Startups

Speek gets acquired, finally [Startup Roundup]

Plus: Dupont Cirlce-based CollegeAppz, a platform that helps students navigate the college application process, has raised $100,000.

It's hard to find the right college. CollegeAppz seeks to make the application process easier. (Photo by Flickr user CollegeDegrees360, used under a Creative Commons license)

WHO’S GETTING FUNDED?

CollegeAppz, a Dupont Circle-based “TurboTax for college admissions,” raised $100,000, according to an SEC filing.

WHO’S MAKING MOVES?

Speek got acquired by Jive Communications, a Utah-based enterprise communications company. Washington Business Journal has the details: “After months of rumors and speculation suggesting a potentially dire shortage of cash flow, the Dulles company has pulled off an exit, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.”
TrackMaven moved from a 5,000-square-foot space to a 22,000-square-foot space off Thomas Circle in downtown D.C. It has also welcomed Opower CEO Dan Yates to its board of advisers.
Web development company Mobomo has acquired product development and UX shop Intridea. Both are based in the District.
The Halcyon Incubator has announced its third cohort of fellows. Familiar faces include charitable wedding registry app Heartful.ly, health systems inventory tracking app ReliefWatch and Words Liive, a curriculum platform that traces out the relationships between modern music and English literature. Check out all 8 projects.

WHO’S CREATING BUZZ?

Tech firms were well represented in the Washington Post’s annual ranking of the best places to work in the D.C. area.
Among large companies, Capital One and 2U ranked #1 and #3, respectively, while Cvent made #12.
Applied Predictive Technologies won the mid-sized category, in which WeddingWire and Appian also figured.
Social Tables was the third best-rated company among small businesses; TrackMaven earned a modest 51st place.


Local incubator 1776 made a heat map of best-performing companies in Austin and New York City. Check it out in this Medium post.
Optoro cofounders Tobin Moore and Adam Vitarello won the 2015 EY Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Greater Washington Emerging Growth category.
In a Washington Post op-ed, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) pointed out the dangers of the “sharing economy” and its army of freelancers and contractors. “[T]hese workers, even if they are doing very well, exist on a high wire, with no safety net beneath them. That may work for many of them — until the day that it doesn’t,” he wrote, encouraging the government to create flexible safety net solutions for this workforce.
The Northern Virginia Technology Council named the winners to its annual “Hot Ticket Awards.” They included Avizia, Social Tables, WeddingWire, NextGen Angels’ Dan Mindus, TrackMaven and Optoro. Additionally, the organization’s Hall of Fame Award went to Booz Allen Hamilton.
Office envy alert: The Washingtonian toured Framebridge’s offices, and we want to live there.

Companies: Social Tables / WeddingWire / Capital One / Cvent / Framebridge / NextGen Angels / TrackMaven / 2U

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