Tech firms from the Triad to Charlotte to Asheville are looking for or have raised new funding, according to a review of recent SEC filings.
Seeking funding are:
- Urban Offsets in Greensboro, which raised $300,000
- Stark Power in Mooresville is seeking $6 million
- LoLo in Asheville is aiming for $350,000
- And IronDirect in Asheville, which raised $9 million last year, hopes to raise funding, but an amount has not been disclosed.
The details as provided by North Carolina Business News Wire:
- Greensboro tech startup Urban Offsets raises $300,000
Urban Offsets in Greensboro has raised $300,000 in a private stock offering, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Urban Offsets Inc. filed a Form D with the SEC on Oct. 4. The filing listed a total offering amount of $300,000, with no amount remaining to be sold.
Two investors were involved with the offering, the filing said. Urban Offsets also noted that proceeds will go toward “working capital, which may include normal compensation to executive officers.”
The Greensboro-based start-up creates “public tree inventories” for cities and then works with those cities to establish carbon offset credits, which are sold to corporations. Urban Offsets has partnered with the North Carolina Forest Service and Duke University to further its goals in the state.
Earlier this year, Urban Offsets was named a recipient of funding from NC IDEA, a Durham-based organization that promotes tech entrepreneurship by supporting start-ups financially.
The company received $50,000, which Chief Executive Officer Shawn Gagne said will go toward completing a software platform, hiring staff and furthering business development, according to a report from the Triad Business Journal.
Gagne signed the company’s latest form Form D on Tuesday.
- Stark Power wants $6 million
Energy firm Stark Power in Mooresville wants to raise $6 million in debt financing.
The company filed a form D on Oct. 4. This is a new notice, and the first sale has yet to occur for Stark Power.
The company provides technical services in the field of lithium-ion batteries as well as is a technology provider for energy storage and management.
There is no indication of what the money will be used for. The total amount of the offering that is expected to be used as payments for Stark Power executives is $950,000.
Stark Power is based in Mooresville but was incorporated in Charlotte in 2007. The company’s website boasts that lithium-ion batteries can weigh up to 80 percent less than traditional batteries and lasts up to six times longer.
The company offers the jumpbox series, genbox series, and deep cycle batteries.
Stark Power is a private company that does not offer stock. It operates in the United States, Central America and Japan.
- Ecommerce firm IronDirect looks for cash
IronDirect, an e-commerce website in Asheville, filed to raise an undetermined amount in equity financing, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
IronDirect LLC filed the Form D on Oct. 4, 2016. The company raised $9 million in December 2015.
The key executives listed in the filing are the same key executives of its parent company Liquidity Services Inc. Bill Angrick is chairman and chief executive officer of Liquidity Services.
On Sept. 15, Washington D.C.-based Liquidity Services, an online auction marketplace for surplus and salvage assets, announced the launch of a new marketplace,IronDirect.com.
The website provides construction equipment buyers aconvenient online platform — think Amazon for bulldozers— to purchase construction equipment from manufacturers around the world.
IronDirect is backed by Liquidity Services, which operates a leading business-to-business online marketplace platform with nearly three million registered buyers and $6 billion in completed transactions. Liquidity Services had revenues of $85 million in the third quarter of 2016.
Through this relationship, IronDirect leverages world-class e-commerce technology, asset management and disposal services and over two million square feet of distribution center space to meet the needs of its customers.
The online marketplace offers buyers of all sizes easy access to value-priced and premium machines from brands that are both new to the local market and long-established.
The distributor of Chinese-made equipment has also signed on suppliers Paladin and Berco to its e-commerce site and offers products that it says can save owners up to 50 percent of the cost of machines over their lifetime.
IronDirect began as International Construction Products (ICP), a startup that debuted during the 2014 ConExpo show as a way to market value-priced, Chinese-made machines to North American customers.
ICP, under the leadership of industry veteran Tim Frank, failed when e-commerce site IronPlanet pulled out of its plans to provide the online platform for ICP.
On Aug. 29, 2016, Canadian industrial auctioneer Ritchie Bros Auctioneers said it will buy the privately held e-commerce site IronPlanet for about $758.5 million.
Frank is now president of IronDirect.
With Liquidity Services backing, IronDirect has an equipment demonstration area, a 450,000-square-foot parts warehouse and a chance to prove that its concept—in many ways the same as ICP’s—works.
- LoLo seeks $350,000 in debt financing
Another Asheville firm, LoLo, is looking to land $350,000.
The company issued its first sale of $30,000 on Sept. 23.
LoLo, or “Locals Supporting Locals,” offers consumers the chance to earn rewards through any connected credit or debit card. The Asheville-based startup prides itself on supporting local businesses and being easy to use.
The application allows mobile users to earn 5 percent in rewards on every dollar spent. They can then use their “LoDough” at any participating business.
In 2015, the company filed a similar Form D offering for $500,000 in debt financing, to which only $90,000 was sold.
Earlier this year, LoLo offered $500,000 in debt securities. It sold $275,000, or 55 percent, of that.
Note: The North Carolina Business News Wire is a service of UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism.
