DURHAMNeedsList wants to build the tech behind its real-time needs platform — and it just got the cash infusion to do so.

Today, the company stationed out of Durham’s American Underground announced that it had closed on a $1 million seed round.

NeedsList cofounder Amanda Levinson told WRAL TechWire that the investment will go directly towards integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning into its platform.

Its main goal: “to develop predictive needs modeling to better prepare nonprofits and businesses before disasters strike,” she said by email.

“This round will allow us to continue to validate our approach to one of the biggest challenges in crisis response — the sharing of real-time information of needs from organizations doing relief efforts,” she added. “Getting venture funding shows that investors are taking conflict and climate-driven displacement seriously, and that they believe NeedsList offers a solution with real potential to make an impact while becoming a profitable company.”

New investors Amplio Ventures and Marigold Capital join the Omidyar Network, Next Wave Impact, Silicon Valley Social Ventures and the Kuo Sharper Fund.

“The team at Amplio Ventures has been fans of NeedList since first learning about the innovative platform for transforming humanitarian aid,” Dalton T. Sirmans, general partner of Atlanta-based Amplio Ventures, said in a statement.

“The team is building the tech behind the NeedsList model so that others that require immediate assistance can have their specific needs met more efficiently and effectively.”

NeedsList photo

Amanda Levinson of NeedsList works at RDU International collecting Hurricane Florence supplies.

Filling a gap

Back in 2016, Levinson, a digital strategist, teamed up with her friend, Natasha Freidus, 45, in response to the Syrian refugee crisis.

But they soon realized a common problem: people struggled to find a way to get supplies to local groups on the ground – in the right place, at the right time.

So NeedsList was born, a real-time needs registry for humanitarian aid, where non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, could list their supply, volunteer and cash needs in real time to share with supporters.

According to its website, it has invested $1 million-plus in local communities and met more than 104,000 needs so far.

Kicking off refugee campaign

Coinciding with the closing its first round, NeedsList is partnering with Refugee Investment Network to kick off a multi-sector campaign during World Refugee Week, from June 17-23.

As part of the drive, NeedsList has teamed up with multiple companies to provide refugees with support.

Among them: TripAdvisor, Kagan Accounting, ReACT program; The Shapiro Foundation, and startup social enterprises Five One Labs, Leaf Global Fintech, 734 Coffee, and Talent Beyond Boundaries.

“NeedsList has the potential to transform an outdated and inefficient crisis relief system to meet and exceed the over $11B resource gap in urgent needs for displaced communities,” Tali Golan, director of Social Impact at Needham-based TripAdvisor, said in a statement. “As one of Needslist’s first corporate partners, we have been their champions from the start and are thrilled that they have hit this milestone. We look forward to continuing to collaborate along their journey in our shared aim of responding to the real-time needs of those displaced.”

Durham-based NeedsList provides real-time needs registry for Florence, global disasters