It’s time to squeeze in a couple more local deals before Christmas. Madrona Venture Group is investing in a cloud services provider, and MobileDevHQ, a graduate of TechStars Seattle, has secured some new angel investment. The details:
—Madrona is leading a $4.2 million investment in 2nd Watch, which helps companies use public clouds, such as Amazon Web Services.
The financing, joined by other private investors, will allow the company—based just east of Spokane in Liberty Lake, WA—to continue developing products and expanding to new markets. Second Watch opened a Seattle office earlier this year.
The company helps businesses move IT operations to the cloud, managing integration with existing systems, and developing custom software and services. It also makes a calculator to compare the cost of running Web applications on premises or on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
“The public cloud, led by Amazon Web Services, is creating a dramatic shift in commercial computing and IT, but businesses need solutions partners to fully leverage the cloud,” Madrona managing director Matt McIlwain says in a statement. He calls 2nd Watch “a clear leader” in the market.
McIlwain is now on the 2nd Watch board.
2nd Watch was named an AWS Premier Partner in November, and is also a Microsoft Cloud Champion.
—MobileDevHQ, which helps developers market their apps, has landed $650,000 in funding from angel investors including Chris DeVore and Tom Peterson.
TechCrunch first reported on the 2012 TechStars Seattle graduate.
The company was getting a lot of buzz from the DemoDay audience back in November, as it offers a solution to a big problem in the world of mobile apps. MobileDevHQ’s tools help developers track and optimize things like search—which is how 65 percent of apps are discovered, according to the company—and Top Charts rankings in the iTunes App Store and Google Play.
Ian Sefferman, co-founder and chief executive, says MobileDevHQ has “hundreds of active paying customers.” The funding will allow the Seattle company to expand from search optimization to its “full vision of a single dashboard for organic app marketing,” he says.
At $650,000, MobileDevHQ is raising a bit more than the founders had in mind at Demo Day. It follows Sandglaz, Apptentive and Bizible, in announcing post-TechStars rounds.
