We are pleased to share SJF's latest bulletin.  In the past few months, SJF Ventures has led an $18 million financing for Yieldbot, invested in Ayla Networks, and added Christine Primmer to the team.  The bulletin also provides updates on portfolio companies and recognizes another leading impact investor, Imprint Capital.

 

Sincerely,

The SJF Team
SJF Highlights
NEW INVESTMENTS

SJF Leads $18 Million Financing for Yieldbot


SJF Ventures has led a Series-B financing for Yieldbot.  The round was joined by existing investors RRE Ventures, New Atlantic Ventures and Common Angels.  City National Bank is providing debt as part of the transaction.  Yieldbot is a publisher-focused advertising technology company that helps online content providers generate substantially higher levels of revenue by harnessing their own data.  The New York-based company works with over 100 large and small publishers, including Meredith, Hearst, Time, BlogHer and HealthGuru.  Yieldbot processes more than 2 billion page views monthly and analyzes more than 14 terabytes of data daily.  The financing was led by Alan Kelley and Dan Geballe.   Read more.  

SJF Invests in Ayla Networks


SJF Ventures has invested in Ayla Networks.  The $14.5 million Series-B financing included participation from Cisco Systems, the International Finance Corporation, Linear Venture, SAIF Partners, Crosslink Capital and Voyager Capital.  Ayla's mission is to provide the world with its first truly agile platform for the Internet of Things (IoT).  The proliferation of IoT technologies and standards is creating challenges for manufacturers hoping to enter the market.  Ayla achieves its high degree of flexibility through a seamless fabric of interconnected elements, including embedded agents for devices, cloud-based back-end infrastructure and services, and intelligent application libraries.  Ayla assists some of the largest manufacturers and Fortune 1000 companies as they bring to market connected devices that drive immediate energy reductions, resource efficiencies, mobile health benefits and other improvements.  Arrun Kapoor and Daniel Robinson led the transaction for SJF.   Read more.  

 
PORTFOLIO NEWS
MediaMath logo

MediaMath Raises $175 Million

 

MediaMath announced a $73.5 million Series C financing and an increase of its debt facility to $105 million.  The financing included participation from Spring Lake Equity Partners, Akamai Technologies and a number of existing investors.  The New York-based ad tech company will use the funding to continue its rapid global growth and support new international offices in the EMEA, APAC and Latin American markets.  MediaMath currently has over 300 employees in Boston, Chicago, London, New York, San Francisco, Singapore and Tokyo.  Read more. 

Rustic Crust Returns to Production

 

Less than month after a fire destroyed its bakery, Rustic Crust has resumed production of its all-natural and organic pizza crusts and frozen pizzas.  The company renovated space in its warehouse less than a mile from the bakery and began temporary operations in early April.  During the downtime, Rustic Crust kept all of its employees on the payroll and offered them training and other support.  The new permanent bakery will likely be rebuilt at the old location, with plans to open in the fourth quarter. Read more.

Think Through Learning Wins Education Award

 

Think Through Math has won the prestigious SIIA Education Technology CODiE Award for Best Mathematics Instructional Solution.  The award validates twelve years of work that the company's team of teachers and technologists has put into developing an effective math learning system.  Read more.. 

Validic Named "Cool Vendor" by Gartner

 

Gartner featured Validic in its "2014 Cool Vendors for Healthcare Payers" report.  The April piece noted, "Validic was early to recognize an unfilled need in the rapidly growing market for wellness apps and devices - the ability to capture and normalize wellness data from the vast array of devices and apps available on the consumer market today."  Read more.
Aseptia

Aseptia Selected as a Red Herring Top 100 North America Winner


Aseptia has been named as a 2014 Red Herring Top 100 North America Winner.  Each year, Red Herring selects 100 award winners from over 3,000 tech startups finance each year in the U.S. and Canada.  Read more.  

eRecyclingCorps Receives Verizon's 2014 Sustainability Supplier Award

 

eRecyclingCorps has received a Verizon Supplier Award for its outstanding efforts and partnership in support of Verizon's green and sustainability initiatives.  In 2013, eRC helped Verizon deliver more than $200 million in mobile device trade-in value to its customers and increase the device recycling volume by more than 33 percent.  Read more.
Community Energy and groSolar Customer Sterling Municipal Ranks #1 in Solar Watts-per-Customer

The Sterling Municipal Light Department achieved #1 ranking with an average of 831 solar-generated watts per customer in the Solar Electric Power Association recent survey.  SJF portfolio company Community Energy developed a 2.4MW project in Sterling, Massachusetts, which groSolar designed and constructed.  The two companies have been active in in developing and constructing utility scale and community solar projects in sizes from 1MW to 120MW in multiple states including MA, VT, NC, IN, PA, NJ, CO, and NY.  Read more of groSolar's news and Community Energy's news.

Optoro's CFO Receives CFO of the Year from Tech Council of Maryland

 

Optoro's CFO, Robert Latchford, was named CFO of the Year at the Tech Council of Maryland's annual Industry Awards Celebration.  The awards dinner recognizes leaders and innovators in the technology and life science communities from Maryland and the surrounding communities.   Read more.

FieldView Solutions' CEO Named Entrepreneur Award Finalist

 

FieldView's Fred Dirla has been selected as a finalist in Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year Award - New Jersey Program.  Finalist status is awarded on personal and professional standards, determination, leadership abilities, business success and other criteria.  Read more.
 
UPCOMING EVENTS

SJF Welcomes Christine Primmer

 

Christine Primmer has joined as an Associate in the Durham office after finishing her MBA from the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School.  Prior to joining SJF, Christine was a Manager at Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting, where she helped grow the Atlanta practice of a global professional services firm specializing in turnaround, performance improvement, and business advisory.  Christine graduated magna cum laude from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.  While in school, she worked for GE Energy.

 

Christine began her involvement with SJF more than one year ago while in business school.  She played an integral role in SJF's investment in EnTouch Controls and now serves as a Board Observer to the company. 
 
UPCOMING EVENTS

 

Dave Kirkpatrick will be speaking on a cleantech panel at the NY Venture Summit on June 17.  Arrun Kapoor and Daniel Robinson will be attending McRock Capital's Industrial Internet of Things Conference on June 12 in Montreal.

 

Investor's Circle is hosting its next Beyond the Pitch event in Seattle on July 31.

 
FEATURED SJF VENTURES INVESTORS
Imprint Capital

Imprint Capital has multiple clients invested in SJF Ventures III.  Imprint builds and manages institutional-quality impact investment portfolios for its clients.  It works with foundations, families, and financial institutions, including wealth managers that engage Imprint as a sub-advisory partner to serve their own clients.  The firm has more than 30 client relationships and over $400 million under advisement.  In its seven-year history, it has completed more than 120 investments across asset classes, geographies, and impact themes as diverse as education, health care, food and agriculture, energy and the environment, and the economic development of low wealth communities.  Learn more at www.imprintcap.com.  

 
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