Once a month, we like to highlight our Founders Network members making tech startup news headlines. It’s been a very busy March, with highlights from the 2015 Launch Festival, a number of funding and product launch announcements, and much more.
Arjun Dev Arora’s ReTargeter was acquired by SellPoints, Inc. (via Bloomberg). ReTargeter, the very first firm to make retargeting accessible to all businesses, is a full-service display advertising platform specializing in audience targeting and retargeting. Since its founding in 2009, ReTargeter has raised $1.5 million in seed funding.
Kateryna Sytnyk’s Abra was the Overall Winner of the 2015 Launch Festival. Abra is the world’s first digital cash, peer to peer money transfer network; and is committed to forever changing how the world moves money.
John Pettus’ Fiskkit won the Social Impact Award at the 2015 Launch Festival. Fiskkit was created to provide a better place for people to discuss important news topics and to find what information is good and bad in every article on the Internet. (“Fisking” is a blogging word for a line-by-line critique of a news or opinion article and the core of site functionality).
Ioannis Verdelis’ Fleksy announced an exciting new partnership with Yahoo (via VentureBeat: “Yahoo partners with Fleksy to let you browse the Web directly from your phone’s keyboard“). Fleksy, with almost $6 million in funds raised, and over three million downloads to date, is a revolutionary keyboard app for touchscreens.
Rami Essaid’s Distil Networks received a $3 million credit facility (via FinSMEs). Distil Networks, provider of a bot detection and mitigation platform, has blocked over 30 billion bad bots and counting.
Lachlan McKnight’s LegalVision finalized $1.2 million in Series A funding (via Startup Daily). LegalVision, Australia’s only one-stop-shop legal services provider, specializes in giving clients top quality legal advice at an affordable, fixed-fee price.
Samuli Zetterberg’s Surveypal raised $1 million in seed funding (via FinSMEs). Surveypal offers companies a tool to capture and report real-time insights and make data-driven decisions, serving over 600 enterprise customers including IKEA, Deloitte, Roche, Reader’s Digest and PwC among others.
Emily Best’s Seed&Spark partnered with Verizon, enabling the startup’s filmmakers to have the chance to reach approximately 5.6 million subscribers on cable VOD (via IndieWire, “Attention, Filmmakers: Seed&Spark Can Help You Reach Millions on Cable VOD“). Seed&Spark is a one-stop shop where filmmakers can crowdfund, distribute, and interact with their audience and the broader independent film community
Jason Demant’s startup Bento launched at Launch Festival (for more, read their story here). Bento delivers delicious Asian food in just three easy steps; providing users with both ample menu options, and quick delivery.
Vishal Gurbuxani’s Captiv8 launched at Launch Festival (for more, read their story here). Captiv8 is a social CRM platform that allows brands and influencers to own, grow, and monetize their audience.
Jeremy Almond’s PayStand launched their mobile app in the Apple Store (via Yahoo Finance, “PayStand Launches First Mobile POS App for Credit Card, Check and Bitcoin Payments, Lowering Rates for Merchants“). Paystand is a next-generation payment platform that empowers merchants to transact anywhere and keep more of their revenues.
Andy Bosselman’s Arithmetic was profiled in Forbes (“The Chic Way to Get Rid of Adult Acne“).Arithmetic is a company made up of people determined to improving the way that acne is treated in adults.
Cynthia Schames was profiled over at Fast Company (“The Unique Challenges of Being a Middle-Aged Entrepreneur“). AbbeyPost is a software company and vertically integrated apparel brand, building the world’s first software platform to solve the biggest problem that plagues the fashion industry and customers: FIT.
Dimitris Glezos’s Transifex announced a new initiative to help protect Internet freedom through localization (via Yahoo Finance, “Protecting Internet Freedom With Localization Tools“).Transifex is a Localization Automation Platform that powers the process of launching digital products and content into multiple languages, in over 30 countries representing 20,000+ projects and 200,000+ users, and in more than 100 languages.
Bertrand Patriarca’s startup Washos launched (via Waterless Pro, “New Car Cleaning Service delivered to your location“). Washos is creating a trusted vendor network to supply car owners with rapid response, mobile car cleaning services.
Congratulations to everyone on a stellar month of success!
Founders Network members, if you have information to share with the community, get in touch with us here!
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