Huge week for the number of companies getting funded edition…
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.
Augmate, the first platform for wearables, that accelerates the development of cloud-based smart eyewear applications for use at the enterprise level, has raised $2.8 million in seed funding. The round was led by Tim Draper, with participation from UPS Ventures, Siemens Venture Capital, Simon Venture Group, Rothenberg Ventures, Excell Partners, Camp One Ventures, FP Angels, and a consortium of angel investors.
Jeanne Sullivan wowed the room at this month’s Breakfast with an Investor that StartupOneStop hosted at Cowork.rs Thursday morning, where she discussed her early days as an investor in NY and Silicon Valley (“where I met the smartest of the smart and the stupidest of the stupid.”), and a lot more.
“I love supporting entrepreneurs,” said the investor whom Forbes named one of the ‘5 Most Powerful Women Changing the World in VC and Entrepreneurship,’ “especially women…and a few good men!”
Campus Job graduated to become a funded started, scoring $965K from investors including Box Group, , Female Founders Fund (“F Cubed”), and . It’s a site where students can find part-time and short-term employment as well as internships. Hey, team, good job! You can read our coverage here – NYC Startup Campus Jobs Raises $965K: They are Graduating to the Big Time
Startup Institute, the #1 career accelerator that helps individuals gain the skills, mindset, and network to succeed in jobs at startups, has just raised $3 Million from Silicon Valley Bank. Applications deadline for the Fall semester is two weeks away, and scholarships are available, thanks to SVB!
The money is earmarked for the expansion of offices and programs.
Placemeter, a company that’s building the world’s first real-time dynamic data layer, so that you can see how crowded it is at the grocery store, for example, before you head out of your apartment, has raised a $6 million in Series A funding in a round led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation Qualcomm Ventures, , and existing investors.
hosted a Venture Capital Insight Panel: – the interplay between VCs & Angels. Great insights from panelists
ClassPass, a membership program for fitness classes across multiple gyms and studios ($99/month gets you unlimited classes at any participating gyms), has raised $12 million in Series A funding, led by angel investors Fritz Lanman (who led the company’s seed round) and Hank Vigil. SV Angel, Gordy Crawford, Owen van Natta, and Blake Krikorian also participated in the round.
HowGood, whose app rates grocery products according to both their nutritional content and how sustainably they were created, allowing shoppers to purchase products that are best for their health, society and the environment, has raised $2 million in funding from FirstMark Capital, Highline Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Serious Change LP, Jake Lodwick and Joanne Wilson.
JW Player, the online and mobile video platform and player technology company that pioneered video on the web and who are now busy innovating for the future, has received $20 million in Series C funding led by Greycroft Growth and Greenspring Associates, with Cue Ball Capital and e.ventures participating in the round.
Dell’s Pitch Slam takes place in Austin in November, and the Dell team was in New York this week meeting with (and wining and dining) Ed Tech finalists, one of whom will compete in the Pitch Slam, pitching to Michael Dell himself.
Applications are also open for the next Dell’s Founders Club 50. Apply here.
Jason Klein (On Grid Ventures) was the investor in the hot seat at this week’s Entrepreneurs Roundtable 74, held at Microsoft’s (fairly) new NYC headquarters in Times Square.
And heads up: ER Accelerator’s deadline for its winter class is coming up on November 13th.
With so many people paying with plastic these days and often neglecting the tip jar, what’s a barista to do? DipJar solves that problem with a jar containing a standard credit card reader. Good tip? The company has raised $420,000 in seed funding led by Project 11, a new fund created by Brightcove founder Bob Mason, along with numerous angel investors, including former Techstars Boston directors Katie Rae and Reed Sturtevant. Read full coverage of their funding here – NYC Startup DipJar Raises $420K Seed Round to Make Sure Your Barista Isn’t Short Changed
Kinnek is an online marketplace that invites small businesses to list goods they need and for suppliers to provide competitive prices for them. In other words, it’s a better way to connect demand and supply, which is why the company just added $10 million to their coffers, by way of Series A funding led by Matrix Partners, with participation from earlier investors Sierra Ventures, Version One Ventures, TriplePoint Ventures, CrunchFund, and individual investors Richard Chen, Naval Ravikant, and Benjamin Ling.
Newsela, an education tech startup that provides daily news articles that are extracted from national and regional newspapers and presents versions of each article tailored to be comprehensible but challenging to K-12 students at different reading levels, has raised $4.1 million in Series A funding led by Owl Ventures, a new venture firm that solely backs ed-tech startups. Knight Foundation’s Knight Enterprise Fund, Cambridge Information Group and earlier investors NewSchools Venture Fund and Kapor Capital also participated in the round.
Peaberry Software, whose product, Customer.io, allows users to send targeted, human messages to selected segments of customers using data from their website, has raised roughly $775,000 in seed funding from 23 investors.
