Applied AI
Companies where a model is the product or the margin — vertical copilots, inference infrastructure, and the data plumbing underneath both.
Growth equity · AI · Commerce · Manufacturing
Capital is the easy part.
We take meaningful positions in founder-led AI, commerce, manufacturing, and product innovation companies — then put an operating team and a full marketing department inside the business for the years that actually compound.
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The thesis
Applied AI, commerce, manufacturing, and product innovation. Four areas where our operators have actually run the business before, and where the work we do after closing moves a number we can point to.
Companies where a model is the product or the margin — vertical copilots, inference infrastructure, and the data plumbing underneath both.
Category-owning brands with real gross margin, plus the infrastructure they run on — checkout, fulfilment, returns, and the software that quietly becomes a system of record.
Specialty producers and contract manufacturers with real assets, defensible processes, and decades of pricing left on the table. Where automation pays back fastest.
Companies whose advantage is the thing itself — a better mechanism, material, or format — that has outgrown the founder’s garage and needs a route to scale.
Value creation
Every CK714 investment runs the same clock. Companies in our portfolio have averaged 180–240% growth in their first twelve months with us.
CK714 portfolio average Sector comparable Curve shape illustrative
How we partner
Founders keep operating control. We bring the bench, the capital, and a plan we agreed on before the wire cleared.
01 — Source
No bankers required. We meet founders directly, share our read on the business in the first two weeks, and tell you early if it is not a fit.
02 — Diligence
Cohort economics, channel concentration, unit margin by SKU, and a technical review. You get the whole analysis whether or not we invest.
03 — First 100 days
Two of our operating partners embed part-time: reporting cadence, pricing model, hiring plan, and the three things we stop doing immediately.
04 — Compound
We hold longer than most funds our size, support add-on acquisitions off our balance sheet, and run the exit process ourselves when it is time.
The marketing engine
An in-house marketing group — brand, performance, lifecycle, and creative — assigned to a company the week after close. It is the single most common reason founders take our term sheet over a cheaper one.
Discipline 01
Naming, identity, messaging architecture, and the story that raises the next round. Rebuilt in the first 90 days by our team, not briefed out to an agency.
Discipline 02
Paid search, social, marketplace and retail media. We run the accounts ourselves until an in-house hire is ready to take them, then we train that hire.
Discipline 03
Email, SMS, onboarding, expansion and win-back. The revenue a company already paid to acquire and almost always leaves on the table.
Discipline 04
In-house video, product photography, and the volume of creative that performance channels actually consume — the bottleneck that stalls most growth plans.
The operating platform
Six functions on top of the marketing team, shared across the portfolio and included in the deal — no consulting invoices, no monitoring fees.
Function 01
Unit-level contribution analysis, packaging redesign, and disciplined annual price movement.
Function 02
Sourcing, throughput, plant and 3PL negotiation, inventory turns, and landed cost down to the unit.
Function 03
A shared warehouse and board pack in month one, so every decision after that starts from the same numbers.
Function 04
In-house recruiting for the first ten senior hires, plus a bench of fractional leaders for the gaps.
Function 05
Platform migrations, back-office automation, and applied models where they move a real metric rather than a headline.
Function 06
Add-on acquisitions off our balance sheet, debt structuring, and running the exit process ourselves.
Portfolio
We do not publish names. Our founders did not sign up to become someone else’s marketing material, and the ones still operating have competitors who read fund websites. Here is the shape of the book instead.
Specialty production and contract manufacturing. Our largest allocation and typically our longest hold.
Consumer brands and the infrastructure they run on. Our oldest allocation and where the marketing team earns its keep fastest.
Vertical copilots, inference infrastructure, and the data tooling underneath them. Our newest and fastest-moving area.
Companies built on a genuinely better mechanism, material, or format that needs a route to scale.
Active companies
13
Currently in the portfolio and working with our team.
Realized exits
4
Processes we ran ourselves rather than handing to a bank.
Growth, first 12 months
180–240%
Portfolio average across companies in their first year with us.
Average exit multiple1
32×
Measured against company value before CK714 involvement.
Under NDA we will walk you through named case studies, sector by sector, on a call. Founders in the portfolio are happy to take a reference call — we introduce them directly rather than printing quotes.
The team
Thirty-eight people across investments, operations, and marketing. We do not print a roster — you meet the people actually assigned to your company on the second call, not a grid of headshots.
Managing partner
Ten years operating before writing a first cheque. Leads new investments and sits on four boards.
Partner, operations
Two platform migrations and a plant consolidation. Owns the first-100-days plan on every deal.
Partner, marketing
First marketing hire through exit at each. Runs the in-house marketing group across the portfolio.
Principal, investments
Leads diligence and portfolio reporting. The person who tells you no quickly, which everyone prefers.
Contact
Send the two-line version. If it is a fit you will hear from a partner, not an associate, within three business days.