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Tag: Bend

Cat got your… startup? Bend’s Shape.io acquired by NinjaCat

Rick Turoczy on August 9, 2022

While it wasn’t a key part of my coverage area when I started this blog, these days I try to make it a regular habit of paying attention to Bend, Oregon. Because it seems more often than not, there are as many interesting startup stories coming out of Central Oregon as the metro region, as of late. Like this one: Bend’s Shape, an advertising management platform, has been acquired by digital marketing management company NinjaCat.

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Bend Venture Conference 2021 results in more than half of a million dollars in investments

Rick Turoczy on October 25, 2021

Another Bend Venture Conference is in the books. And a collection of startups now have additional investment fueling their future growth. To the tune of $550,000 potentially being invested — post due diligence — in six Oregon startups and one Canadian one. But who and what impressed the audience enough to secure those investments? Let’s take a look at the winning companies.

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Cascade Seed Fund hits first close on $10 million Fund II

Rick Turoczy on October 18, 2021

According to Portland Inno, a publication of the Portland Business Journal:

Cascade Seed Fund II has completed its first close and the team can start investing. The first fund was $6 million, after fundraising was cut short by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The managing directors, Julie Harrelson and Robert Pease, have completed all the new investments that can happen for Fund I.

Trying to resist the punny headline about high valuations: Bend startup Dutchie doubles valuation to $3.75 billion

Rick Turoczy on October 14, 2021

Cannabis has always been big in Oregon. Now, cannabis tech is showing it has similar potential. Like Bend startup — and definitely unicorn — Dutchie, which just raised $350 million, placing its current valuation in the $3.75 billion range.

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Bend Venture Conference reveals semi-finalists competing to take the stage

Rick Turoczy on September 14, 2021

For early stage startups, the path to the stage at the largest early stage pitch competition in the Pacific Northwest — Bend Venture Conference — goes through the September EDCO Central Oregon PubTalk, where each company will present a three minute pitch with the hopes of being one of the finalists selected to take the BVC stage in October.

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Pending deadlines: OEN Awards nominations and Bend Venture Conference applications are due on Friday

Rick Turoczy on August 12, 2021

Okay, procrastinator pants. It’s time to get on those applications you’ve been putting off. Look, I get it. We’re all juggling a lot. But you’re running out of time for the OEN Awards nominations and the Bend Venture Conference applications.

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Bend startup Zipcan launches to the public, trends on Product Hunt

Rick Turoczy on July 15, 2021

After a successful closed beta, serial entrepreneur Fritz Brumder today officially launched the product from his latest pursuit, Zipcan, a product that — in my overly simplified take — resembles the functionality of the Intercom and chat buttons you see around the Internet but that — instead of engaging you in a pseudo conversation with a chat bot — immediately puts you into a video chat with a real human.

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Applications for Bend Venture Conference are open

Rick Turoczy on July 8, 2021

While Oregon isn’t terribly well known for venture capital, it has developed a significant presence in the world of Angel investing. Some of that is thanks to innovative organizations like Oregon Venture Fund. But if it were to come down to one annual event that puts Oregon Angel investing on the map, it would be Bend Venture Conference, one of the largest Angel conferences in the United States — and often a good excuse for Bay Area investors to visit Bend.

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