Bombshell: 1776 acquires Disruption Corporation

The Washington Post came out last night with bombshell news for the local tech industry. Downtown incubator 1776 is acquiring Disruption Corporation, the venture fund and coworking space created in 2013 by Paul Singh, an entrepreneur who grew up in Northern Virginia, made a fortune in Silicon Valley, and saw potential in local tech startups.
As part of the deal — Singh and 1776 cofounders Donna Harris and Evan Burfield did not disclose its financial details — Singh will transmit ownership of the Crystal Tech Fund, a $50 million fund that has stakes in 12 companies, more than half of which are locally grown startups. 1776 will grow from 22 to 33 employees.
1776 and Disruption Corp. will also combine their work on networking software. Disruption Corp. had set itself apart among other VC funds by developing proprietary programs called Hubble and Dashboard.

Harris and Burfield said they had begun developing a similar program to Dashboard when they began speaking with Singh — whom they’ve known for years and invested with — about ways to partner with and compile data on thousands of start-ups.