Startups and emerging entrepreneurial companies across North Carolina have had a busy week, with four disclosing the raising of funds in securities filings:

  • Raleigh-based Stealz, $2.3 million
  • Greenville-based RFPI $3.5 million
  • Charlotte-based Pharos Hospitality $2.7 million
  • Chapel Hill-based StartStopMove wants $300,000 and has closed on $65,000

The deals as reported by North Carolina Business News Wire:

  • Raleigh-based mobile app company Stealz raises $2.3 million

By Sissy Rodriguez

RALEIGH – Stealz Inc., better known to its app users as Get Stealz, has raised $2.3 million in a private debt offering, according to a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company raised the money from 36 investors, according to the filing.

The mission of the company is to partner up with businesses to centralize their customer engagement efforts in one platform, a user-friendly mobile app.

The app encourages and enables customers to share photos of their experience on social media while frequenting the business. The business receives more organic, valuable exposure on social media, and the customer, in turn, earns points towards exclusive rewards at the business.

Stealz then collects actionable data about customers that use the app, and displays it in business owner’s own, customized, web-based dashboard.

Established in 2013, the Raleigh-based company was designed to help small businesses better market their products. But just a few years later Stealz is working with businesses across the U.S. and already has thousands of clients, including some big names such as Chick-fil-A, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Jersey Mike’s and Bojangles’.

In 2016, Stealz established a partnership with IBM Watson to further improve the app’s data analytics capabilities.

“Stealz is a mobile application that turns a business’s customers into a brand ambassador through social media.” said Chief Executive Officer Jim Zidar.

Zidar graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in accounting and finance. Before starting Stealz, Zidar worked as a financial manager at Co-Options Consumer Access, a marketing firm.

  • Greenville-based RFPI raises $3.5 million in private stock offering

By Emily Brice

GREENVILLE – RFPI Inc., a North Carolina-based health care tech company, raised $3.5 million in a private stock offering, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The Greenville-based company filed the Form D on Thursday and it did not disclose what it intended to do with the funds.

It last raised money in March, when it garnered $3.2 million from investors.

RFPI’s patented medical technology is non-invasive and works in real-time to visualize the physiology of blood flow and perfusion. Its technology is called iCertainty and can decrease post-procedural complication, reducing readmission rates and costs, as well and improving clinical quality.

RFPI is led by chairman and angel funder Phil Hodges and CEO Jeffery Basham. Hodges has over 30 years experience in health sciences and also sits on the board of directors for Mayne Pharma Group Ltd.

Basham also has extensive experience in the health care field and previously he was one of the founding CEOs in a group of companies that became Closure Medical, which was sold to Johnson & Johnson for $500 million.

  • Chapel Hill-based company has raised $65,000

By Taylor Street

CHAPEL HILL – StartStopMove Inc. has raised $65,000 in a private debt offering, according to a filing Thursday morning with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Chapel Hill-based company plans to raise $300,000 with $235,000 remaining in the total offering.

The money was raised by five investors, according to the filing.

The founder of StartStopMove, Alain Glanzman, recently received his MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Glanzman is currently the co-founder and chief executive officer at WalletFi, a digital wallet application for smartphones based in Raleigh.

Prior to receiving his MBA, Glanzman worked as a consultant for nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies.

Glanzman has held various entrepreneurial positions including working as a global product manager with WomanCare Global in London and as a consultant at Keen Strategy LLC in Raleigh.

Glanzman was also a venture capital MBA associate at IDEA Fund Partners and a entrepreneur at SoFi in San Francisco, California before leading the WalletFi and StartStopMove start-ups.

Glanzman has successfully launched products across the globe, including Europe, Africa and South America.

  • Charlotte-based Pharos Hospitality raises $2.7 million

By Meghan Siegmund

CHARLOTTE — Hotel operator Pharos Hospitality has raised $2.7 million in a private equity offering, according to a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pharos raised the money from 34 investors, according to the filing.

The company has $300,000 left to raise to meet its goal of $3 million.

One hundred thousand dollars of the raised money is estimated to go to Chief Executive Officer Jess “Buddy” Watson III.

The Charlotte-based company was started in 2010 and specializes in a combination of hotel operating and investing.

Pharos develops, acquires, operates and owns boutique, independent, and franchised upscale and upper upscale hotels, focusing on upscale select service and franchise relationships with top-tier hotel brands.

Watson, who also founded the company, began working in the development, ownership and operating side of the hotel business in 1984.

Prior to entering the hotel business, he founded an advertising and marketing agency, which provided services to more than 50 hotels, along with providing all marketing aspects for a national hotel brand.