DreamIt Ventures

DreamIt Ventures, founded in 2007, is a venture capital and seed accelerator firm focusing on Seed Venture, Early Stage Venture and Late Stage Venture Investing. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the venture capital firm operates four seed accelerators in the USA: Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore and Austin, as well as an international accelerator in Tel Aviv.

Via its accelerator programs, DreamIt Ventures has launched 157 companies[1] with a current enterprise value of $524 million and business incubator startups have raised over $171 million in follow-on funding. Notable investments include SeatGeek,[2] social gaming company SCVNGR and MindSnacks.[3] DreamIt Ventures worked with Comcast Ventures on seed projects for Kwelia, Reactor Inc. and Toppermost Corp.

DreamIt ventures[4] was listed on the Forbes Midas List of Top Startup Incubators and Accelerators.[5]

History

DreamIt Ventures was co-founded in 2007 by Steven Welch, Michael Levinson and David Bookspan. Steven Welch is Managing Partner of programs in the Austin and Philadelphia accelerators and is CEO of KinderTown, providing educational Apps for young children.

Michael Levinson is Founding Partner and CEO of SaaS productivity tool WizeHive. Currently, Levinson is an investor at Robin Hood Ventures.[6]

David Bookspan is a Founding Partner, CEO and Founder of Monetate Inc. All three founders are active ‘angel investors’ with a focus on pharmaceutical, medical devices and software/SaaS.

DreamIt Ventures Accelerator Programs

DreamIt Ventures manages and operates[7] accelerator programs in all its offices. The Philadelphia programs operate from University City Science Center and each program accepts up to 15 startup companies that work from the Center under the guidance and mentorship of DreamIt Ventures and partner organizations.

Each company chosen for an accelerator program receives $25,000 and is paired with industry-specific individuals and companies as well as a platform from which to present ideas and business plans to potential angel investors and venture capital firms.[8] Each accelerator program lasts for 3 months and all companies chosen work collaboratively.

DreamIt Health programs[9] focus on startups that work specifically on health technology and enterprise health solutions and the accelerator programs partner with larger organizations such as Johns Hopkins University, Penn Medicine, Independence Blue Cross and Northrup Grumman.

DreamIt Access programs are a partnership between DreamIt Ventures and Comcast Ventures, working together on the Minority Entrepreneur Accelerator Program (MEAP) to provide mentorship and funding to minority-owned startups.

Portfolio of Companies

DreamIt Ventures has to date invested in 168 startups and companies, including:

Company Funding Rounds Date
SCVNGR Seed June 1, 2008
Parsely Seed May, 2009
SeatGeek Seed May 22, 2009
Postling Seed August 1, 2009
Adaptly Seed August 11, 2010
MindSnacks Seed March 9, 2011
newquill, Inc. Seed August 10, 2011
Kwelia Seed September 8, 2011
SnipSnap Angel May 11, 2012
Brideside Seed December 5, 2012
YEVVO Seed April 1, 2013
Reactor Inc. Seed July, 2013

Notable Exits

Company Acquisition
AppArchitect Acquisition December 8, 2014
Clothes Horse Acquisition December 3, 2014
Stylr Acquisition June 16, 2014
Sqoot Acquisition May, 2013
Postling Acquisition November 2, 2012
UXFLIP Acquisition April 24, 2012
Notehall Acquisition June 23, 2011

External links

References

  1. ↑ "DreamIt Ventures on Angel.co".
  2. ↑ "SeatGeek on CrunchBase".
  3. ↑ "Mindsnacks on CrunchBase".
  4. ↑ "DreamIt Ventures on CrunchBase".
  5. ↑ Mac, Ryan (April 30, 2012). "Top Startup Incubators And Accelerators: Y Combinator Tops With $7.8 Billion In Value". Forbes.
  6. ↑ "Michael Levinson on Bloomberg Businessweek".
  7. ↑ "DreamIt Ventures Launches Accelerator Program in Philadelphia". September 8, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Five Entrepreneurs Share Their Startups For A Chance to Win $400,000". Forbes. October 21, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Meet the incubator: DreamIt Ventures". October 1, 2014.