With so much going on in the city’s thriving ecosystem, it is easy to miss some of the happenings in the space. We keep you abreast of a few of things that you may have missed in NYC Tech this week including the fundings, exits, and events.
CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED IN THE ALLEY THIS WEEK
Body Labs, a company that deploys body-modeling software for applications in the apparel and video gaming industries, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding from New York Angels and FirstMark Capital.
The company has license agreements with Brown University and the Max Planck Institute (Germany) for software and systems that are based on a deep, comprehensive, statistical model of how human body shape and pose changes across populations. With that technology, we can create highly accurate 3D body models fully automatically.
The Empire Startup Summit was held this week at Webster Hall. It was wall to wall entrepreneurs, startups and investors for two days – and a pitch competition that left one winner walking away with $10k in seed funding. You can see the full details of the pitch competition here – You are Not Going to Believe Which Startup Won the Empire Startups Summit Pitch Competition
This week we shined a spotlight on some of the digital health innovators in NYC. You can read the full piece here – The Comprehensive Guide to Who’s Who in eHealth in NYC
On Deck Capital, the online lender to small businesses, announced its plans for an IPO to raise $150 million. It’s a placeholder that may change, of course. On Deck has raised roughly $409 million over the years. Its principal shareholders include RRE Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners, Village Ventures, Sapphire Ventures (formerly SAP Ventures), First Round Capital, Google Ventures, and Tiger Global Management.
It’s the coolest thing on ice. The South Street Seaport Ice Skating Rink opens for the season on November 15th. And heads up, Lower Manhattanites: residents living in 10038, 10004, and 10005 zip codes, with valid ID, receive 50% off Admission, Skate Rentals and Helmet Rentals.
Speakaboos, an award-winning multilingual interactive storybook service for reading books online and offline, has raised $6.5 million in Series B financing led by Rick Segal, managing partner of ReThink Education, and Al Sayegh Group.
MediaMath, the global media buying platform, acquired two-year-old Rare Crowds and its founder Eric Picard, a well-known figure in the online ad space.
Rare Crowds is a next generation platform for delivering advertising that is five times more precisely matched against advertiser goals than any other technology. Picard had previously founded Bluestreak, an early ad server and rich media platform.
Picard will join MediaMath as VP of strategic partnerships.
Chobani is getting into the startup culture! The “Greek” yogurt company is launching a New York-based startup incubator to invest in food-related companies.
ill provide startups with commercial kitchens, office space, and collaboration with Chobani leadership over a six-month period that will culminate in a demo day in front of “top chefs and food leaders.” The company will begin taking pitches from interested entrepreneurs next month, and choose 10 companies for its inaugural batch.
Image credit: CC by Mr.TinDC
Flipsicle, a new social app where you get to know people better by asking a question and get photo answers. Discover people, points of view, and see your world in a new way. And talk about a picture being worth a thousand words: the company just closed $2 million in seed funding from investors John Maeda, Vishal Gondal and Neeraj Arora.
Gimlet Media, a newly-launched podcasting startup cofounded by longtime public-radio producer Alex Blumberg, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from Betaworks, Knight Enterprise Fund and Lowercase Capital, along with numerous individual investors, including Groupon Inc. founder Andrew Mason. As part of the round, the company had also raised $200,000 through an equity crowdfunding campaign.
Ocho, a video-based social network for the iPhone, has raised $1.65 million in seed funding from billionaire investor Mark Cuban and General Assemb.ly’s Matt Brimer, among others. Ocho users can upload eight seconds worth of video and audio (or edit down longer videos to eight length).
Ocho is a part of Mass Lab, a media company bringing forth new platforms that shape technology and culture, powering the video-everywhere future.
