Portfolio News: ShotSpotter Goes Public

We have had our 11th Band of Angels portfolio company IPO! ShotSpotter, Inc. (January 2006 Dinner) went public on the NASDAQ on June 7th, 2017 under symbol “SSTI”. SSTI is a gunfire detection and solutions company that triangulates gun fire to within feet of the source, in less than 45 seconds of the trigger being pulled. Where it has been deployed, it has caught criminals, exonerated police in disputed shootings, brought emergency assistance to victims in time to save their lives, and generally reduced gun violence. So in addition to making investors a profit, this company epitomizes the notion of doing well by doing good. Congratulations to Band member Gary Lauder who sponsored the company at the Band back in 2006, where it raised over $300K.

Portfolio News: Chrysler Brand and Kango Announce First-of-its-kind Family Rideshare Service Partnership

The Chrysler brand and Kango, an app-based, on-demand service providing safe, reliable rides and childcare for kids from preschool to high school, today announced a new partnership that will make available new Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans for use by eligible Kango drivers. In this first-of-a-kind partnership between a family rideshare service and an automaker in the U.S., the Chrysler brand will make a fleet of new Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans available to eligible Kango drivers, for an affordable lease, to promote safety and environmental stewardship and to provide a best-in-class ride.

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Portfolio News: AEye Announces $16 Million Series A Funding from Kleiner Perkins, Airbus Ventures and Intel Capital

AEye Inc, a robotic vision pioneer, today announced the close of a $16 million series A venture round from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Airbus Ventures, Intel Capital, Tyche Partners and others. AEye’s advanced vision system is the first to “pre-fuse” solid state LiDAR with computer vision, enabling newfound vision intelligence in autonomous vehicles.

Read the full press release here

Portfolio News: iBeat, the Lifesaving Smartwatch, Extends Seed Round to $4.5 Million

iBeat (April 2016 Dinner), which makes a wearable that monitors cardiac function, closed another $3 million in funding last month, bringing its total seed stage funding to $4.5 million. iBeat plans to use the additional funds for key hires, to begin clinical testing, refine its sales and marketing strategies, and further scale its tooling and manufacturing operations.

Read the full press release here

Band of Angels Invested in 11 Startups and had 3 Exits in H1 2017

It has been an active first half of the year with 11 fundings to date: Connect Homes, Crater, Jirav, Kango, Kiana Analytics, Nanotech Bio, NGX Bio, RealKey, Thinnect, VoiceBase, and YourFare. We also had 3 exits this year so far: Faraday Bicycles (April 2013 Dinner), InfoAxe (January 2008 Dinner), and Ciel Medical (October 2016 Dinner). We look forward to hearing from a number of our portfolio companies at the Band’s 9th Annual Portfolio Day on Wednesday, October 4th, 2017.