LiveStories Raises $3 Million to Change the Way Governments Work With Data
SEATTLE, Sept. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- LiveStories, a Seattle-based company and Techstars graduate, today announced a $3 million seed round led by True Ventures. Additional investors include Founders' Co-op, Social Leverage, Urban.us, the Knight Foundation and several angel investors.
LiveStories aims to be the data hub for government – a one-stop shop where government agencies can leverage data to help them achieve their program goals. To this end, LiveStories offers a web-based platform that allows data novices and experts alike to easily explore and make sense of data; share and collaborate around data within an organization; and present data in engaging ways to external audiences.
"The public sector is in need of better ways to communicate data in order to inspire action and build healthier, safer, and more informed communities. Our platform and data storytelling approach helps with that," said LiveStories CEO Adnan Mahmud.
"LiveStories has an opportunity to make a huge impact on communities. It is also the first time I have ever seen the government spend money so fast on a product," says Puneet Agarwal, Partner at True Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm.
More than 45 million constituents are already being served with the LiveStories platform. Clients include government agencies and nonprofits around the world such as the City of New Orleans, The City of Melbourne, California Health Care Foundation, and San Diego County.
Despite the colder venture capital investment climate, the company was able to close the oversubscribed round in just a few weeks. "We were lucky to be in a position where we had to turn down investors," said Adnan Mahmud.
The new funds are being used to hire across all departments.
About LiveStories
LiveStories is an online data platform that makes it easy for data novices and experts alike to explore, share, and present data. Governments and nonprofits around the world use LiveStories to communicate data more effectively and inspire action that can help build healthier, safer, and better communities. LiveStories is based in Seattle and was founded in December 2013 by Adnan Mahmud, who prior to LiveStories spent 8 years at Microsoft Research working on data analysis and data visualization, obtaining several patents. LiveStories is backed by top Silicon Valley and Seattle investors including True Ventures, Social Leverage, and Founders' Co-Op.
About True Ventures
Founded in 2005, True Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups. With five funds and capital under management in excess of $1.3 billion, True provides seed and Series A funding to the most talented entrepreneurs in today's fastest growing markets. With a mission to make the world a better place for entrepreneurs, True encourages each founder's vision and has built resources to empower the employees, families and communities of its portfolio companies. The firm maintains a strong founder community and offers innovative educational opportunities to its portfolio, helping entrepreneurs achieve higher levels of success and impact. With more than 200 companies funded and multiple companies acquired, the current True portfolio has helped create over 8,500 jobs. To learn more about True Ventures, visit www.trueventures.com.
About Founders Co-op
Founders Co-op is the leading seed-stage investment fund in the Pacific Northwest. We help extraordinary founding teams located outside Silicon Valley build companies that the best venture capital firms in the world choose to back. We're also the guys behind Techstars Seattle, the region's #1 accelerator program. Most important, we are founder-operators with hard-fought experience + personal networks spanning every aspect of building, scaling and exiting a high-growth technology business
About Social Leverage
Social Leverage is an early stage venture capital firm that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs in the technology space. Social Leverage partners with promising companies, bringing their own entrepreneurial expertise, relationships, and marketing experience to the fore. Social Leverage portfolio companies benefit from their hands on involvement in all stages of development. Social Leverage is about harnessing their extensive network of industry relationships and expertise to help grow great companies and build great products.
SOURCE LiveStories
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