

Here are The Brandery's investments by stage:

Stage of entry	No. of Investments
Seed	54
Angel	2
Unattributed	1

Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments

View all investments by The Brandery

The Brandery has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Consumer, Enterprise Applications, Retail, Media & Entertainment and Consumer Goods. Notably, it has invested in 61 Tech companies, 41 Consumer (B2C) companies, 35 Software companies and at least 33 companies focusing on Enterprise (B2B).

Here are The Brandery's investments by sector:

Sector	No. of Investments
Consumer	22
Enterprise Applications	20
Retail	14
Media & Entertainment	8
Consumer Goods	5
Others	31

Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments

View all investments by The Brandery

The Brandery has made most investments in United States (49), followed by Canada where it has made 4 investments.

Here are The Brandery's investments by geography:

Country	No. of Investments
United States	49
Canada	4
Ireland	1
Netherlands	1

Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments

View all investments by The Brandery

The Brandery has not made any investment in 2026 so far.

Here are the most recent investments by The Brandery:

Filter this list

Date	Company	Location	Round Details	Round Amount	Co-Investors
Jul 08, 2020	Bright Breaks	Canada	Seed	8102	-
Apr 18, 2019	PopBase	United States	Seed	9953	Queen City Angels
Mar 21, 2019	Ad Badger	United States	Seed	6209	-
Jan 07, 2019	Norton Hurley	United States	Seed	7783	-
Jan 07, 2019	Nollapelli	United States	Seed	9099	-

See more recent investments made by The Brandery

1 of The Brandery's portfolio company became public - Dwllr.

Here are The Brandery's portfolio companies that went public:

Filter this list

Company	IPO Date	First Invested on	First Round of Investment	Round Size
Dwllr	-	Jun 25, 2013	Angel	6045

View more details about public companies in The Brandery's portfolio

15 companies from The Brandery's portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Skip in Feb 2023 by Standard for $*****.

Here are The Brandery's portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:

Filter this list

Company	Acquisition Date	First Invested on	First Round of Investment	Round Size
Skip	Feb 02, 2023	2016	Seed	5511
Martin	Sep 14, 2022	2017	Seed	8229
Wyzerr	Jul 16, 2020	-	-	9402
Ahalogy	Jun 01, 2018	Oct 01, 2012	Seed	2733
Scent Trunk	May 01, 2018	2016	Seed	9046

View all acquired companies in The Brandery's portfolio

The Brandery has a team of 7 members including 7 Partners located in United States. The Brandery's team sits on the board of 1 company.

Here is a list of all team members in The Brandery:

Name	Designation	Location	Board Memberships	Contact Details
J B Kropp	Partner	Cincinnati	-	-
Sarah Kubala	Partner	-	-	-
Abby Ober	Partner	-	-	-
Sean Parker	Partner	-	-	-
George Molinsky	Partner	-	-	-
Joel Stone	Partner	-	BioIntelligence Technology	-
Ryan Watson	Partner	-	-	-

View team details of The Brandery

Over the past 16 years, 105 investors have co-invested in The Brandery's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.

Invested before The Brandery: MacKay Shields, SV Angel and 19 others have invested in rounds before The Brandery. There is 1 company where MacKay Shields has invested before The Brandery and 1 company where SV Angel has invested before The Brandery.
Top Co-investors of The Brandery: 2 investors entered a company along with The Brandery. These include investors like Vine Street Ventures (2 companies).
Invested after The Brandery: A total of 82 investors have invested in The Brandery's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include CincyTech (8 companies) and Vine Street Ventures (7 companies).