IRIS, public relations management software co., raises $1 M equity seed round – interview with CEO Aly Saxe

Founded by a veteran public relations professional, IRIS, a cloud-based public relations management SaaS platform, helps streamline an agency’s administrative tasks and get pros back to doing what they love-creating buzz for their clients. Today the company announced a $1 million equity seed-preferred round, bringing their total funding to $1.25 million. CEO and founder Aly … Read more

UArizona receives $2 million in support of space programs

Space

The University of Arizona has received a very generous gift from a graduate: $2 million to advance UArizona’s space exploration.  The university said $1.5 million will be used to purchase a nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometer, an instrument that those at the UArizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory will use to study samples from the solar … Read more

32 advance in 2016 Venture Madness competition

It’s down from 64 to 32 startups who will advance to Round 2 in the Invest Southwest 2016 Venture Madness competition and walk away with a piece of the $100,000 prize. Of the 32 finalists, one of them will win the 2016 People’s Choice winner and take home a $5,000 prize. Vote for your favorite company … Read more

Voting opens for Venture Madness top 64 startups

Time to break out the brackets for Venture Madness 2016! This event, brought to the Valley by Invest Southwest and Arizona Commerce Authority, is where the top 64 startups go head-to-head in a pitch competition and vie for a portion of the $100,000 prize and the chance to be crowned champion. The first elimination round begins tomorrow … Read more

Who's got the moola? Investors funded these Arizona startups

More than halfway through 2015 and Arizona is on track for another great year of funding. These are the latest funding announcements that occurred May to July.   eVisit Gilbert-based telehealth software startup eVisit announced the raise of $1 million in seed funding this week led by Alan Ram, Founder of Alan Ram’s Proactive Training … Read more

New CrunchBase report shows female founders on the rise

Anyone that has been paying attention to the challenge women face in the tech industry knows there is a gap in the representation of female founders and engineers. While local CEOs such as Blake Irving, GoDaddy, are pushing for change by placing more females in C-suite positions and leading girls in tech efforts, there is … Read more

Gadgets for the Guru: Mother’s Day edition

Give your Mom some of the hottest tech gadgets on the market this Mother’s Day. Your Madre will be the envy of all other Mom’s.   UviCube The newest breed of appliance employs ultraviolet light to disinfect and murder 99.9% of germs. Instead of using of harmful disinfectants and sprays, utilize the power of light … Read more

Join the Revolution at the Women INVESTING in Women Summit 2/20-21

Individuals from across a variety of disciplines will gather for the Third Annual Phoenix Women INVESTING in Women Summit to network and learn from a power-packed lineup of business and media experts. This annual conference brings together a community of men and women that want to become a part of a global economic revolution geared … Read more

MRAM manufacturer Everspin closes $29 million Series B

Chandler-based MRAM manufacturer Everspin Technologies Inc. closed on a $29 million Series B round after more investors joined in the round. Everspin’s added two more investors, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Western Digital Capital, to reach the $29 million finish line. The other investors in the deal include New Venture Partners, Lux Capital, Sigma Partners, Epic Ventures, and Draper … Read more

Software cos. win big at ACA Innovation Challenge

There’s no secret that software companies are bubbling up in the Valley and making headway in the Arizona tech space. Today, software companies from around the state dominated the ACA Innovation Challenge winner circle. Today, the Arizona Commerce Authority announced its six winning companies in the Fall 2014 Arizona Innovation Challenge (AIC) awarding each $250,000 to … Read more