Innovation Garden, a New Jersey based venture capital firm, announced its most recent investment and sixth addition to its early stage venture portfolio. Even though most of their funding in New Jersey entrepenurs, the investment was made to New York based startup University Beyond, “a collegiate, professional networking and recruitment platform. Registered students will gain access to a database of campus ambassadorship programs available at their respective universities.”
“We see huge potential in this business and are very impressed with the maturity and ability of this committed team, who put their education on hold to pursue their entrepreneurial dream,” said Innovation Garden Venture Partner Glenn Fratangelo.
University Beyond was founded in 2013 by Brendan Weinstein and Doug Messer. Both have prior start up experience. Together, they founded DBFLY Watches, a wristwatch manufacturing company, while in their teens. DBFLY Watches was featured in People Magazine’s “Top 50 products under $50” for the summer of 2012. This led to a second venture DBFLY Entertainment, a full event production and promotion company. Through its successful traction in the U.S. college market, Weinstein and Messer saw the need to promote brands among college students and the need for college students to gain necessary real-world work experience. The idea for University Beyond emerged. With the completion of its first round of funding, the startup team has expanded to five.
The $300,000 seed round was made by Innovation Garden with two angel investors. Innovation Garden makes investments in early stage technology ventures that meets its stated criteria centered on the targeted consumer, the market and key elements of the investment concerning valuation, management team, and exit.
Innovation Garden recently created a joint venture with Pennsylvania based Worksite Ventures called Innovation Garden Accelerator Solutions that has a technology based platform geared toward startups. It is a turnkey solution that includes analytics and a single source venture management system. The system provides startups with access to tools to help them manage their business, services to support their needs, including integrated brand marketing, accounting services, legal support and lead generation.
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