Welcome to the Mile High Roundup, a look at some of the interesting things that have happened over the past two weeks in the tech scene in Boulder, Denver, and around Colorado.
In this edition, Techstars stays busy after its demo day, three Techstars grads close rounds (and one gets a new CEO), and Rally posts its results.
Techstars Boulder Update: Techstars Boulder wrapped up with its demo day on Aug. 8, but the past few weeks have been busy ones for the startup accelerator.
Last week, it was announced that Boulder managing director Luke Beatty left to become an executive with AOL. Beatty is now AOL’s head of strategic partnerships. He’ll reportedly remain in Denver and work out of Mapquest’s office. (Mapquest is an AOL company. )
Nicole Glaros is returning to Boulder to be Techstars’ managing director.
A startup from the Class of 2013 already has announced its first investment. Kato, which was one of the most-talked about startups at demo day, raised $1.76 million from the Foundry Group, SoftTech, and David Cohen. Kato is developing a messaging platform that provides real time and asynchronous communication on desktop, tablet, and mobile.
New Money, CEO for Graphicly: Significant changes also are underway at Graphicly. The company, which was part of Techstars in 2009 and is developing digital publishing software, is going through a big change. Founder Micah Baldwin has stepped down from the CEO position, with David Fox coming in as his replacement. According to TechCrunch, Fox founded Agistics, which Visage Mobile bought in 2007, and served on the board of Bharosa Inc., which was acquired by Oracle. The company has also raised a $1 million bridge round.
Graphicly no longer calls Boulder its home, but Baldwin launched the company here and is a well-known figure in its startup scene. Baldwin said he “stepped down, but not out” in a very candid blog post.
“Why? The simple, truthful answer is that it was the right thing for the company and, frankly, the right thing for me,” he wrote. “Yes, I am on the board, and yes, I am a large shareholder, and a contributor, which means I am deeply involved, but business decisions are no longer mine to make. It is David’s company.”
Graphicly also said previous investors have put another $1.3 million into the company. To date, it has raised a total of $7.3 million.
RoundPegg Raises $2.4M: RoundPegg, a Boulder-based company that is developing “culture management software” to help companies monitor and improve workplace morale and effectiveness, recently raised $2.4 million, according to the SEC. The Techstars Class of 2010 alum has raised a total of $3.9 million.
RoundPegg hasn’t said much about the round, but fundraising to feed the company’s growth and add sales and marketing people was on the company’s horizon when I interviewed them for this profile.
Rally’s Results: Finally, Rally Software Development (NYSE: [[ticker:RALY]]) released its latest quarterly results on Thursday and set a new record for revenue.
Rally took in $19.8 million in the three-month period that ended July 31. That’s a 45 percent year-to-year increase. The company lost $2.3 million, or nine cents per share.
The revenue figures were well above expectations, and the announcement sent Rally’s stock up to the $27 mark when the market opened today. Shares have been trading between $26 and $27 since. It closed at $25.62 on Thursday.
“We experienced good momentum across the business and had notable new customer wins in many key industries and geographies,” CEO Tim Miller said in a release. “These new customers include a leading global automaker, the financial services unit of a diversified technology and financial services company, a consumer credit reporting agency, a broadcast and satellite service provider, and a large online retailer.”
Rally also announced it expects total revenue for the next quarter to be in the range of $18.25 million to $18.6 million, which would be a 24 percent to 27 percent growth over the prior year’s quarter.
