CircleUp built Helio, a proprietary machine-learning platform that ingests data from hundreds of sources on over a million consumer brands to systematically find and evaluate private deals, positioning itself as a "quant" investor for private markets rather than relying on traditional network-driven sourcing like most VCs. The firm vertically integrated technology, equity, and credit into one platform, providing both equity investment and non-dilutive credit to consumer brands through the same data-driven underwriting engine—creating a complete financing stack for CPG companies that few other VCs offer in-house.