Lightbank

  • WordPress hosting startup Flywheel raises $1.2M from Linseed, others

    WordPress hosting startup Flywheel raises $1.2M from Linseed, others

    OMAHA—Flywheel, the WordPress hosting and management service for designers, freelancers and creative agencies, has landed a $1.2 million seed round.

  • ClusterFlunk raises $1M round led by Lightbank, opens Chicago office

    Earlier this year, ClusterFlunk expanded its platform to more than 50 universities across the country. Now the company is growing its investor connections across state lines to the Windy City. The Iowa City-based startup announced Tuesday it closed a $1 million round of funding led by Chicago-based venture capital firm Lightbank. Local early-stage fund, Built…

  • Lightbank leads way as SkyVu raises new seed funding

    With the growing success of its free-to-play model, Omaha mobile games company SkyVu Entertainment reached profitability early this year and wasn’t actively seeking institutional investment. But that began to change in May, over the course of a couple of tweets. “We were in a comfy position to choose whether or not we needed to pursue…

  • What’s in a name? Lightbank’s Lee gives two cents on ‘Silicon Prairie’

    What’s in a name? Would the Silicon Prairie by any other name smell as innovative? That question — or a less wannabe-Shakespearian rendition thereof — is one we frequently encounter in our coverage of the entrepreneurial landscape in the heart of the Midwest. Some people welcome use of the phrase “Silicon Prairie” with open arms.…

  • VCs from beyond region take in Big Omaha, provide outside perspectives

    As the Silicon Prairie News team pored over the Big Omaha 2012 attendee list in the days leading up to last week’s conference, one thing that stood out was a spike in the number of venture capitalists attending the conference from outside SPN’s three-city region of Des Moines, Kansas City and Omaha. It’s one …

  • Zaarly closes $1 million seed round, Bo Fishback going full-time

    Remember that startup we first wrote about less than two weeks ago? The one that launched at Startup Weekend Los Angeles on February 20 with a pitch by Kansas Citian Bo Fishback? The one that had celebrities Demi Moore and LeVar Burton tweeting about it the night it launched? Yeah, that one: Zaarly. Earlier today,…