InSITE Alum Vic Singh’s NearVerse Raises $1M
By · CommentsTechCrunch reported on 4/1/2010 that NearVerse, co-founded by InSITE Alum Vic Singh, had raised $1M for further development of its proximity based mobile social network LoKast.
Funding came from Meakem Becker Venture Capital (interestingly, whose Managing Director Glen Meakem is the brother of InSITE Board Member and Kodiak Venture Partners Managing Partner Chip Meakem – all roads lead back to InSITE).
Read the full article at Techcrunch.
– Rich Powell, InSITE Board Member
InSITE Companies Raise > $215M
By · CommentsOn the 10th Anniversary of our companies raising funding after graduating InSITE, we have surveyed their accomplishments and found tremendous success in Angel and VC fundraising.
Since Spring of 2001, InSITE’s companies have raised a total of more than $215 million of disclosed funding and have enjoyed at least 6 successful exits. With 96 companies completing our program to date, that’s an average of $2.2 million raised per company – an impressive number, particularly considering the majority of start-ups do not receive funding.
The biggest raise by far was by RecycleBank, totaling $71.1 million dollars over 3 rounds. Even without RecycleBank’s funding success, each InSITE company raised $1.5M on average. That’s a tremendous amount of Angel/VC funding for startups based in the New York City area.
Filling out the top five raises are Silicon Alley Telecom (which became Eureka Broadband and is now part of Broadview Networks) ($44 million), Hycrete ($25 million), Vindigo ($22 million), and ON Networks ($16 million). Our most recent large success has been Organic Motion ($8.28 million), a 2006 and 2009 InSITE Company.
Top Angel/VC investors have been involved in these ventures, including RRE Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield, Rose Tech Ventures, NGEN Partners, First Round Capital, Accel Partners, Kodiak Ventures, PKS Capital, SJF Ventures, Robin Hood Ventures, Foundry Group, Betaworks, and New York Angels.
To date, have been at least 6 successful exits including Klipmart, which is now Doubleclick’s Rich Media Ad serving tool, Motif. Others include:
Design2Launch, acquired by Kodak
EATS Media, acquired by Delivery.com
ASPEED Software, acquired by Simtone
PreClick, acquired by Smilebox
Mycrocept, acquired by Healthpoint
More information on InSITE’s companies is available here.
These numbers do not take into account undisclosed funding amounts. We know of at least 6 companies that have received seed funding, but the sizes were not publicly disclosed, including HopStop, MediaMerx, Frogtek and Catchafire.
Although InSITE doesn’t take full credit for the success of these companies, no one can dispute that the company selection teams each semester have successfully picked the best and brightest entrepreneurs in NYC.
InSITE teams work hard each semester with these companies to refine their pitches and presentations and put them in front of our Venture Capital Advisory Program Sponsors (VCAPS). InSITE congratulates 10 years of InSITE companies on terrific success in raising funding and building successful enterprises!
– Shirley Xu, 2009-2010 Special VP for Alumni Companies
Catchafire Closes Angel Round
By · CommentsInSITE alum company Catchafire just closed an angel round of funding and is building up staff in anticipation of its NYC Beta launch on June 28, 2010. Catchafire.org is a social venture start-up that will revolutionize the way people volunteer by matching professionals with nonprofits that need their skills.
Catchafire looks to register 1,000 volunteers by its late-June launch, so if you’re a professional who wants to volunteer what you are good at, sign up at www.catchafire.org.
The InSITE team that worked with founder Rachael Chong was struck by her vision, energy, and enthusiasm. About her InSITE experience, Rachael notes, “Working with my InSITE team was not only enjoyable and thought-provoking, but it also forced me to practice my pitch in the best possible way. To date, I still use the pitch we created together, and I often get comments on how clear and concise the deck is.”
Angel funding was used to hire a Head of Technology and a VP of Sales & Marketing in preparation for the NYC launch. Catchafire’s still looking for an “uber-creative social media/communications/PR/events expert” to work as a consultant over a 3-4 month period. If interested, contact rachael@catchafire.org.
For the latest on Catchafire, visit blog.catchafire.org
– Jennifer Gootman
Quartzy wins $50K seed investment
By · Comments
InSITE Alumni Company, Quartzy, was the recent winner of a $50,000 seed investment at Washington University’s Olin Cup business plan competition. We worked with Quartzy in the Spring of 2009, and they had a great team and a terrific product.
Quartzy provides online lab inventory management for life-scientists, making it easier for scientists and labs to share their reagents (expensive chemicals). The company was founded by Adam Regelmann, a MD and PhD from Columbia, Meena George, a PhD in Neuroscience from Columbia, and Jayant Kulkarni, a PhD in Engineering from Cornell.
For more on the Olin Cup competition and Quartzy’s winning entry, check out this recent post from The New York Times’ You’re the Boss blog.
Rentricity Awarded $25K by New York State
By · CommentsGovernor Paterson today announced $3 million of grants to a variety of projects throughout New York.
The funds are intended to strengthen and support the growth of New York’s clean energy economy by helping 18 Empire State companies commercialize clean energy technologies.
Amongst the recipients is InSITE Alumni Company Rentricity, with a grant of $25K to assess the energy recovery potential of the ten largest metropolitan areas in the State.
RecycleBank Secures $28M Series C Round
By · CommentsRecycleBank today announced it had added $28M more in funding from RRE, Sigma Partners, Kleiner Perkins, the Westly Group, and Generation Investment. It also announces a partnership with re-commerce company, Kashless.
Organic Motion Secures $7.4M B Round
By · CommentsFrogtek Raises Seed Capital
By · CommentsPreClick Acquired by Smilebox
By · CommentsXconomy today reported that Smilebox has announced its acquisition of print-to-retail software firm and InSITE Alumni PreClick.
RightsFlow Raises $1.5M A Round
By · CommentsVentureBeat today reported that InSITE company RightsFlow had raised $1.5 Million from Originate Ventures to help manage music licensing.