Over $150M raised this week alone…
With so much going on in the city’s thriving ecosystem, it is easy to miss some of the happenings in the space. We keep you abreast of a few of things that you may have missed in NYC Tech this week including the fundings, exits, and events. At the end, we have also listed some of the upcoming events this week that you need to be aware of.
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Ringly, makers of smart jewelry for women, including connected rings that alert wearers when someone phones or texts them, has raised $5.1 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Highline Ventures and Silas Capital. Previous backers First Round Capital, The Social+Capital Partnership, Mesa+, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures and PCH International also joined the round.
Ringly CEO and cofounder Christina Mercando was recently included in the AlleyWatch list of .
Our friends at Eniac Ventures, the first seed stage fund that is exclusively focused on the mobile space and has backed more than 60 mobile tech startups, has closed its third fund with $55 million, more than four times the size of its last fund. Investments include Airbnb, Twitter, SoundCloud, Owlet and Hinge.
This week, we take a look at the 2015 NYC Venture Fellows Class. These distinguished entrepreneurs are a part of a world-class, year-long fellowship program designed to help high-potential entrepreneurs scale their ventures in New York City. Meet the 2015 class – The 33 Hottest Entrepreneurs in NYC Right Now from the 2015 Venture Fellows Class
Taykey, whose advertising software gives marketers the real-time tools to automatically target advertising and gather insights based on what’s trending with their audiences, just raised $15 million in fresh funding from Innovation Endeavors, MSR Capital and earlier investors, including Marker, Sequoia Capital, SoftBank Capital and Tenaya Capital.
Renowned Bitcoin investors and supporters Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are creating the first regulated Bitcoin exchange for U.S. customers, and what they hope will be the NASDAQ for the virtual currency. The twins are self-financing the project.
Image credit: CC by TechCrunch
, a company whose technology enables smart connections between apps that drive installs (and revenue), has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from Greycroft Partners, DCM, VaynerRSE, Slow Ventures, and former NBA Commissioner David Stern.
If you wondered why it was a bit quiet in town this week, the 1% were all off to Davos to attend the 45th Annual World Economic Forum, Approximately 1700 private jets choked the Swiss skies as billionaires, celebrities, and 40 world leaders descended on the town to attend the ultimate networking event.
Image credit: CC b Daniel Zedda
RealMatch, makers of recruitment advertising and job-board software for digital publishers, has raised $8 million in Series C-1 funding led by Edison Partners, with participation from Carmel Ventures and Orix Ventures.
Dig Inn, who has developed an online ordering platform for restaurants, has raised $15 million in Series C funding led by Wexford Capital.
Lenddo, the world’s first online platform that helps the emerging middle class use their social connections to build their creditworthiness and access local financial services, announced its social scoring technology suite. Banks, alternative lenders, telco, P2P lenders and online marketplaces are able to use the Lenddo identity verification and credit scoring technology to serve new markets, reduce fraud and default rates, and improve customer service and operational efficiencies.
“Lenddo’s credit scoring algorithms are built on top of the massive amounts of opt-in alternative data such as Facebook and Linkedin. The algorithms are self-learning and constantly incorporate new data to maximize predictive power, prevent fraud and bad debt contagion.” said founder and CEO Jeff Stewart.
The Financial services industry is going through a rapid transformation as a result of changes in smartphone adoption, social network use, new technology capabilities and customer expectations. Lenddo hopes to accelerate change for the benefit of consumers, by making the Lenddo platform available for any institution.
Lenddo was honored as a 2014 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum.
Stack Exchange, a startup that operated a network of free, community-driven question and answer sites and forums, has raised a $40M Series D round led by Andreessen Horowitz ,with participation from previous investors, including Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, Bezos Expeditions, and Index Ventures.
Keaton Row, a fashion startup that pairs clients with stylists and generates shoppable personal LookBooks, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding led by Time Inc. Previous investors Menlo Ventures, Rho Capital and Grape Arbor also joined the round.
Our friends at NYC Enterprise Sales Meetup hosted their January event “Mobile Sales Meetup” this past week featuring Klink, Handshake, and Enhatch. Their next event is on February 17th and is focused on Managing the Enterprise Deal. You are not going to want to miss this one.
Persado, a company whose “Persuasion Automation” NLP software that creates automated messages around calls to action, has raised $21 million in Series B funding led by StarVest Partners, with participation from Citi Ventures, American Express Ventures, and previous investor Bain Capital Ventures.
Shazam Entertainment, a music discovery company that uses audio-recognition technology to help people identify songs on the radio or television, and also allows them the share or buy it, has raised $30 million from investors in a round that values the company at $1 billion. The investors’ names are not being disclosed this time, but previous backers include billionaire Carlos Slim, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Institutional Venture Partners and DN Capital.
Work Market, a marketplace for managing contractors and freelancers, has raised $20 million in Series C funding. The round was led by earlier backers Union Square Ventures, with participation from Spark Capital, SoftBank Capital, Industry Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.
Taking a look forward, here are a few events that are coming up this week that should prove to be excellent:
On Tuesday night, our friends at Alley Boost host Startup Investor Night with a powerhouse line up of investors including Brendan Syron, Weston Reynolds, and Jeff Pulver – Startup Investor Night at Mercy College.
Also on Tuesday, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism hosts their regular demo night featuring innovation in the media space – January Demo Night for NYC Media Startups at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
Wednesday evening, our friends at Product Council host a discussion on personal finance and data featuring product managers from Betterment, Datacoup and a panel of experts from American Express, Humanist and the Product Council tea – The Product Council – Personal Data & Finance at Pivotal Labs.
On Thursday evening, our friends at Geek Girls Carrots are hosting their inaugural NYC event featuring an informative discussion with Kelly Hoey, Pamela Teagarden, and Ellora Israni – Geek Girls Carrots January Meetup New York City at Joynture.
For a full listing of upcoming events for the NYC startup and tech community, please visit the AlleyWatch NYC Tech and Startup Event Calendar.
