Greatist scores $4.5M Series A
On Wednesday, Greatist ,the “good for you” digital content site, nabbed a $4.5 million Series A round. The funding round was led by Palo Alto-based Floodgate, with participation from New York investors Strauss Zelnick and Andy Russell. John Gardner, a managing partner at Nokia Growth Partners and TreSensa investor David Pecker also participated in the round, along with previous investors RiverPark Ventures, Vayner/RSE, Jonathan Miller, Ramit Sethi, and Chris Hughes. The company plans on using the funding toward investing in growth within the creative and sales departments, as well as enhancing the platform. [Built In NYC]
Hospitality startup, ALICE, raises $9.5M
Digital Hospitality service, ALICE, announced a $9.5 million Series A round this week. The company plans to use the round to expand its product and hire additional team members across product and development, sales, and customer success departments. Overall, ALICE’s technology has already helped hotels increase guest revenue and improve the customer experience. The round was led by online travel agency Expedia, with additional participation from Tishman Reality, Laconia, 645 Ventures and Neuehouse. [Built In NYC]
Foursquare closes $45M Series D
Foursquare announced a $45 million Series D led by Union Square Ventures, with participating investments from Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, DFJ Growth, Andreessen Horowitz and Spark Capital. The company also announced that founder Dennis Crowley will now serve as executive chairman and Jeff Glueck, Foursquare’s former COO, will now work as CEO of the company. Foursquare’s latest financing gave the company a valuation of $250 million, which is less than half of what it was worth in 2013. However, the company announced that the past month, quarter and year brought in the biggest amount of revenue that the company has ever seen. [Built In NYC]
KeyMe nabs $20M and 3 other big NYC tech companies raise funding rounds
Last week, cloud-based locksmith, KeyME, raised a $20 million Series B. Last week also brought a $15 million Series B to PolicyGenius, the direct-to-consumer insurance startup and MiMedia, the personal cloud for sharing family memories, announced the close of a $15 million Series C round. On Friday, Estimote, a beacon company, raised a $10.7 million Series A. [Built In NYC]
LinkNYC officially launches in NYC
New York's public Wi-Fi network went live on Tuesday, spread across four hubs on Third Avenue between 15th and 19th Streets. The first LinkNYC hub was installed in December, but Tuesday was the first day New Yorkers have been able to use it to connect to the internet. [The Verge]
Oscar Health raising giant funding round
Oscar, the health insurance startup with more than 125,000 members, is in the midst of raising new financing that could value the company at upwards of $3 billion. Fidelity is said to be the lead investor, with at least $150 million of capital committed thus far. [Fortune]
Gawker Media Plans to Sell Minority Stake to Investment Company
Digital media company, Gawker Media, plans to sell a minority stake to the investment company Columbus Nova Technology Partners. According to Gawker’s founder, Nick Denton, the decision was driven by the need for funding for growth initiatives, and to bolster itself for a continuing lawsuit brought by Terry Bollea, the wrestler known as Hulk Hogan. [New York Times]
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