Minneapolis and Minnesota

  • Meet a VC: Firebrand Ventures from Kansas City

    Meet a VC: Firebrand Ventures from Kansas City

    In August of 2016, John Fein started the process of raising a venture capital fund in Kansas City.  He had a target of $7 million as his fund size and as he describes – “zero connections” to the high net worth community in Kansas City. However, he had a mission to raise and invest the…

  • Nexyst 360 Disrupting Field to Packaged Good Supply Chain

    Nexyst 360 Disrupting Field to Packaged Good Supply Chain

    St. Cloud, Minnesota based Nexyst 360 filed paperwork with the SEC that it is raising $1 million in debt financing.  The notice identified that the company had raised more than $510k already and was still seeking partners to finish its round of convertible debt. Nexyst 360 is seeking to create a supply chain management platform…

  • Research: State Funding Report for the Silicon Prairie

    Research: State Funding Report for the Silicon Prairie

    2018 was a terrific year for the Silicon Prairie regarding venture dollars deployed.  More than $6.1B was deployed in the region.  While the number of companies receiving funds was about 8% lower (approximately 1450 companies were venture backed in the region), the amount of funding was up more than 34.5% from 2017 to 2018.  Thus,…

  • Large Series A Round for Minnesota Based 75F

    Large Series A Round for Minnesota Based 75F

    Last week, Twin Cities based 75F announced that the company had raised more than $18 million in a Series A round of financing led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Oil & Gas Climate Initiative.  Building Ventures, Revolution, and Clean Energy Trust participated in the round. The company was founded in 2012 and has been slowly…

  • Precision Farming Startup Receives Funding

    Precision Farming Startup Receives Funding

    Winnebago, Minnesota-based AgTech-startup, Aker Technologies (formerly Leading Edge Technologies), announced on August 27th that it has raised equity financing of $2.6M to further develop its crop diagnostics and analytics platform, specifically its TrueCause™ and Aker Pest Network™ services. The company also recently set up offices in Creve Coeur, Missouri, part of Greater St. Louis, to…

  • Ambient Clinical Analytics Receives Funding

    Ambient Clinical Analytics Receives Funding

    In late June 2019, according to the Form D filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Rochester, Minnesota-based, Ambient Clinical Analytics, Inc., a spin-off from the Mayo Clinic, secured an additional $600k in debt financing. This brings the total external amount raised by the company to over $7M since it was founded in 2013.…

  • Cardio Flow secures funding for device that removes plaque from arteries.

    Cardio Flow secures funding for device that removes plaque from arteries.

    Early-stage medical device company, Cardio Flow, Inc. based out of St. Paul, Minnesota received $4.3 million in equity funding from an undisclosed angel investor in early June.

  • Tstud ™ – saving energy has never looked so good

    Tstud ™ – saving energy has never looked so good

    Roosevelt Energy Technologies, Inc., the exclusive North American licensee of the entire Tstud ™ product lineup and the Tstud ™ wall assembly, announced that it received two funding tranches totaling to $1m. $500k was allocated to the company in July; the other $500k will be given in the month of April. Roosevelt Energy offers an…

  • Player’s Health striving to create the safest environment possible for athletes

    Player’s Health striving to create the safest environment possible for athletes

    Many of us can relate to reminiscing over our “glory days” on the field. Today, there are over 46.5 million children (aged six to 17) participating in youth sports who are creating memories of their own. This week, I had the chance to interview a former professional athlete-turned-entrepreneur who is striving to level the playing…

  • Minneapolis-Based Upsie Raise Big Series A Round

    Minneapolis-Based Upsie Raise Big Series A Round

    Upsie, a tech company that focuses on supplying warranties for various devices based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $5 million in Series A Early Stage Venture funding from a group of venture capitalists headed by Silicon-Valley based tech investors, True Ventures, In May.  Upsie provides a consumer-friendly platform for the purchase of affordable warranties. Clarence Bethea, CEO said “We want consumers…