The pandemic wasn’t exactly a welcome business headwind for a startup that supported in-person events.
But when the dust settled, MemoryFox leaders had used the occasion to solve new problems.
The software-as-a-service platform has been reengineered to help nonprofits collect and tell stories from the people they serve.
Instead of soliciting stories and case studies and getting blasted with different files, format and styles, they can use MemoryFox to curate the experience.
“If you are the marketing director at one of those places, you are always starving for content,” founder and CEO Chris Miano said. “They all have this problem. It’s been funny on some of our demos because they say, ‘How did you think of this?”
MemoryFox went from the desolation of March 2020 to posting four straight quarters of “significant growth,” has converted contractors and part-timers into a full-time team, and is now profitable. The company recently closed a $380,000 seed round backed by the University at Buffalo’s Buffalo Innovation Seed Fund, Launch NY, Z80 Labs and various individuals.
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Miano said MemoryFox is using the cash to fund a new version of its platform, which should be done by this summer. He said that while software-as-a-service companies can have relatively low overhead, the talent and technology also have to be aligned before they embark on a significant growth push.
That alignment is ongoing, but Miano said the company is seeing the kind of feedback that makes him believe significant scale is possible.
“There is such a big market for this,” he said. “We want to grow when the time is right and with the right investment partners who can be enablers.”
MemoryFox is the seventh local company to raise growth-oriented funding this year. The others include Tackle.io ($35 million), Torch Labs ($25 million), Circuit Clinical ($7.5 million), SomaDetect ($6 million), Kickfurther ($5.9 million) and Ellicottville Greens ($1 million).
