Venture Capital Archives - Page 3 of 5

Atlanta Startups To Win In CTW Breakup

Earlier this summer Atlanta super angel, Sig Mosely came out of retirement. It was announced that he was joining forces with Palaniswamy Rajan to form the $25 million dollar CTW ventures fund. Mosely also participated in a $600,000 round led by Dallas Maverick’s owner and fellow super angel Mark Cuban, in Atlanta startup Badgy.. It’s unclear whether or not it was Mosely or CTW in that round.

Now, just two months after the start of CTW the partners, Mosely and Rajan are parting ways. They are divorcing over what the Atlanta Business Journal is equating to “irreconcilable differences.

Rajan prefers to go long tail on technology ventures.

“Raj much prefers to dig deep, deep, deep into the technology,” Mosley said to the Business Journal “That does not do anything for me.”

Rajan feels the same way about Mosely’s desire to invest in entrepreneurs. Mosely is more of a risk taker which is actually great for startups.

Both men will go there separate ways but that doesn’t mean Mosely is going back into retirement. Mosely is creating his own fund that will invest between $200,000 and $500,000 in entrepreneur lead startups.

Mosely is hoping that his fund will be a feeder fund for deal flow with larger firms like Menlo Park Ventures.

Prior to retiring a first time in 2010 Mosely had oversaw the investment in over 130 technology companies as the President of Imlay Investments.

Linkage:

Source: Atlanta Business Journal

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Minnesota Venture Firm Tells Startups: Stop Reading TechCrunch

Four business partners with roots in Minnesota, came together earlier this summer and announced the formation of a new venture firm called AMP Partners. Minnesota has seen a recent boost in startups and entrepreneurism spearheaded by JumpStart Inc and then quickly taken over by Minnesotans.

Darren Marhula, Brad England, Mark Donahoe and Chris Palm pooled their own money together from investment banking, Wall Street, and property management, Marhula told tech.mn in June. “We’re interested in the right entrepreneur with the right plan more than the exact market. We’re not exclusively focused on any one type of business, but definitely interested in local technology startups.”

Now as the summer season comes to a close and AMP’s been on the ground running for the last few months or so tech.mn checked back in with Marhula who echoed a main theme that we continually hear on our sneaker-strapped nationwide startup roadtrip. That theme, simply put is, valuations are too high.

In the follow-up interview Marhula said “we continue to be surprised by the unrealistically high valuation expectations by many entrepreneurs out there, which has prevented us from making more investments.”. So again in line with markets their size like St.Louis, Cincinnati and even Washington DC, entrepreneurs are pricing themselves out of an investment. This can be a lethally hard lesson to learn.

To date, AMP has invested into two companies, presumably with more modest self-worth. HomeVisor is an online Realtor referral service and the first to receive funding from AMP. Their second investment , BuyWafers.com sells silicon wafers and other materials for semi-conductors. That company will be launching shortly. AMP didn’t reveal how much money was in either deal.

It’s evident that AMP, like most investors, are looking for viable startups and businesses and they’re not holding a business plan competition. AMP is also seeing a lot of buzzword happy entrepreneurs who are the same entrepreneurs being poked fun at by Vooza in New York.

Marhula said: “Stop reading TechCrunch and focus on building your business; get your valuation expectations in check and when you come in to pitch your idea, we don’t want to hear about exits, pivots, and MVPs…we want to see results.”

AMP Partners would love to hear your realistic pitch, drop them a line here

Linkage:

Source: tech.mn

Check out AMP here

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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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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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St. Louis’ Rick Holton Jr Charged Up By VentureSTL

Rick Holton Jr. And his brother Rob Holton are no strangers to the St. Louis startup scene, tech scene or business scene. The Holton brothers come from a long and historical pedigree in the St. Louis area. Their mother Lotsie Hermann Holton is actually the granddaughter of August “Gussie” Busch from the Anheuser-Busch family.

We met the Holton Brothers on Friday when the Nibletz sneaker strapped startup road trip pulled into St. Louis for a quick overnight stop. We were there to meet with our friends at LockerDome. We had asked Gabe Lozano to introduce us to someone very influential in the St. Louis startup scene, preferably someone part of the Arch Angels, angel investor network.

Rick Holton and Rob Holton, through their investment company, Holton Capital, are members of the Arch Angels. Rick Holton is also one of the principals in the fund that came out of the Arch Angel group, Cultivation Capital. Notable St. Louis alum Jim McKelvey, co-founder of Square is also a principal in Cultivation Capital, as are Brian Matthews, Peter Esparrago, and Cliff Holekamp. Together the fund is backed by $20 million for funding startups.

But the story here doesn’t lay in the background of St.Louis’ growing tech startup community. The story is about what Rick Holton Jr has been very excited about lately, and that is synergy.

When we arrived at Holton’s office Cameron and I were under the impression that Holton had expected to hear a pitch from us. Yes we absolutely need money but we’re not sure VC money is the way to go. We were at Holton Capital’s offices to get the story. The story about how and why, all of the sudden St. Louis keeps popping back up in the tech and startup news.

We are hearing about Arch Angels, Cultivation Capital, BonFyre, LockerDome, and countless other companies, funds and investors on a regular basis. Heck St. Louis is so hot that Edward Domain moved tech.li to St. Louis from Chicago after a $50,000 grant from Arch Grants.

It’s not like the Holton’s or any of the other partners in Cultivation Capital or angel investors in Arch Angels, are strangers to investing. Holton Capital has been investing in companies for over a decade.

Rick Holton explained that with their company they had invested heavily into a variety of companies. They have a classic car company, a framing company, investments in several life sciences companies and of course technology. Rick quickly confirmed with his brother and then told us that Arch Angels has $30 million invested so far.

St. Louis is an extremely loyal town. Earlier in the morning Jim Enright and Mark Sanders at L ockerDome told us that if you went down the street in downtown St.Louis 9 out of 10 locals could tell you everything that happened in the most recent Cardinals game. After a quick test they were right.

But even as loyal as St. Louis can be Holton was concerned that some people may have the perception that St.Louis is a dying industrial town, rather than the thriving tech town that it is.

Holton’s other major concern was that all the startup and tech resources weren’t talking to each other. Through Holton Capital and his work with FinServe Angels and Arch Angels Holton is extremely plugged into the tech and startup ecosystem in St. Louis but he kept finding that not many others were.

Holton explained that he would hear about one deal from someone and suggest another possible investor that would be perfect for the opportunity but they didn’t know each other. “People weren’t talking to each other and because of that they were competing with each other when they didn’t have to be”.

At this point in our discussion Holton has moved from reserved to completely animated. If you don’t know Holton personally, he stands at a towering 10 feet, ok not really but he is very tall. He’s talking extremely fast and moving his hands around explaining to us, with the excitement that you’d expect when Mark McGwire was still belting them out of the park.

You can tell that this non-communication between tech influencers in St. Louis was something Holton was becoming passionate about. So he called a meeting.

Holton invited 15 of the top tech and startup influencers in St.Louis to the meeting in his boardroom on January 26th. Among the invitees were other venture capitalists, influential local tech blogs, partner resources and entrepreneurs.

Of those 15 people invited only 47 of them showed up. Holton Capital has your average modest sized conference room. Holton was fitting all of these interested tech folks wherever they could. At one point, as Holton actually showed us, they moved every chair in the office into the conference room.

“What I expected to be a 45 minute to an hour meeting of introductions and handing out business cards turned into a strategy session that lasted over two hours” Holton said.

Out of that meeting new partnerships were formed, new friends were made, and VentureSTL was born.

VentureSTL is a new web portal connecting everyone in the St.Louis startup and tech community to each other with news, discussions, links and profiles. Holton believed so much in VentureSTL that his own holtoncapital.com forwards to the site.

Holton is very optimistic about the companies that are growing right in St. Louis. Two of the more notable startups are LockerDome and BonFyre. Holton and the others involved in VentureSTL, the meeting that VentureSTL was born out of and everyone affiliated with Arch Angels are doing what they can to keep St. Louis startups in St. Louis and attracting new companies, like tech.li to St. Louis.

St. Louis has some big stars in this web 2.0 wave. Most notably would be Jack Dorsey from Twitter and Square and Jim McKelvey, also co-founder of Square. McKelvey loves St. Louis and is committed to helping Holton and company with the St. Louis mission, Dorsey, not so much.

Linkage:

Connect to VentureSTL here

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Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors Backs Seattle Startup Tango Card

Seattle startup Tango Card is looking to continue to bring innovation to the gift card and rewards space. They are focused on enterprise customers and incorporate digital goods into gift cards and loyalty programs. Tango Card already powers solutions for Bing Rewarsd, FedEx, Extole and Shutterfly.

Those are just some of the factors by two big announcements the company had last week. First of which was that Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors has participated in a $1.8 million dollar Series A round, alongside Western Technology Investment. Tango Card plans to use those funds to hire more software developers and expand their proprietary software applications.

Tango Card also announced that Westpac GM Technology and Boeing Joint Strike Fighter IT director Randy Fennel is joining the company in an expanded CTO role.

“As a company we’re focused on launching innovative and proprietary software applications in huge and unexplored verticals, execution, and strong brand and partner curation. With Innovation Endeavors and WTI as our first institutional investors we have access to incredible industry thought leaders, mentors and innovators from the Innovation Community. Both investors also bring very deep pockets and long-term focus to Tango Card,” said David Leeds, CEO and Founder of Tango Card. “Additionally, our ability to attract someone with the pedigree, capabilities, and respect that Randy Fennel brings to the company underscores the exciting things we have already done and the mission we are on. Ultimately, this additional capital and the hire of Randy positions us to scale rapidly – a good thing since we have grown 30X already year-over-year,” Leeds concludes.

“We were attracted to Tango Card’s vision of bringing gift cards and digital goods to huge and unexplored areas, and doing this primarily through efficient and scalable software and proprietary applications,” said Dror Berman, Founding Managing Partner at Innovation Endeavors. “We believe we can add significant value as partners and advisors and look forward to working with this exceptionally talented team.” Maurice Werdegar, CEO of WTI stated, “We love David’s track record of success and clear results-based leadership. I’ve known him since his FiberTower days, just before he and his co-founders took that company public, and we see similar opportunities here.”

Tango Card works like no other gift card program out there. A purchaser can buy a Tango Card and give it to the recipient via email. The recipient can then exchange the value of the card for a variety of retailers cards like Amazon, iTunes, Target etc. Or they can elect to donate all or a portion of the cards value to charity.

Not only that but Tango Card makes their card program more social. They call it the “What I got” card, and they allow the recipient to take a picture of what they got with the card and post it for the giver to see via a mobile app available for both Android and iOS.

Tango Card allows more variety for the recipient and a better chance they’ll get what they actually want, no matter what the retailer.

Linkage

Find out more about Tango Card here

Check out the Tango Card app for Android here

Check out the Tango Card app for iPhone here

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Techstars David Cohen Invests $150,000 In Advocharge

TechStars Co-Founder & CEO David Cohen

David Cohen, the co-founder and CEO of Techstars, the largest accelerator program in the world has recently invested $150,000 in Advocharge. Advocharge establishes credit card processing rates at a substantial discount from the rates typically found from similar companies.

Advocharge’s CEO Mark Tracy said that they are able to allow substantially lower rates because they are compensated 10% from the savings a client company receives from the difference in rates.

“A number of the TechStars businesses are currently working with AdvoCharge and have realized significant savings – as much 80-90 percent over the fees they had been paying to their previouscredit card processor. On top of the savings, our TechStars companies are really happy with the service and support they receive,” said Cohen.

One TechStars graduate, Orbotix, the makers of the Sphero Ball, utilize the services of AdvoCharge. Their VP of Operations, Jim Booth said:

“Rate is not everything with merchant services, but the support we get from AdvoCharge has been tremendous. When you couple that with the very low rate they established for us, we couldn’t be happier.”

AdvoCharge’s CEO, Mark Tracy, stated, “We are thrilled to be working with David. Through TechStars and his other investments, David has learned a great deal about what makes startups successful and has a tremendous network. We’re excited to learn from him, to leverage the relationships he’s developed and to positively impact those contacts.”

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Arrington Is Back: Fireside Chat With Fred Wilson

Mike Arrington was back, looking right at home on the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC. As most of you know he was here last year for Disrupt NYC but after that things between he and AOL got a little shaky.

Last year Arrington appeared onstage with a TechCrunch Green t-shirt that read “unpaid blogger”. This year there was no special shirt, just Arrington in his best form. After being introduced by John Biggs as a guy who used to be Biggs’ boss he sat down to chat with Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson.

Arrington pointed out that every time he talked face to face with Wilson they were always in New York. Arrington went on to ask Wilson if he was extremely wealthy and if Wilson had rode into Disrupt on a helicopter. Wilson was quick to point out he walked a couple blocks and then grabbed a cab. He also pointed out that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg often takes the train.

As far as Wilson and his investments are concerned, Arrington immediately started in on him about Duck Duck Go a new search engine. In regards to Duck Duck Go, Arrington looked at Wilson and simply said “Why, I don’t understand”.

Wilson responded by saying that Duck Duck Go has 40-50% of the traffic of AOL search which is still a top 5 search engine in the world. Wilson is also enthusiastic about Duck Duck go because it was created by just one person. Concerns about privacy will also drive the popularity of Duck Duck Go because it’s a 100% private search engine.

When Arrington asked Wilson if Google should be worried about Duck Duck Go, Wilson said no pointing out that Duck Duck Go is fundamentally different. Where Google uses algorithms and key words, Duck Duck Go “leverages 100s of services that are domain experts, hit their API’s and assemble on the fly”.

Arrington admitted that he was not enthusiastic about Kickstarter at first but has since become one of biggest fans of the crowd sourced funding site. Union Square was the only venture capital firm to invest in Kickstarter. When Arrington asked Wilson why they invested, Wilson described Kickstarter as a “futures market for product”.

Arrington and Wilson rounded out their conversation talking about Wilson’s investments in Twitter and Zynga. Arrington of course said Wilson needs to get to San Francisco more.

Check out more of our Disrupt coverage here:

Arizona Startups: BioInspire BioTech Medical Device Incubator Taking Applications

Earlier this month we reported on a brand new biotech/medical device startup incubator opening up in Peoria Arizona. BioInspire, a partnership between the city of Peoria, BioAccel and Plaza companies, is looking to fill the incubator with early stage companies in the biotech/medical device field.

BioAccel announced at the AZBiz Expo last Thursday, a call for applications to identify companies that can advance medical device development and popular BioInspire. Tenants will get office space, access to labs, mentorships and up to $300,000 in seed funding.

“We want to build on our significant health care footprint” said Scott Whyte, director, economic development services, city of Peoria. Nearly 19% of the jobs available in the city are in health care. Whyte added “The new facility provides a unique focus, including resources for medical device development that will hopefully attract attention across the US and bring the best technologies to Arizona.”

Bioinspire is managed by BioAccel, a Phoenix–based non-profit that works to accelerate the commercialization of life-science technologies. BioAccel partnered with the City of Peoria to leverage its assets to provide Bioinspire with a sound foundation, comprehensive infrastructure and significant experience needed to launch the new enterprise and to drive positive economic impact and job creation. BioAccel’s commercialization programs are embedded in Bioinspire’s operations, which provide for ongoing deal flow and new company formation.

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Justin Bieber On The Cover Of Next Months Forbes Magazine As Venture Capitalist?

Forbes is publishing their “Celebrity 100” list in their next issue. The June issue which is making it’s way to stores now features Oprah Winfrey in her spot at the top of the list. Number three is singer Rihanna and now in the number two spot, and on the cover of the issue, Teen mega-star Justin Bieber.

Justin Bieber is trying desperately to not be a dying teenage pop star. He’s also kept his image clean for the most part and hasn’t succumbed to the gossip rags the way that Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and even Miley Cyrus have in recent days.

Bieber has recently jumped on the startup investment bandwagon. His portfolio isn’t nearly as robust as say Ashton Kutcher, but he’s not nearly as tech/startup savvy as the Two and A Half Men star either (Yet).

Bieber tells Forbes that his manager Scooter Braun has a team of people that help “the biebs” invest in startups. Bieber told Forbes magazine:

“Scooter has a team that helps find investments. Usually we work together. If I find something, I bring it to the table.”

Forbes Zack O’Malley Greenburg says that Bieber takes a Peter Lynch approach to investing with the artist adding: “I’m not going to invest in something I don’t like; I have to believe in the product”. Bieber’s manager said that philosophy has led Bieber to invest millions into 12 startups. Forbes was able to verify four of those including Tiny Chat, New York startup Stamped, Sojo Studios and Spotify.

Bieber also talked on video about his investing in social charity startup WeTopia, which Bieber described as a “Farmville” with real money going to people who need it.

O’Malley Greenburg, makes it clear that unlike other celebrities Bieber isn’t doing endorsement for equity deals, rather he’s investing real money into startups.

Braun is very protective of Bieber’s startup portfolio but says that all of his investments are still in business. The investing came about when Braun realized that Bieber was too young to sell vodka and his fans wouldn’t buy $150 pairs of shoes. What Bieber did know very very well was web 2.0 and social media. That’s why they’ve invested in web based startups like Spotify and WeTopia.

Braun said that Bieber’s startup portfolio was reflective of 2-5% of his net worth and Forbes estimated that to about $3 million dollars.

Bieber has supported other companies like Tosy a company that’s making an entertainment robot. There’s no word as to whether Bieber is invested in Tosy or he was just doing an appearance for them at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show.

Bieber’s longtime girlfriend singer/actress Selena Gomez is also involved in startups like Postcards On The Run that allows you to send physical postcards from your mobile device.

Check out the entire story at Forbes Magazine

Kansas Startups: Student Angels Is A Student Run Angel Fund

In most of the stories that we report on involving angel funds, venture capital, incubation, investment, or competition, the student is the recipient. We cover student startup challenges all the time. In Kansas, they’re doing things a little different.

At the University of Missouri in Columbia, fifteen students are running a $600,000 venture fund appropriately named “Student Angels”. The purpose of the fund is for the students to find, identify in and invest in potential high growth startup companies in Missouri. The fund is entirely student run and the money is real.

EternoGen was the first recipient of an investment from the Student Angels. The Student Angels invested $30,000 in the life-science/biohealth startup. EternoGen produces a product called Demelle which is a human tissue filter used in cosmetic, cardio-vascular and orthopedic procedures.

Student Angels isn’t a class, it’s more of an extra-curricular or a club. The students met twice a week in William Allen’s classroom. Allen serves as the faculty adviser for the program and is also the assistant professor of finance. The students in the program are a diverse mix. The team includes law students, MBA candidates, a journalism student, a biology major and a student from the psychology department, reports KansasCity.com

Even with their diverse roots though, the students unanimously decided to invest in EternoGen even though it’s not likely that the fund will see a return on that investment for a few years.

The seed money for the fund came from alumni donations as well as the Shelter Insurance Foundation. Allen is hoping to see the fund increase to a couple of million dollars so that the student run fund can invest in the six figure amounts that most startups need.

Missouri Student Angels aren’t alone there are similar programs at the University of Michigan as well as Washington University in St.Louis

Linkage:

Source: Kansascity.com

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Denver Startups: Castrol 20/20 innoVentures Crops In Denver To Hear Pitches.

20/20 innoVentures a venture capital arm of Castrol Oil/BP stopped in Denver Colorao this week to hear pitches from up and coming mobile/mobility technology startups.

Crashboxx a Fort Collins based startup was one of four companies that made their pitches. David Byrne, Crashbox’s CEO said that this was his first time pitching to a vc firm.

Crashboxx is a technology geared towards fleet. The Crashboxx functions much like the black box on an airplane and records data that can be recalled in the event of a crash.

“This is really the future of fleet management and something every parent of a teenage driver would want,” said Byrne to the

Denver Post

Lightning Hybrids out of Loveland pitched as well. Their technology uses a hydraulic system to store the force from braking and re-applies it to accelerating.

According to Lightning Hybrid’s Founder Dan Johnson, their technology boosts mileage efficiency up to 30%

Fort Collins startup VanDyne SuperTurbo has made over 300 pitches according tp founder Ed VanDyne. They’ve raised over $14 million dollars so far.

They need to raise more capital for their technology that uses exhaust waste heat and torque from an engine’s drive train to increase an engine’s energy efficiency up to 30%.

GreenGold of Colorado Springs also pitched their manufacturing technology that according to their website “unlocks the full potential and benefits of biobased ingredients to create machining lubricants”

Source: Denver Post

Mark Cuban: There’s A Bubble In SiliconValley…Nowhere Else

Self made billionaire, ABC Shark Tank Shark and Dallas Maverick owners Mark Cuban recently spent some time with the Wall Street Cheat Sheeet’s, Damien Hoffman. Of course the wonderful “Bubble 2.0” question came up, and Cuban’s response will be a-ok with the target audience of Nibletz, the voice of startups everywhere else.

“There is a bubble only in tech investing in Silicon Valley. Nowhere else in the U.S.” Cuban said in the interview. All of Cuban’s most recent interviews have suggested that valuations in the Valley are way over-hyped. Our West Coast Editor (and co-founder) Brent Fishman has no problem talking abut the wild and crazy valuation of Pinterest. Fishman loves to point out that Pinterest has no actual “business model” in place.

One of the things about Cuban’s assessment being so true for startups “everywhere else” is the fact that even if the playing field in the venture capitalist arena was marginally fair, startups everywhere else already have to work twice as hard from everything else.

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L.A. Startup: BuzzMob Is First Company In MWW Ventures

MWW is one of the largest PR firms in the country with a global presence. Their client list includes some of the top tier companies in their industries. Nikon and Samsung Mobile are both represented by MWW among a long list of familiar brands.

MWW just announced a new venture capital project spearheaded by their global head of technology and digital content, Ephraim Cohen. MWW ventures is incubating startups that advance media, marketing and public relations industries by investing firm resources in exchange for equity.

Cohen told Nibletz.com that MWW Ventures was developed by he and MWW Group CEO Michael Kempner who is a serial entrepreneur. With the verticals that the MWW Group is involved with Cohen says they come across great startups all the time. With MWW Ventures, the MWW Group will invest and incubate companies that will help them stay on “…the cutting edge of technology”.

Buzzmob, a Los Angeles startup was announced as MWW Ventures first portfolio company last week. Buzzmob is a mobile app for live events that forms location based social networks in real time and on the fly.

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