Covering the D.C. tech scene in 2015 meant never lacking for material. There was surprising news, big trends and company moves—and unfortunately, even tragedy—to write about during the year. While 2016 looks likely to be just as busy for us, before we got there we wanted to take a look back at some of the biggest and most important D.C. tech stories we covered this year.
1776 Takes Over Disruption Corp., Launches New Seed Fund Investments
1776 took up an even bigger role in the D.C. tech scene this summer when it acquired Disruption Corporation. The expansion into Virginia and the absorption of Paul Singh's venture (after it started running out of cash) was huge news, made even bigger when Singh left the 1776 team just a few months later. The next big piece of news came when energy analytics and management startup Aquicore raised $3.1 million in seed funding led 1776, the first funding for 1776's $12.5 million seed fund.
Mach37's Big Year
Cybersecurity accelerator Mach37 hit it big this year, most recently with a huge sponsorship deal with defense technology mainstay General Dynamics. The sponsorship is part of Mach37's restructuring to accept private donations and no longer rely entirely on public funding. With the graduation of another two cohorts and the way its graduates are thriving, 2015 marks the beginning of Governor Terry McAuliffe's goal of making Virginia the cybersecurity capital of the country.
Major Exits
One trend that kept us busy this year was covering all of the startup exits local companies made. Acquisitions and IPOs may not have been happening every day, but they stood out when they happened. In terms of IPOs, Alarm.com's cybersecurity devices earned it $98 million on Wall Street for an approximate $628 million value, a solid success, while TerraformGlobal's renewable energy assets attracted a $675 million IPO on 45 million shares. In addition, Evolent Health's $195 million IPO was higher than expected. On the acquisition side, cloud data visualization firm Virtustream was acquired by EMC for $1.2 billion—a huge win for its investors—while enterprise communication software startup Speek got acquired by Jive Communications.
SocialRadar's Big Pivot
SocialRadar has changed a lot since Michael Chasen, co-founder and former CEO of Blackboard, launched it to major fanfare in 2013. The change from consumer app to SDK meant major staffing changes. Many high-up executives left and staff cutbacks included the three members of the location tech startup SocialRadar acquired, who left to launch Parkour Method. The company is hard to recognize from what it used to be, and it may well end up another success for Chasen, but the saga of how it transformed is definitely something that the startup community is watching closely.
Trustify's (Successful) PR Gamble
The Ashley Madison data hack led to an understandable frenzy of interest about who might have an account, but D.C.-based on-demand private investigations startup Trustify faced some awkwardness for offering to sift through the customer files for the emails of people you know. The problem is that the data included unconfirmed emails that could have been jokingly or maliciously entered by others. Worse, the email addresses were then used to market to the person searched for. Though it gained the company thousands of new users, the national criticism it dealt with brought the mixed blessing of a negative spotlight onto the company.
Minh Nguyen Pleads Guilty to Murder
Well-known in D.C. startup circles as an advisor and serial entrepreneur, Minh Nguyen was arrested in January and charged in connection with the murder of his ex-wife's new husband. In September Nguyen pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. He is expected to be sentenced in February, and could receive a life sentence.
Drones Start to Take Off
Drones started to go mainstream in 2015 and the D.C. area has been playing an important role in that development. Along with the FAA releasing its new rules for private drone use, the first official test of a drone delivery was run by Virginia Tech. And its not just about companies that can use drones. Companies like DroneShield are becoming increasingly sought after to counter the illegal use of drones for things like terrorism and smuggling contraband into prisons.
Sharing Economy Fights Around DC
D.C. is of course where federal laws and regulations get decided, but while federal rules for sharing economy companies like Uber or Airbnb aren't going to happen this year, there's plenty of opportunity in 2016. The regions was kept hopping enough make up for that lack however. New rules to let Uber and Lyft operate at local airports came into force, comparable to other major airports in the U.S. Airbnb meanwhile is more popular in D.C. than ever but now has to deal with efforts to limit or derail it with proposals to the D.C. Council.
