University of Md. to Launch Month-Long Entrepreneurship Festival

College Park, Maryland – University of Maryland will be launching in a couple of days an event focused in innovations and fresh ideas called 30 Days of EnTERPreneurship. The event will feature activities and competitions that will showcase the best in the entrepreneurship and tech industry of Maryland and will cover innovative projects, startups, new inventions and top business plans.

30 Days of EnTERPreneurship will feature big names like Gov. Martin O’Malley and Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Under Armour and one of Maryland’s most successful innovator. Prizes will be awarded up to nearly half a million to 6 different categories for UMD faculties, students and alumni.

The event is one of UMD’s ways of boosting the technopreneurship industry of Maryland and proving their commitment in bringing 100 new companies this decade.

“Our innovation has contributed more than $2.5 billion to Maryland’s economy in the past few decades, and we are committed to taking our entrepreneurship to unprecedented levels,” says University of Maryland President Wallace Loh. “We have established ourselves as a top public research university; we also must become a premier innovation and entrepreneurship university.”

The event will start at March 30 with UMD ENTREPRENEURSHIP INVITATIONAL which will feature the Startup Maryland, BB&T Business Invitational and The Cupid’s Cup. The first day of the event is the annual marquee event of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. The Startup Marlyand is an statewide search for the next breakthrough Startup while $25,000 can be won for the Cupid’s Cup and $75,000 for the BB&T Business Plan compeition. $100,000 is also at stake for the newest category of the event called ACC Clean Energy Challenge which calls for innovators to come up with a sustainable energy and environmental friendly technology and startups.

Aside from the competitions, the event also features experiential business learning programs, mentoring programs, global entrepreneurship workshops with tie up in China, an incubator program for startups and exposure to billion dollar worth companies, venture capital firms and angel investors.

Learn more by going to the UMD’s Website:

http://www.umd.edu/30Days/

comScore: Valentine’s Day, Super Bowl Drive Web Traffic in February

Reston, VA – comScore, a global Internet information provider with experienced analysts providing top companies consumer behavior insights for successful marketing has released its monthly analysis on the online activities of Americans for the month of February and its showed a high surge of traffic due to Valentine’s Holiday and the Super bowl.

The new figures from comScore shows American making huge amount of searches for flowers, jewelry, gifts and e-cards for their partners and people they love. Aside from the Valentines related traffic, comScore’s Media Metrix also shows the highly anticipated Super Bowl XLVI drove traffic to advertisers belonging to the Auto Manufacturing industry. The “love and gifts” related category boosted with 28% grow with ProFlowers.com as the leader gathering 5.4 million visitors and a growth of 394% of traffic. The Auto Industry leaded by Toyota, Honda and General Motors got a 27 million visitors and a growth of 17% traffic compared to its January’s traffic.

“Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl seemed to be the driving forces behind much of the online activity in February as Americans browsed romantic gifts and checked out Super Bowl advertisers’ websites, especially auto makers,” said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore. “In addition, tax sites posted another month of gains as the filing deadline drew nearer.”

The trend of Valentine’s Day traffic is actually worldwide while the Super Bowl is focused more on the North American region. It is an annual trend and marketers takes opportunity be making aggressive campaigns for their websites. Google Ad Networks leads the advertising platform share and followed by Microsoft Ad Center and Yahoo.

The data was procuded by the comScore Media Metrix which provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe.

Visit comScore’s Official Website for More Info:

http://www.comscore.com/

InTheCapital Lists Most Powerful Women in the Startup Community

Washington, D.C. – InTheCapital, a new lifestyle site launched 2 months ago which brings you a closer look inside D.C. tech, startups, politics, media, and city life has published for the first time a list entitled “Top 10 Most Powerful Women in the DC Startup Community.” The list was compiled by StreetWise Media together with its bloggers, staff and researchers and it was in relations to Elle Magazine’s article “Capital Dames: 10 Powerful Women in DC” which features successful women in media, non-profits, supreme court and foreign policies.

The list focuses on women in the D.C. area who contributed in the entrepreneurship industry and features women in top executive positions, venture capital firms, tech journalists and company founders. Here are the women who made it in no particular order:

• Amy Millman – President of Springboard Enterprises
• Jen Consalvo – COO/Co-Editor of Tech Cocktail, Co-Founder of Shiny Heart Enterprises
• Stephanie Hay – Co-Founder at Fast Customer
• Carla Valdes – Senior Associate at Fortify.vc
• Marci Harris – Co-Founder of PopVox
• Lisa Hellebo – Founder and Creator of Shopsy
• Leah Gabriel Nurik – President and Founder of Gabriel Marketing Group
• Lisa Throckmorton – Executive Vice President at SpeakerBox
• Christine Celise Johnson – Chief Executive Strategist and Founder of Diversitech
• Jennifer O’Daniel – Investment Associate at CIT Gap Fund

The article is a proof that the D.C. startup is active and fast rising and very diverse which shows women leading top tech organizations and companies.

You can read the complete list and the full article from InTheCapital’s Official website:

http://inthecapital.com/2012/03/21/top-10-most-powerful-women-in-the-dc-startup-community/

New Senate Legislation Makes Startup Funding Easier

Washington, D.C. – Here is an amazing news for entrepreneurs and for everyone as well coming from the Capitol Hill, the Senate just passed a bill called CROWDFUND ACT which legalize startup funding practically to anyone. The new bill which will allow even your mom to be an angel investor was spearheaded by Senators Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Michael Bennet of Colorado.

The CROWDFUND ACT is part of the JOBS Act or Jump-start Our Business Startups and was passed by the senate with a vote of 73-26 to approve it. The legislation has an overwhelming approval of the bill and its effect will designate a category of emerging growth of companies that could offer initial public offering of stock and at the same time be exempt in some certain financial disclosure. The act is controversial during its approval process for the new bill may lead to lowering the requirements of startups which can result to the rise of frauds in the startups and tech industry.

Here are some important effects of the CROWDFUND Act for entrepreneurs and those who wants to join the tech scene:

The CROWDFUND Act will:

• Allow entrepreneurs to raise up to $1 million per year through an SEC-registered crowdfunding portal.
• Free people to invest a percentage of their income. For investors with an income of less than $100,000, investments will be capped at the greater of $2,000 or 5% of income. For investors within an income of more than $100,000, investments will be capped at 10% up to $100,000.
• Require crowdfunding portals to provide investor protection, including investor education materials on the risks associated with small issuers and illiquidity.

“This will make it easier for small and growing companies to raise the capital they need to keep growing and to hire more workers,” Sen. Pat Toomey of Pittsburgh.

Steve Case, a top angel investor, tech entrepreneur and the founder of investment firm Revolution and co-founder of AOL, supported the legislation and stated that the bill will help entrepreneurs get faster access to capital to grow their companies and create jobs.

DC Tech Accelerator “The Fort” Names First 12 Participants

Washington, D.C. – The Fort, the hottest and newest tech accelerator scene in Washington D.C. and funded by the early-stage venture capital firm Fortify vc  has announced its line up for their pilot program. The first 12 participants were CoFoundersLab, Feastie, Forensic Innovations, Hinge, Klaggle, Lemur IMS, MonthsOf.Me, NextGame, Saylo, Social Tables, Uppidy and Venga.

All the 12 tech startups will be fostered for 6 months with office space or depending on the needs and a $100,000 starting seed fund and also the most important – mentorship from top entrepreneurs and tech players of the region. For the past 9 momths, Fortify founders Jonathan Perrelli and Carla Davis has been actively seeking for startups to spark up the tech scene of D.C. and wanted to create a Y Combinator like program in the region. They have awarded $25,000 funding to startups in their early funding programs which leads to the “The Fort” tech accelerator.

“D.C. is not a place where people are always working together,” says Perrelli of the group’s efforts, “but now there is this uprising. People are trying to build something here.

Perrelli added that D.C. being the center of government where important policy are made is slow when it comes to tech and accelerator projects and with The Fort, they plan to kickstart D.C. area as incubation place for startups. The Fort office is located at K Street and just two blocks from The White House.

According to David Zipper, director of business development and strategy at the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, “It gives the District, as a home to Fortify, a perfect opportunity to make sure these companies are founded in the District but stay here,” said Zipper, who serves as a liaison with the tech community and helped put the Fortify relocation together.

Learn more about the program and Fortify Venture Capital Firm at their website:

http://fortify.vc/

DC-Based Industry Dive Raises $400,000 in Seed Funding

Washington, D.C. – Industry Dive, a B2B startup providing mobile platform and websites to executives has raised $400,000 in seed funding from Cal Simmons and other angel investors. According to its CEO Sean Griffey, mobile platform for B2B and executives is what large traditional B2B media have failed to capitalize on.

Industry Dive based their startup to the fact that 82% of executives owns a smartphone and 59% of them uses their smartphones for researching products and purchases. The company will use the fund to develop a mobile dashboard for the world’s leading industries and executives. Currently, Industry Dive has launched 5 dashboards: Construction Dive, Utility Dive, Marketing Dive, Education Dive, and Waste Management Dive.

“Most executives love using their smartphone or tablet, but there isn’t a great place to get the important information about your industry,” said CEO Sean Griffey. “We empower executives to use their devices as a more effective work tool.”

The company is expected to deliver 12 dashboards including the first 5 this year that will be perfect for executives and can be accessed via web, mobile app, desktop site, and e-newsletter. According to Griffey, Business professionals have a variety of consumption habits and information needs and by using their dashboards, executives can combine breaking news, twitter feeds, jobs, market snapshots and more in their mobile platform. He also added that Industry Dive connects executives and professionals no matter where they are and in different manner.

Industry Dive plans to use the new funding for product expansion like adding new dashboards and for marketing strategy. The startup’s revenue will be provided through ad driven services and also through lead generation as the company expands.

Visit Industry Dive Official Website:

http://www.industrydive.com/

Chevy Chase-Based NEA Invests in Mobile Payments Firm Boku

Chevy Chase, Maryland – New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a leading venture capital firm with more than 300 startups in their portfolio has invested on the Boku, the global leader in online mobile payment. Together with other Venture Capital firms and Angel Investors which includes Telefónica Digital, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures, Boku was able to secure $35 million of new equity funding. The financing came after Boku launched a new mobile service called Accounts.

“BOKU has built a phenomenal business around online mobile payments,” said Ravi Viswanathan, PhD, General Partner at NEA. “The next step is bringing mobile payments offline, and that’s what BOKU Accounts accomplishes. It works on all mobile operating systems across all hardware types, and applies for all subscribers. We look forward to partnering with BOKU as they take their offering to a whole new level.”

Boku has now a total of $75 million of equity funding and the they will use the new financing for team expansion, additional mobile infrastructures and to continue leading the mobile payment industry around the world. Boku’s headquarters is in San Francisco but they have extension offices in Europe and Asia as well. Boku’s consumers reaches up to 4 billion in 66 different countries.

“Payments is an industry that requires scale, and in the three years since BOKU launched we’ve grown rapidly to partner with more than 250 mobile network operators, processing transactions in 67 countries around the world,” said Mark Britto, CEO of BOKU, Inc. “We see this investment as a clear vote of confidence from our new partners at NEA and Telefónica. They recognize that we’ve established a mobile billing system that offers bank grade technology on a global scale; this strategic investment will help us expand our business as well as facilitate the growth of our new BOKU Accounts platform.”

Learn more about Boku in their Official Website:

http://www.boku.com/

CIT Invests $100,000 in Norfolk-Based Harbinger Technology Solutions

Herndon, Virginia – The Center for Innovative Technology of Virginia and under its GAP foundation has funded Norfolk-based Harbinger Technology Solutions (HTS) with $100,000 last Wednesday. HTS offers a web-based solutions to the complexities of financial management and their platform is in accordance with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and other international accounting boards.

HTS financial online platform called ARCSys has a high level automation in its system. It can help digitized financial records such as transactions that are done manually and helps clients process new and complex reporting. ARCSys also has modules which allows clients to upload data to banking system and performs analysis and adjustments.

HTS CEO Michael Umscheid said, “Companies around the world are being required by financial and accounting regulators to provide more complex reporting and disclosures. Our ARCSys solution gives clients a cost-effective way to meet these new reporting requirements and disclosure rules without replacing or displacing any core financial software that clients are already using.”

According to the CIT President and CEO Pete Jobse, “HTS hit its stride during 2011 and now has over 30 clients. With CIT’s investment, HTS will be able to accelerate its revenue growth and continue build out its technology platform.”

Harbinger Technology Solutions is one of the few startups that CIT under the GAP program has funded this month. CIT has previously funded a career listing and initiative startup that helps job seekers and employers provide an environment for learning and open-house recruitment.

You can learn more about HTS’ ARCSys From Their Website:

http://www.arcsysonline.com/

Herndon-Based Razor’s Edge Ventures Invests in Mersive

Herndon, Virginia – Razor’s Edge Ventures, a venture capital firm formed by entrepreneurs with interest in national security has made a multi-million dollar investment on Mersive, a company that develops visual computing software and high definition large-screen displays. Specific financial details such as the amount of funding was not released but another interesting information is that the venture arm capital of CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies In-Q-Tel has also backed the funding.

“Mersive’s unique software-based approach to the delivery of high performance display solutions eliminates the bottleneck caused by legacy display solutions that rely on complex and expensive optical/mechanical technology. Legacy hardware has limited innovation and market growth in the display sector despite advancements in GPU, high performance computing and graphics intensive software,” said Mark Spoto, managing director of Razor’s Edge, “Mersive’s software injected into what has traditionally been a hardware model will transform complex ‘project-based’ solutions into a broader ‘product-based’ market.”

As part of the investment, Razor’s Edge managing directors, Mark Spoto and Rob Painter, have joined the Mersive board of directors. Rob Painter also stated that Mersive’s visual computing software is wildly disruptive, relevant and timely for a whole host of applications across both commercial and federal markets which includes the military.

Mersive will use the funding to expand its sales and marketing team and to deliver a better, high tech and new breed of display softwares and screens to the federal government and the commercial markets.

“Razor’s Edge has a unique understanding of the national security community’s strategic priorities and they work tirelessly to identify and deliver disruptive technologies capable of advancing critical mission needs. The Razor’s Edge investment combined with our recently announced investment and technology development agreement with In-Q-Tel provides a powerful combination of new resources to fuel our growth,” said Rob Balgley, Mersive’s CEO.

Learn more about Razor’s Edge Venture Capital Firm:

http://www.razorsvc.com/

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DC-Based Sawbuck Realty Lands $2 Million, Launches iPhone App

Washington, D.C. – Sawbuck Realty, an online real estate broker that connects buyers and sellers with top local real estate agents, and streamlines their transactions has announced today that they had closed $2 million of seed funding from real estate investor Robert Stewart. Aside from the funding, the company also announced the launching of their iPhone app called HomeSnap .

HomeSnap allows you to take a picture and find out its market information such as its current value, local price and even nearby schools and the neighborhood. HomeSnap’s primary use is for real estate, it has a technology that provides you vital information in purchasing new homes and it is currently connected with 90 million homes in the U.S.A.

“Real estate is boring and dry, unless you’re in the market,” said Guy Wolcott, Sawbuck’s co-founder and CEO. “HomeSnap makes real estate accessible, interesting and fun for anyone. It’s Shazam for homes.”

HomeSnap is essential when you suddenly saw a home unit and got interested so you take a snap and it will be matched to the huge database of HomeSnap. New information about the home will also be updated for better tracking and it will also allows you to share the picture you’ve taken in Facebook, Twitter or Email.

HomeSnap is now available in the  Apple App Store for free.

Find out more about HomeSnap at Sawbuck Realty’s Official Website:

http://www.sawbuck.com/homesnap