Month: February 2013

Here’s a roundup of some of the recent seed-stage and angel deals from around the world:

• Real-world shopping analytics firm Euclid, has secured $17.3 million Series B funding to serve its growing customer base
• Graduway, a provider of alumni networking platforms, has raised $1.1m in seed funding
• Wedding Party, a mobile app that allows wedding guests to contribute to a shared digital album, has raised $1 million seed funding
• Grishin Robotics, a Russian VC group, has dropped an unnamed sum into Bolt, a hardware incubator in Boston
• Mach 1 Development, a company focused on tagging, tracking, & locating documents, cargo, people & media, closes $500k angel funding
• Mindflash, a web platform for companies to easily share knowledge and train employees, has raised $3.5 million in funding
• adizio, a self serve ad buying platform for smaller agencies and marketers to run online and mobile campaigns, gets £250,000 angel funding
• Medikly, the leading software-as-a-service technology provider for pharmaceutical brands and agencies, lands $1.2M Series A funding
• Scope 5, a cloud-based SaaS company that helps companies measure & benchmark sustainability data, closes about $500,000 Series A funding
• Sanguine Biosciences, a startup developing a service around blood sample collection for R&D, has closed seed funding
• Warply, a mobile marketing toolbox that powers up monetization, loyalty & engagement, has raised a $500,000 round of early-stage funding
• ScootPad, the leading online learning platform for elementary grades, lands $600k in seed funding
• Vengo, the maker of mini vending machines for bars, restaurants and offices, has raised $1 million in seed funding
• uBank, a mobile payment service that currently targets Russia and the wider CIS region, raises $8M Series A funding from Runa Capital
• CircleCI, a continuous integration platform for web application developers, announces $1.5M seed funding
• Polar, developer of an app that allows users to create and vote on great-looking photo polls, has raised $1.2M seed funding
• JustAskBoo, an e-newsletter business where readers can post questions seeking referrals and offer recommendations, closes $200,000 funding
• Mobilewalla, the premier search and analytics tool for everything mobile applications, lands an undisclosed investment
• EatStreet, a company with an online ordering system for restaurants, has a raised $2 million funding round
• Thinkful, an online education company, has raised $1 million seed funding from RRE Ventures, Quotidian Ventures & FF Angel
• Quandora, a question-and-answer for enterprise knowledge management vendor, has secured $150k seed funding from Kima Ventures.
• OpenMarkets, which bands hospitals together and negotiates discounts on equipment, raises Series A funds from Texo Ventures
• Gild, a startup that helps companies evaluate and hire software developers, has raised $8M seed funding
• VendorStack, an online enterprise vendor comparison platform, has closed its seed funding round

To get regular updates, come follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/angel__network or register for our blog at https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.netwp-login.php?action=register.

Have you managed to raise capital for your company?  We always love to hear from entrepreneurs who manage to get funded.

Or are you looking to raise funding?  Send me a summary of your project at mike@angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk and we’ll try to help.

 

Social media expert Mari Smith (along with ShortStack) came up with some ways that Facebook pages can start getting more of their users to share their posts, such as including calls to action and using entertaining (yet relevant) pitches.

This infographic shows all the relevant details of the top 40 most influential CEOs on social media, their Klout scores, the company they work for and number of Twitter followers. If you want to gain influence in social media, consider this a short list of people to try to engage with.

This infographic from OfficeTime examines the top 10 ways we kill time every day. Follow the flow chart and see how you can change the way you work.

How do you waste time at work?  Come on everyone, be honest!!

Angel Investment News:  

• 5 Reasons the US Government Fails at Venture Capital: https://ow.ly/hQf38 
• The top 20 US technology venture capital firms of 2012: https://ow.ly/hQCcW 
• Infographic – The rise of the angel investor: https://ow.ly/hSA28 
• New Legislation Offers Tax Credit for Angel Investors in Pennsylvania: https://ow.ly/hTRnM 
• UK tech venture capital deals reach new high as London dominates: https://ow.ly/hWKjJ 

Business Plans & Pitching:

• Authentic Networking: How to craft and use your elevator pitch: https://ow.ly/hSARV 
• How to Craft a Magnetic Elevator Pitch: https://ow.ly/hSB3v 

Fund Raising:

• LinkedIn Is A Reason Startups Raise More Money, Angel Investor Says: https://ow.ly/hUEMb 
• Lessons Learned the Hard Way: Canadian Angel Investor Reveals His Million-dollar Mistakes: https://ow.ly/hWLh4 

Marketing & Social Media:

• 30 Terrible Pieces of Social Media Advice You Should Ignore: https://ow.ly/hOOWW 
• Finding Your Marketing Competitive Advantage: https://ow.ly/hQfop 
• SEO for Startups: 5 Rules to Apply Now: https://ow.ly/hPeHe 
• How to Use Hashtags in Your Social Media Marketing: https://ow.ly/hVJqg 
• 8 Twitter Best Practices: https://ow.ly/hVJNm 
• Infographic – How Sales Messaging Affects Conversion Rates: https://ow.ly/hWY5d 

Start-Up & Entrepreneurship:

• 6 things climbing Mount Kilimanjaro taught me about being an entrepreneur: https://ow.ly/hOOka 
• How to be a Young Entrepreneur: 60 Questions to Guide You: https://ow.ly/hQfcU 
• 9 Tech Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets to Success: https://ow.ly/hQfCg 
• 10 Ways For Startups To Survive The Valley Of Death: https://ow.ly/hSyGk 
• 10 Tough Lessons I Learned About Becoming An Entrepreneur: https://ow.ly/hSEE6 
• 37 Facebook Pages Every Smart Entrepreneur Must Follow: https://ow.ly/hUExg 

To stay updated, come follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/angel__network or even better register for our blog at https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.netwp-login.php?action=register.

Read anything interesting? Feel free to add links to any articles or resources you’d like to share with the angel community.

Or are you looking to raise funding?  Send me a summary of your project at mike@angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk and we’ll try to help.

Investment opportunities are an excellent way to make your presence known in the financial world, and you can find these opportunities in a plethora of ways. However, when you see ones that are promoted on social media, why should you have a sceptical eye?

Nature of Investments
You probably see advertisements for products like soda, cleaning supplies, snacks and so forth on a regular basis. However, investments are not usually as highly advertised. If a company has decided to go to social media, this could be a sign that it is struggling. While this statement is not true of all investments that appear on social media outlets, you need to do some further research for your own protection in financial matters.

Who is Promoting?
When it comes to Facebook, many companies and businesses will often have a person who is in charge of the promotional work. This statement is true for other types of social media sites as well. The individuals in charge of these campaigns are often interns or new hires, and they might not yet understand all of the complexities of the business. As a result, you are looking at advertisements that are not really of the most professional caliber. Once again, this is not a hard and fast rule, but you need to make sure the promises of the ad actually match up with what the company is really offering.

Is it Legitimate?
On the Internet, it is easy to be fooled. Basically, everyone and anyone has access to an array of web-designing options, and they can see how professional advertisements are constructed. Therefore, it is easy for scam artists to create something that looks real and professional. As a result of this ease and accessibility, anyone could create a page on a social media outlet and make it look like as though the entity is offering an investment opportunity. Instead, this group could just be out to take your money. It’s always wise to look into more information about such opportunities.

No Physical Location
Another problem that you might find with investment opportunities promoted by social media outlets is that they do not seem to have any physical location. You want the company with which you are working to have such a location. A real location helps to prove that it is, indeed, a real industry and not just some Internet scam. Furthermore, a location should exist to which you send your money. Be wary of the payment methods that the opportunity requires you to use. If you are unsure about the situation, speak with your accountant or financial planner to find out in which direction you should go.

Making investments online is scary in many ways because you do not always know where your money is headed. Due to this problem, many people choose to make investments the old-fashioned way. It’s fine to perform some research on social media outlets and other websites, but be very careful about using them when you actually want to make the investment.

This is a guest post by Jason Harter, who has managed mutual fund portfolios for over 20 years. He obtained his masters degree from of the the 10 Best Online Master’s Degree Programs in Finance.

This infographic provides information for online sales and marketing tactics. It shows the different buttons on an internet shopping site and shows which messages and buttons produce more sales and which negatively effect sales. It shows the different tactics such as wording and button colour.

 that online sales sites use in order to produce the most sales on their sites.

 

Here’s a roundup of some of the recent seed-stage and angel deals from around the world:  

• Method, a Toronto-based CRM solution, has closed a $3 million investment round led by Klass Capital
• Mambu, the microfinance technology provider, has secured around $2 million in Series A funding from Runa Capital and Point Nine Capital
• Virool, a San Francisco-based video advertising startup, has closed on $6.62 million in funding from a long list of investors
• Storenvy, the only store builder and marketplace in one, has raised $5 million Series A funding
• Nasseo, a medical device and dental implant specialist, has received $520,000 in seed funding
• Business of Fashion, a B2B blog that chronicles the ins and outs of the fashion industry, picks up $2.1M seed funding led by Index Ventures
• Latin American logistics and shipping marketplace TransportarOnline has received an undisclosed amount of angel investment
• Real estate portal Housing.co.in, which currently lists rental flats in Mumbai, has secured funding from a group of angel investors
• Bluefields, a social platform and management tool for recreational sports teams, players and league organizers, wins $1M seed funding
• Tutorspree, the best way to find high quality private tutors for every subject under the sun, has closed on $800K financing
• Car-Fin, a Russian startup developing innovative solutions for online car brokers, has secured $400,000 in funding
• Club W, the first company to offer a personalized and curated subscription model for wine has closed a $3.1M round of financing
• Kwaab, a platform that lets you discover, collect and share your interests & likes with social peers, has raised angel funding
• The Ivory Company, a home-decor company focused on quality home merchandise in white and ivory, has closed $525,000 in angel funding
• 71lbs, a startup developing parcel shipping data analytics and cost recovery technology for small & medium businesses, lands seed funding
• Stormpath, the first easy, secure user management and authentication service for developers, has closed $8.2M Series A financing
• ShopSpot, a mobile shopping app makes selling and buying stuff as easy as sending a tweet, has raised S$779,000 funding
• Cheers In, a startup that delivers some of the world’s most unique beers to the doorsteps of Shanghai residents, raises US$230,000 funding
• Celly, which creates mobile social networks for friends, schools, communities, businesses and movements, has closed $1.4M funding
• Artspace.com, an ecommerce platform that acts as an online marketplace for high-end art, raises $8.5M Series B funding

To get regular updates, come follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/angel__network or visit our blog at https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.net (or even better register for our blog at https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.netwp-login.php?action=register).

Have you managed to raise capital for your company?  We always love to hear from entrepreneurs who manage to get funded.

Or are you looking to raise funding?  Send me a summary of your project at mike@angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk and we’ll try to help.