Miami startup LiveNinja is Scout Venture's first South Florida investment.
You may recall that Scout's founder managing partner, Bradley Harrison, announced in September that the New York-based venture capital firm specializing in early-stage companies was opening its first office outside New York in Miami. Ed Boland runs the local office.
On Tuesday night, Harrison, speaking at Startup Grind at The LAB Miami, announced that the Wynwood-based LiveNinja was its first investment. Scout will lead an undisclosed round in the young technology company with a live video chat platform.
"We are super excited about LiveNinja for a bunch of different reasons," said Harrison, before the event. "They are a company ingrained into the entrepreneurial ecosystem here in Miami, they have a strong set of local angel investors and they have built a unique proprietary technology with a strong team under Will's leadership."
Will Weinraub, co-founder and CEO, said the funding will go toward expanding the enterprise sales team, marketing, launching mobile applications and expanding the Katana platform. "We are very excited to be moving into 2015 with Scout on board," he said.
LiveNinja, now with a team of 12, is focusing on its Katana product for the enterprise market, including small and medium-sized businesses. "We are at the right place with the right technology at the right time," said Weinraub. "We are focused on scaling Katana, growing our partnership channel and getting lots of businesses to use our technology on their websites."
A few of its clients are Opulence International Realty, Combat Gentlemen, Femwell and Live Vet. Some clients are using it as a sales and customer support solution, and others are using it for telemedical purposes because the technology is flexible, Weinraub said.
LiveNinja has raised about $1 million to date, about 70 percent of it from local angel investors, said Weinraub.
Scout is currently looking at two or three other companies to decide if they are a fit for its fund. "The local community of angel investors has been very supportive and has sent us a lot of different deals to look at. We have a huge pipeline of companies we are reviewing so there is a lot of work to be done yet," Harrison said.
"In a very short period of time, we've come to Miami and established ourselves," Harrison added. "By making the LiveNinja investment, hopefully the Miami community understands that Scout is serious about being here."
Posted Jan. 13, 2015