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Chicago-based Avail raises $2.5M in funding round led by Cultivation Capital
Avail, an end-to-end online platform that streamlines the rental process for do-it-yourself (DIY) landlords and their tenants, announced on Tuesday a $2.5 million funding round led by Cultivation Capital, a St. Louis-based venture capital firm. Avail has raised $5.4 million in funding to date. The funding comes on the heels of a period of significant…
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Sprout Social closes $40.5 million deal
CHICAGO, IL – Spout Social raised $40.5 million in Series D venture funding on December 19 in a deal lead by The Future Fund. Round participants also included New Enterprise Associates and The Goldman Sachs Group. The company will use the funds to expand internationally and add more functionality to its platform. Sprout Social is…
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Kansan launches Kickstarter-like VetLaunch for veterans
At one point in his military career, Sean McIntosh was in charge of a $14 million training budget. Now the former Navy SEAL said he has a tough time borrowing a $5,000 business card. “There’re probably 5,000 veterans with my same problem,” McIntosh, 33, said in a recent telephone interview. It’s a tale as old…
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Q&A: Fred Coulson on Five Elms, funding region ‘for decades to come’
After spending years on the East Coast and overseas working stints with TH Lee Putnam Ventures, Morgan Stanley and Citibank, Fred Coulson returned to his Midwestern roots in 2006, moving back to the Kansas City area to start Five Elms Capital. Five Elms, which makes investments of $1-10 million and works heavily with Midwestern businesses,…
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With local investing approach, Nelnet aims for a ‘better community’
For Lincoln-based Nelnet, investing in local startups is part business and part contributing to an “ecosystem” of strong startups and growing businesses in Nebraska. “If we can create a better environment in our community for startups, technology, whatever it is, that’s only going to benefit Nelnet,” said Ben Kiser, Nelnet’s managing director of communication services.…
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Arthur Ventures’ Tadd Tobkin talks investment strategy (Video)
When we talked to Tadd Tobkin of Arthur Ventures for the story published Monday about the Fargo, N.D.-based venture capital firm, Tobkin was so generous with his insights that we couldn’t squeeze everything into one post. So, we’ve compiled a collection of noteworthy excerpts from our interview with Tobkin that didn’t quite make the cut…
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Herb Sih is spurring Kansas City entrepreneurs to ‘Think Big’
As the managing partner of Think Big Partners, Think Big Kansas City and bizperc, Herb Sih has been busy over the last three years (Left, photo from thinkbigpartners.com). Most recently, Think Big announced a collaboration with Angel Capital Group, a Tennessee-based investment group, to launch 4-6 companies in an incubator right here in Kansas City.…
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disRUPT: UNeMed helps get new breakthroughs to patients
(Left: UNeMed president Michael Dixon. Photo by Marlon Wright.) Billions of dollars go into medical research, and billions can eventually be made from the resulting products. Unfortunately, there is often a large gap between an idea and its profits. This is called the “valley of death” in the health care field, and it’s UneMed’s job…
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