• Brazen

  Participated · Equity · Jun 2015

  Brazen is an Arlington, Virginia–based engagement platform led by CEO Ed Barrientos. The platform allows organizations to schedule and host chat-based online meetups and events to engage a wide variety of audiences. More than 150 organizations, including Raytheon, Gannett, Amtrak Dartmouth, Gainsight, AmeriCorps Alums and Penn State, use Brazen to interact with employees, job candidates, customers, students and alumni. Brazen raised $4.7m in funding in a round led by Osage Venture Partners. The company has raised more than $10m in total. Investors in the $4.7m round included Randstad Innovation Fund, Militello Capital and Kegonsa Capital Partners.

• Networked Insights

  Participated · Series B · Sep 2011

  Networked Insights offers Kairos, a SaaS analytics platform that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand what is relevant to people so brands and agencies can find ideal audiences, understand content interests, and target them with the right media. Its customers include over 200 leading brands and their agencies, including the world’s largest media buying agency, GroupM. The company says it began training machines 10 years ago and has evolved that intelligence into a system that can predict preferences ranging from what movies people like to who they might vote for and which spokespersons will resonate. Networked Insights has raised $80 million to date and announced $30 million in growth funding to accelerate its AI and deep learning capabilities. The new funding will be used to fuel international expansion, pursue partnerships and acquisitions, and scale marketing and sales operations. Management says the investment will enable it to bring several powerful new AI products to market this year. Networked Insights develops the SocialSense marketing decision platform that analyzes social data to uncover trends and consumer engagement opportunities. The company applies semantic analysis and machine learning and coined the term “Social Lift” to describe the engine that enables minimal effective advertising to reach targeted audiences. Networked Insights informs $5 billion of media spend for customers including Samsung, MillerCoors, MTV Networks, Kraft and Starcom MediaVest. Founded in 2006, the company has offices in New York, Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin. The company plans to use new funding to continue investments in machine learning to improve audience development, increase fidelity in sentiment recognition and expand semantic analytic tools such as trending and prediction. Parallel investments will be made in IT architecture to allow clients access to data in raw form, curated form or customized through Networked Insights’ tool sets. Networked Insights is a Madison, Wisconsin–based social media analytics company that offers the SocialSense platform. SocialSense provides a segmented look at online conversations and interactions and is described by the company as a "social media listening" tool that helps marketers harness insights and streamline research for advertising campaigns. The company says it can mine data from 300 million people and 1.5 billion online conversations on a monthly basis. Customers and partners cited in the article include IDG, P&G, Kraft, Fox, McDonalds, Walgreens and Cisco. The company will use the new funding to bolster SocialSense and launch new product offerings based on the product's architecture. Financially, the startup announced a $5 million Series A and has raised $9 million to date, positioning it amid a crowded and competitive market.

• Alice.com

  Led · Series A · Nov 2008

  Alice.com operates a retail platform that enables consumer packaged-goods manufacturers to sell directly to consumers rather than through traditional retailers. Consumers create household profiles (adults, kids, babies) and the site tracks supplies, emails reorder reminders, and ships items in a single 'Alice' box with no shipping costs. The marketplace hosts more than 600 manufacturers and thousands of household brands, including Kellogg’s, Slim-Fast, BIC, Seventh Generation, 3M, Ecover and Solo Cup. Alice says it has seen a 200% increase in the number of direct-to-consumer online storefronts its platform powers over the past year. Last year the company merged with Spanish company Koto.com, launched in Spain, and plans to debut sites in Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom in 2012 and 2013. The company has raised $18.2 million to date and says it will use its latest funding to enhance consumer offerings through site advancements and new features. Alice.com operates a retail platform for household goods that launched in June and bundles customer purchases into a single 'Alice' box delivered to the door with no shipping costs. The consumer experience includes household profiles (adults, kids, babies) that trigger low-stock email reminders and simplify reordering. The company recently launched a free iPhone app that lets users shop, maintain ongoing product lists, view price comparisons, product ingredients, customer reviews, and find coupons and daily deals. On the supply side, Alice.com enables consumer packaged goods manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble, to sell directly to consumers rather than through traditional retail channels. Financially, the startup received a $6 million infusion from private investors in addition to a prior $4.3 million Series A, for $10.3 million in disclosed funding. Co-founders Brian Wiegand and Mark McGuire are serial entrepreneurs who have sold multiple companies, including Jellyfish to Microsoft. Alice.com Inc. is a Middleton-based online retail platform that connects manufacturers and consumers in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) market. The company's core product is an online platform facilitating direct connections between CPG manufacturers and end consumers. According to SEC filings, Alice.com raised more than $4m in venture capital funding early in September. FinSMEs reported the raise on September 23, 2009. The reported information in the article is limited to the fundraising and the company's market focus. Alice.com is a stealth startup building an open online retail platform focused on consumer packaged goods and household essentials. The founders say the service will connect manufacturers (toothbrushes, toilet paper, trash bags, etc.) directly with end consumers. They claim the model will be unique in how goods are ordered and distributed and in how CPG companies can target, incentivize and personalize offers. The company cites Amazon and Drugstore.com as primary competitors. Alice.com plans a closed beta in January and a public launch in March 2009. Financially, the founders have purchased the alice.com domain for $250,000 and have raised external capital to support launch.

No current team members are available.