Miami Beach-based Rokk3r Labs said this week it has closed on $5 million in funding from data scientist and TED Fellow Jon Gosier and New York City-based venture capital firm Scout Ventures, among others.
Rokk3r Labs partners with entrepreneurs to cobuild companies and has already helped develop high-growth companies such as AdMobilize, HYP3R, Juana La Iguana and others into multi-million dollar ventures. With its latest $5 million investment round, Rokk3r Labs said it plans to cobuild 100 companies over the next five year as well as start building its own companies. Rokk3r Labs CEO Nabyl Charania (pictured here) said the company will also expand its investment fund to fund Rokk3r Labs’ own companies as well as co-invest in portfolio companies.
With offices in Miami Beach, New York, London, Toronto and Bogota, Rokk3r Labs said it now intends to scale its cobuilding approach to new target locations including Africa and South America. “It’s a huge honor not only to be an investor but to join the Rokk3r Labs team to help establish a venture fund focused on opportunities in the U.S. as well as spearheading Rokk3r Labs’ entry into Africa,” said Gosier, who was a speaker during the inaugural Black Tech Week in Miami in February.
Currently, Rokk3r Labs has a portfolio of 25 companies.
“Rokk3r Labs is one of the first company builders to put to execution the principles in my Exponential Organizations book. And based upon their track record, I’m excited to see how they leverage ExO principles to cobuild companies that change the world,” said Salim Ismail, author and founding executive director of Singularity University. “Rokk3r sponsored two full-day workshops with Ismail earlier this year.
Scout Ventures managing partner Bradley C. Harrison first announced the investment into Rokk3r Labs in February, and said he was impressed with Rokk3r's unique cobuilding methodology and desirable track record of swiftly bringing companies to launch. Scout has an office in Miami.