IgniteXL, a seed-stage fund investing in tech-driven wellness companies, is on a mission to back startups reshaping how we live, look, and age.
As their fund and team grew, IgniteXL realized that their outdated systems were burdening and blocking them from their full potential.
We spoke to Luke Deasy, Associate at IgniteXL, who detailed how Edda helped IgniteXL improve workflows across deal management, reporting, collaboration, and customization to unlock a high-level investment strategy.
Managing deals with flexibility, not friction
Early-stage investing means navigating an unpredictable and wide-ranging pipeline. For IgniteXL, the rigidity of their previous platform before Edda made this process impossible to support their dynamic workflow.
“What appealed to me most personally is the pliability of the platform… Edda allows for virtually infinite flexibility in terms of how you want to organize your pipeline.”
– Luke Deasy, IgniteXL
Where their previous system locked them into a fixed funnel, Edda allowed Luke to completely restructure pipeline stages, including nuanced statuses like “intro call,” “awaiting GP feedback,” or “on hold for future.”
This flexibility has made it possible for Luke’s team to collaborate in real time and personalize their workflows. Luke specified that it has created better clarity on where deals stand and who is responsible for the next step, all without manual workarounds that they experienced previously.
Automated reporting for LPs
When it comes to VC reporting, many firms are still stuck with archaic workflows dependent on Excel. IgniteXL was no exception, until Edda.
“We’re just scratching the surface, but it’s night and day from our previous reporting… What used to take hours, if not days, of exporting and manual analysis, now takes seconds.”
Edda’s integrated reporting tools have helped IgniteXL offer better visibility to their LPs and reach better strategies. Thanks to the automated reporting function, Luke was able to generate reports for IgniteXL’s quarterly LP review.
“This year we implemented quarterly venture partner reviews and as part of that we wanted to add pipeline reporting. In the past without Edda it would have been a huge headache and probably I would have just said let’s not do this, but I was able to use Edda to get the reports and use those for our presentation.
That was the first moment where we were able to collaboratively discuss the health of the portfolio and pipeline and figure out how we should orient our efforts and figure out deal attribution.”
Customization built for VC workflows
Every fund has its own internal structure: how it categorizes deals, tracks interactions, stores notes, and defines success. But when platforms aren’t investment-focused or updated with the evolution of the industry, VCs are forced to adopt work-arounds.
“In the past, I had to make a Word doc listing every field and send it to the platform so they could manually implement it. Now I can just do it myself in Edda.”
From customizing data fields on company pages to restructuring what information is shown to GPs at a glance, Edda gives IgniteXL the freedom to create the environment that suits their firm.
Scaling operations with Edda
As IgniteXL scales its operations, from a $10M first fund to a $30M second fund, operational efficiency has only grown in importance.
“I tried to automate [our previous workflow] as much as I could, but it was still pretty brutal. I would say [Edda] has probably saved me 75% of my time on deals.”
By transitioning to Edda, IgniteXL has achieved a manual work offload, strong foundation for investment decisions, and reporting clarity.
For other funds struggling with similar issues such as manual task burdens, disjointed collaboration, or onboarding LPs, Edda offers the platform to support ambitions to scale.
About IgniteXL
IgniteXL is a seed-stage fund investing in tech-driven wellness companies that help people live, look, and age better. They focus on diverse, underrepresented founders building products at the intersection of technology and consumer impact.
Want to learn how Edda can modernize your VC workflows? → Learn more and request a demo.