EMinor, the Morrisville-based parent company of tech startup PlayMetrics, has closed on nearly $5.3 million.
The raise, disclosed in a securities filing Wednesday, involved seven investors. Colorado’s Boulder Ventures led the round, which also had participation from the Triangle Tweener Fund, a prolific early-stage rolling investment firm led by local entrepreneurs Scot Wingo and Robbie Allen.
EMinor CEO Mike Doernberg described the raise, targeted at $5.5 million according to the securities filing, as “fully subscribed.”
Doernberg said the round was easy to close despite current market conditions as investors tighten their belts.
He credits the longevity of his team, many of whom have worked together through multiple startups, including Reverbnation, which was acquired by Singapore-based BandLab last year, and Adwerx, which spun out in 2015.
Right now the only fully-hatched startup under the eMinor umbrella is PlayMetrics, a software development firm putting out a platform to help youth sports organizations manage their clubs.
And that’s where the bulk of the capital is going, Doernberg said.
“We have a business growing really fast,” he said of PlayMetrics. “Our business is actually expanding a little faster than we thought.”
The capital will allow eMinor to keep up, “to make sure we have enough capital on the balance sheet to accelerate at the right time.”
While some dollars will go toward strategic hiring, the bulk of the funds will allow PlayMetrics to be “prepared” for the trajectory it’s on, and that includes expanding outside of its sweet spot, soccer, to other youth sports.
The firm is also expanding its customer targets to leagues and sports sanctioning bodies, and that requires expanding in areas around product design.
Doernberg’s firm is not alone. Several Triangle-area startups have completed successful raises in recent months, even as economists argue over whether the term “recession” describes the current economy. Green Places, a Raleigh-based startup helping firms beef up their sustainability practices, closed $3 million on the same day eMinor's round closed.
Doernberg says it typically comes down to execution.
“Good companies can raise capital,” he said. “Good companies are defined as companies that are growing. They are capital efficient. And they are in spaces that I think people believe in.”
In the meantime, Doernberg wears multiple hats. He’s currently acting as interim CEO of Adwerx following the departure of longtime leader Jed Carlson. The search for Carlson’s replacement continues, he said.
