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The Big One
Greg: VMTurbo locked up an impressive $50 million in new funding this week from some very impressive investors. According to Kyle, “The new funding round was led by ICONIQ Capital, a little-known Silicon Valley fund that has close ties to Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook along with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. A Forbes article describes the fund’s brand as startup investments that are approved by “Zuck & Friends.”
Chase: VMTurbo is on a roll. Their revs have more than doubled in the last year – 128% growth – putting it around $32 million for 2014. This new money also gives VMTurbo a valuation of $500 million.
Hot Goss
Greg: Galen’s got a little goss today.
Galen: ValoreBooks never got much hype in the Boston startup scene, having bootstrapped itself up as a digital marketplace for textbooks before its 2012 acquisition (guesstimated at $5 million to $10 million) by SimpleTuition. Over two years later, ValoreBooks is said to be getting pretty big and bulky under the SimpleTuition umbrella. It (ahem) booked $70 million in revenue last year, a source close to the company said.
Making Moves
Greg: TicketZen made some big moves this week by partnering with London basedPayByPhone. The new partnership will let the current 9 million PayByPhone users pay their parking tickets through the TicketZen app. This is a great user acquisition get for TZ and could finally start making the small company some cash.
Chase: These guys just keep on plugging. The amount of revenue cities make off of parking tickets is no small amount, and if TicketZen is able to grow in new regions, I can’t imagine Xerox, large government supplier of toll payment processing, wouldn’t scoop them up.
From the community
Ten finalists were just announced for the “the world’s largest online ‘Shark Tank.’” These 10 startups will be vying for over $30k in prizes next week when they pitch to judges and a live audience at the NERD Center. The best thing about the 10 finalists, is that they’re all student startups. Check them out here.
Fundings
- Kaminario Adds $15M to Latest Round, Has Now Raised $143M Total
- CloudHealth Gets $12M Series B, Plans to Double Staff
- ‘Family Robot’ Startup Jibo Raises $25M
- Fortified Wins $150K Grant to Build a Community Center for Boston Bicycling
- VMTurbo Is Valued at $500M after $50M Round Led by Zuckerberg-Affiliated Fund
- Networking Tech Firm Raises $50M after Coming out of Stealth
Player Personnel
Random
Greg: Ok. Belichick ‘Had No Knowledge’ of Deflate-Gate
Interesting. Mass. Has One of the Highest Concentrations of Millionaires in the U.S.
Cool. Mayor Walsh is Hosting a Patriots Super Bowl Send-Off Party on City Hall Plaza
Yesterday’s News
- 5 Things to Expect from Microsoft, Including a New Browser
- Here Are Fidelity’s 5 Biggest Tech Bets
- Boston VCs and Founders Reveal What Makes Their Relationships Work
- Here is Every Boston 2024 Olympic Rendering From the Bid
- TicketZen Is Going National Thanks to a New Partnership
- 10 Finalists Have Emerged from the “World’s Largest Online ‘Shark Tank'”
Unwanted Feedback
From Meghan: “I love @cgarb & @sliggity‘s @BostInno Beat email for lines like: “The City of Boston is throwing some straight innovation fire right now.””
Greg: We’re trying hard everyday and this feedback is what gets me up in the morning. Thanks!
Chase: Thanks Meghan!
Reach out:
What do you want to see in this email?
Greg@streetwise-media.com & Chase@streetwise-media.com
