• Sentisis

  Participated · Series A · Mar 2015

  Sentitis is a Madrid, Spain-based provider of a social media analytics platform. The platform applies text analytics technologies and artificial intelligence to determine reputation in social networks, extract the most significant content, and categorize users relevant to a brand or company. The company serves more than 60 clients across six countries and employs 25 people. Co-founded by CEO Jorge Peñalva and CTO Enrique Fueyo Ramírez, Sentitis raised $1.3M in funding to support its development. Backers include AXON Partners Group, FIDES (the investment arm of Fundación José Manuel Entrecanales), Startcaps Ventures, 500 Startups and Meet and Money. Sentitis intends to use the funds to continue developing the platform and to expand internationally. Sentisis operates a platform for analyzing social media content, with a particular focus on the Spanish language. The company was founded in early 2012 and is based in Spain. Its platform has been used recently by digital agencies and communications firms and has served clients including Havas Worlwide, Hello Media, SocialNoise, Asesores de comunicación y relaciones públicas, the Instituto de Comercio Exterior (ICEX) and the Real Instituto ElCano. Larger corporate clients named in the article include Everis, Banco Santander, Mediaset and Globomedia. As of the article, Sentisis had closed a financing round of €200,000 led by Startcaps Ventures alongside business angels from the IESE investment forum. Sentisis provides real-time monitoring and detection of content and opinion across social networks, plus analysis of influential users and campaign impact. The platform profiles user demographics and attributes (sex, age, location, hobbies, interests) using artificial intelligence algorithms and specialized semantic analysis for Spanish. Its product suite focuses on listening, sentiment and audience insight to support online campaign assessment and influencer identification. The company said it will develop new solutions that incorporate additional information sources such as blogs and forums. Sentisis announced a fundraising round of €140,000 to support these product developments. Investors in the round include Enisa, the seed-capital firm Startcaps and partners of the firm.

• Virtuix

  Participated · Seed · Apr 2014

  Virtuix, founded in April 2013 and based in Austin, Texas, develops Omni — an omni-directional treadmill that enables 360-degree movement in virtual environments. Its commercial product line includes Omni Pro and Omni Arena, a turnkey multiplayer attraction comprising four Omni Pro units. The company has shipped nearly 4,000 Omni Pro systems to more than 500 commercial entertainment venues worldwide. Its Omniverse content platform offers 24 VR games with built-in esports competitions and has hosted over two million plays to date. Virtuix plans to launch Omni One, a consumer version for the home with a 30-title game store at launch, including company-developed and licensed third-party titles. The company intends to sell Omni One for $1,995 or via a $55-per-month payment plan and will use proceeds from recent financing to fund the launch. Virtuix develops the Omni, a patent-pending omni-directional treadmill that enables users to walk, run, and jump within 360-degree virtual environments to create a full virtual reality experience. The company positions the Omni to take VR beyond seated experiences by supporting natural movement and delivering increased immersion and presence. Virtuix completed a $2.7 million investment round to support operations, fund working capital and accelerate research and development around the full VR experience. The company has pre-sold more than 3,500 Omnis and offers the device for pre-order at $499 per unit; it has raised $7 million to date, including a $3 million seed and $1.1 million via Kickstarter. Virtuix added advisors Kai Huang (co-founder of Red Octane) and Mike Griffith (former Activision Publishing CEO) to guide scaling, branding and product development. The final Omni was scheduled to be revealed at CES in January 2015, with commercial production targeted for Q1 of the following year. Founded in April 2013 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, Virtuix is completing final development ahead of its upcoming commercial launch. Virtuix builds the Omni, an omni-directional treadmill designed to let users physically walk and explore virtual-reality environments. The company developed the Omni over roughly three years, with founder and CEO Jan Goetgeluk investing his life savings and working on the device after hours. Virtuix plans a commercial launch and expects to begin shipping the Omni to its Kickstarter backers later this year. It is partnering with manufacturers in China to bring the treadmill to market; COO David Allen has prior manufacturing experience in China. Financially, Virtuix completed a $3 million first institutional financing to broaden the market, following a $1.1 million Kickstarter that came from 3,000 backers. The company is based in Houston. Virtuix builds the Omni, a 360-degree treadmill designed to let users run, walk, or jump in place while playing games on the Oculus Rift. The Omni is a 4-foot-tall, 110-pound platform sold with special shoes and a belt harness for safety. The company is taking preorders on its website, with orders slated to ship in March. The Omni package is priced at $499 (the article notes a VR50 coupon code that yields $50 off). Virtuix raised $1.1 million on Kickstarter last month for the Omni. The article also references the Oculus Rift dev kit, which is available as a $300 prototype.

• Etece

  Participated · Series A · May 2013

  Etece operates an online marketplace that lets customers post local tasks and hires self-employed "problem solvers" to complete them, with typical jobs including dog walking, cleaning, cooking and IKEA furniture pick-ups. The platform has recruited 400 problem solvers to date and says problem solvers keep 81% of the fee while Etece takes a 19% cut. The company handles payments (charging customers by credit card and paying solvers by wire) and offers guarantees so solvers get paid if a client is insolvent and customers can get a refund if unhappy. Etece was founded in Madrid six months ago and currently serves Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. It plans to expand into four more Spanish cities in the coming weeks—Seville, Malaga, Bilbao and Zaragoza—and is targeting 1,000 problem solvers by the end of the year. The company says its focus is fully on Spain for now but could expand to large European cities such as London and Paris if it achieves national traction.

No current team members are available.