Venture Capital : In The News

This Philly startup got a big boost from their appearance on the ABC hit. You might remember PiperWai from this story in Flying Kite detailing the development of their all-natural deodorant.

Sales of a Philadelphia company's all-natural deodorant skyrocketed since the co-founders appeared on ABC's Shark Tank in December, a reality TV boost that caused the entrepreneurs to wake up in a cold sweat as they quickly scaled up and worked to fill tens of thousands of orders.

"We'd wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, worrying about a millimeter difference on a corrugated box," said Jess Edelstein, who created PiperWai with business partner and childhood friend, Sarah Ribner.

The pair will return to Shark Tank this Friday to give an update on their business. The co-founders pitted two "Sharks" against each other during their initial mid-December appearance on the show, eventually securing a $50,000 investment from Barbara Corcoran in PiperWai...

"Nobody could have predicted the demand we received," said Edelstein. "We were the third fastest company in Shark Tank history to reach a million dollars and our product is only $12."

Hitting the million dollar mark 10 days after the original show aired, PiperWai had more than $1.3 million in sales in the two months that followed their reality TV debut, the co-founders said.

"Before we went on Shark Tank, our lifetime sales were $130,000," Edelstein added.Original source: Philadelphia Business Journal
Read the complete story here. 

A shining star in the local startup scene, Curalate has impressed again with a huge funding round. Philly.com's PhillyDeals blog has the scoop.

Curalate, the "visual commerce" software maker that helps Urban Outfitters and Forever21 sell clothes via partners Instagram, Pinterest and other social media, has raised $27.5 million from its past investors New Enterprise Associates (the largest U.S. venture capital outfit), Josh Kopelman's Philadelphia-based FirstRound Capital (biggest VC based on the East Coast), and MentorTech Ventures (a Phila-based group, includes Pa. state venture capital, which backs firms run by Penn people like Curalate CEO Apu Gupta, a Wharton MBA). "They believe," Gupta told me...

Gupta says the latest cash infusion, which follows $12.5 million in fundraising since 2012, will pay to double Curalate's staff -- currently 115 at its Center City HQ, New York and Seattle offices -- to 230 by year's end. "We're trying to disrupt a $1.6 trillion (ecommerce) market. It's gonna take some money," Gupta told me. "There's a lot of hiring to be done."

"Curalate is transforming ecommerce," NEA general partner Harry Weller said in a statement. He called it "one of those rare companies," combining: a "disruptive vision" for ecommerce, also capable of building rugged software that speeds consumers to buy stuff. 

Original source: Philly.com
Read the complete story here. 

In a stunning move, local chef and restauranteur Marc Vetri and his partner Jeff Benjamin have sold their empire to Urban Outfitters, Inc. The high-end flagship resto Vetri was not included in the sale.

Restaurant patrons will not notice a thing, Vetri said in an interview. "Nothing is changing. In meetings, everyone from Urban kept saying, ‘It’s more crucial than ever that you guys are at your restaurants.’ " Terms were not immediately disclosed.

With Vetri as president and Benjamin as COO, the Vetri Family will become a subsidiary of Urban Outfitters Inc., known as URBN. It will join a stable of brands that includes hip clothing retailer Urban Outfitters, female-focused lifestyle store Anthropologie, home and garden center Terrain, and apparel enterprise Free People, which operates both retail and wholesale arms.

Vetri Family partners Jeff Michaud and Brad Spence each will assume the title "executive director, culinary," and will continue their roles overseeing menu development and execution at all properties.

No branding or logo modifications are planned, and no employee moves are expected...

All of URBN’s current food and beverage brands will be folded into and managed by the Vetri Family. The restaurant veterans will also be tasked with helping Urban develop food and beverage concepts - a challenge both Vetri and Benjamin say they are very much looking forward to.

"It’s like after 17 years, Jeff and I are renewing our vows instead of getting a divorce," Vetri said, clearly energized by the whole deal.

Original source: Philly.com
Read the complete story here. 

The founder of Chobani yogurt looks to coffee, La Colombe.

Having shaken up the yogurt world, Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder of Chobani, now has his sights on a much tougher target — coffee.

Mr. Ulukaya has taken a stake in La Colombe Coffee Roasters, one of the many coffee brands that have sprung up over the last 10 years to cater to the tastes of coffee drinkers who consider themselves connoisseurs...

“We’re in what I call the third generation of coffee,” said Todd Carmichael, the co-founder and chief executive of La Colombe Coffee Roasters. “For your grandfather, coffee was basically a commodity, roasted dark, quick, hot, hard to differentiate. For you and me, it was discovery of lattes, milk-based coffee drinks. And for this generation, it’s about different beans and how a coffee grown in Ethiopia tastes different from one grown in Costa Rica.”

Mr. Carmichael once set a record for an American crossing Antarctica on foot without assistance. “The reason I did that is really just because I told people I would,” he said, explaining how he plans to grow La Colombe into a coffee empire with 150 stores, a thriving online store and robust sales into restaurants.

Original source: The New York Times
Read the complete story here. 

A Drexel student-entrepreneur started a feeding frenzy in the Shark Tank, eventually earning a deal with two sharks for his app Scholly. Check out the video here.

Original source: ABC

MSNBC's Your Business highlights the story of Wash Cycle Laundry, one of Philadelphia's most innovative -- and greenest -- startups. 

Check out the video here.

Venture capital in Philadelphia is on the upswing, especially compared with national trends. 

Nationally, the number of venture capital deals has decreased, according to a joint report released last week, yet Philadelphia is defying this trend. Philadelphia saw a 17-percent increase in total financing deals in 2012, while the national number of deals declined by 3 percent with an 18-percent decrease in total dollars invested. During the past 18 months, $1 billion has been invested in the Greater Philadelphia region companies by venture capitalists, angel funds and seed funds... Philadelphia’s status as a mecca for pharmaceutical and biotech companies as one impetus for venture capital firms to be interested in investing in the city. This years-long trend is making way for more venture capital investment in other fields as well.
Original source: The Daily Pennsylvanian
Read the complete story here.

Philadelphia Magazine put together a great list of the area's "coolest" startups. Flying Kite readers might recognize, well, most of them from our coverage of Philly's entrepreneurship scene.

Something big is happening. It’s not obvious, and it’s nothing tactile—but it’s most definitely a shift in the way we normally do things around here. It’s spurred on by a group of people who, above all else, want to create something that is their very own. With a whole lot of passion and tireless energy, they’re dreaming up new uses for technology, coming up with problem-solving products, and sketching out websites on napkins at coffee shops. Our research turned up more than 100 start-ups (whittled down here to the 20 coolest) that are happening right now. And while those companies may be small, what they’re part of is something huge: They’re changing the way business and culture look in Philadelphia. They’re ushering in an era in which our city is suddenly smarter, hipper, younger, more communal, more energetic and more creative than ever before. And this is just the beginning.
Original source: Philadelphia Magazine
Read the complete list here.

Philly startup Curalate is profiled in the New York Times' small business column, "You're the Boss."

But the idea that rose to the top was a platform that allows companies to measure the impact of Pinterest and other visual social media. They called the company Curalate, and they introduced it in beta in March 2012 and for real two months later. Mr. Gupta said the rise of Pinterest last year looked similar to Twitter’s early days with brands "falling over themselves to get on board but reluctant to commit until they had some way to measure their presence on the platform."

Enter Curalate, which created a way to listen and measure visual conversations. The company’s algorithm recognizes images using pixels and then matches it to a brand. "The platform tells companies the conversations people are having about their product," Mr. Gupta said.

For more on Curalate, check out this story in Flying Kite.

Original source: The New York Times
Read the full story here.

Ami Kassar of MultiFunding, a company based in suburban Philadelphia, penned a piece in the New York Times offering advice for business owners looking for capital.

The best advice that I think I can give anyone in the hunt for money is to get organized early, do your research, identify your targets for financing, and pursue them in a focused and methodical way. As small-business owners and entrepreneurs, we often try throwing as much as we can against the wall to see what sticks. But when it comes to looking for money, this approach can consume time and is unlikely to end happily. Still, I see it all of the time.

First Round Capital's Dorm Room Fund, an investment fund helmed by Philadelphia college students, earns praise in the New York Times. Starting this spring, the Fund is going nationwide -- starting in New York.

New York City’s Dorm Room Fund will follow the model established in Philadelphia, Mr. Barnes said. Student investors will seek out promising ventures among their peers and present the most exciting projects to the investment team. Though partners from First Round Capital will offer advice, students will lead the decision-making process. First Round does retain a veto right, Mr. Barnes said, but “we would not use it unless we were legally or ethically required to do so.”
For more on the Dorm Room Fund, check out this story in Flying Kite.

Original source: The New York Times
Read the complete story here.

First Round Capital's Dorm Room Fund is going national, starting in New York City. The program funds student-run startups selected by students. Flying Kite reported on its local success in December. 

"We’ve heard from several entrepreneurs claiming that it was 'much harder to raise our first $25,000 then our next $2 million,'" wrote [founder Josh] Kopelman."Given this, I just wonder how many amazing companies we would be talking about today had they received that first small check. Instead, I hear stories about how amazing students, under the giant burden of college debt, abandoned their startup dreams and chose to take full-time positions at established companies."

Original source: The Epoch Times
Read the original story here.

Malvern-based Momentum Dynamics has developed a wireless charging pad for the Chevy Volt. The 10-person startup is helping revolutionize charging technology for electric vehicles. The Daily News chatted with the company's founder.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for wireless charging?
A: I was working on a project to deliver solar power to troops during the Iraq war, which led me to a safe, short-distance method of transmitting power wirelessly. The clear application was electric vehicles. The challenge was not the vehicle or battery but the charging connection to the grid.

Original source: The Daily News
Read the full story here.