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.
CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED IN SILICON ALLEY LAST WEEK
Verizon announced that it is buying AOL for around $4.4B in cash. Once the deal closes, AOL will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon.
AOL CEO, Tim Armstrong, will continue to lead the company after the acquisition.
This week, we took a look at the state of venture capital and angel funding during the all of April, both in New York and nationally and the numbers were BIG – The April 2015 NYC Venture Capital and Angel Funding Report.
Percolate, the ‘System of Record for Marketing,’ has raised $40 million in Series C funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, GGV Capital, First Round Capital and LererHippeau Ventures.
The NYC deal flow is surging – NYC startups closed more venture deals in 2015 thus far than in SF – $2.8B across 351 deals for NYC vs $7B in 340 deals in SF according to Crunchbase.
Tapad, the leading provider of unified cross-device marketing solutions, has closed $18.5 million in Series B-2 round of funding. Blue Cloud Ventures joined several previous investors in this latest round, including Avalon Ventures, Firsthand Technology Value Fund, Inc., FirstMark Capital, G&H Partners, KnightEnterprise Fund, LLC, Silicon Valley Bank and Zanadu Capital Partners LP.
The Muse, the career site targeted to Millenials, has raised $10M in Series A funding from Aspect Ventures, DBL Partners and QED Investors.
itBit, a global exchange offering institutional and retail investors a powerful platform to buy and sell bitcoin, has raised $25 million in Series A funding from Solon Mack Capital, Crypto Currency Partners, Raptor Capital Management, Liberty City Ventures, RRE Ventures, Jay W. Jordan II and Raptor Ventures founder James Pallotta.
Hungryroot, a company that’s promising pre-packaged “farm fresh” meals that take seven-minute to prepare and last in the refrigerator for up to 14 days, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, with participation from LererHippeau Ventures, Crosslink Capital, and Karp Reilly.
Explain Everything, maker of an interactive screencasting whiteboard, has raised $2 million in Series A funding, led by Credo Ventures, with participation from New Europe Ventures and RTA ventures.
Moven, the first global banking service that provides real-time behavior feedback to consumers so they can spend smarter, debuted its new Impulse Savings feature this week.
Impulse Savings represents Moven’s approach to a holistic view of financial wellness that now includes not just a better understanding of spending habits, but of behaviors affecting savings as well. The feature leverages Moven’s existing real-time contextualized notifications, including instant receipts that automatically categorize every transaction, as well as an updated, color-coded Spending Meter® and app home screen, making it even easier for users to turn spending insights into savings behaviors in line with the app’s financial wellness mission.
CrediFi, which provides data and analytics to the commercial real estate finance sector, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Carmel Ventures andcrowdfunding platform OurCrowd.
StrongDM,whose monitoring service provides automated real-time data error detection for businesses, has raised $800,000 in seed funding led by Bloomberg Beta, with participation from Data Collective, SocialStarts and venture investor Jerry Neumann, among others.
On-demand delivery service WunWun, is calling it quits, and some of its assets and employees are being scooped up by Hello Alfred.
NextGen Angels, a network of young angel investors who are leaders in the entrepreneurial community, has closed $1M in funding to expand their network to different cities across the U.S, including New York City. They’ve also hired Kelsey Morgan, most recently with TechStars, as the Managing Director for New York.
Collaborative Fund, a seed investment firm focused on creative entrepreneurs changing the world and the shift from an economy based on hyper-consumption to one based on collaborative consumption, has raised $65 million for its third fund. Among its investments: Hampton Creek, Lyft, AngelList, Socar, Earnest, Taskrabbit, Reddit, Hopscotch and Kano Computing. LPs include the San Francisco-based fund of funds Cendana Capital.
After months of searching and reviewing hundreds of applications, Interplay has a new Venture Partner. It’s serial entrepreneur and active angel investor Kevin Tung, who was recently profiled in AlleyWatch.
Here’s our curated list of a few events that are coming up for your immediate reading pleasure…
On Monday and Tuesday, join our friends from the Westchester County Association as they hold their annual 2 day conference showcasing healthtech innovation in the region – HealthTech’15: Fueling Innovation in Westchester.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, join the LDV Vision Summit where together top technologists, visionaries, startups, media/brand executives and investors converge with the purpose of exploring, understanding and shaping the future of imaging and video in human communication at SVA Theatre.
On Thursday evening, join our friends at NYC Media Lab as they provide a broad perspective on the impact of connected devices on the home. The evening will consist of a “science fair,” with demos from startups, media companies, and university research labs at the cutting edge – Visions of the Connected Home at Civic Hall.
On Wednesday, join Startup OneStop as they host breakfast with venture capitalist Nnamdi Okike of 645 Ventures – StartupOneStop Breakfast with an Investor: Nnamdi Okike, 645 Ventures at Cowork|rs.
On the horizon:
On May 26th, our friends from Rubicon VC host an evening focused on the ever-changing nature of the startup and venture capital landscape with respect to the blurring of seed and Series A rounds – Blurred Lines in VC – NYC Edition.
On May 27th, join the finale of the 5 Boro Pitch Slap competition that will showcase the finest startups from each borough – Five Boro Pitch Slap – Finale
One June 4th, our friends at Venture for America will be hosting their annual Summer Celebration; save $50 with code AlleyWatch – Venture for America Summer Celebration
For a full listing of upcoming events for the NYC startup and tech community, please visit the AlleyWatch NYC Tech and Startup Event Calendar.
