(Manchester, NH, February 22, 2021) — York IE™, a vertically integrated strategic growth and investment firm, announced today its third cohort of investments, seven startups across the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) landscape, including five new startups and follow-on investments in two startups from the first York IE cohort. The company also announced significant momentum, including 200% percent growth in the advisory services practice launched in June 2020 and more than doubled the number of employees at the company.
“Working with the caliber of entrepreneurs we have in our portfolio each day, I am continuously inspired by their drive, passion, and vision. And this new cohort is no exception,” said Kyle York, CEO and co-founder, York IE. “While these companies have different technologies, solving problems in different industries, they all share a common thread: they are led by excellent teams of founders and operators bringing fresh perspectives to their markets.”
Third York IE Cohort
With this six-month cohort, the company has now completed 20 investments in 18 companies. This includes two follow-on investments to companies in previous cohorts, showcasing the continued growth and success of these initial investments. Similar to previous cohorts, the third York IE cohort showcases the diversity of the portfolio as it features companies solving difficult problems at all layers of the technology stack from infrastructure to applications.
The companies within the third York IE cohort include:
- 40GRID — 40GRID offers an end-to-end operations management software platform for field-service companies to efficiently operate and grow their businesses.
- Blustream — Blustream is a SaaS-based after-sale customer experience company for physical products that helps build active, ongoing connections between companies, their products, and end-users.
- Defendify — Defendify is an all-in-one cybersecurity platform for organizations without security teams based in Portland, ME. This is the second investment York IE has made in the company, following Defendify’s inclusion in the first York IE cohort of investments.
- Finmark — Finmark is financial modeling software for startups, making it simple for companies to manage their runway, hiring, and cash.
- Glasnostic — Glasnostic puts operations teams in control of their complex cloud architectures so they can assure the digital experience.
- Metadata.io — Metadata is a B2B demand generation platform that automates the most critical but often tedious tasks in marketing to help companies efficiently scale their demand generation efforts.
- WEVO — WEVO is a customer experience platform that provides the fastest, most accurate insight to optimize digital experiences. WEVO was also included in the first York IE cohort; this the second investment York IE has made in the company.
“What the York IE team brings to the table is completely different than any other company I’ve worked with,” said Tobias Kunze, CEO, Glasnostic. “Our partnership with York IE has helped strengthen our long-term strategy, as well as accelerate our daily execution.”
Several companies within the first and second York IE cohorts have seen continuous success within their respective businesses and industries. Thundra, a DevOps serverless observability monitoring provider from York IE’s first cohort, launched Thundra Sidekick, a remote debugger that lets developers debug distributed applications from their IDE. Another company from the first cohort, Flywheel, secured $15 million in Series B funding to help more medical researchers improve scientific collaboration and accelerate life-saving therapeutic discoveries. Several cohort companies have also secured strategic partnerships with major businesses, including Datazoom announcing a new integration with Amazon CloudFront and Auditoria achieving the ‘Built for NetSuite’ status.
Additionally, three York IE companies were also recently named to the prestigious Inc. 5000, a ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. Canvs, a company within York IE’s second cohort, Metadata.io, included within the third York IE cohort, and Forcivity joined the ranks of other major brands that have gained national exposure due to the Inc. 5000.
Recent Company Momentum
York IE saw incredible growth over the course of 2020, with new hires, clients, investment partners and strategic initiatives. After launching the advisory services practice in June 2020, it has grown 200 percent and is helping ambitious entrepreneurs and operators scale their startups and disrupt markets.
Additional recent momentum from York IE includes:
Expanded Team: The company added six new team members to both bolster the advisory services practice and add to the York IE Fuel™ technology team. Jan Wnek, Kate Jones and Meaghan McGrath were the first three account managers at York IE, while Meg Fornataro and Jaime Mailloux rounded out the team as a content writer and marketing specialist, respectively. Nick Sjostrom also joined York IE as the principal software engineer for York IE Fuel, its SaaS platform for market and competitive intelligence.
Added Experience: Four new investment advisors also joined the extended York IE team, including Bryan Goodwin, seasoned early-stage startup executive; Pam Hamlin, President of York Creative Collective (YCC) and former Global CEO of Arnold Worldwide; Dr. Julie Gurner, executive performance expert and founder of executive performance coaching business Gurner Consulting; and E.J. Powers, partner at Manchester-based Montagne Powers.
Increased Visibility: As a company working closely with entrepreneurs and founders, York IE recognized the importance of mental health in the startup community and developed a guide to support founders when times are tough. To read “Surviving the Startup: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Better Mental, Physical & Emotional Health,” click here. The York IE Startup Growth Blog was also named one of the top 30 startup blogs in the world by Feedspot.
To learn more about York IE and how it is reshaping how companies are built, scaled and monetized, visit: https://york.ie/
ABOUT YORK IE
York IE™ is a vertically integrated strategic growth and investment firm helping reshape the way companies are built, scaled, and monetized. Through Fuel™, its SaaS platform for market and competitive intelligence, hands-on advisory services, and selective early-stage B2B SaaS investments, York IE supports ambitious entrepreneurs, operators, and investors on their quest to scale startups and disrupt markets. Play the long game at York IE.
