Following six months of lockdowns, stay at home orders and various reopening phases, 43North portfolio company, Squire, is playing a critical role in helping barbershops adjust to their “new normal” as they return to business. Co-founder and CEO, Songe LaRon, recently sat down with CBS News to talk about new products and services designed to
43North is starting a virtual discussion series called “How to Start a Startup.” The live-streamed events will feature founders who can give advice on how to get their business ideas going.
This week, the organization hosted a virtual “demo day,” allowing 13 of its portfolio companies to make four-minute pitches to 250 investors from around the country. The hope is the brief presentations will ignite investors’ interest, generate follow-up meetings, and ultimately get the funds flowing.
43North moved into its sleek new offices inside Seneca One tower just a few weeks before the state put much of the economy on pause. The seven prize winners from last October’s 43North competition switched to working from home, while remaining in the region.
43North portfolio company GroupRaise is hosting a nationwide effort to support food banks called Takeout for Good on Tuesday, June 2nd. More than 1,500 restaurants across the country have signed up to donate a portion of their sales (15-25%) during the event to their local food bank, including several right here in Western New York.
A Buffalo startup played a key role in helping researchers obtain quick approval for a Covid-19 test that relies on a person’s saliva, rather than using swabs.
Keeping kids engaged while parents work from home – a familiar challenge nowadays – was the $10,000 first-place project in 43North’s “Code:Buffalo” hackathon.
Two local startups have received infusions of capital to the tune of a combined $10 million. CleanSlate UV, which makes technology that disinfects mobile devices, raised $7 million in funding, led by Prolog Ventures. SparkCharge, a maker of portable electrical charging devices aimed at serving the automotive industry, closed on a $3.3 million round of seed funding, led by PJC.
Odoo, which offers a suite of business management software, is based in Belgium and has a large office in San Francisco. The company has more than 900 employees, and expects to eventually hire up to 300 in Buffalo.
A European technology company with its major U.S. base in California has confirmed plans to occupy one floor of Seneca One Tower for its new East Coast operations center, with the potential to take up more space as the business grows.
Hundreds of hackers are working to build something for Buffalo this week. That was the prompt that 43North gave them for this year’s event, which they switched to a virtual competition in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
The startup – which splits operations between Buffalo and Toronto – announced that it has raised a $7 million round of venture capital. The money will support heavy demand not just in health care but also food processing, biotechnology, hospitality and corporate offices.