Alexandra Joy Gritta, fifteen-year-old Oregon author, announced today the distribution of donations from the 2010 profits of her new book "Mystery at Silver Key Stables" to seven different charitable organizations across the United States whose missions include the rescue, rehabilitation, and provision of safe habitats for horses in need.
Gritta is the president of the Charity Book Series
DDC, the cloud-based critical data management solution for companies, boards, and investors, has received funding in a seed round led by Robin Hood Ventures (http://www.robinhoodventures.com).
Founded in 2009 by serial entrepreneur Farid Naib, DDC has developed two software platforms, Radar, which was designed for use by organizations and companies to provide management of key documents, and Sonar, which helps venture capital and private equity firms manage their investments and LP communications. Radar and Sonar also integrate together to provide a better way to manage investment-backed companies.
DDC Radar is a secure, central repository for a companys most critical data. It is organized according to a pre-defined filing structure with data summaries for easy information retrieval. Built-in reminders and notifications in Radar increase efficiency through improved workflow. Radar also contains logical, functional enhancements and add-on modules to manage boards and cap tables and to report financials.
DDC Sonar is a secure investment monitoring and reporting solution for venture capital and private equity firms, as well as angel groups. It automates the collection of financials and other materials from portfolio companies, reducing the time-consuming, manual tasks that often engage partners and controllers time. Customizable reporting tools empower the investor with decision-critical information and insight across their entire portfolio while promoting firm transparency. Investors can consolidate financials across a portfolio as well. Sonar also contains an LP reporting module and portal.
Prior to investing in DDC, Robin Hood was a client first. Commenting on Robin Hoods investment, Dave Kurtz says, Having used the software ourselves, we knew that DDC had great success ahead of it. We are delighted to be part of that bright future in more ways than one. Robin Hood currently uses Sonar to track 20 plus investments.
This funding comes at a very exciting time for DDC, says CEO Farid Naib. We see our user base growing weekly as we continue to refine our product based on the feedback of our users. With new regulatory requirements for PE firms due to Dodd-Frank and the growing realization that improved corporate governance leads to better results, we see continued growth ahead for DDC.
DDC plans to use the funds for continued product development and sales expansion. Dave Kurtz, one of the members who led the round from Robin Hood, will be joining DDCs board.
About DDC
DDC creates critical data management (CDM) SaaS applications that organize critical corporate information, create document and communication workflow, improve investment management, and automate many of the manual tasks that consume executives time and resources. DDC creates smart, personalized digital filing cabinets with out-of-the-box functionality. For more information contact DDC at 800.872.9394 or visit http://www.docdep.com.
About Robin Hood Ventures
Robin Hood Ventures is a group of angel investors, focused on early-stage, high-growth companies in the Greater Philadelphia region. We help entrepreneurs build great companies, providing capital, mentoring, expertise and connections to help companies reach their potential. Robin Hood generally invests $ 250k to $ 500k, and collaborates with angels, institutions and VCs in our network. We invest as a single entity in businesses we know and understand, in a way that gets deals done. Since 1999, we have invested over $ 11M in over 30 companies in industries including software, medical devices, biotech, internet and financial technology.
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ChallengePost, a public platform that enables competitive problem-solving, today announced that it has secured $ 4.1 million in a Series A round of venture funding led by Opus Capital. Participants in this round of funding also included Betaworks, Richmond Park Partners, and a number of angel investors, including Esther Dyson, Joshua Schachter, Irwin Jacobs, Jason Calacanis, and more.
The Series A funding follows a seed round of $ 775,000 in 2008 to 2009 by several of the same investors, bringing the companys total financing to $ 4,875,000. The funds will be used to acquire new talent and to develop tools for expanding community involvement in problem sourcing and solving.
ChallengePost has successfully built a platform where individuals, nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies can challenge the public to solve problems and innovate, said Brandon Kessler, CEO and Founder of ChallengePost. Were honored to have Opus Capital and other world-class investors on board as we become the premier site for identifying and solving problems people are passionate about.
Founded in 2009, ChallengePost has powered more than 200 challenges to date for government agencies, corporations, nonprofits, and individuals, including the City of New York, First Lady Michelle Obama, the World Bank, Samsung, Elsevier, the MTA, Thomson Reuters, Lollapalooza, and more. ChallengePost created and powers the governmentwide competition platform for all federal agencies, Challenge.gov. The ChallengePost platform has showcased nearly 4000 user-submitted solutions, and challengers have offered more than $ 40 million in prize money to ChallengePosts diverse community of talented problem-solvers.
ChallengePost is helping prominent government agencies and multinational organizations solve problems, said Opus Capital Partner Bob Borchers. Through ChallengePost, people and organizations have an opportunity to create massive change by working on what matters most to them. Were thrilled to fund ChallengePost and take part in meaningful and innovative problem-solving.
The investment in ChallengePost reflects Opus Capitals focus on early-stage innovation agents and high-integrity entrepreneurs. To learn more about ChallengePost, visit ChallengePost.com.
About ChallengePost
ChallengePost is a platform that enables government agencies, corporations, nonprofits, and individuals to challenge the public to solve problems. Challenge sponsors receive innovative solutions and increased awareness around important initiatives. Members of the public receive recognition and rewards. ChallengePost is headquartered in New York City.
For more information, visit http://www.challengepost.com/.
About Opus Capital
Opus Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm with more than $ 1 billion of committed capital under management, investing in committed, high-integrity entrepreneurs building market-leading technology companies.
The team has strong operational expertise and has partnered with entrepreneurs to create successful outcomes for more than 80 companies (including 50 IPOs) in the U.S. and in Israel, including Adaptec, AirGate PCS, BlueNile, Brocade, Ciena, DoubleClick, Electronics for Imaging, FedEx, Genesys, Harmonic, Informatica, Kidaro, and Vantive. Opus Capital is headquartered on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California.
For more information, visit http://www.opuscapitalventures.com.
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Classes in Town, a national web-based company headquartered in Austin, TX, announced the official launch of its website, http://austin.classesintown.com. The Austin-centric site is the first of a planned national network of websites. The Classes in Town, Austin site provides a free and local online resource for educational providers to list classes, courses, seminars, trainings and workshops. The site will be replicated in other major cities across the country as a one-stop online source for listing and finding classes.
Founded by Steven List, an Austinite and entrepreneur, the family of Classes in Town websites fills an untapped market in the education and training industry. "The country's biggest cities are hotbeds for culture and learning," said List. "In Austin alone, hundreds of workshops and classes are held each month. But, until now, they were hard to find. Classes in Town makes it easy for anyone to list or find a class."
According to List, Austin is not alone in its variety of class offerings. "The proliferation of educational workshops and classes is sweeping the country," said List. List further points out that there is a trend in classes and courses targeted to high tech consumers in an effort to help them make better use of their high tech gadgets. Among the most popular offerings at Apple Stores across the US are the company's workshops letting customers expand their knowledge about Apple products including the iPod and iMac. Home Depot has been offering 'how to' clinics for years as part of a growing trend in the 'Do-It-Yourself' market.
While large, national retailers are welcome to register their course offerings free of charge, the focus of the Classes in Town sites is to provide a resource for local educators in each market the web-based company serves. This month, http://austin.classesintown.com lists Austin School of Music's "Girl Guitar" series, inviting females to join the six-week class where, according to the course description, "they can jam like chick rockers Sheryl Crow, Joan Jett and Alanis Morissette." Among the hundreds of offerings, class seekers can also find "World Wellness Weekend," an all-day seminar that includes the Wellness Expo, offering more than 80 lectures, classes and workshops.
Classes in Town, Austin offer sponsors and advertising opportunities to education providers, resource providers, and others whose market includes a highly targeted demographic focused on education, training, career advancement. The media kit is available on the site at http://austin.classesintown.com/advertising-on-the-site.
For Educational Providers
Classes in Town, Austin makes it easy for educational providers to list classes, courses, seminars, trainings and workshops in three easy steps: 1.) Register, 2.) Add a Directory Entry and 3.) Add a Calendar Event.
For Class Seekers
Finding a class on Classes in Town, Austin is as simple as searching the directory (by type of organization or category of education/training) or calendar.
About Classes in Town Founder Steven List
Steven List is an entrepreneur in the training and education space. List has launched numerous successful businesses in Austin, including Back of the Room (http://www.BackOfTheRoom.com), an online book store specializing in self-published and small press products. List also recently completed his certification as a Certified Career Practitioner through the program developed by Austinite Linda Ginac (http://www.CareerPractitioner.com). Learn more about List's coaching, speaking, and training at http://www.StevenList.com.
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