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Lightbank
Lightbank is a financial organization that specializes in making venture capital investments in "disruptive" technology companies in the United States including seed investments, Series A round and late-stage investments. It combines investment with guidance and direct involvement with the companies it invests in. It was founded by Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky. It is headquartered in Chicago and it has made investments in companies in Chicago, New York City, Omaha and the Bay Area. Investments Lightbank has invested in a number of companies, including the website Groupon. Lightbank's Eric Lefkofsky was an original co-founder, along with Andrew Mason of Groupon. Other Lightbank investments include Sprout Social, Snapsheet, Belly, Boom Technology, Fiverr, Fooda, SpotHero, Tempus, Udemy, test preparation service BenchPrep, Qwiki, HighGround, and Hello Divorce. Partners Lefkofsky was a co-founder of Lightbank, though he became 'Special Advisor' in 2014-2015 during his tenure ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brad Keywell
Brad Keywell (born October 1969) is an American entrepreneur from Michigan. He is the founder and executive chairman of Uptake Technologies, an industrial AI software provider. He is an early investor of Tempus Labs, co-founder of Groupon, Echo Global Logistics, Mediaocean, DRIVIN, and Lightbank. As of August 2020, his net worth was estimated at US$ 2.7 billion. Keywell is the recipient of the 2019 Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year award. Early life and education Keywell grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and attended Cranbrook Schools. He studied at the London School of Economics in 1990, received a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1991 from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctor ''cum laude'' in 1993 from the University of Michigan Law School. He is a member of the Michigan Bar Association and the State Bar of Illinois. Career Keywell started his career as an intern for Sam Zell's Equity Group Investments, LLC. In 1999, he and Eric Lefkofsky c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Groupon
Groupon is an American global e-commerce marketplace connecting subscribers with local merchants by offering activities, travel, goods and services in 13 countries. Based in Chicago, Groupon was launched there in November 2008, launching soon after in Boston, New York City and Toronto. By October 2010, Groupon was available in 150 cities in North America and 100 cities in Europe, Asia and South America, and had 35 million registered users. By the end of March 2015, Groupon served more than 500 cities worldwide, nearly 48.1 million active customers and featured more than 425,000 active deals globally in 48 countries."Groupon Q1 2015 Public Fact Sheet." Groupon. Retrieved June 1, 2015. http://investor.groupon.com/index.cfm . The idea for Groupon was created by former CEO and Pittsburgh native Andrew Mason. The idea gained the attention of his former employer, Eric Lefkofsky, who provided $1 million in seed money to develop the idea. In April 2010, the company was valued at $1.35 bi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Lefkofsky
Eric Paul Lefkofsky (born September 2, 1969) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the founder of Tempus, and the co-founder of Groupon, Echo Global Logistics (ECHO), InnerWorkings (INWK), and Mediaocean. He is an early investor in Uptake, and the managing director of Chicago-based venture capital firm Lightbank. As of October 2021, his net worth was estimated at US$4.1 billion. Biography Lefkofsky grew up in a Jewish family In Southfield, Michigan, the son of Bill, a structural engineer, and Sandy, a school teacher. He attended Tamarack Camps as a youth and later worked as a staff member. After graduating from Southfield-Lathrup High School in 1987, he attended the University of Michigan and graduated with honors in 1991. He enrolled at University of Michigan Law School and received his Juris Doctor in 1993. Entrepreneurial ventures In 1993, after law school, Lefkovsky and a college friend, Brad Keywell, borrowed money from relatives to buy Brandon Apparel, a clothin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Udemy
Udemy, Inc. is a global destination for teaching and learning online. It was founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. As of November 2022, the platform has more than 57 million students, 213,000 courses, and 74,000 instructors teaching courses in over 75 languages. There have been over 773 million course enrollments. Students take courses primarily to improve job-related skills.Lomas, NatashaOnline Learning Marketplace Udemy Raises $32M To Scale Up Internationally ''TechCrunch''. May 8, 2014 Some courses generate credit toward technical certification. Udemy has made a special effort to attract corporate trainers seeking to create coursework for employees of their company.Carr, David FUdemy Comes To Corporate Training''Information Week''. April 16, 2013 The headquarters of Udemy is located in San Francisco, United States, US, with hubs in Denver, US; Dublin, Ireland; Ankara, Turkey; São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Gurugram, India. History In 2007, U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SpotHero
SpotHero is a digital parking marketplace that connects drivers looking to reserve and pay for parking spaces with parking lots, parking garages and valet services. The company, which operates a mobile app and website as well as a parking developer platform, is available in over 300 cities in the United States and Canada. The company is based in Chicago, Illinois. History Early beginnings SpotHero was founded by Mark Lawrence and Jeremy Smith in Chicago in 2011, with co-founder Larry Kiss joining the company soon after.Kate Rogers"SpotHero: An app that makes parking reservations,"CNBC, May 7, 2015. The company started out as a peer-to-peer parking marketplace, where people could rent out their own private parking spots, before expanding the platform to partner with parking companies and garages.Kia Kokalitcheva"SpotHero launches its parking app in SF, and on-demand valet startups should worry,"VentureBeat, December 9, 2014.Alex Moazed"SpotHero Paves the Way for Parking,"'' Inc.'', N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belly (loyalty Program)
Belly was founded in August 2011 in Chicago by Logan LaHive and Craig Ulliott, receiving its initial round of around $3M in funding from Chicago-based venture capital firm Lightbank. Belly provides a loyalty program for merchants, using an in-store iPad for the merchant and an app for customers. It charges merchants $50 to $100 a month for the service, which includes an iPad, a case and lock for the iPad, marketing materials, plus data and analytics. Customers earn loyalty points by checking in at the store with a QR code technology to earn points that could be redeemed as a merchant chose.Tricia DuryeeFour Reasons Why Andreessen Horowitz Is Investing $10 Million in Belly AllThingsD, May 8, 2012 History By May 2012, Belly had signed up around 1,400 merchants and was available in Chicago, Austin, Milwaukee, Madison, Wis., Washington D.C., Phoenix, New York and Boston, and had around 200,000 active users. At that time it received an additional $10M in funding from Andreessen Horo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qwiki
Qwiki was a New York City based startup automated video production company acquired by Yahoo! on July 2, 2013 for a reported $50 million. Qwiki released an iPhone app that automatically turns the pictures and videos from a user's camera roll into movies to share. The company's initial product, an iPad application that created video summaries of over 3 million search terms, was downloaded more than 3 million times and named by Apple as the best "Search and Reference" application of 2011. After integrating this technology in the Bing search engine and launching video creation tools for major publishers in cooperation with ABC News, the company launched Qwiki for iPhone, which received Apple's Editor's Choice and was mentioned as an Honoree in the 2013 Webby's in two categories. Time Inc. named Qwiki one of “10 NYC Startups to Watch” for 2013. The company's investors included cofounders of Facebook, YouTube and Groupon. After a meeting between Doug Imbruce and Marissa Mayer, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BenchPrep
BenchPrep is an American company that provides cloud-based study guides for standardized tests, professional certifications, and K-12 classroom learning. It has partnered with educational publishers such as McGraw Hill, John Wiley & Sons, and the Princeton Review to create interactive, digitized courses. History BenchPrep, formerly known as Watermelon Express, was founded in 2009 by Ashish Rangnekar and Ujjwal Gupta, after Ashish Rangnekar won the New Venture Challenge at the University of Chicago. Shortly thereafter, BenchPrep received $2.2 million in seed funding from Lightbank, the executives behind Groupon. In July 2012, the company announced a $6 million round of funding from New Enterprise Associates and Revolution LLC Revolution LLC is an American investment firm based in Washington, D.C., founded in 2005 by AOL co-founder Steve Case, after leaving the AOL Time Warner board. The firm seeks to fund entrepreneurs who are transforming legacy industries with inno .... ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VentureBeat
''VentureBeat'' is an American technology website headquartered in San Francisco, California. It publishes news, analysis, long-form features, interviews, and videos. History The ''VentureBeat'' company was founded in 2006 by Matt Marshall, an ex-correspondent for ''The Mercury News''. In March 2009, ''VentureBeat'' signed a partnership agreement with IDG to produce DEMO Conference, a conference for startups to announce their launches and raise funding from venture capitalists and angel investors. In 2012, the partnership with IDG ended. In 2014 and 2015, the company raised outside investor funding from Silicon Valley venture capitalist firms including CrossLink Capital, Walden Venture Capital, Rally Ventures, Formation 8, and Lightbank. Editorial The ''VentureBeat'' website comprises a series of distinct news "Beats": Big data, Business (general news), Cloud, Deals, Dev, Enterprise, Entrepreneur, Media, Mobile, Marketing, Security, Small Biz, and Social. In addition, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Companies Based In Chicago
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared goals. Companies take various forms, such as: * voluntary associations, which may include nonprofit organizations * business entities, whose aim is generating profit * financial entities and banks * programs or educational institutions A company can be created as a legal person so that the company itself has limited liability as members perform or fail to discharge their duty according to the publicly declared incorporation, or published policy. When a company closes, it may need to be liquidated to avoid further legal obligations. Companies may associate and collectively register themselves as new companies; the resulting entities are often known as corporate groups. Meanings and definitions A company can be defined as an "artificial per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Equity Firms Of The United States
Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded by Ringo Sheena * "Private" (Vera Blue song), from the 2017 album ''Perennial'' Literature * ''Private'' (novel), 2010 novel by James Patterson * ''Private'' (novel series), young-adult book series launched in 2006 Film and television * ''Private'' (film), 2004 Italian film * ''Private'' (web series), 2009 web series based on the novel series * ''Privates'' (TV series), 2013 BBC One TV series * Private, a penguin character in ''Madagascar'' Other uses * Private (rank), a military rank * ''Privates'' (video game), 2010 video game * Private (rocket), American multistage rocket * Private Media Group, Swedish adult entertainment production and distribution company * ''Private (magazine)'', flagship magazine of the Private Media Group ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Venture Capital Firms Of The United States
Venture may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music *The Ventures, an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 *"A Venture", 1971 song by the band Yes *''Venture'', a 2010 EP by AJR Games * ''Venture'' (video game), a 1981 arcade game *''Venture'', a strategic card game by Sid Sackson Film * SS ''Venture'', a ship in ''King Kong'' and its 2005 remake * SS ''Venture'', an InGen-owned ship featured in '' The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' Other uses * ''Venture'' (TV series), a Canadian business television show Magazines * ''Venture Science Fiction'', defunct US science fiction magazine * ''Venture'' (magazine), a management magazine Business * Business venture * Venture (department store), a defunct discount department store operating across Australia * Venture Corporation, a Singapore firm * Venture Stores, a former retail chain Transportation * Chevrolet Venture, a General Motors minivan * Yamaha Venture, Yamaha touring motorcycles * Siemens Venture, fam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
