The Portland Seed Fund has only funded two classes so far, yet their investments are already proving that Managing Directors Angela Jackson and Jim Huston know how to pick homeruns. The Portland Seed Fund has backed companies like 4-Tell and Cloudability, which have since launched the Portland startup scene into the national spotlight. Now, the Portland Seed Fund is betting that lighting will strike three times with the announcement of its third class.
Portland Seed Fund’s third class includes:
CoCollage: Interactive community collage on electronic signs.
Brandlive: Live event brand experiences.
bubL: “Location-based social platform introducing mobile users to relevant people, advertising, commerce, and information nearby within their personal ‘bubble.'”
InGrid Solutions: Software for construction contractors.
Mobilitus: “Bringing content and commerce to mobile devices through its innovative mHANCED products.”
Tellagence: Predictive, social analytics for social media.
Vadio: Turns radio stations into live online video channels.
Wikisway: Finding connections between people, places and things.
Each company receives $25,000 in seed funding and access to mentorship from over 30 mentors in the Portland business community, including the co-founder and CEO of Urban Airship Scott Kveton, CEO of MergerTech Advisors Nitin Khanna, and Venture Partner with Voyager Diane Fraiman. The official program is three months long.
Portland Seed Fund is a public and private partnership that includes $800,000 in public funds, including money from the state-sponsored Oregon Growth Account. The Seed Fund has raised $3 million altogether.
While the city of Portland is proud to support the growth of the local technology industry, not all of the companies accepted are Oregon startups. Mobilitus is headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland.
The companies will be getting right to work until Demo Day, which will take place on December 5. If this class is anything like the last two classes, investors will be lining up to see how these companies develop over the next few months.
Image credit: Flickr user ahockley
