Baltimore startup Pinkaloo acquired by philanthropic services company RenPSG

Baltimore charitable giving startup Pinkaloo Technologies was acquired by RenPSG, a philanthropic solutions provider based in Indianapolis, the companies said this week.

With the deal, Pinkaloo will join the three-decade-old RenPSG, which provides technology, expertise and administration around giving to charitable organizations and financial institutions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2016 by Gideon Taub, who leads the Remington-based company as CEO along with COO Daniel Gardner, Pinkaloo built technology that brings the kind of fintech tools that have helped make payments more personalized, seamless and social to charitable giving. It has data and workflow tools that enable companies or financial institutions to offer members or employees the ability to choose individual charities they wish to donate to, and handle donating and documentation through the platform. And the users can share their donations and invite others to join them.

Taub wrote in a blog post that Pinkaloo and RenPSG began talking about partnership in May 2020, but soon found a shared vision which helped lead to the acquisition.

“RenPSG has been an innovator in philanthropic services for over three decades — and we recognized that there’s really an untapped component of this market, especially as you look at the Millennials and Gen Z populations,” said Joe Fisher, president and CEO of RenPSG. “We started asking ourselves, ‘How do we tap into new populations and next generations to enable and grow giving?’ We wanted to remove the friction in philanthropy to grow giving overall. The Pinkaloo acquisition is really a growth vehicle for us to enable growth of the entire philanthropic economy.”

Asked about whether Pinkaloo’s brand will remain, Fisher said: “As our companies integrate and innovate, I anticipate that a new paradigm will take shape in the philanthropic sector — and our new shared brand will emerge from our combined company.”

The company’s story shows a path in Baltimore’s tech community for startups. Taub was previously an executive in Baltimore’s fertile adtech space, then started a company. In turn, that company built with Baltimore talent.

“Working in the Baltimore community has been a major benefit to Pinkaloo. We had access to great pools of talent from the likes of Hopkins, UMBC, Towson, and NPower,” Taub said. “And we were able to tap into a remarkable investment community.”

It received early investment from Baltimore Angels and Maryland’s TEDCO. And when it came time for a seed round in 2019, that $1.25 million was led by Baltimore-based Squadra, the venture firm launched by RedOwl Analytics founder Guy Filippelli.

“Squadra, in particular, really understood our vision while adding tremendous value,” Taub said. “As an early-stage company, I don’t think we would have had the same degree of investor counsel or access in other cities. Baltimore has been a strategic advantage.”

While (pre-pandemic) Taub and Gardner could frequently be found catching up with community members at R. House just below their offices within Allovue’s space, Pinkaloo also waved the flag for Baltimore as part of national accelerators like Boston’s MassChallenge, D.C.’s PeaceTech and San Francisco’s PeopleTech Partners.

Going forward, Pinkaloo will join a company that is based in Indianapolis, but has employees across the U.S. So its Baltimore presence will remain, and the leadership and team will integrate with RenPSG.

“We’ve had a warm reception, and I have been really appreciative of how conscious Ren has been in respecting and welcoming our ideas and processes,” Taub said. “Our visions for innovating the philanthropic economy are truly aligned, and that makes for an easy transition.”