• SocialFlow

  Led · Series C · Dec 2015

  SocialFlow is a social media distribution platform that enables publishers to distribute engaging content across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Apple News. The company also provides publishers with monetization solutions that leverage their most effective content to improve advertising offerings and retain paying subscribers. SocialFlow's client roster includes half of the top 150 media companies, including CNN, Condé Nast, Meredith, The Associated Press and the BBC. Founded in 2009 and based in New York City, the company closed a $3.5M funding round. Backers were not disclosed. The company intends to use the capital to retire debt and fund continued product development and marketing. SocialFlow builds a platform that optimizes when and how media organizations share content on social networks to maximize clicks and engagement. It automates tweets, schedules Facebook posts via an algorithm to post at optimal times, and integrates with LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest. The company says its platform can deliver "twice the results" in clicks and engagement and works with publishers including The Wall Street Journal, BBC, TechCrunch, Time Inc., Condé Nast, The New York Times, CBS, NBC, ABC, Mashable and Yahoo. With the new capital SocialFlow plans to improve its core product and offer media publications audience insights with demographic data tied to each tweet. The company will also provide recommendations to help brands optimize social advertising, including Promoted Tweets and Promoted Pins. SocialFlow is based in New York, was founded in 2009, and recently closed a $7.5 million Series C. SocialFlow builds optimization technology for social media that determines when brands should post and which messages they should promote. Its two core products, Cadence and Crescendo, help businesses schedule posts automatically and advise which messages to pay to promote on platforms such as Facebook. The company says it serves more than 70 enterprise customers, including Walmart, Pepsi and Burberry, and that six of the ten largest media companies use Cadence. SocialFlow reported revenue in the “low seven figures,” grew 332% year‑over‑year in Q1 2013, and booked as much in Q1 2013 as it did in all of 2012. The company plans to use new funding to expand its product lineup and grow reach through partnerships, and intends to add 12 hires to a team of 32. Competitive context includes recent acquisitions of competitors (Buddy Media by Salesforce and Vitrue by Oracle), which the company cited while declining to disclose valuation. SocialFlow is a social media platform that helps brands use Twitter more effectively by analyzing data and posting on their behalf. Brands supply tweets and SocialFlow determines the best time to send them to maximize exposure with the right users. The company has a formal long-term agreement with Twitter that gives it access to the full firehose (about 155 million tweets per day), after previously having only month-to-month access. Revenues have been pouring in for about a year, and the team says the new funding will support research on the data they are receiving and creating. SocialFlow is NYC-based, has 17 employees, and came out of Betaworks. Co-founder Frank Speiser is quoted discussing the company's focus on turning Twitter data into a paid product for brands.

• Rheonix

  Participated · Series B · Oct 2015

  Rheonix develops fully automated microfluidic-based molecular assays and sells the Rheonix CARD® cartridge used on its Encompass Optimum™ platform. The enclosed CARD cartridge enables assays to be performed in a fully automated format that the company says reduces contamination risk, lowers cost, reduces user error and streamlines workflow. Rheonix holds a patent for the Rheonix CARD® cartridge. Management has stated the new capital will fund further product development and increase focus on commercialization and marketing. The company targets research, healthcare, food-safety testing and point-of-care settings. Rand Capital has characterized Rheonix as one of its largest portfolio holdings. Rheonix builds fully automated molecular diagnostics systems and consumables, including the Rheonix CARD®, a credit-card-sized disposable cartridge that can run multiple samples simultaneously without user intervention. The company planned to use the financing to complete a manufacturing build-out and launch its first commercial product, expanding physical operations to produce consumables and systems. Funds were also intended to enable fulfillment of a joint development agreement with Life Technologies, which will market, sell and distribute Rheonix-supplied technology. The raise consisted of a combination of debt and equity investments totaling $14 million. Rand Capital has been an investor since 2009 and, following this financing, will have invested $2.1 million in equity. Rheonix maintains offices in Ithaca and Grand Island, New York. Rheonix develops the Rheonix CARD™ (Chemistry And Reagent Device) system, a polymer chip microfluidic analytic platform that vertically integrates raw sample preparation, molecular amplification and multiplex analysis. The CARD system is modular and designed to provide rapid product development and to allow end users to automate new or existing assays using single or multiple raw clinical samples. The company says the platform integrates all functions of traditional molecular diagnostic instrumentation into a single system. Rheonix is continuing development of the Rheonix CARD with new capital from its recent financing. The company is based in Ithaca, NY. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article. Rheonix commercializes CARD (Chemistry And Reagent Device) microfluidic technology that provides an automated diagnostic platform for a broad spectrum of markets including human and veterinary in vitro diagnostics, biopharmaceutical and food & beverage manufacturing, food and water safety testing, and homeland security and defense applications. The company is a spinout of the microfluidic division of Kionix and is based in Ithaca, New York, with a separate Corporate Development and Scientific Affairs facility in Grand Island, New York following its 2008 acquisition of Innovative Biotechnologies International. Rheonix is ramping up efforts to commercialize a series of molecular diagnostic assays aimed at the infectious disease market. The article reports a recent equity financing that supports those commercialization efforts. No operating metrics (revenue or users) are disclosed in the article.

• Knoa Software

  Participated · Series B · Jul 2014

  Knoa Software delivers user experience management and workforce optimization software for enterprise platforms including SAP and Siebel. Its patented solutions provide CIOs and business executives actionable metrics to measure end-user experience, application adoption, and the ROI of enterprise applications. Knoa says its tools are used by hundreds of global corporations and government organizations and help optimize the experience for over a million end-users. The company recently launched a beta of Executive Dashboards for its SAP User Experience Management application to give C-level executives empirical metrics on implementation performance, user proficiency, engagement, and adoption. With a new $5.1M Series B, Knoa plans to accelerate strategic growth initiatives, extend its solutions to better determine software asset utilization, and expand global reach. The company is headquartered in Union Square, New York, and has added senior hires to strengthen finance and worldwide marketing. Knoa Software sells on-premise and cloud-based user experience and performance management solutions, including the Knoa Experience and Performance Manager (EPM) and Knoa Automation. Its EPM offers a screen-by-screen view of how users interact with applications, enabling IT to assess individual user performance and detect inconsistencies before they reach support. The company emphasizes deep, per-user activity insight across monitored applications. Knoa reports that 20% of the Fortune 50 and hundreds of Global 5000 companies have licensed its software. Management says the product has driven significant customer growth and the company plans further product development and global expansion. The company positions its offerings to optimize end-user experience, enhance user performance, and deliver ROI for enterprise customers.

• SciAps

  Led · Equity · Nov 2013

  SciAps, founded in 2012 and based in Woburn, MA, designs handheld analytical instruments used to identify compounds, minerals and elements on-site and in real time. Its flagship product for the mining sector is the LIBZ Z family of handheld elemental analyzers that use laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The company serves industrial, service/security and mining markets with instruments for compound, mineral and element analysis. Manufacturing, service and customer support are operated from a fully ISO-certified facility in Laramie, WY. SciAps intends to use recent funding to scale global sales and marketing operations and to accelerate development of its product line. The company recently raised equity financing to support these growth and product initiatives. SciAps, founded in 2012 and led by President Don Sackett, develops handheld and portable analytical instruments that use laser technology to identify compounds, minerals and elements on-site and in real time. Its analyzers target applications including alloy analysis, mining and exploration, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals, plastics and polymers, law enforcement, and hazmat first responders. The company emphasizes portable, durable, field-tested instruments and operates manufacturing, service and customer support from an ISO-certified facility in Laramie, Wyoming. In November 2013 SciAps raised $2.5M in funding, reflecting an injection of capital to support its operations and product deployment. The company added board members in conjunction with the funding, indicating investor engagement in governance. SciAps produces portable analytical instruments designed to identify any compound, mineral or element. Its product lineup includes portable Raman analyzers operated through its Delta Nu operations. The company is based in Woburn, MA, with manufacturing, service and customer support run from an ISO-certified facility in Laramie, WY. SciAps completed a $2.3M financing comprising $1M in senior debt and $1.3M in equity. The debt proceeds will support Delta Nu's portable Raman business while the equity will fund continued development of new portable analytical technologies. Company founders also participated in the equity portion of the round.

• BinOptics

  Participated · Equity · Dec 2011

  BinOptics manufactures Fabry-Perot (FP) and Distributed Feedback (DFB) lasers and monolithically integrated photonic components for transceivers and other photonic equipment. The company ships products with modulation speeds up to 10 Gbps and has shipped more than 25 million FP and DFB lasers into high-growth markets such as EPON and GPON. BinOptics uses proprietary, patented manufacturing processes to produce low-cost, integrated laser devices and also offers custom integrated components that reduce cost, size, and power by replacing discrete components with a monolithic chip. The company employs over 50 people and plans to hire additional engineers and technicians in 2012. To support product-line expansion and accelerate development of new products and materials, BinOptics closed a new funding round in which both new and existing investors participated.

No current team members are available.