Pioneer Square Labs, a Seattle-based new startup studio, raised $12.5m in funding.
13 venture capital firms and over 50 angel investors backed the studio to create and launch startups. The round was led by Foundry Group with participation from Bezos Expeditions, Greycroft Partners, Madrona Venture Group, Maveron, Menlo Ventures, MHS Capital, Sinclair Digital Ventures, Techstars Ventures, Trilogy Equity Partners, True Ventures, Voyager Capital, and Vulcan Capital and angels Rich Barton (founder of Zillow and Expedia), Bob Nelsen (Managing Director of Arch Venture Partners), Scott Dorsey (founder and CEO of ExactTarget), Ryan Holmes (founder and CEO of Hootsuite), Rudy Gadre (former Facebook general counsel) Bill Lee and Jonathan Sposato. Foundry Group’s Brad Feld, will join PSL’s board as part of the financing.
Co-founded by Greg Gottesman, Geoff Entress, Mike Galgon and Ben Gilbert, PSL is a studio that creates its own startups. Unlike venture capital funds, incubators or accelerators, PSL expects to test hundreds of ideas, gathered from multiple sources, and then use its own team to launch companies around the best ones.
During the company-creation process, it builds product, signs key customers, and actively recruits entrepreneurs, technologists and designers to serve as founders of a spin-out team. The studio also engages its large venture capital and angel investor base to provide initial funding for these spin-outs.
PSL is housed at Galvanize (http://www.galvanize.com/campuses/seattle-pioneer-square/) in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle.
FinSMEs
01/10/2015