Amazon comes to Denver for a shopping trip and leaves with a startup, Photobucket lassoes a familiar face (and one of its co-founders), and plans are coming together in Fort Collins.
Amazon Buys 2lemetry: Amazon has purchased 2lemetry, a Denver startup that develops software for the “Internet of things.” The companies did not announce the transaction price.
2lemetry’s niche is creating software that large enterprises can use to collect data from connected devices, including wearables and sensors, and create applications and gain insights from it. The company said the software is robust enough to handle a large number of devices or transactions, and customers use the software to improve operational efficiency, streamline product development, and improve customer service.
“Enterprise companies struggle with the noise generated from massive amounts of IoT data. We boil all that data down to manageable insights,” 2lemetry co-founder and CEO Kyle Roche said in a recent release.
This isn’t the first time 2lemetry earned the notice of a tech giant. Back in January, the company raised a $4 million round led by Salesforce Ventures. The company also released a product on Salesforce’s app exchange at the time.
The round was 2lemetry’s second and brought the total it raised to $9 million. The company was founded in 2011.
TechCrunch first broke the news. See this article for speculation about where 2lemetry might fit with Amazon.
Homecoming at Photobucket: Photobucket, a Denver-based photo- and video-sharing site, has bought Lasso Media. The startup makes a chat and phone messaging app that people can use to track photos they’ve shared and request friends share photos with them privately.
The deal also brings Lasso Media founders Alex Welch and Chad Podoski to Photobucket. Welch co-founded and helped lead Photobucket in the mid-2000s before Fox Interactive Media, a part of News Corp., bought the company in 2007. Ontela, a Seattle-based company, bought Photobucket in 2009 and relaunched the company in Denver.
Photobucket said in a statement that buying Lasso and its app are part of the company’s effort to expand and improve its mobile products.
Up in Fort Collins: Northern Colorado entrepreneurs, investors, and boosters are gearing up for a busy spring with the return of the Colorado State University Blue Ocean Enterprises Challenge and the city’s version of startup week.
With a $250,000 grand prize, the Blue Ocean Challenge is one of the most lucrative business plan/startup competitions in the U.S. The competition is backed by the family that founded OtterBox, a maker of smartphone and mobile device cases.
Organizers picked 15 companies to compete in the main competition, along with 13 teams in the collegiate track that will vie for $20,000 and a spot in the main event. The list of the companies can be found here.
The challenge will take place from May 27 to 30 on the campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
Also, the schedule for this year’s Fort Collins Startup Week is coming together. This is the second year the city will host the event, which is scheduled to run from May 26 to 31. Among the speakers lined up are Inc. Magazine editor-in-chief Eric Schurenberg. See here for more details.
