Posts in Idea Fund
Pendo Adds Record Number of $100K+ Customers in Second Quarter, Launches Certification Course to Help Companies Embrace Product-Led Strategy

Pendo, the most comprehensive product experience platform, today announced highlights from its second quarter, which ended July 31, 2022. Notable milestones include the launch of a new roadmapping product and powerful features in Pendo Adopt, early momentum for Pendo's Product-Led Certification course and continued customer and revenue growth. Pendo now counts more than 2,600 paying customers, and more than 4,000 companies with Pendo Free accounts.

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Pendo acquires Mind the Product to boost global product manager community

Pendo — which allows companies like Okta, Salesforce and Zendesk to onboard new customers or get employees to adopt new software, as well as revealing analytics on that uptake — has been in a position to scale up its marketing for a while. It’s now taking that to the next level with the acquisition of Mind the Product — a platform that many outside observers would call the key community of product managers — which dovetails nicely with Pendo’s mission. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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Pendo Announces Pendo Free, Giving More Product Teams Access to Foundational Tools for Creating Great Products

Pendo, a platform that helps companies accelerate digital product adoption among customers and employees, today announced Pendo Free, a free version of Pendo that gives product managers access to usage analytics and in-app guidance capabilities, everything they need to answer the key question: "Are my customers using my product in the way I envisioned they would?" Pendo CEO and co-founder Todd Olson introduced Pendo Free during his keynote address at the company's annual Pendomonium conference, held virtually September 16-17, 2020.

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Idea FundCathy GuoComment
Reveal Mobile Launches New Product that Uncovers Customer Journey for Consumer Brands

Reveal Mobile, a leader in location-based marketing software, analytics and attribution, today announced the launch of VISIT Match 360, a new product that helps consumer marketing and product leaders map the customer journey and more effectively design optimal customer experiences. As consumers increasingly seek relevant points of connection with brands they like, marketers are demanding the ability to see where else their customers go around the time they make an in-store purchase. VISIT Match 360 enables marketers to understand the customer journey through foot traffic.


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Idea FundCathy GuoComment
Sense Photonics Brings Its Fancy New Flash LiDAR to Market

There’s no shortage of lidar solutions available for autonomous vehicles, drones and robots — theoretically, anyway. But getting a lidar unit from theory to mass production might be harder than coming up with the theory in the first place. Sense Photonics appears to have made it past that part of the journey, and is now offering its advanced flash lidar for pre-order...While Luminar and some other companies aim to create a forward-facing lidar that can detect shapes hundreds of feet ahead in a relatively narrow field of view, Sense is going after the short-range, wide-angle side of things.

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Pendo Announces Next Generation Mobile Product at Third Annual Pendomonium Conference

RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Pendo.io, the product cloud company, today announced breakthrough innovations to its mobile offering and key additions to its Activate partner ecosystem focused on accelerating innovation on top of the Pendo product cloud and unlocking product insights across an organization. From the main stage at Pendo's annual Pendomonium conference in at the Raleigh Convention Center, Pendo chief product officer Brian Croftsdetailed the following new mobile capabilities and corporate partnerships to the crowd of 1000...

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Sense Photonics Comes out With High-Tech Flash LiDAR

Tesla's approach to autonomy has been multiple cameras, sensors, and a super-powerful computer. A lot of specialists agree with Tesla. But now, a new startup believes it has developed a LiDAR system that's much better than current ones. As Forbes reports, North Carolina-based startup Sense Photonics has developed a system called flash LiDAR architecture. According to Sense Photonics' CEO Scott Burroughs, who spoke with the outlet on the phone, the system is "very simple, has no moving parts, fully solid state." The fact that there are no moving parts isn't the only thing that's different from other LiDAR systems...

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Idea FundCathy GuoComment
Ceterus Among Inc. Magazine's Annual List of America's Fastest Growing Private Companies

CHARLESTON, S.C., Aug. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine today revealed that Ceterus is No. 2110 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy's most dynamic segment—its independent small businesses. Microsoft, Dell, Domino's Pizza, Pandora, Timberland, LinkedIn, Yelp, Zillow, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000. Ceterus provides a done-for-you accounting and benchmarked reporting solution for entrepreneurs as well as an accounting technology solution for CPA firms...

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Idea FundCathy GuoComment
Pendo to triple workforce in UK, says growth is exceeding expectations

RALEIGH – Fast-growing cloud computing software firm Pendo is planning to add additional workers at its operations in the U.K., citing as one reason growth that is exceeding expectations. The Raleigh-based firm, which is committed to adding hundreds of workers in its home city and relocating to a new headquarters, says revenue in Europe-Middle E East-Africa markets has already achieved 130 percent of its revenue goal in the first six months of operations. Pendo says it also has added 36 customers...

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Idea FundCathy GuoComment
Sense Photonics raises $26 million to expand depth sensing for autonomous vehicles and industrial robotics

DURHAM, N.C., June 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/
Sense Photonics, a company building the next generation of LiDAR and 3D sensor solutions for autonomous vehicles, industrial equipment and other applications, announced today that they have closed a $26 million Series A funding round. The round was co-led by Acadia Woods and Congruent Ventures, with participation from a number of other investors, including Prelude Ventures, Samsung Ventures, Shell Ventures, Hemi Ventures and IPD Capital...

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Energy drink Mati raises $3.6 million in equity from 30 investors

DURHAM — Mati LLC, an energy drink company based in Durham, has raised more than $3.6 million from selling equity, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Wednesday. The money was raised from 30 investors with the date of the first sale in mid-May. The filing disclosed that the money would be used for the payment of salaries and other compensation and benefits. “No officer, representative, member or promoter will receive any payments from the proceeds of this offering,” it clarified. The round is capped at $4.5 million – with a total of around $881,000 still to be sold...

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Spiffy Lands $10M in Capital; Announces Fleet Management as a Service (FMaaS) Immediately Available in Eleven Markets

Get Spiffy, Inc. (Spiffy), an on-demand car care, technology, and services company, today introduced Fleet Management as a Service to help fleets maintain vehicles across the entire vehicle lifecycle. With a $10M+ fund raise, Spiffy is expanding into six new markets with Fleet Management as a Service (FMaaS) and rolling out FMaaS in existing Spiffy markets of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, and Raleigh-Durham. New FMaaS markets include Denver, New York, Phoenix, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington, DC with more to come in 2019...

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Impossible Objects unveils new CBAM-2 3D printer, partnership with BASF, And $4.1 Million Funding

Composite-based additive manufacturing (CBAM) developer Impossible Objects has made a series of announcements at RAPID + TCT 2019, including $4.1 million in funding, a collaboration with BASF, and a new 3D printer: the CBAM-2. The release of the CBAM-2 3D printer builds upon the company’s previous CBAM offering in the Model One, with greater print sizes and efficiency. Impossible Objects’ collaboration with BASF centers around the support of the chemical giant’s Ultrasint PA6-carbon fiber powderfor use with the Model One and CBAM-2 3D printers. Both the partnership with BASF and its new CBAM-2 3D printer, which has a planned release for Q3 2019, aim to extend the industrial applications of Impossible Objects’ patented CBAM process...

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