Pioneer Square Labs (PSL) raised $15m to scale its Seattle-based startup studio, which partners with entrepreneurs to create and build innovative companies.
Foundry Group led the financing with $10, with participation from 12 existing venture capital fund investors and 60 angel investors.
Venture investors include Bezos Expeditions, Greycroft Partners, Madrona Venture Group, Maveron, Menlo Ventures, MHS Capital, Sinclair Digital, Techstars Ventures, Trilogy Equity Partners, True Ventures, Voyager Capital and Vulcan.
Some of the angel investors include Expedia and Zillow founder Rich Barton, former Concur CEO Steve Singh, ARCH Ventures co-founder Bob Nelsen, former ExactTarget CEO Scott Dorsey and Hootsuite founder and CEO Ryan Holmes.
Since its inception in October 2015, PSL has spun out nine companies, six of which have been announced and have received funding from U.S. venture capital firms.
The six companies are:
– Boundless (a startup that automates the immigration process)
– Ad Lightning (eliminating bad ads on publisher websites),
– LumaTax (sales tax automation),
– JetClosing (next-generation title and escrow service),
– Taunt (eSports fan competition platform), and
– TraceMe (superfan engagement platform).
Led by Managing Director Geoff Entress, PSL’s team has grown to over 20 employees, including engineers, data scientists, designers, digital marketers and business analysts. Each team member helps to validate new ideas and work with entrepreneurs to launch companies quickly.
The total equity value of the six announced spinouts is $100, as determined by outside venture capital firms, and those spinouts have thus far raised over $26m.
In addition to the startup studio, PSL recently launched a new venture capital arm to enhance and add to its offerings to studio companies and outside entrepreneurs.
FinSMEs
18/01/2018