Band of Angels, in partnership with the NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center, is pleased to host a mentoring session for 50 companies interested in raising angel capital on May 2, 2017 in San Francisco. The session is open to companies in any sector or industry. Startups are invited to sign up for a 45-minute meeting with one or more Band mentors to receive no risk feedback about the readiness of their venture for angel investment. Apply here by April 21, 2017 . The Band will hold "Best of Mentor Day" followup meeting on May 10, 2017. Band member mentors can register here. For more information, please contact mentorday@bandangels.com.
Portfolio News: Automated Trucking Startup Peloton Drafts $60 Million in Funding
Peloton Technology, an automated vehicle technology company focused on trucking, is on the verge of closing a $60 million Series B funding round led by Omnitracs, a fleet services company that spun out of Qualcomm.
The round includes existing investors Intel Capital, DENSO International America, Castrol innoVentures, Lockheed Martin, Nokia Growth Partners, UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, Volvo Group Capital, Sandhill Angels, Band of Angels and Birchmere Ventures, Peloton Technology CEO and co-founder Josh Switkes confirmed to Fortune on Wednesday.
Portfolio News: Revcontent Acquires Rover for Better Content Recommendation Tech
Revcontent, a self-funded company powering content recommendations for publishers like Forbes and The Atlantic, has acquired Rover.
That’s not Rover the pet-sitting marketplace, but rather the content discovery app formerly known as Flipora and Infoaxe. CEO John Lemp told me that Revcontent is paying “north of $30 million” in cash and stock for the acquisition, which he described as an investment in better content recommendations.
Portfolio News: Kiana Analytics Awarded Grant from The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate to Enhance Traveler Experience
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced today a $179,800 award to Kiana Analytics, Inc. to enhance U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) passenger screening technology. The project is awarded under the Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) Other Transaction Solicitation (OTS) aimed at non-traditional performers to offer solutions to some of the toughest threats facing DHS and the homeland security mission.
“CBP secures and manages 328 ports of entry all over the country, including in remote areas,” said CBP Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan. “Through the Silicon Valley Innovation Program, we are exploring technologies that can provide us with new capabilities and solutions to facilitate lawful entry at even our most remote U.S. ports of entry.”
University of Notre Dame ESTEEM “Startup Salon”
Band member Richard Pivnicka, Honorary Consul General of the Czech Republic, on March 14th hosted a “Startup Salon” at AutoVino in Menlo Park for 50 Masters in Entrepreneurship and MBA students from his alma mater University of Notre Dame. In Notre Dame’s 11-month entrepreneurship program – ESTEEM – students learn not only about startups in general but specifically about the commercialization of innovative science, engineering, and technology discoveries and innovations. Ian Sobieski, Chairman of the Band of Angels, interviewed Marc Tarpenning, co-founder of Tesla Motors, educator, and role model. Other prominent guests invited to converse with the graduate students included Whit Diffie, winner of the $1m Turing Prize, the “Nobel" of computer science, and, Dr. Ramesh Raskar, Director of MIT Camera Labs and winner of the $500,000 Lemelson Award.