SEATTLE, WA — (Marketwired) — 07/23/13 — TiE Angels Group Seattle or TAGS (), a newly formed angel investment group in Seattle, today announced its first investment, leading the first round financing of Minetta Brook (), a Kirkland-based technology company that develops products and proprietary technologies in the Big Data Intelligence space. TAGS led the Series Seed round with an investment of half a million dollars in partnership with Naya Ventures to help the company raise $1.25M and close the round.
“We are thrilled to have TAGS as an investor. This investment allows us to bring customers our breakthrough intelligence engine with applications across multiple sectors. Our first application targets the financial sector and will revolutionize how news, market and reference data are synthesized to provide hyper-relevant real-time information to traders and analysts,” said Deepak Bharadwaj, CEO and co-founder of Minetta Brook.
“We are excited to work with Minetta Brook-s experienced team of experts who are bringing a new dimension to analyzing structured and unstructured data, enabling fast discovery of pertinent information from streaming content,” said Haresh Ved, Chair of the TiE Angels Group Seattle program. “We believe that their platform and NLP and machine learning technologies will revolutionize big data processing for various applications and verticals.”
TAGS was formed by TiE Seattle (), a nonprofit network of entrepreneurs and professionals. TAGS caters to the early stage funding needs of startups in the Pacific Northwest. The group-s mission is to promote entrepreneurship and facilitate access to both capital and business expertise to help entrepreneurs transform their ideas into sustainable companies.
“I am truly privileged and humbled to lead this vital new initiative for TiE Seattle,” added Ved. “I am just the front-end, backed by a solid team of 75+ TAGS and TiE Seattle Charter Members who are industry leaders and accredited investors proactively seeking investment opportunities. Our goal is to contribute to the local economy and play an active role in driving job growth and development in our communities.”
Aside from providing capital, an essential element for startups, TAGS provides a structured and complete ecosystem where entrepreneurs, investors, partners and sponsors can benefit from professional networks for relevant introductions, domain knowledge, and experience of TiE Seattle CMs and community leaders.
“We are very pleased with our first investment through TAGS and have been extremely impressed with the many entrepreneurs we-ve met thus far. There is no shortage of talent in the Pacific Northwest,” said Vijay Vashee, Chairman of TiE Seattle. “TAGS completes TiE Seattle-s commitment to entrepreneurs, which already has various programs covering networking, mentoring, education, and now funding.”
Entrepreneurs and companies in the Northwest seeking angel investment can apply for funding through the TAGS website. Applications are pre-screened by domain experts and members of the Screening Committee. Shortlisted companies are invited for a presentation with the Screening Committee, and upon further qualification, are provided the opportunity to present to the full TAGS membership.
Accredited investors can apply for TAGS membership to have access to high quality deal flow and an opportunity to invest in start-ups that go through diligent and arduous pre-screening and scrutiny by domain experts. TAGS members attend monthly events where selected companies present. They subsequently make individual and independent decisions about their level of investment and involvement with these companies. In addition to these meetings, members are also eligible to attend other events hosted by TAGS and TiE Seattle, which provide opportunities to network, discuss potential investments with like-minded individuals and community leaders.
TiE Angels Group Seattle or TAGS (), an angel investment group of TiE Seattle, extends TiE Seattle-s goal of nurturing entrepreneurship in the Northwest. TAGS-s mission is to promote entrepreneurship and facilitate access to the key element of capital and helping entrepreneurs transform their ideas into building sustainable companies.
TiE Seattle () is a registered nonprofit organization. It is an open and inclusive organization. For volunteering and sponsorship opportunities please contact us at .
Haresh Ved
Chair & Executive Director for TiE Angels Group Seattle
Minou Nguyen
Illuminate Public Relations
206.779.4559
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