NeedsList Raises $1M in Funding

NeedsListNeedsList, a Durham, NC-based online platform that matches products and services to communities in need worldwide, closed a $1m funding round.

Backers included new investors Amplio Ventures and Marigold Capital, which joined the Omidyar Network, Next Wave Impact, Silicon Valley Social Ventures and the Kuo Sharper Fund.

The company intends to use the funds to invest into its technological infrastructure to build predictive analytics to meet needs at scale.

Led by Natasha Freidus, co-founder and CEO, NeedsList is a real-time needs registry for disaster relief and humanitarian aid. Its platform aggregates needs from vetted nonprofits, matching them with corporate resources to increase the speed, efficiency, and transparency of crisis response.

The startup, which bootstrapped for its first two years, has more than 20 partners including:

  • TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel site, who is purchasing and loading SD cards with asylum rights information — to Latham,
  • Watkins, a law firm who offered NeedsList pro bono legal support to close their round,
  • Kagan Accounting, who are hiring refugees, and
  • IKEA North York, who has donated mattresses to local refugee-supporting nonprofits.

Additional partners include representatives of academia: MIT’s ReACT program; philanthropy, The Shapiro Foundation, and startup social enterprises Five One Labs, Leaf Global Fintech, 734 Coffee, and Talent Beyond Boundaries.

FinSMEs

17/06/2019

 

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