DC Inno Beat 4/20: Full Measure Reveals Raise, DC VC Dollars and Random Nerds is Back

Happy Monday...

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The Big One

Chris: Stealthy edtech startup Full Measure Education has announced the raise of a $5.5M Series B led by Safeguard Scientifics with participation from Bull City Venture Partners. Full Measure Education has developed a platform that makes it easier to connect students with counselors and customized management solutions to help foster higher student completion rates.

Co-founder and CEO of Full Measure Education Greg Davies was one of the original five hires at Blackboard in 1997. Safeguard Scientifics is a PA-based publicly traded investment firm with a focus on investments in early and growth-stage companies. Its Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Technology Erik Rasmussen is tied to Blackboard via an old investment undertaken by his previous employer, Aurora Funds.

Molly: This is a great get for Full Measure Education, which has been operating under the radar for just over 18 months. Now this local edtech company will be able to continue to expand its partnerships, scale and continue to tackle what's considered one of the most pressing challenges facing colleges and universities today: declining student retention.

Making Moves

Chris: Based on a new NVCA/PwC report, the District comes in at No. 9 among major U.S. regions for investments during Q1. Venture capital firms invested a total of $330M across 38 deals throughout the D.C. region — which spans D.C., Maryland and Virginia — in Q1. The D.C. focused software sector did especially well by raising $220M in investment dollars. The $330M in total VC dollars raised during the quarter topples any previous Q1 figure for the DC area since 2008.

Eric: That's a pretty impressive sum of money however you look at it. Whether it means the whole year is going to be a bonanza of funding or if the rest of 2015 will seem quiet in comparison is harder to judge. It may well be that all of the smart companies went for their funding early.

Chris: Random Nerds, the tech, video game, music and film blog led by former nclud CSO Joe Corbett, is now being relaunched with an interesting revenue stream. The "beta" version of Random Nerds originally launched in 2013 as a side project that gained some grassroots momentum via its active readership base. Revenue will come from a tipping feature built by Random Nerds and Friendly Design Co. called the Patronizing system. People who like a story can “tip” the article, the money is then split 49/49 between the writer and the website.

Eric: You have to admire the optimism of creating a revenue system that relies on the enlightened self-interest of people who enjoy what they are reading. But Joe has had a lot of time to figure out a way to make it work and the stories up on the website so far are certainly eye-catching.

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Tips? Rumblings? Complaints? Something you want to see in the email? Reid@dcinno.com, Chris@dcinno.com