Three bits of funding news from Colorado-based startups:
Impact fund backs Schoolrunner: Schoolrunner, a three-year-old edtech startup in Denver that claims its software delivers “moneyball for schools,” closed a $1.5 million seed round with an investment from the Colorado Impact Fund this week.
The reference to the book and movie “Moneyball” emphasizes Schoolrunner’s focus on developing software that it says compiles and helps analyze data about students’ academic performance, behavior, attendance, and communication. The company said 72 schools serving more than 50,000 students use its software. Customers include the Kipp Academy in Houston and schools in New Orleans.
The money will be used to hire developers and sales people, a press release from the company said.
The investment is the second made by the Colorado Impact Fund, a $62 million private equity fund created last year to support Colorado-based companies that generate profits while making a positive social impact. The fund is managed by an affiliate of Vestar Capital Partners.
The fund targets initial investments of $2 million to $5 million per company, and it looks to back startups working in community health, natural resource conservation, education and workforce development, and economic development. Earlier this month, the fund announced it invested $3 million in Bhakti Chai, a Boulder, CO company that makes concentrated and ready-to-drink chai tea.
FullContact’s full $10M: Denver-based software company FullContact announced it has added $3 million to its $7 million funding round reported in January. It also added a new investor, Baird Capital, which co-led the round along with the Foundry Group. 500 Startups and Blue Note Ventures, Boulder-based investor Chris Marks’ new fund, also participated in the round.
The addition brings the total raised by the Techstars graduate to nearly $20 million.
FullContact makes software that takes data from address books and contact lists people keep in apps like Gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Its selling point is that it handles the work of consolidating and cleaning up messy address books and often out-of-date contact information.
In the past few months, the startup has released apps for iOS and Gmail, and it plans to roll out programs for Android devices and Macs.
Red Canary: Red Canary, a Denver-based network security company, raised a $2.5 million seed round. The startup is developing a managed security service it says examines endpoint activity in near real-time, finds malicious and suspicious behavior, and eliminates sending false alarms to IT staff.
