October fundings in New York had a lot to live up to after a hectic finish to the third quarter. General Assemby, WheelsUp and Thrillist raised nearly $250 million between them on September 30th alone. However the VC funding continued to flow with three big deals early on and a quarter of a billion funding round from one single company at the end of October. A tie for fifth spot means we've rounded up your top seven money raisers of the month.
5. YouNow, $15M, October 5
Investors: Led by Venrock and Oren Zeev. Joined by Comcast Ventures.
Bio: 4 year old live streaming service designed specifically for broadcasters to connect with their audience.
5. Newsela, $15M, October 6
Investors: Led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with support from Zuckerberg Education Ventures, the Knight Foundation, Owl Ventures and Women’s Venture Capital Fund.
Bio: Newsela sources articles from more than 40 news organizations, including the AP and the New York Times, and rewrites them for students within the Lexile framework.
5. Glamsquad, $15M, October 9
Investors: Led by New Enterprise Associates with participation from existing investors AOL’s BBG Ventures, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Montage Ventures and SoftBank Capital.
Bio: Glamsquad deploys teams of hair stylists, makeup artists and nail technicians on demand.
4. Kinnek, $20M, October 20
Investors: Thrive Capital led the round and was joined by Matrix Partners, Sierra Ventures, Version One Ventures, and Angelpad, as well as individual investors Naval Ravikant and Benjamin Ling.
Bio: Kinnek is an online marketplace that helps small business find equipment and supplies. An advanced algorithm is used to match requests from buy-side small business owners to Kinnek’s large database of suppliers.
News: CEO Karthik Sridharan told Built In NYC the $20 million will be used to expand into new markets and grow the team beyond the 30 current employees currently working at the midtown New York office.
3. TruMid Financial, $25M, October 27
Investors: Led by Peter Thiel and George Soros. Joined by Jeff Bahl and unnamed individuals.
Bio: TruMid Financial is an electronic corporate bond trading startup founded in 2014. The platform increases liquidity in the market by running swarms - brief sessions where asset managers and dealer banks can come together to buy and sell a particular bond.
News: TruMid has seen more than $50 billion in order volume and $2.5 billion in executed trades in the first six months of operation. The funding from two such high profile investors puts the company valuation at $100 million and should help to compete against big name competition like MaketAxess and Bloomberg.
2. Paddle8, $34M, October 28
Investors: New angel investors David Zwirner, Rolf Sachs; Eric Fellner, and Edgar Berger were joined by existing investors Mousse Partners, Damien Hirst, Jay Jopling, and Stavros Niarchos.
Bio: The company is an online auction house for art and luxury collectibles, and helps collectors easily sell and buy works through its digital platform. Unlike Sotheby’s and Christie’s, Paddle 8 holds lower priced auctions, with the company’s inventory typically priced in the “mid-market” auction space—between $1,000 to $100,000.
News: Paddle8 will spend the money on growing its engineering team, as well as bringing in category specialists from areas such as vintage accessories and design.
1. Karhoo $250M, October 25
Investors: Private Equity from individuals including David Kowitz, Jonathan Feuer, and Nick Gatfield.
Bio: Rather than employing drivers, Karhoo partners with fleets of taxis to tell you where they are. The company has already signed up 10,000 yellow and green cabs in NYC as well as 18,000 black cars, or private car service vehicles. This 10-month-old startup is run by British entrepreneur Daniel Ishag, but headquartered in New York.
News: Karhoo is now valued at $60 billion and plans to raise a further $1 billion before launching in London, New York and Singapore in 2016.
