With so much going on in the city’s thriving ecosystem, it is easy to miss some of the happenings in the space. We are introducing This column will keep you abreast of a few of things that you may have missed in NYC Tech this week.
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Our friends at Empire Angels hosted an informative evening discussion on maintaining innovative culture as organizations grow with Chitra Narasimhan, Managing Director at Citi Ventures, held at TechStarsNYC.
Image credit: @CMBechs
Brooklyn-born hardware startup Birdi raised $700,000 in seed funding from Jason Calacanis, Kapor Capital, Eric Ries, and John Galbraith. The company makes a smart smoke detector that also gauges air quality.
Congratulations to the team at Poptip, the conversation analysis platform founded by Kelsey Falter in 2012, on their acquisition by Palantir Technologies. Prior to its acquisition, Poptip ($2.4M in funding) was funded by Lerer Ventures, SoftBankCapital, The BoxGroup, TechStars, RSE, Ventures, and angel investors that include Ori Allon, Tricia Black, Amer Rehman, Scott Belsky, David Tisch, and Soraya Darabi.
Just when you think the guys have it, Bauble Bar announces that they’ve raised $10 million in new funding led by Chris Burch, co-founder of the Tory Burch. Aspect Ventures, Triplepoint Ventures, Comcast Ventures, and earlier investors Accel Partners and Greycroft Partners also participated in the round. Bauble Bar is a 3-½ year-old e-commerce company focused on the newest and coolest must-have fashion jewelry.
This month’s NYC Apps ushered in two great Brooklyn-based innovation companies. The first of which showcased MakerBot’s new iPad app named “PrintShop”, which allows anyone to create and wirelessly print 3D models on the fly to their Fifth Generation MakerBot 3D Printer of choice. The second was the latest from Tinybop, which creates Digital Toys (educational apps) for kids. Their Senior iOS Engineer gave us a look at what it took to create their new app “Plants” as well as an overview of how vast of an app world they’ve been building, which should lead to future apps that will be tough to compete with.
Thinknum, a year-old open collaborative web platform for financial analysis, has raised $1 million in seed funding led by Pejman Mar Ventures.
Our friends at StartupWeekend NYC held another successful 54-hour marathon. The theme for this event was social impact and empowering entrepreneurs to develop solutions to problems that affect communities.
Image credit: @StartupWeekendNYC
Voyat, a two-year-old loyalty and e-commerce platform for hotels, has raised $1.8 million in seed funding from such investors as Metamorphic Ventures, Eniac Ventures, BoxGroup, and SecondMarket founder Barry Silbert.
Social Media Marketing for Ecommerce Businesses, presented by Sandy Garcia and hosted by our friends at Cowork|rs .
Knoa Software, an 11-year-old workforce optimization software, has $5.1 million in Series B funding from investors Ascent Ventures, Gefinor Capital, Advantage Capital Partners and Rand Capital. All took part in Knoa $7.5 million Series A round.
R/GA Techstars grads Enertiv raises $750,000 in Seed Funding to Save Buildings Energy and Money. Among the three-year-old company’s slew of investors are Vaidya Capital Partners and R/GA Ventures, a venture investing entity created by R/GA.
You may have also missed our friends at Enertiv killing it on stage at the NYC IoT July 2014 Meetup held at Urban Future Lab.
Image credit: @nycacre
Dstillery, a six-year-old ad analytics and targeting company, has raised $24 million in Series C funding led by NewSpring Capital, with previous investors U.S. Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures and Venrock also participating in the round.
UNTIL NEXT WEEK…
