A rideshare marketing company with offices in Minneapolis and San Francisco will relocate to the Sunshine State, after receiving an investment from the state's most active venture capital fund.
Florida Funders is leading a Series A investment round for VUGO, a Minneapolis-based startup which provides ridesharing advertising and entertainment. The investment is for an undisclosed amount, but VUGO hopes the Series A will raise a minimum of $850,000.
"We talked to VUGO [for many years], who have a partnership with Disney," Ryan Whittemore, chief investment officer at Florida Funders, said. "It made a lot of sense, but the kicker has been new legislation that's been favorable to ridesharing in Florida was passed, so it's a number of factors that all came together."
The investment, coupled with a recent change in Florida legislation, enticed VUGO to move its headquarters to Florida. The company is considering Tampa, Orlando and Miami for a new home base.
The Florida Senate passed a ridesharing advertising bill last month, opening up the market in the state. "We take Florida's announcement of a rideshare advertising friendly environment so seriously that we will be consolidating our corporate offices to Florida from Minnesota within 12 months," Robert Flessner, CEO of VUGO, said in a statement.
According to Crunchbase, the private company has between one and 10 employees and this is its first major round of funding.
Its eventual move to Florida signifies a shift in recent years for the Sunshine State's tech ecosystem: Tampa Bay is cementing its status as a cybersecurity hub, large, public, tech-enabled companies have begun to get acquired and now startups from cities across the country, including New York City, are choosing Florida as home base.
"In general, now that there's capital here in Florida and talent in terms of personnel, companies been more receptive [to relocating]," Whittemore said. "We've seen a lot of deals looking to come here and one of our key aspects of Florida Funders is bringing companies to Florida."
The VUGO platform allows advertisers to distribute their message either within or on top of a vehicle. Drivers for ridesharing programs can either outfit their fleet with the advertisement platform or a single driver can sign up and get an advertisement kit. The driver would then receive a percentage of the ads that played in the month depending on the number of rides given.
"Now more than ever, it's important for drivers to make extra income," Whittemore said. "Right now they're capped at whatever they make driving, but for no incremental cost it's nice for them to add income."
Florida Funders was named the top venture capital firm in the state, according to a CB Insights report. It invested in wellness tech firm Peerfit in January, and in 2019 it had a number of deals including investing $1 million in valet laundry service 2ULaundry; $4 million in trash valet service Trash Butler; a joint $1 million investment in medtech company UC-Care; and a $15 million investment in home repair app Homee.
It's also teamed up with the University of South Florida to create the SEED Florida Early Stage Investment Fund, which will provide early-stage funding while also helping commercialize new technology across all of Florida's public universities.
