Band of Angels is pleased to be RocketSpace campus partner. Founded in San Francisco in 2011, RocketSpace is a leading technology-focused accelerator for seed funded or beyond, fast growth companies. Band of Angels will be providing mentoring, workshops on seed stage startup funding, and hold office hours. We look forward to meeting the RocketSpace startup members.
IEEE Vision, Innovation, and Challenges Summit
Band member Kurt Petersen, Chair of the Band of Angels Wearables, Consumer & Semiconductor Special Interest Group (WCS SIG), participated in the inaugural IEEE Vision, Innovation, and Challenges Summit (IEEE VIC Summit). The Summit brought leading innovators, visionaries, and disruptors in technology together in San Francisco. The panel session that Kurt participated in, “Entrepreneurship: Innovating and Challenges,” was a big hit with the audience and addressed many stimulating questions.
Image (L-R: Mario Milicevic, Kurt Petersen, Samantha Snabes and Craig Barratt)
PitchForce
Band member Bruce Walicek participated on the August 24th PitchForce panel to offer feedback, mentoring, and guidance to the presenting startups. PitchForce is a monthly fundraising event for startups in software, social, mobile, big data, consumer web, finance/payments, clean tech, biotech or MedTech sectors.
Portfolio News: NGX Bio Raises $3 Million to Fund Growth of Its DNA Sequencing Marketplace
NGX Bio, Inc., (www.NGXbio.com) the premier marketplace for online DNA sequencing services, announced it has closed a $3 million funding round. The round was led by 180 Degree Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:TURN) and included Third Kind Venture Capital, Lateral Capital, the Band of Angels and the Berkeley Angel Network, as well as other investors.
NGX Bio was founded in 2014 to provide streamlined, on-line access to next-generation sequencing services for clients seeking high quality, rapid and cost-effective sequencing of both human and non-human samples globally.
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.