By Riley Kaminer
Crosshatch, a Miami-based startup building an identity layer for personalization, today announced the launch of its public beta and a successful $2.7 million initial fundraising round.
This pre-seed round was led by Village Global, with participation from Rackhouse VC, 640 Oxford, Baselayer, and angels including Adobe Chief Strategy Officer Scott Belsky and OpenStore co-founder Michael Rubenstein. CEO Soren Larson expressed excitement about the backing from these investors, noting that their experience and belief in the need for a new internet identity layer aligned with Crosshatch’s vision.
Co-founded in 2023 by Larson and Jesse Halpern, Crosshatch aims to solve a growing problem for consumers and brands alike: how to give users personalized experiences across multiple services while maintaining control over their own data.
“Our digital lives are fragmented across hundreds of apps and services we use,” Larson said in an interview with Refresh Miami.
“No platform has enough of the picture to truly anticipate our needs,” he added, reflecting on how this same challenge frustrated the Walmart data team he previously worked with.
Crosshatch’s platform allows users to bring their data and preferences into various apps, unlocking hyper-personalized experiences without compromising privacy. Whether you’re shopping on an e-commerce site, planning a trip, or streaming a new TV show, Crosshatch enables services to deliver content and recommendations tailored to each user’s unique preferences.
This ability to “carry your context” across different digital platforms is at the heart of Crosshatch’s offering. Unlike traditional approaches that require companies to build out costly infrastructure to achieve personalization, Crosshatch integrates seamlessly with just a few lines of code, making it an appealing option for businesses.
The startup has already attracted early interest from companies in sectors like grocery, retail, and travel. These industries, which have to manage deep inventories and large SKU counts, see Crosshatch as a way to surface more relevant product recommendations to customers while ensuring compliance with growing privacy regulations.
“We’re working with a grocery startup in Brooklyn that’s looking to anticipate customer needs by linking their grocery orders, calendar events, and other context to make the shopping experience more intuitive,” Larson said.
Crosshatch is part of the “OpenStore Mafia,” composed of the Miami unicorn’s former employees who have gone on to build their own venture-backed companies. Halpern and Larson met while working at OpenStore.
“We’ve embraced Keith Rabois’ idea of vertically integrating a fragmented market with poor customer satisfaction to offer a simplified value proposition. We’re essentially following his advice to the letter,” Larson explained.
For now, the startup is focused on scaling its technology, improving the latency of its services, and expanding the number of data sources that users can link to their accounts. “We’re creating an internet where users can project their data wherever they go, transforming the digital experience into something that’s truly personalized,” Larson said.
Miami is playing a protagonistic role in Crosshatch’s growth and vision. Larson emphasized how the city’s unique mix of entrepreneurial energy and lifestyle has made it the ideal place to build the company.
“Miami’s beach and lifestyle are unique. I’ve loved building here,” Larson said. “Keith Rabois is right: When you take on a lot of stress at work, living in a place where even your commute is beautiful makes a huge difference. I’ve really enjoyed it, and I’m very happy to be building in Miami.”
Photo at top of post: Crosshatch co-founders Soren Larson (CEO) and Jesse Halpern (CTO).
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