BandHappy receives first Propel Baltimore funding of $100K from TEDCO

BandHappy is the first startup to receive money from the Propel Baltimore fund.
The Owings Mills-based startup, which facilitates music lessons online between professional musicians and students around the world, received $100,000.
Another $120,000 will be doled out as BandHappy hits “certain benchmarks,” said cofounder Jonathan Rivlin in an email. Rivlin added that half of the Propel money BandHappy received are matching funds from private investors, “a condition of the program.”
Propel Baltimore itself is a $4.3 million angel investment fund managed by the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (better known as TEDCO) and created in partnership with the Abell Foundation and the France-Merrick Foundation.
Established around this time last year, Propel Baltimore makes maximum investments of $220,000 in startup companies, but generally does it in tiers, with the first round of funding being anywhere between $100,000 and $200,000.
The major stipulation of Propel Baltimore, however, is that startups receiving funding have to already be located in Baltimore city or be willing to relocate to Baltimore city.
Right now, Rivlin said, BandHappy has plans to relocate to the Emerging Technology Center in Canton in early May.