Funding Archives - Page 11 of 14

3 Ann Arbor Michigan Startups Get $600K Investment

Ann Arbor’s Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund is on a roll this year as they’ve already invested $2.6 million dollars into Michigan’s growing startup ecosystem. The fund is administered by AnnArborSPARk and according to semichiganstartup.com another six to ten startups may still see investment funds from the group that invests in pre-seed stages of high growth potential startups.

The fund has just announced that they’ve invested $600k in three area startups; FlockTag, Larky’s and FreeStride Therapeutics.

FlockTag is a mobile application in the loyalty and reward space targeting quick-service restaurants and connecting their loyal customers with deals and rewards.

FreeStride Therapeutics is a bio-medical startup working on therapies for bone related conditions.

Larky’s is also in the hot loyalty space. Their app helps consumers manage discounts, rewards and other loyalty perks. It helps increase customer loyalty and drive merchant profit.

So far the Michigan Pre-Seed Fund has invested $16.5 million dollars in 75 area Startups and helped to create 120 jobs in Michigan.

Linkage:

Source: semichiganstartup.com

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Idaho: Treasure Valley Angel Fund Takes Over Where Boise Angel Fund Left Off

While Boise Idaho isn’t synonymous with startups they do have quite a few great tech companies on their hands. Part of that was because of the $1 million dollar Boise Angel Fund which has recently shut down.

A new group of angels have banded together in Idaho to again spur innovation, startups and small businesses. The Treasure Valley Angel Fund has announced that they’ve raised $750,000 of the $2 million dollars they are looking to invest in Idaho startups.

“The Treasure Valley Angel Fund is the kind of jobs-and opportunity-creating machine that will help accelerate Idaho’s economic growth through the skill and experience of proven business leaders and the creative energy of entrepreneurs,” Gov. Butch Otter said in a news release.

Earl Sullivan who is the chairman of “The Core” a medical technology industry cluster in Meridian, is backing the Treasure Valley Angel Fund and is the interim chairmen however he has already said that he’s turned over control of the fund to the members.

“Members of the Core, who are committed to building out a core competency in Idaho in health care, health research and innovation, are energized by the response of investors to grow the base of capital on which Idaho’s growing economy is built,” Sullivan said to the Idaho Statesman.

Loon Creek Capital will administer the Treasure Valley Angel Fund. Kevin Learned, the co-founder of Loon Creek and also the co-founder of Learned Mahn, one of Idaho’s first software companies said: “Idahoans have known for more than a century when to make an investment to prime the pump, and they have done it again,”

Linkage:

For more on the Treasure Valley Angel Fund Click Here

Source: The Idaho Statesman

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Boston Startup: DraftKings Raises $1.4 Million Dollars For Their Fantasy Sports Platform

If you’re into fantasy sports for real money you may want to check out DraftKings if you haven’t already. The hot Boston startup just raised $1.4 million dollars in venture capital to expand their marketing efforts and beyond Major League Baseball. They plan to add football, basketball and ice hockey to their already lucrative sports gaming business.

The legal, money betting fantasy sports startup offers same day settlement of cash prizes. They operate in 44 states excluding: Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana and Vermont where it’s not legal to participate in online “gambling”.

The $1.4 million dollar seed round was led by Atlas Venture. Boston Seed Capital, Hub Angels, Angel Street Capital and other private investors also participated in the round.

Thirty-two million people play fantasy sports in the US and Canada, and two-thirds of all fantasy sports leagues involve fees and payouts that are typically managed offline by a designated member of the league. DraftKings simplifies the process by handling financial transactions through its site while collecting a commission on every stakes game.

“While fantasy sports have been around for 50 years, online daily fantasy sports is much younger and growing rapidly. The sector is ripe for innovation via an analytical approach to marketing and customer relationship management,” said Jason Robins, DraftKings CEO and co-founder.

“There’s an opportunity for a daily fantasy sports platform to dominate the current field,” said Ryan Moore, partner at Atlas Venture. “With a deep understanding of successful gaming franchises, and expertise in customer acquisition and retention, the team at DraftKings has the potential to quickly achieve the top position in this market.”

Sports fans are flocking to DraftKings because they’ve cut away some of the fat associated with other fantasy sports sites. This way DraftKings can focus on players’ favorite aspects of fantasy gaming:

1. Daily fantasy sports games. No more season long commitments.

2. A community at the ready to play. No more hustling to round up a league.

3. On demand draft. Players can pick a new team whenever they choose, which is much more fun than scrounging to substitute mid-season.

4. Players are never “out of contention”. No more going an entire season with a poorly performing team. Engagement remains high for the duration.

5. Daily payouts. For those games involving financial stakes, players can collect immediately.

6. Onsite settlement. DraftKings handles the transactions and distribution of proceeds, freeing up precious administrative time.

“Playing fantasy sports should be fun and easy. Our approach is data-driven, but those themes underlay every customer-facing decision we make,” said Matt Kalish, COO and co-founder.

Linkage:

Check out DraftKings here at draftkings.com

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20 Year Olds Get $100,000 Investment For Their Cincinnati Startup CapStory, Interview Here

Online privacy is not just a problem for Facebook users. The problem is shared across all social networks, especially ones that allow public searchable results. We’re not talking about those safety and security privacy concerns, we’re talking about those beer pong pics, jello shots and beer bongs that you don’t want that fortune 500 recruiter to see. Long gone are the days where you could share things care-free on Faccebook.

This is actually a real problem for many people .Sure the more conservative set may say you shouldn’t do those things but we’re willing to bet those people criticizing good ole college fun, had some good ole college fun themselves, back before Facebook.

It was just a few months ago where we reported on employers that actually asked interviewees for their social network accounts and their logins.

So where can you share and aggregate your photos, statuses and messages safely and privately? Where can you save them?

CapStory,Cincinnati startup,startup,startups,interview,founder interview,CincyTech

Susprasanna Mishra & Dustin Studer co-founders of CapStory (photo: marketwire)

Well a Cincinnati startup called CapStory says they have the answer. We first met the guys from CapStory at Chicago TechWeek last month. Last week it was announced that they secured a $100,000 investment from CincyTech as part of their larger seed round. CapStory plans on using the money to finish the user interface and complete the mobile version, and then roll it out on college campuses.

There are a few other startups that are trying to do what they do. BonFyre in St.Louis has a social network that is likened to Facebook before it opened up to everyone in the world over 13.

“There are other companies trying to do what Capstory is building, but the company’s emphasis on telling a story and its simple mobility are what set it apart from its competitors,” said Justin Thompson, senior analyst at CincyTech.

We got a chance to interview CapStory, check out the interview below.

Raleigh Startup: Sprout Scores $20M Round For Female Viagra

If you’re in a relationship with a woman, whether it’s a long term relationship, marriage, or even same sex marriage, and your female partner tells you she’s not in the mood, a lot, it may not be you after all. A Raleigh NC based startup called Sprout may actually be able to help you and your partner, down the road if they get FDA approval.

In 1998 Pfizer rocked the market when they introduced Viagra the first commercially available medication for men with erectile dysfunction. Viagra spawned a new category of prescription medications that have now turned into a $5 billion dollar industry. No one thought about women though.

Female sexual dysfunction, or low sexual desire is an actual problem. An Illinois based company called BioSante Pharmaceuticals suggests that as many as 43% of women between the ages of 18 and 59 experience some kind of female sexual dysfunction. The company made that statement based on figures published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. They project that female sexual dysfunction could turn into a $2 billion dollar a year industry.

Sprout, is working toward FDA approval for fibanserin a compound developed to treat hypoactive sexual disorder which is a form of female sexual dysfunction. Sprout purchased the compound from German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. The FDA denied Boehringer approval of fibanserin in 2010.

Sprout’s Chief Commercial Officer Cynthia Whitehead thinks that Sprout will be more successful with FDA approval. Whiethead told WRAL that there were “flawed metrics” in the first FDA submission by Boehringer. She went on to say “It will be a review issue,” she said. “We feel we have all of the data we need.”

Whitehead also said that Boehringer’s submission for fibarnserin was as a depression treatment.

Sprout has received a $20 million dollar angel investment from 59 angel investors, the same group of investors that backed Slate Pharmaceuticals which was the company that spun out Sprout. The company will use the money to support their operations and growth. They will also use the money to hire regulatory personnel and scientists to work on the resubmission of the drug in 2013.

Source: WRAL

St. Louis Startup Norsecorp Has Raised $2.5 Million So Far

Fresh on the heels of news that St. Louis startup Norsecorp entered into a very lucrative partnership with Global eTelecom, the company has reported that they are well on their way to finishing up a $3.5 million dollar round of funding.

Norsecorp provides technology that detects early warning signs of fraud for online transactions. Global eTelecom has a network of over 55,000 merchants nationwide that use their services for ACH and e-check processing. Norsecorp’s technology, when coupled with Global eTelecom, will provide protection from fraudulent transactions that could cost retails a lot of money.

Their software product is called IP Viking.

The Business Journal has reported that Norsecorp has already raised $2.5 million dollars in a round of funding that started on June 29th and expects to close on July 31. According to the SEC the minimum investment in the round is $50,000.

Norsecorp was part of Capital Innovator’s class last year. They received $50,000 in seed funding and also presented at Capital Innovators demo day at the end of the session.

Linkage:

Find out more about Norsecorp here

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Kansas City Startup: Divshot Wins $25k in crowdfunder’s Crowdstart Contest In LA

Los Angeles based crowdfunding startup crowdfunder just completed their first Crowdstart contest. The seven week contest drew over 700 submissions, 74 contestants and 10 finalists. Kansas City startup Divshot emerged as the winner, taking home the $25,000 prize.

While we all know that the JOBS act was passed earlier this year and crowdfunding for equity won’t be implemented until the end of the year or early next year, Crowdfunder didn’t want to wait to start helping startups raise invaluable funds. For the prize money they teamed with Right Side Capital Management.

Divshot is a company that provides web designers with drag and drop tools for rapidly prototyping websites and designs. The concept was born just 90 days ago at a Startup Weekend event in Kansas City, home to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, who is the major backing behind the Startup Weekend brand of events.

“Opportunities for local fundraising are limited, not just here in Kansas City but everywhere around the country,” said Jake Johnson, Divshot co-founder. “Crowdfunder will enable us to tap into capital, education and resources through their online platform. What’s good for us is good for our local economy. We’re excited to be part of making a positive economic impact here in our own backyard.”

Now that the Los Angeles contest has come to a close, crowdfunder has just kicked off their Crowdstart Las Vegas contest. This time though, half a million dollars is up for grabs. The contest kicks off tonight at Startup Weekend in Vegas.

“We’re thrilled to be able to support entrepreneurs and innovation here and throughout the country,” said crowdfunder CEO Chance Barnett. “Divshot is just the beginning of the kind of nurturing, education and support that crowdfunder intends to provide. That’s why we’re hosting another startup contest, Crowdstart Las Vegas, which kicks off today at Vegas Startup Weekend where $500,000 is up for grabs by the Vegas Tech Fund.”

Linkage:

Check out Crowdfunder here

Check out Divshot here

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NY Startup BarkBox Raises $1.7M Almost By Accident

Matt Meeker has had a successful exit with MeetUp and has also served as the entrepreneur in residence at Polaris Ventures, it’s no wonder that his admitted “side project”, BarkBox has just raised $1.7 million dollars.

While the round itself was intentional, Meeker never really thought this business would create such momentum. Obviously he wasn’t familiar with his $53 billion dollar pet care industry. It was only natural with a subscription box available for everything from purses to shoes, to healthcare and wellness products to, “bro stuff” a subscription box for pet care products was a shoe in for a great business.

“We started thinking this would be a little side project, and a nice little cash flow business, and then we got such tremendous feedback about it we decided there’s a much bigger opportunity here,” he said.”If we want to do it right, we’re going to need some capital in the bank to go build a team and start building real relationships with suppliers and things like that, so we decided to go out and raise that money to do it.” betakit.com reported

This $1.7 million dollar round was led by Mike Hirschland of Resolute.vc, and included Lerer Ventures, RRE, Polaris Ventures, Bertelsmann and Dave McLure’s 500 startups.

Linkage:

Visit BarkBox here

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Chicago Funds 25 Startups For $188 Million In Q2 2012 Smashes Q1

Chicago recently played host to a great regional tech and startup conference called TechWeek 2012. Judging on the activity at the conference and the legendary after parties it should be no surprise that startup activity in Chicago is big. How big? Try $188 million dollars big of 25 startup companies. Two companies; Dealstar and Tribeca Flashpoint Acacdemy also exited in Q2 without disclosing financials behind their deals.

GoHealth received the most money in Q2 2012 with $50 million by Norwest Equity Partners. Valence Health came in second place with $30 million. In the tech space Singlehop led with $27.5 million. Total Attorneys was second in the non health space with $15 million.

Chicago’s startup de jour, Belly, pulled in two rounds of funding in Q2 for a total of $12.5 million. Lightbank Capital and Silicon Valley Bank teamed up for a $2.5m round for Belly in April and Silicon Valley powerhouse firm, Andreesseen Horowitz invested $10m in May.

The bigger story for Chicago is that in Q1 2012 there was just $33 million in funding split between 17 companies.

Here’s the complete list of companies funded in Q2 from BuiltinChicago.com

Arroweye $3 million
Belly $12.5 million
BenchPrep $6 million
BrightTag $15 million
Dabble $140,000
Elevate Digital $2.7 million
Future Simple $6.8 million
GoHealth $50 million
gtrot $920,000
Journatic $3.2 million
Kapow Events $700,000
Mediafly $200,000
MentorMob $150,000
Monthlys not reported
Neighborhoods not reported
New Futuro $1.3 million
Open Kennel $440,000
Restaurant.com $8,000,000
Singlehop $27.5 million
SocialKaty $300,000
Tempo $750,000
Total Attorneys $15M
Unmetric $3.2M
Valence Health $30M

Linkage:

Source: Built In Chicago 1 2

Check out Nibletz’ coverage of Chicago TechWeek 2012

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Cultivation Capital Invests In Two More St. Louis Startups: Yurbuds & Systematic Revenue

Two weeks ago we got a chance to meet Rick Holton of Holton Capital, Arch Angels, and Cultivation Capital among other things. We talked about the thriving tech scene in St. Louis and the synergy created when a meeting at Holton’s office formed VentureSTL.

Cultivation Capital is back in the news again as they’ve announced their two most recent investments. Cultivation Capital’s principals include Holton, along with Square co-founder Jim Mckelvey, Brian Matthews and Peter Esparrage. Back in April we reported on Cultivation Capital’s first three investments, including a $250,000 investment in St.Louis favorite, LockerDome.

In the latest round of investments Cultivation Capital invested $219,000 in Yurbuds a company that makes sports headphones. The company makes earbuds that can withstand the heaviest of workouts. In fact at the International Consumer Electronics back in January, Yurbuds had acrobats walking on their hands while the earbuds stayed firmly in their ears. To prove that there was no PR hocus pocus on-lookers were encouraged to open brand new packs of the earbuds for the acrobats to use. Yes they were awesome.

The other startup to receive funding from Cultivation Capital was Systematic Revenue. While not as sexy as earbuds that won’t fall out of your ears, Systematic Revenue is an online automated marketing solution to help track potential clients. Back in May the startup reported that they had 25 businesses signed up in their beta test.

Systematic Revenue received $100,000 from Cultivation Capital.

“We look forward to assisting the vibrant Yurbuds team and the calculated Systematic Revenue teams as they continue to define St. Louis as an entrepreneurial hub,” saidCliff Holekamp, a general partner of Cultivation Capital, in a statement.

Cultivation Capital plans to invest $500,000 in the most promising startups in the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 classes of Capital Innovators.

Linkage:

Here’s Cultivation Capital’s website

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Austin Startup: VolunteerSpot Raises $1.5 Million From Nebraska New York & More

Whether you’re in charge of volunteers at a school’s PTA, your local church, civic organization or even the boy scouts, organizing volunteers can quickly turn into a big mess. Everyone typically means well when you first call out for volunteers and you end up with more than you need. Then, when it gets to be crunch time, people are too busy with other things or forget what their volunteer job was. This can lead to a chaotic mess for any volunteer coordinator or event organizer. Until recently, even the most organized of volunteer coordinators often pulled off a great event with a gigantic headache.

Karen Bantuveris, the founder and CEO of VolunteerSpot said enough was enough and took this problem into her own hands. She solved it by creating an online platform to manage volunteers. The service has taken off with over 1.5 million volunteer users already using the free platform. What’s even better is the fact that there’s been no real marketing. The startup has survived off word-of-mouth advertising and some social media.

Last week VolunteerSpot announced that they’ve raised $1.5 million dollars in a round of funding that they plan to use to bolster their marketing efforts.

The round was led by FF Venture Capital out of New York. The Central Texas Angel Network, the Baylor Angel Network and Angel List also participated in the round. But those aren’t the only angels Bantuveris was able to woo.

The Nebraska Angels ponied up $450,000 in the round. 14 of the Nebraska Angels contributed $25,000 or more towards that $450,000. Nebraska Angels Vice President Steve Clinch told SiliconPrairieNews that he liked Bentuveris from the minute he picked her up from the airport because of her “go-getter” spirit.

“We like to look at scalability. Does it have that?” Clinch said. “VolunteerSpot, from my investment standpoint — and I think I speak for a lot of other angel investors — does.”

Bart Dillashaw, President of the Nebraska Angels told SPN “The Nebraska Angels are excited about the investment in VolunteerSpot. VolunteerSpot provides a fantastic service to an attractive demographic, and we were incredibly encouraged by the strong loyalty and support of their users.”

“Until this point, we’ve grown almost entirely by word of mouth,” said Bantuveris told the Austin Statesman. “Now, with formal marketing money, we’ll be able to reach a wider group of power moms, teachers and community coordinators who drive the lion’s share of volunteer activities in this country.”

VolunteerSpot is one of the most scalable startups we’ve seen in quite sometime. Every kind of organization from gymnastics clubs to habitat for humanity can, and do use VolunteerSpot, and of course there are volunteer organizations in every town, city and state in the U.S.

Linkage:

Check out Volunteerspot here

Source: SiliconPrairieNews, Austin Statesman

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Baltimore Startup: SocialToaster Grabs $1.975M In Series A Round

Baltimore startup Social Toaster seems to be on the cutting edge of monetizing social media distribution. There are a lot of companies in the same space as Social Toaster but none some to be executing with the same results.

The concept is pretty simple. If you have are a digital publisher or major brand Social Toaster helps you register ambassadors and super fans. These people are charged with helping to get your message out to the world, and because their fans, they do just that. Ambassadors and Super Fans are the type of social media folks who carry a lot of weight. How much?

Well according to Social Toaster’s CEO and Founder Brian Razzaque, “One of our clients told us that with 60,000 ambassadors, we were more effective than their Facebook page of 2 million.” he told the Baltimore Sun

In fact, one of Social Toasters clients is the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens use Social Toaster for monthly media sharing contests which help their content go viral.

This isn’t a fly by night operation or a flash in the pan. Social Toaster has been perfecting their craft. Last year their sales were $300,000 this year they are projecting $2 to $3 million in sales. That’s why Razzaque was able to announce last week that the firm had completed a $1.975 million dollar series A round.

The round follows a seed round in 2011 from Neuberger Ventures and other individual investors.

Blu Venture Investors led Social Toaster’s latest round, Baltimore Angels, Wasabi Ventures, and Piedmont Investment Advisors also participated.

Razzaque plans to double the headcount from 22-50 and also plans moving the company to larger offices to Clipper Mill with about three times the office space they are currently operating out of.

William Militello, Founder of Piedmont Investment Advisors, LLC commented, “I am always excited to fund great entrepreneurs. I believe that true innovation occurs when skilled labor, intellectual capital, and entrepreneurs with great ideas are combined with the financial capital Piedmont can provide.”

Paul Silber of Blu Venture Investors, said, “our team was really attracted to SocialToaster’s novel “message amplification” solution, to the company’s leadership, and to the fact that they were rapidly gaining traction with recognizable name-brand customers. We liked the fact that their software solution offered a cost-effective and simple way for organizations of all kinds to effectively use social media to get their message out to a wider audience.”

Linkage:

For more info on Social Toaster visit them here at socialtoaster.com

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Source: Baltimore Sun

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Kansas City Startup: AgLocal Raises $1 Million Dollar Seed Round

We told you about Kansas City startup AgLocal back in April. This innovative startup is connecting meat lovers with real meat, direct from the farm, effectively cutting out the middle man which is commonly the grocery store.

Real true meat lovers want to make sure they have the highest quality cuts of meat without the worry of chemicals involved in processing or trickery used to make the cut weigh more with additives and such that are commonly found in meat packaged at national food chains.

While the vegans and vegetarians of the world may not like the idea behind the Fairway, KS based startup, farmers love it. According to the Kansas City Business Journal, AgLocal has already signed up over 100 farms to be part of it’s direct to consumer network.

Founder Naithan Jones is hoping to grow AgLocal organically (no pun intended) and sees a vision where anyone in the US can pick up their mobile phone and use an AgLocal app to get the best meat delivered to their door.

AgLocal has secured a $1 million dollar seed round led by local investors OpenAir Equity Partners.

Jones left the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundations Aspiring Entrepreneur FastTrac Program to undertake starting AgLocal.

Jones plans on using the money to add more engineers, build out it’s technology platform and increase partnerships with local farmers.

Linkage:

For more on AgLocal visit them here

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Boulder Startup: LinkSmart Comes Out Of Stealth Mode, Reports $4.7M In Funding

A Boulder startup that promises online publishers a better, smarter way to handle link management, has emerged from the secrecy of “stealth mode”.

LinkSmart announced their concept and product to the yesterday along with the fact that the startup has raised $4.7 million since starting the company in 2009.

LinkSmart’s venture backing comes from Boulder’s The Foundry Group as well as two Silicon Valley area venture groups, Sutter Hill and Costanoa.

Founder and CEO Pete Sheinbaum comes from an online publishing background. He was previously the founder and publisher of DailyCandy.

Text link advertising can be a lucrative source of income, especially for independent online publishers.

Companies like Kontera offer publishers link based advertising that serves up a mini popup hover ad over keywords. One of the pain points with services like these are that readers click out of a website to the ad supported content.

This is just one of the examples of the many things Sheinbaum and the LinkSmart team have been working on since 2009.

“I wanted to build a system for publishers, by a publisher, that satisfies the real business problems” they have with traffic management, user engagement and advertising, Sheinbaum said to the DailyCamera

LinkSmart’s Total Link Management is a SaaS (software as a service) that analyzes readers behavior on websites to serve and suggest more relevant links and keyword suggestions.

This is just the beginning for LinkSmart though they’ve moved into larger office space and plan on working on more publisher centric products and features.

Linkage:

Check out LinkSmart on their website here

Source: DailyCamera

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