Venture Capital Archives - Page 5 of 5

Chicago Startup TechMoola Helping Startups Make Money And Loving The Chicago Tech Scene.

The house music capital of the USA is about to become the capital of startups in the USA if these Chicago based entrepreneurs have anything to do with it. You may recall a couple weeks back Pando Daily sent a young reporter to Chicago who reported back that there was nothing to report here. Pando Daily’s Trevor Gilbert could not have been more off base.

We’ve already shared a few great startups out of Chicago with KlutchClub and Planfast, today we’re talking the important stuff, TechMoola. Everyone needs money and TechMoola has a startup that is a platform for other startups to make money. Co-Founders Solomon Nabatiyan and Tom Kelly are gearing the TechMoola platform exclusively to technology based startups.

We got a chance to talk with Nabatiyan who loves the city of Chicago as much (if not more than) Patrick Stump.

1. What is Techmoola

TechMoola.com is an online platform for tech entrepreneurs and startup companies to do project fundraising in the technology space. TechMoola enables inventors/entrepreneurs to raise project funding and build a support/partnership/customer base through an online forum.

Unlike Kickstarter and other sites which feature “technology” but actually host artistic venture or design projects/products that mainly are additio

2. Who are the founders, what did they do before this

Solomon Nabatiyan is a research professor in the biomedical sciences at Northwestern University, Evanston as well as the founder and CEO of a Chicago-based biotech company, Cervia Diagnostic Innovations, a social venture company that focuses on cervical cancer technologies for use in the developing world. His research work centers on the development of a new generation of HIV and cancer diagnostics to improve the quality of care and access to those who need it most.

Tom Kelly is a serial entrepreneur and digital guru in the Chicago area with an interest in web technologies that empower people and have a social impact. Among his many startups, CharityAuctionsToday.com has proven his most successful. He continues to bring innovation to how people can use the web to make the world around them a more sustainable and awesome place.

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Founders Card, Entrepreneur’s Card Now At 5,000 Members

Two year old Founder’s Card is now 5,000 members strong. The exclusive discount card, geared towards founders and entrepreneurs was started by Eric Kuhn two years ago. Members of the card pay a $495 registration fee and a $60 start up fee to become part of an exclusive club.

While there’s no secret club house in the woods or a secret decoder ring, FoundersCard members enjoy substantial discounts at businesses they typically need like Apple, Virgin Atlantic and several 4 and 5 start hotels.

FoundersCard also gives members access to exclusive members only networking events and cardholders are a who’s who of the rich and powerful in the tech, startup and VC crowd. Having the card is definitely “in”.

Although the baseline cost to join is $495, referrals into the FoundersCard’s exclusive club are given access for just $295. While that may seem like a great deal, Inc Magazine reports that serial entrepreneur Adam Rodnitzky recently responded to a Quora thread about FoundersCard and when asked if it was worth it he replied: “Are you bootstrapping or pre-exit? Then FoundersCard is probably not worth it … yet.”

source: Inc

Furniture Deals Site Deal Decor Raising $1.2 Million Funding Round

Craig Sakuma and Gregory Lok’s Dealdecor.com is a new web based start up bringing daily deals to those looking for furniture. In fact TNW’s Robin Wauter’s called Dealdecor.com “Groupon For Furniture”.

The San Francisco based startup is looking to secure $1.2 million in funding and according to a filing at the SEC they’ve already scored a cool million of that.

Dealdecor is hoping to become the go-to site for daily deals on furniture, garden products, home furnishings and other related merchandise. They are doing this by offering up to 70% off retail prices.

Both of the founders have a solid background in the home furnishings and home improvement industry. Both Sakuma and Lok had high ranking positions at the nation’s largest home improvement chain Home Depot. The service is only available in the bay area but with this new funding we are confident it will open up to more of the country.

Dealdecor has several direct fulfillment deals with Asian and other overseas manufacturers. If you’re looking to save money through Dealdecor though it’s going to cost you one thing, time. Their website suggests a 4 week turnaround on most purchases including the overseas freight.

Check it out at: dealdecor.com

source: TNW

19 Year Olds Make YCombinator Winter Class With Private Family Facebook Style Social Network FamilyLeaf

Two 19 year old entrepreneurs from Bellevue Washington are on their second start up already. Geekwire’s John Cook reports that when he first met them they were working on a gift card startup that was called AvantCard. The teenagers have been friends since grade school.

The friends Wesley Zhao and Ajay Mehta have started something new. Their project, FamilyLeaf, is a closed social network that is similar to Facebook but allows family members to privately share contact information, photos and updates with each other. It’s biggest competitor is the Facebook app Family Builder which was recently purchased by Intelius.

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With Two Startups In The Program, New Health Focused “WellTech” Incubator Launches In New York

There’s a new startup incubator in New York City hoping to help launch new businesses in the health and wellness sector. The WellTech incubator is based in New York’s Gramercy neighborhood and is headed by Peter Ellis who is the CEO and one of the founders of SpaFinder the world’s largest spa and wellness resource.

Welltech is being financed by Ellis’ Jubilee Investments. Jubilee found it’s big success by being a first round investor in Gramercy One. Gramercy One offers cloud based business management solutions for over 5,800 spas, gyms and medical practices world wide. Gramercy One announced a $14.5 million dollar round of financing led by Steve Case’s Revolution Ventures, GroTech, TD Capital and Jubilee, last fall.

“The phenomenal success of SpaFinder and GramercyOne showed us that technology holds enormous potential for helping people lead healthier lives,” Ellis said. “New York City is home to some of the most creative innovators in both the technology and wellness sectors, and we look forward to working with them to take wellness-related technology and services to an exciting new level.”

Companies chosen to participate in the WellTech Incubator will receive $50,000 in seed capital to start their business, along with office space. They’ll also have access to GramercyOne and Spafinder executives for guidance and mentoring. There may also be future financing rounds in the cards from WellTech along with other introduced investors.

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JOBS Act, Aiding Start Up Investment, Flies Through Senate

The “Jump Start Our Business Start Ups” or JOBS Act, flew through the senate Thursday. The bill will allow fundamental changes in how small companies are able to raise money. The version of the bill that passed through the senate today has some changes from the bill that recently passed through the house, that means this bill will have to be reconciled with the original. Either way this is a big victory for start-ups, venture capitalists and angel funds.

Under the provisions of this ball, smaller, emerging companies can raise up to $1 million dollars in a period of up to five years to private investors without making the investors subject to disclosure regulations that normally affect publicly traded companies.

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Peter Thiel Looking To Bolster New Zealand’s Budding Tech Scene

VentureBeat is reporting today that Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel has invested $12.1 million dollars into the New Zealand technology scene.

Thiel’s Valar Ventures is teaming up with the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund for a total offering of $40 million dollars. New Zealand’s Minister of Economic Development, Steven Joyce, welcomes the funding not just for the money but also the connections Thiel brings to the table.

“[This] is a very positive development for New Zealand technology companies wanting to expand into large offshore markets,” Joyce told the Wall Street Journal. “These companies require not only capital but also getting access to the right offshore networks in those markets and building their customer base.”

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Another Day, Another Possible Black Mark On Pinterest

Another day, another possible black mark on Pinterest. The site that has been marked in the past with Link Baiting, Spam issues, and copyright infringement maybe up to it one more time. Business Insider is reporting that “VC’s” are trying to get a new round of investment valued for the company at around $1 billion dollars. There is just one problem with that, everyone they’ve called to talk to has denied it with no known knowledge of a new round. Nor does Pinterest “want” to raise a new round of funding as of yet they claim. This is also a company that still has no business model for revenue yet as their past one with links didn’t work out.

What they are hearing is VC’s are trying to bribe and are showing up uninvited to Pinterest in hopes of starting those talks.

Could it be a rogue investor trying to drum up more interest as one of the original investors as either bringing more money in or a possible exit plan? Or could it just be that Pinterest is trying to drum up hopes of another round, so that hopefully someone buys them out instead.

Source: Business Insider

Motorola Solutions Venture Capital Participates In $2.6 Million Round For Retailigence

Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, the VC arm of Motorola Solutions, has participated in a $2.6 million dollar round of financing for Retailigence Inc.

Retailigence Inc has partnered with 70 major retail firms to date. Their client base, which encompasses big names like Whole Foods, H&M and Nordstrom, just to name a few, gives Retailigence access to their inventory systems. Retailigence then extrapolates that data from the inventory systems and pushes it to the cloud. Once in the cloud apps like Shopsavvy, Pic2Shop and Layar access the data to offer end users real-time inventory data on the items they are searching for.

Retailigence has 20 employees at their Palo Alto headquarters. They are going to use this round of financing to improve analytics, and expand their reach into Asia.

“They have a great vision and the kind of data analytics that retailers want,” said Reese Schroeder, a managing director of Motorola Solutions Venture Capital. “We have a very broad reach into the market with so many retail customers. There’s a lot of opportunity for us to collaborate on bringing some of these next-generation solutions to our customers.”

Source: WSJ