Pressplane Raises $1.7 Million, Stays Stealthy

Kelly Smith is at it again. The co-founder of Seattle-based Curious Office Partners and Imagekind (which was sold to CafePress in July) announced today that his latest startup, Pressplane, has closed a Series A financing round worth $1.7 million. The round was led by Second Avenue Partners and includes a who’s who of investors with ties to Seattle, such as Mika Salmi of MTV and AtomFilms, Rich Barton of Expedia and Zillow, Erik Blachford from Expedia, Andy Liu of BuddyTV, Alex Algard of Whitepages, Geoff Entress of Madrona Venture Group, Andy Sack of Founder’s Co-op (and an Xconomist), Adrian Hanauer of Curious Office, John Cunningham, and Doug Rowan, formerly of Corbis.

Smith isn’t saying what Pressplane is working on yet, except that it’s another “buy and sell marketplace” like Imagekind, this time “more around designers and creative content serving businesses,” according to his blog. Pressplane shares office space near Pioneer Square with Wishpot and Italy-based H-Farm, companies we’ve profiled in the past week.

There has been a lot of buzz around Pressplane—much of it based on Smith’s track record as an entrepreneur. Last month, for instance, Tony Wright of RescueTime listed Smith’s latest project as one of the top three Seattle-area startups he’d hypothetically invest in. Alas, Wright’s name is not on the list of Pressplane’s backers; he has been busy closing his own Series A round, which was also announced this week.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.