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 News this week including the fundings, exits, and events as well as some events to keep an eye on for the upcoming week.
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Alpha Theory, the online portfolio management company, has raised a $350K Venture round. The company has raised $741K to date.
GRN Pals, the platform connecting academia internationally, has raised a Seed round. This is CEO George Liu’s first round.
Giphy, the search engine for GIFs, has raised a $55M Series C round. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round with support from CAA Ventures, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Betaworks, RRE Ventures and General Catalyst Partners. Founders Jace Cooke and Alex Chung have raised $78.95M over 3 rounds.
Qualia, the company infusing consumer intent for brand marketers, has raised $5.5M in a Series B round led by both S3 Ventures and Verizon Ventures. This is the company’s 8th round of funding.
Gooten, the brand consultation company formerly known as Makeable, has raised a Bridge funding round of $1.35M led by ff Venture Capital and KEC Ventures. The funding comes with the name change and with the announcement of Brian Rainey as CEO.
Bloglovin’, the discovery engine for blogs, has acquired Sverve, the company that connects brands and influencers. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.
GridGain, the open source In-Memory Data Fabric company focused on speeding up apps, has raised a Series B round of $15M led by MoneyTime Ventures and Sberbank with support from Almaz Capital and RTP Ventures. The company has raised $27.5M over 3 rounds to date.
Brayola, the intimate women’s apparel company, has raised a Series A round of $2.5M from Jonathan Benartzi, Firstime Venture Capital, HDS Capital and Haim Dabah. Founder Orit Hashay has raised $3.95M over 4 rounds.
The cybersecurity company, Siemplify, has raised $4M in a Seed round from 83North Venture Capital. This is the first round for founders Garry Fatakhov, Alon Cohen and Amos Stern.
Here’s our curated list of a few NYC startup events for this week.
On Thursday evening , vLab is connecting entrepreneurs to high-powered CIOs with trillions allocated in spending. This is your chance to work with established companies to build products that are in demand during this reverse pich and virtual hackathon – CIO Reverse Pitch + Hackathon at WeWork Chelsea.
On Tuesday evening our friends at Alley NYC are hosting an evening of thoughtful discussions with investors J Sklyer Fernandes, Alex Iskold and Summet Shah about what goes through the mind of investors when considering startup investment – VC Insider: The Ins & Outs of Raising Money with VCs at AlleyNYC.
On Wednesday evening our friends at VentureOut will host a showcase of Polish tech companies presenting to an impressive roster of NY- based investors from Loeb Associates, ff Venture Capital, MESA Ventures, and Empire Angels – Betas & Belvedere, a Polish Pitch Night.
On Thursday evening, our friends from Code Interactive are shining a spotlight on the individuals who are championing the movement to increase diversity in STEM education with an evening soiree featuring open bar, silent auction, hors doeuvres, and musical guests. Proceeds from this event will go towards funding the computer science education of 100 new low-income NYC public high school students – The Diversity in Tech Awards at the Bowery Hotel.
On Saturday and Sunday, Janine Just and Sabine Hitchen are producing two days of weekend programming focused on helping businesses build their brand featuring expert thought leaders, panels, workshops, tools, and templates to amplify your brand – Amplify Your Brand Masterclass at Wix.
For a full listing of upcoming events for the NYC startup and tech community, please visit the AlleyWatch NYC Tech and Startup Event Calendar.
