Six new ventures meet with touring investor in Saratoga
By: Albany TimeUnion | Lindsay Ellis | @lindsayaellis
Six start-ups will meet privately with investor Paul Singh when he visits Saratoga Springs later this week. The new ventures cover video streaming, pet hotels and data visualization.
Singh, who has founded or cofounded five companies, will arrive in Saratoga Springs on Thursday as part of a North American tour of technology startups. During the visit, he will host presentations, attend more casual networking events and scout out companies.
The start-ups presenting in Saratoga Springs are Furlocity, a pet services company; Odd Networks, a video streaming service; POMCO, a personal safety device; PowerSpike, an advertising marketplace; WorkOrder.es, a ticketing service for landlords; and Windrush, data visualization software.
Interviewed in July, Singh said he invested in about one company per week over the course of the tour at about $100,000. Private investors, he said then, have also accompanied him to several cities on the route.
The six companies presenting in Saratoga Springs come from around the Capital Region, and several have presented at local pitch events
Windrush, founded by Skidmore College alumni, has spent the summer at the 13-week Barclays Techstars accelerator in New York City, which boasts a broad network of mentors.
Schenectady’s Furlocity saw a leadership turnover earlier this year Reid Hislop, the former marketing chief at Plug Power and MapInfo, took charge of the pet services business backed by Start-Up New York in April.
Furlocity, which seeks to digitize booking and scheduling services for dog walking and pet-friendly hotels, aims to raise a $2 million “Series B” round of funding, and Hislop said he hopes Singh decides to invest. “It’s an opportunity for us to share our story with Paul,” Hislop said.
PowerSpike CEO Angelo Damiano, a 20-year-old Syracuse University student of Ballston Spa, said he will ask Singh questions about scalability and growth as his company, which connects broadcasting video game players to advertising opportunities, prepares to raise money.
In total, 12 New York startups will meet privately in Saratoga Springs and Syracuse, where Singh started the week, according to Upstate Venture Connect. Albany-based start-up Moo Plans, a dining system aimed for college students, met Singh in Syracuse on Monday.
About 30 Saratoga Springs companies applied to meet with Singh privately, Upstate Venture Connect spokeswoman Kathryn Cartini said.
Founders said earlier this month that Singh’s tour is a rare opportunity in the region, as investors rarely venture beyond startup hubs like New York City and Silicon Valley.
lellis@timesunion.com • 518-454-5018 • @lindsayaellis
