New Money is BostInno's report on all the funding deals out of Boston tech companies this week. As more news comes out, this post will be updated.
Friday, August 21
VisitDays (Cambridge)
- Deal: $575,000, according to BetaBoston
- Investors: Brent Grinna, Diane Hessan, BOSS Syndicate, Deborah Quazzo
- What they do: Software for admissions offices to connect with prospective students
- Other details: Company is moving from Washington, D.C., to Cambridge on Sept. 1, according to BetaBoston; VisitDays will be working temporarily out of the offices of Accomplice
Thursday, August 20
Bright Cellars (Milwaukee, formerly Cambridge)
- Deal: $1.8 million in a round that could reach up to $2,000, according to an SEC filing.
- Investors: Eight unnamed angels, each contributing $20,000 or more.
- What they do: Bright Cellars delivers personalized selection of wines to users' doorsteps on a monthly basis. Its Pandora-like matching algorithm picks bottles for users based on the results from a quiz they take on their preferences. Members can rate wines, continually refining their taste profiles and allowing the matching algorithm to get smarter.
- Other details: Launched in May 2014 with about $20,000 in initial funding, the Bright Cellars is the brainchild of two MIT alums, who met while living in the dorms. The team participated in the Gener8tor startup accelerator in Madison, Wis., earlier this year, and opted to stay in Milwaukee. Now, the startup is part of the local CSA Partners venture investment fund (led by Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele) and is based out of the Pritzlaff building's co-working space.
SmackHigh (Boston)
- Deal: $1.65 million seed round
- Investors: Flybridge Capital Partners (led the round); an AngelList syndicate led by Wayne Chang (of Twitter) and Boston Seed Capital; also participating were DataXu CEO Mike Baker and David Chang
- What they do: Aggregates news submissions from high school students and distributes them via Twitter and Snapchat to thousands of high schools in the U.S.
- Other details: SmackHigh is taking part in the current session of Techstars Boston; startup says it has 800,000 opt-in followers across its services. We covered the company in March.
Tuesday, August 18
Yasso (Quincy)
- Deal: $6.1 million in equity funding, out of a total offering amount of $8.1 million, according to an SEC filing
- Investors: Not disclosed
- What they do: Maker of frozen Greek yogurt bars
- Other details: From the SEC filing, the deal includes $2.6 million from the conversion of Convertible Notes to Series A stock
Tracksmith (Wellesley)
- Deal: $4.1 million Series A (see our full story, here)
- Investors: Pentland Group out of London, which has a long track record investing in brands at the intersection of sportswear and fashion.
- What they do: Tracksmith is a heritage-inspired running apparel startup located in Wellesley, the halfway point of the Boston Marathon. They produce high quality apparel for men and women, in addition to custom content and various pop-up events and running clubs.
- Other details: This brings the company's total funding to $5.7 million. Founder Matt Taylor told BostInno the Series A will be used toward creating more custom content, growing the team and looking at omni-channel opportunities in the retail space. “From a brand perspective, a big focus will be on content and community," said Taylor.
Monday, August 17
Testive (Cambridge)
- Deal: $1.15 million
- Investors: Fifty angel investors contributed to this Testive’s funding round, including Jean Hammond, partner at the edtech accelerator LearnLaunch; Don McLagan, former CEO of Compete.com; and Bill Warner, founder of Avid Technologies.
- What they do: Testive provides free software that helps students prepare for the SAT and ACTs. According to the company, its paid coaching program has proven to increase students’ scores three times higher than the industry average. Its platform has been shown to increase users' SAT scores by an average of 150 points and ACT scores by an average of three points. To date, Testive has been used by more than 150,000 students around the world.
- Other details: Testive was founded in 2011 by Tom Rose and Miro Kazakoff, both MIT Sloan School of Management alums. This is Testive's third funding round: Since its launch in 2011, Testive has raised $2.35 million. The company plans to use the latest round of capital to hire developers and coaches, expand sales outreach, and fuel marketing initiatives. Currently, Testive is seeking an additional $600,000 in funds to close out its current campaign. In an effort to reach $5 million total in the bank, Testive will launch additional funding rounds in the next 18 months.
Photo courtesy of Testive.
