iFought.thelaw
Nobody likes getting a speeding ticket, but at least Chapel Hill-based iTicket.law can make the aftermath a little less painful. The startup allows users to easily find a lawyer to litigate their case and follow its status, which is especially valuable when you get that ticket in a rural county halfway across the state over Thanksgiving weekend. Read our full profile here, unless of course you’re driving, in which case you should wait until you come to a complete stop so as not to get a ticket.
Fond Farewell
Anyone who’s ever had a pet knows how sad it is when one of our furry friends passes away. So it’s no surprise that people want to do right by their pets in death as well as in life. That’s where Raleigh-based Campanah comes in, offering sustainable, environmentally friendly, tech-enabled pet cremation. Campanah uses a process called water cremation (alkaline hydrolysis, to get technical) that has a smaller carbon footprint than traditional cremation and is introducing RFID tracking so pet owners can follow the whole process—and be absolutely sure that the remains they’re receiving are the right ones. Read our full profile of Campanah here.
Funding I
The $4.7M seed round for Raleigh’s Allstacks led by Boston’s Hyperplane Venture Capital that was announced yesterday tells us three things: 1) Allstacks’ de-bottlenecking solution for the software development process has gained serious traction; 2) We were fortunate to get on the Allstacks train back in February, just before CEO Hersh Tapadia appeared at the CED Tech Conference; 3) We don’t really know the difference anymore between the size of a Seed round vs. a Series A. But with a “seed” that large, we’re excited to see the size of what grows from it! (Here's more from TechWire and TBJ.)
Funding II
Cary’s Cofounders Capital is doubling down—and then some—on the investment it made just over a year ago into Asheville-based Ecobot, which makes software for the efficient collection and reporting of environmental data. This week, Cofounders plowed in a new $700K on top of its initial investment of $450K. The new funds will enable Ecobot CEO Lee Lance and his team to reach a wider audience with its brand-spanking-new mobile app.
Funding III
Kustomer, a New York-HQ’d CRM startup for online retailers, has raised a $60M Series E. (So $4.7M is a “Seed” but $60M is a Series E, as in A-B-C-D-E? Really? But I digress.) In part, the cash will fuel even more rapid growth for the firm’s new-ish Durham office, which we wrote about in October.
ChickTech Event
The Triangle chapter of ChickTech is offering a two-day immersion program this weekend at Raleigh’s Meredith College for female high school students who are potentially interested in STEM fields. ChickTech is a national org with 10 chapters across the country; the Triangle chapter is led by Kelly Curtin. This weekend, students will learn (among other things) how to build a robot from scratch. WRAL TechWire has more details, as does the ChickTech site.
Good Dude
Dude Solutions CEO Ed Roshitsh—an Air Force veteran—had a bright idea over the weekend: he wrote a LinkedIn post in which he invited people to send him the names of active duty military personnel who couldn’t afford to fly home for the holidays, pledging to cover the flights for five servicemembers. That relatively spur-of-the-moment post has snowballed into something much larger. Soon others volunteered to chip in as well, and by yesterday they’d raised more than $30K to cover 30+ round-trip flights—and counting. Ed is still accepting donations.
Awards Season
Sanyin Siang, the founding Executive Director of Duke University’s Fuqua/Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics (COLE), has been named the first winner of the Marshall Goldsmith Distinguished Achievement Award in Coaching and Mentoring over an international field of executive coaches. The award is from the Thinkers50, which we’re told is basically the Oscars of Management Thinking, without the absurdly long TV show. Sanyin also says she “loves GrepBeat,” which deserves an award of its own. (“GrepBeat Reader Of The Year”? Just work-shopping here, people.)
Extra Bit
It’s always a good time to move to the Triangle, but for one lucky person/family, this month may prove to be an especially good time. The Triangle is one of 10 markets nationwide in which Our Town America will be including one “Golden Certificate” worth $1K inside its customary new mover welcome package. The promotion is in honor of the 10th Anniversary of Small Business Saturday, which was this past weekend. So maybe actually open your mail this month, mmmkay?
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