Sqrl Raises $550K to End the Need for Follow-Up

Cincinnati-based Sqrl announced today that it has raised a $550K seed round, led by CincyTech and including Hyde Park Ventures and Vine Street Ventures.

Ooops. I hope we didn’t spoil the ending of our Founder’s Accelerator Tale series!

As many of you know, Sqrl is a Brandery alum, started by 3 accountants to solve a problem they all dealt with in their day jobs: follow-up.

In order to succeed in accounting–and most professional services, actually–you need a significant amount of information from clients. You know who really sucks at getting you information in a timely, organized manner? Clients. And, it’s even worse when you have multiple clients, with multiple bits of information, and you’re handling all of the data by hand.

“Performing the accounting work was fine,” Sqrl cofounder and CEO Ryan Watson said in a statement. “there are great tools to handle that piece of businesses these days, but we were losing half our day playing air traffic control with our clients. It’s the same problem we had when I worked at a big four firm. A team would send hundreds or thousands of requests via email, and we all kept track manually in one huge spreadsheet. It was a nightmare.”

They guys at Sqrl (pronounced “squirrel,” and they want you to think of a digital hunter-gatherer) created an internal, automated system that handled those daily requests at their online accounting firm. When other firms expressed interest in the system, they figured they had something and applied to the Brandery.

Sqrl is focusing for now on small, regional accounting firms, offering their initial system free while they work on premium products. Eventually, the platform can be adapted for financial advisers, lawyers, and digital agencies.

“Sqrl is addressing a fundamental problem we all encounter every day,” CincyTech principal Justin Thompson said. “The founders happen to be from the accounting field, which might have more of a problem than most professions. We believe the team has created an elegant solution to the problem and are well capitalized to test their solution in the marketplace.”

Brandery Alum REPP Raises $250k from CincyTech

Cincinnati-based REPP announced this week that they’ve raised $250,000 from public/private seed stage investment group CincyTech. The funds are part of a larger round the company is still working on.

REPP is a digital background and information verification service that helps users manage their profiles. Using various checks like identity and social media verification, background checks, and a sexual offender check, REPP helps you put people that you might meet online at ease.

One use case is for Craigslist sellers. With a REPP account attached to your profile, you might put potential customers at ease and increase the likelihood of a sale. Same goes for Airbnb leasers. A REPP profile for an online date will guarantee that the person you have your eye on is who they really say they are.

REPP users have full control over their profile, allowing them to grant access only to the people they choose and for the length of time they choose.

The benefit of REPP is that our relationships are rarely classified as “online” and “offline” anymore. It’s no longer taboo to meet someone you only know virtually in real life, but that doesn’t actually make it safer. REPP provides you the opportunity to assure people that you are who you say you are.

“REPP is a product that should exist in the market,” CincyTech principal Justin Thompson said in a statement. “REPP is creating a layer of transparency and accountability to interactions we have online and those that naturally move offline. We believe the REPP team has a good opportunity to make a company that has a massive impact.”

The most recent announcement brings REPP’s total amount raised to $415k, and they plan to grow their team and expand marketing efforts with the capital infusion. The company is also offers enterprise support for businesses and is working on several partnerships that will increase usage of the service.

For a limited time, REPP is offering free profiles to new users.

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CincyTech Closes Biggest Fund To Date

CincyTech, the public/private partnership, seed stage investor, and pillar of the Cincinnati startup community, has reportedly raised it’s largest fund to date. Earlier this month The Cincinnati Business Courier reported that CincyTech has closed on a $10.8 million dollar fund.

CincyTech Fund III, LLC combines a $5 million Ohio Third Frontier investment with $5.9 million raised by CincyTech from Southwest Ohio partners.

Like CincyTech Funds I and II LLC, Fund III will invest in companies focused on information technology and bioscience that are based in or willing to move to Southwest Ohio. The fund has the capacity to invest in at least 15 companies.

“Over the last five years there has been a significant increase in seed stage investment activity in the Cincinnati region. CincyTech Fund III will enable us to continue to invest in entrepreneurs in Southwest Ohio to create jobs and wealth to propel our region forward,” said Bob Coy, president of CincyTech.

CincyTech has a variety of investors that have participated in Fund III, including eight local institutions and 51 individual investors.

“The number of individual investors in Fund III represents a dramatic increase from the nine individual investors in Fund II. These individuals are the foundation of the larger seed stage investment syndicates that we organize for our portfolio companies. Based upon our past investment experience, for every dollar invested in a startup from Fund III, an additional $3 will be invested by other investors in the seed round prior to an investment by an institutional venture capital fund,” said Coy.

Local institutions that have committed to invest in Fund III include Castellini Foundation, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, The Christ Hospital, The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, and the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati.

CincyTech has invested in $15.3 million dollars in 43 portfolio companies, including ChoreMonster, Impulcity, Lisnr, VenturePax, Ahalogy and many more.

Speaking of Cincinnati, this huge national conference for startups everywhere else is in Cincinnati Sep 29- October 1.

Detroit Venture Partners & CincyTech Aren’t Afraid Of The ChoreMonster

ChoreMonster, DVP, CincyTech, Cincinnati Startup

Original ChoreMonster artwork like this fills the 3rd floor at the Brandery where ChoreMonster works. It’s referred to as the “Alumni Penthouse” (photo: nibletz LLC)

I love writing about ChoreMonster. It’s a Cincinnati startup and Brandery alum who helped me get my daughter engaged in doing chores when she was four years old (during beta). Now my daughter is about to turn six and loves doing chores thanks to the ChoreMonster.

This fun startup uses great illustrations to help parents develop incentives to get their kids to do chores. It’s all handled through an interactive app. My daughter can access her chores on her iPod touch or iPad mini, and we can keep up with them on our iOS devices as well. As she completes chores she earns credit towards prizes that we’ve selected. My daughter’s room is filled with My Little Ponies, Beanie Babies, and a telescope set that were all incentives for chores over the last 14 months.

ChoreMonster continues to grow in my home and on the national front as well .

The company just announced a $1.5 million dollar “early stage round” led by Dan Gilbert, the chairman of Cincinnati casino operator Rock Ventures LLC and founding partner at Detroit Venture Partners. Cincinnati’s CincyTech also participated

ChoreMonster plans to use the money to increase its staff to 14 and continue to grow. They also took the time this week to announce a major partnership with Proctor & Gamble’s Crest Oral-B.

Cincinnati.com reports that this investment is also notable because it marks Gilbert’s entry into the Cincinnati entrepreneurial ecosystem, one that continues to thrive.

ChoreMonster has steadily been raising capital since their graduation from the Brandery in the 2011 class. In January 2012 the company raised $350,000 in seed funding. A year later they launched ChoreMonster out of private beta and took a $775,000 investment round.

This latest round doesn’t just bring capital to the table. DVP will also provide some expertise in the parental space. DVP partner Ted Sebrinski was the co-founder of ParentsClick, which was acquired by Lifetime Television.

“DVP is a firm led by experienced and successful entrepreneurs with a hands-on, deterministic approach to early stage investing that is aligned with our approach,” said Mike Venerable, CincyTech’s managing director for digital, software, and health technology companies.

With Gilbert already having business dealings in Cincinnati and now also involved in the startup ecosystem, Venerable is confident that DVP will participate in more Cincinnati deals, telling Cincinnati.com: “DVP is one of several new Midwest funds that are bringing new energy and capital to work in cities like ours, and DVP is active and engaged in Cincinnati. We fully expect to work with them on other opportunities in the future.”

Check out our video interview with Choremonster below:

And speaking of Cincinnati:

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.