Entrepreneurs spend so much time pitching VCs that they don’t often stop to wonder where the check-writers are getting their cash. It doesn’t come from the sky, or even the cloud. Rather, fund-runners need to crank out decks and hit the fundraising trail just like startups do.
Cary’s Cofounders Capital is happy to report that it has returned from said trail to close its Fund II with $31M, nearly three times as large as its initial $12M fund. We talked to the Cofounders brain trust of David Gardner and occasional GrepBeat correspondent Tim McLoughlin for the full story, including how the new fund will better enable the firm to make significantly larger follow-on investments in its portfolio companies. They have a lot of interesting things to say about how the funding environment has changed in recent years to make seed-stage funding more important than ever. Read it!
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Bill Spruill is the CEO of Raleigh’s Global Data Consortium, a superfan of Marvel comics, and such an international traveler (note the “Global” in his company’s name) that he says he typically carries his passport in his pocket along with his phone and wallet. We have so many additional questions. Does he keep it in his front pocket, and if yes, is it ever uncomfortable when he sits down? Does he worry about losing it by carrying it around every day? Does he not own a cool fanny pack like a proper American traveler?
Bill may not address those queries, but he has plenty of other interesting things to say in the latest edition of The Download Q&A from Brooks Malone.
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While wind power is a clean way to generate energy, the bird lobby isn’t the only ones looking for a better way to harness it than traditional “wind farms” with rows of giant turbines. Backed from some $4.5M in funding from the military (mostly) and private investors, Raleigh’s Windlift is working on a far cheaper and more portable method. Windlift’s APG (Airborne Power Generation) Systems are small, unmanned aircraft/drones that are tethered to a mobile trailer that captures the energy. Think super-high-tech kites. Ben Franklin would be so proud.
Read Rebecca’s full story on Windlift, which is fresh from presenting at last month’s CED Tech Conference, here.
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If the Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster (RTCC) has anything to say about it, Windlift will have plenty of local company in the space. The RTCC’s goal is to launch a “cleantech corridor” between Charlotte and the Triangle. As part of that goal, the RTCC is partnering with the Joule Accelerator’s sixth cohort. The eight participating early stage companies will be visiting Charlotte and the Triangle later this week.
WRAL TechWire also has a Q&A with RTCC executive director Susan Sanford. Among other areas, Sanford addresses why none of the eight companies are from the Triangle and only one is from North Carolina (Charlotte’s Ardent Edge), though in our opinion she isn’t held to account enough for why one of the companies is from... Austin! Come on RTCC, whose side are you on, anyway?
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This seems to be a big week for visiting startups. Six “funding-ready” Asheville startups will hit the Triangle today as part of a statewide road trip. A Durham event will be hosted by IDEA Fund Partners at 11:30am at American Underground (hurry now to catch the end!), while Cofounders Capital will host a Cary event at 5pm at the Mayton Inn.
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Given how frequently and freely the term “AI” is thrown around these days, I frankly struggle to decide whether it means everything or nothing. But two things I do understand: one billll-e-un dollars, and dating myself with old movie references. Triangle tech titan SAS has announced it will invest $1B in AI over the next three years, which will include a “Global Education Center” on its Cary campus. Given the need for technical talent in the Triangle and beyond that actually understands what AI means in practice, this is a most welcome development. Read more on SAS’s plans from TechWire and TBJ.
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Raleigh law firm Odin Law and Media has launched a new streaming series on the gaming site Twitch called Lawyers Playing Games, because of course they have.
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NC RIoT’s Tom Snyder has returned from his trip to South by Southwest as part of a Raleigh contingent with two first-hand accounts for TechWire. (Here and here.) Interesting reading, but he doesn’t address the one question everyone has—how does he maintain his goatee’s impressive verticality?
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