Pretio Interactive Announces Seed Funding from Top Venture Firms

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Victoria, BC (PRWEB) July 12, 2013

Pretio Interactive is pleased to announce that it has received funding from two top venture capital firms to support the growth of its business. The investment by Ottawa-based Wesley Clover International and Vancouver’s Yaletown Venture Partners marks the latest in a series of significant milestones for the Victoria-based company.

Founded as RewardsDen in early 2012, Pretio was accepted into two of Canada’s leading entrepreneurship accelerators – Accelerate Tectoria and the Alacrity Foundation – where it honed its unique offering and brought new members into the team.

Its proprietary platform connects valuable user actions – such as social sharing, commenting and revisiting – with targeted, real world rewards from top brands – such as 1-800-Flowers, TOMS and SkyMall – giving publishers a robust engagement tool without the liability of a rewards catalogue. In its first year, Pretio’s 4 million users experienced 100 million reward moments across its network of North American partner websites.

“We are particularly pleased to make this investment in Pretio as it represents the essence of my philosophy of entrepreneurship: Customer-led innovation, multi-disciplinary teams and lean deployment,” said Sir Terence Matthews, Wesley Clover Chairman. “I have personally watched the team for some time and look forward to helping them leverage the Wesley Clover group’s network of companies and customers for even greater success.”

Brad Johns, Partner with Yaletown Venture Partners, said, “The Pretio team has done a great job building a compelling platform in a sector that is seeing significant growth. Most importantly, they have already attracted solid publishing and brand customers and demonstrated real value to their users. Yaletown is excited by this space and this team.”

Victoria-based entrepreneur, Tyrone Sinclair, along with UVic students, Alim Jiwa and Rob O’Dwyer, founded Pretio. Pretio board member, Jim Hayhurst, has been named President of the company as it enters its growth phase.

“We are grateful for the confidence that both Wesley Clover and Yaletown have shown in our team,” said Hayhurst. “This investment will allow Pretio to expand our sales activities, refine our most profitable services and attract more great people to build our company with the velocity that comes from the deep experience of such shareholders.”

About Pretio Interactive – pretiointeractive.com

Pretio Interactive is changing the way online publishers, brands and users interact with each other. Pretio was created in response to the frustrations that publishers, blog networks and other online content producers experienced with traditional loyalty and rewards programs. Its simple-to-use widget connects valuable user actions with targeted rewards from top brands, giving publishers a robust engagement and monetization tool without the liability of a rewards catalogue. Pretio has millions of users who consume content and interact with digital newspapers, blog networks, apps, and games across North America.

About Wesley Clover – wesleyclover.com

Wesley Clover is a private equity and investment management firm with active interests in Information and Communication Technologies, Digital Media, Real Estate and Leisure Properties. As an angel investor in new technology start-ups, Wesley Clover has developed a unique model that leverages the many decades of experience and knowledge of a veteran management team while creating career and business opportunities for selected college and university graduates as well as experienced professionals.

About Yaletown Venture Partners – yaletown.com

Yaletown is backed by leading institutional investors and a network of successful technology entrepreneurs, executives, and angel investors. Yaletown leverages an extensive on-the-ground network to seek out the most promising early stage Cleantech and IT companies. Founded in 2002, Yaletown is led by a team that brings together industry relationships and more than 120 years collective experience building and financing technology companies. Yaletown Venture Partners is headquartered in Vancouver with offices in Calgary and Seattle.

For further information, please contact jim.hayhurst(at)pretiointeractive(dot)com







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Elevate Ventures Partners with Southwest Indiana Region Community Stakeholders to Launch Regional Entrepreneurship Action Plan

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Indianapolis, IN (PRWEB) July 12, 2013

Elevate Ventures, a private venture development organization that assists and invests in high-growth, high-potential early and second-stage companies, announced a partnership with key community stakeholders to launch the Elevate Ventures Regional Entrepreneurship Action Plan (REAP) in Southwest Indiana. The first phase, also known as Quick Start, will provide local entrepreneurial resources and access to the firm’s funds under management. Elevate Ventures manages over $ 80 million in funds through its 21st Century Research & Technology Fund, its Indiana Angel Network Fund, its Community Development Fund and its recently launched Diversity Fund.

The introduction of this program will make several vital resources available to the region’s entrepreneurial community, including investment capital for high-potential, high-growth companies, the local placement of Elevate Ventures Entrepreneurs-In-Residence, participation in a statewide investor network, and the offering of Economic Gardening services to local second-stage companies.

First launched in October 2011 in Northern Indiana, the REAP is a four-year program designed to stimulate economic activity and to facilitate the emergence and development of high-potential companies into high-performing businesses. Through the REAP, Elevate Ventures staff, in partnership with local business leaders, economic development organizations, and other local stakeholders, will provide assistance and capital to identified early-stage and second-stage companies that have the intent and capacity to grow their business.

“Through REAP, Elevate Ventures will provide a fast track for entrepreneurs in this region by offering key services such as business analysis, advisory services and resources to succeed long-term and help companies move past many of the initial challenges they might face,” stated Carl Chapman, Vectren Corporation’s President and CEO. “Our region has been steadily building a network of stakeholders and partners to provide the foundation for growth environments just as it has with many other regional initiatives; and, we are ready to launch REAP to provide momentum in helping the businesses located here to arrive at success sooner,” stated Becky Skillman, President of Radius Indiana.    Vectren Corporation and Radius Indiana are REAP funding stakeholders.

Bob Myer, an Evansville area resident, angel investor, and a director at Elevate Ventures, will be an acting Entrepreneur-in-Residence in the region. Elevate Ventures plans on hiring two additional Entrepreneurs-In-Residence.

The program offered by Elevate Ventures has had great success in the northern regions of Indiana, where it was first implemented. Results include an increase in the number of funding applications from the region, a greater number of companies obtaining funding from Elevate Ventures and private investors, and significant increases in employment and revenue growth for participants in the Economic Gardening program.

Among many stakeholders who are eager to see these services come to the region, few are more enthused than Greg Wathen, President & CEO of the Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana.

“We are in a position to catalyze the resources already existing in the region,” said Wathen, when asked about the potential impact of the REAP. “Elevate Ventures and the services its team offers will help us do that. We’ve already had several years of traction, and this is one of those critical steps that could truly ignite unprecedented growth in our community. We’re very excited to see how this program will benefit Southwest Indiana businesses.”

For more information on the programs and services offered by Elevate Ventures, visit http://www.elevateventures.com. To apply for funding or services, visit http://www.elevateventures.com/apply.

About Elevate Ventures

Elevate Ventures is a private venture development organization that nurtures and develops emerging and existing high-potential businesses into high-performing, Indiana-based companies. Elevate Ventures accomplishes this by providing access to capital, rigorous business analysis and robust advisory services that connect companies with the right mix of resources businesses need to succeed long-term. As a not-for-profit organization, Elevate Ventures is able to offer unbiased, in-depth perspective and recommendations. To learn more about Elevate Ventures, its team and its funds under management, visit http://www.elevateventures.com.

About the Southwest Region REAP Stakeholders

Southwest Region stakeholders who provided funding to support the REAP include Bingham Greenbaum Doll LLP, City of Evansville, Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana, Fifth Third Bank, Freedom Bank, German American Bancorp, Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Jasper Engines & Transmissions, Koch Enterprises, Memorial Hospital & Healthcare Center, Menke Charitable Foundation, Old National Bank, Radius Indiana, Regional Impact Fund, Ron Romain, Seufert Construction and Supply and Vectren Corporation.

Counties included in the Southwest Region REAP are Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Greene, Knox, Lawrence, Martin, Orange, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh and Warrick.







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Logi Analytics and ParStream Partner to Provide Real-time Operational Analytics and Insights

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McLean, Virginia (PRWEB) July 16, 2013

Logi Analytics, the authority on embedded analytics, and ParStream, the leading real-time Big Data analytics platform provider, today announced a technology partnership. The partnership will enable Logi Analytics customers to visualize data and using ParStream, perform interactive analytics and rapid queries on extremely large data volumes, while simultaneously ingesting real-time operational data. ParStream customers can look forward to gaining accelerated Business Intelligence (BI) through Logi Analytics.

Logi Analytics’ platform allows customers to quickly build and deploy interactive web and mobile dashboards, reports, and analytics directly into operational applications, processes and systems. ParStream is a built-from-the ground-up columnar analytic, distributed database enabled by a patented High Performance Compressed Index and specifically engineered to deliver Big Data insights fast. The two platforms together will allow organizations to access, analyze, and visualize Big Data in real-time.

“For companies that need to analyze and visualize large volumes of real-time high velocity data, the data platform speed is critical,” said Brett Jackson, CEO, Logi Analytics. “Together, Logi Analytics’ BI platform and ParStream’s real-time analytics database provide customers continuous visibility into their business operations. With ParStream, Logi Analytics customers can better interact with their operational data and react quickly to changing business dynamics.”

This year, Logi Analytics was moved to the “challengers” quadrant of the 2013 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms report. The company’s position was based on its ability to execute and its completeness of vision. Logi Analytics’ platform continues to deliver on its value proposition of ease-of-use, rapid time to deployment, and ability to be embedded.

“Businesses must analyze historical and real-time data continuously in order to keep pace with the variety and volume of data and gain actionable insights,” said Michael Hummel, CEO, ParStream. “The combined ParStream and Logi Analytics value proposition will empower them to achieve these goals.”

ParStream won recent recognition as being one of CIO.com’s top 10 Big Data startups to watch. ParStream’s technology, based on massive parallel processing architecture, has won numerous awards, including Gartner Cool Vendor, Red Herring Top 100 Europe, and ComputerWeek Big Data Innovation.

About Logi Analytics – Logi Analytics enables organizations to put information to work by allowing them to create web-based BI and analytic applications that can be integrated directly within the applications, systems, and processes that support their business – all at a fraction of the cost of other solutions. Unlike traditional BI platforms that are complex and costly, Logi Analytics technology allows organizations to rapidly develop, deploy, and adapt applications to serve business users without extensive development or professional services. Logi Analytics is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, with sales and support offices in the UK serving Europe. The company is a privately held, venture-backed firm with investments from Updata Partners, GroTech Ventures, and Summit Partners.

About ParStream – ParStream is the creator of a revolutionary high-performance, analytical, distributed database system especially engineered to solve real-time Big Data challenges. The ParStream platform enables customers to continuously import, store, and analyze Big Data, in real-time. The platform delivers sub-second query response times on billions of data records and runs on ParStream’s proprietary columnar database. ParStream has a proven track record in several industries, such as travel, e-commerce, finance, and online advertising. The company is funded by Khosla Ventures and other institutional and angel investors and has operations in Silicon Valley, USA; Cologne, Germany; and Paris, France. ParStream is one of CIO.com’s “Top 10 Big Data Start-ups To Watch” and has won awards such as “The Red Herring Top 100 Europe”, “Gartner Cool Vendor”, and “The ComputerWeek (Germany) Big Data Innovation Award.”







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New App Reveals Used Car Dealers Wholesale Price

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New York, NY (PRWEB) July 17, 2013

Vinny, a new app poised to disrupt the auto market has raised $ 400k from investors in a 5 day Angel round across 6 states.

“With the Vinny app, buyers just scan the vehicle’s VIN barcode and, within seconds, they’re able to see the dealer’s cost for that car. This is Vinny’s Price and it’s like having a secret weapon. With Vinny’s Price, that big white number that the dealer is asking for suddenly becomes very negotiable,” said Alex Kiss, co-founder of Vinny.

“When David stepped up to take on the mighty Goliath, he probably felt a lot like people today who have to go used car shopping. It was just him versus an almost insurmountable force. And like the Philistine giant of old, the price scrawled across a used car’s windshield in white shoe polish seems to greet prospective buyers with mocking laughter and derision. After all, what can they possibly do to defend themselves, even though the that price is a few thousand dollars more than what they should be paying. The only option they have is to fight, and fight hard… or, at least that’s how it used to be.” said Marvin Chase, co-founder of Vinny.

Vinny’s Price is formulated using data collected by monitoring thousands of used car transactions across the country every day. These figures are then entered into sophisticated statistical algorithms and calculated within seconds of scanning. In addition to this price, the app also provides full specifications on the car, a summary of the book/retail listings for similar cars, and inexpensive access to a vehicle history report ($ 4.99 with Vinny vs $ 40+ for Carfax).

The founders behind Vinny all hail from the world of finance, and one goal that they share is a desire for transparency in the used car market. “Information is power, and that power should belong in the hands of the people. Vinny was created with the car buyer in mind,” said Alex Kiss.

The average markup on a used car is $ 2,400, and only $ 700 on a new car. This disparity exists because the wholesale cost of used cars is unavailable to the consumer, yet freely available to the dealer community. This is the true definition of information asymmetry. “So, those who don’t want to pay an extra $ 2,400 on their next used automobile purchase can download Vinny and start negotiating like professionals. After all, even David needed his sling,” Said Marvin Chase.







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