Dad media site Fatherly raises $665K [Startup Roundup]

Who’s getting money?

Gowanus based IR Media Ventures raised $665,000 on an offered $1.5 million debt only round, according to an SEC filing. This appears to be the corporate name of semi-stealthy Fatherly. The filing lists its directors as Simon Isaacs and Michael Rothman, both of whom list themselves on LinkedIn as cofounders of Fatherly, a media concern for dads that is in private beta now.

Smartly is the corporate name for Bonusly, an employee recognition platform that we profiled after visiting the Brooklyn Creative League. It raised $990,000 on an offered $1 million, according to an SEC filing. We are reaching out for more information.

Y Combinator alums, Errplane, the makers of InfluxDB, raised $8.1 million according to TechCrunch. However, a recent filing with the SEC has the round a million dollars higher, at $9.1 million in an equity-only round. The company built an open source infrastructure for time-based metrics.

The American Podcasting Corporation, now known as Gimlet Media, filed an additional $275,000 in debt funding, according to an SEC filing. This looks to be part of the rounds we have previously covered here, including the JOBS Act fundraising they did with their flagship podcast, StartUp.

 

Who’s making moves?

On the eighth episode of Gimlet Media’s first show, the StartUp Podcast, the company announces its new show, Reply All. It’s from ex-WNYC internet experts P.J. Vogt and Alex Goldman. In the episode they also describe their building on Flatbush Avenue in some detail. We weren’t able to confirm it, but the details definitely squared with what we saw when we visited this building around there. The company is also hiring.

Voice is now on Android. The social polling app relocated here from France in 2013. More importantly, users can now get paid for opting in to share their opinions with brands. Melchior Scholler, a cofounder, alerted us to the change on Friday, writing, “We pushed the apps a few hours ago and several thousands of dollars have already been redestributed. Big brands have already started to use the survey tool that allows them to collect large volumes of qualified opinions.” We’ll have more on this soon.

Bandwagon now has cooperation from United Airlines in Newark Airport’s Terminal C to help passengers book shared limo rides out of the airport. When a passenger logs a trip into the Bandwagon app, the fact that they are looking to share a private car will be displayed around the terminal, potentially amounting to savings of up to 60 percent for passengers, according to the company.

lettrs announced a new feature, stamps. Digital lettrs can now be personalized with these stamps. Some of them trigger 25¢ donations when they are used. Brands can collaborate with lettrs to make their own branded stamps. Others are more just for adding ways to personalize your message. They also, apparently report back. “Unlike a postal stamp, the digital stamps are smart in that they capture data and can be shared across all major social networks and across the lettrs user base of 174 countries,” the company said in a statement.

Amplify announced a new vertical for the company: professional development for teachers. Professional Learning Maps is the name of the new service.

 

Who’s getting buzz?

Parcel scores a spot in the print edition of The New York Times. We covered the company late last month.

Huge gets a mention in a Marketplace story about Cosmo and Cover Girl sponsoring the New Year’s Eve ball drop over Times Square.