PurPics, a startup that participated in last year's Techstars Farm to Fork accelerator in St. Paul, has raised $920,000 in a pre-seed round that includes investment from a Minnesota firm and Techstars Ventures.
The round was led by Felton Group, LLC, the family office of Charlottesville, Va.-based angel investor Jaffray Woodriff. Woodriff has invested in more than 60 companies and typically backs those specializing in clean energy, machine learning and scalable technology.
The Syndicate Fund, a Twin Cities group created by Techstars Farm to Fork Managing Director Brett Brohl, also participated in PurPics' funding round.
Austin, Texas-based PurPics is building a SaaS-enabled marketplace that connects brands with Gen Z consumers around a cause. The company believes that these partnerships result in 10 times higher social media engagement than other popular marketing tactics like Instagram ads.
"PurPics is led by a phenomenal team that understands how to reach Gen Z consumers in a meaningful way," Brohl said in a release. "They already enable some of the best brands in the world to engage, learn from and work with this generation in a way that is beneficial to everyone and we believe they're just getting started."
Since PurPics launched in 2017, it has worked with more than 40 brands, including Vita Coco, Shake Shack, Clif Bar and Cargill. The company is active on more than 60 college campuses and has helped student organizations nationwide raise over $75,000 for different causes.
PurPics plans to use the new funding to double down on its brand partnerships and scale PurPics Insights. The company reports that it has now raised more than $2 million in funding to date.
PurPics said in a statement that with the release of its newest product, PurPics Insights, the startup hopes to change how brands engage with and understand Gen Z consumers.
"There's a fundamental shift coming in the way brands will interact with and understand this next generation of consumers, and it's going toward more authentic and purposeful strategies," said PurPics CEO Aneesh Dhawan. "What I'm most proud of is that as our company grows, so does our ability to give back. We're very grateful for this round of funding and are excited for our next stage of growth."
