January Funding Round-Up

 

Believe it or not, we are on to the second month of 2012. January ushered in the fruitful Lunar New Year of the Water Dragon and a bumper crop of funding events for numerous Atlanta area companies. With amounts ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to upwards of $14 million, investors were busy in January!

 

2008 Venture Atlanta presenting company MFG.com kicks off our funding round up with a bang! The Atlanta-based online marketplace for manufacturers raised $5.3 million, according to a recent Securities & Exchange Commission filing. The company has reported that the funds raised will be used for product development and to launch their cloud-based software, LiveSource.com, which will help mid-to-large sized companies manage and source parts used to manufacture their products.

 

A number of Atlanta angels recently had their eye on the gaming sector as they invested $550,000 into Mowgli LLC,  a social gaming company. Their first game, Songster, allows Facebook users to live out their rock star fantasies by creating bands and songs with their friends. The company was founded by Marshall Seese, Adam Kunz, and Mike VanBeneden in 2010.

 

Chain Reaction Ecommerce, the parent company of 2009 Venture Atlanta presenting company CRE Secure also secured funding. They closed nearly $1 million from several investors including members of the executive team, software industry veteran Robert Bearden and Gardiner Garrard III and Sean Banks of TTV Capital. The company, which helps keep e-commerce companies attain PCI compliance, has raised $6.2 million since its 2002 debut.

 

In the mix last month was newcomer Clearside Biomedical.  A coming together of researchers at Georgia Tech and Emory University, the company’s technology delivers drugs and other therapeutics to specific locations in the eye. The company raised $4 million from Hatteras Venture Partners. Headquartered here in Atlanta, with a strong presence in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina, the company is led by veteran ophthalmic entrepreneurs Daniel White and Ben Yerxa, Ph.D. Clearside Biomedical will use the $4 million Series A venture financing to fund the initial development of their ocular microinjection platform and the clinical testing of their lead product.

Staying with healthcare theme, Sharecare, an interactive health and wellness social Q&A platform announced it had secured $14 million in growth equity financing. Led by Galen Partners and TomorrowVentures, LLC, the recent financing will be used to accelerate the company’s efforts to develop innovative programs, services and tools that promote healthy living as well as unity within the healthcare-focused community.  To further enrich Sharecare’s Q&A platform, the company also acquired The Little Blue Book (TLBB) and its extensive database of 400,000 physicians and 180,000 physician practices from Galen Partners and other investors, in exchange for common stock.

Sharecare’s chairman & chief architect, Jeff Arnold, will take on the CEO role at the company and David Jahns, managing partner at Galen Partners, will join the Board of Directors.

 

Wahoo Fitness, one of Venture Atlanta’s “companies to watch in 2012″ secured almost $1 million in funding in January and with that, the company is off to a great 2012. 

 

Last but not least, this round-up would not be complete if we didn’t include Pindrop Security’s high profile raise as listed in our recent Atlanta Start-ups in the News post.

 

Congratulations to all of the companies! The year is still young and we’re looking forward to seeing who we may get to mention in our next funding round-up!

Have a news tip? Send them to editor@ventureatlanta.org.