It's that million dollar smile. Bob Moul, Chairman and CEO of
AppRenaissance, announced today that the year-old company has raised a $1.5 million seed round of investment led by
FirstMark Capital, with contributions from Moul and other Philadelphia angel investors.
AppRenaissance, a rapidly expanding mobile developer located in Old City, expects to take in a million dollars in revenue in its first year, which wraps up midyear. "I would expect to at least double or triple that the second year," says Moul. "We’ll be focusing on major brands in 2012 and have a senior sales exec coming on board to drive that."
Additionally, says Moul, AppRenaissance will use the funding to hire a project manager, some developers, and some architects, as well as to improve its core product Unifeed, a patent-pending mobile middleware platform. "We have both floors at 309 Cherry, so plenty of room to expand," says Moul, who made a successful exit from Boomi when it was acquired by Dell, and was also recently appointed President of
Philly Startup Leaders.
Moul, who
previously stated that there is a need to close the gap in entrepreneurial funding, says that this seed round "is the stage between friends and family and an A round where an early stage VC would invest. However, it is on the larger size and has a VC participating." FirstMark Capital was also an investor in Boomi.
AppRenaissance customers include
TicketFly,
BizEquity,
AllFanz,
R5 Productions, the newly launched geo-social startup
Interact, and high-risk insurer
Pennsylvania Surplus Lines Association.
Source: Bob Moul, AppRenaissance
Writer: Sue Spolan