RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Sixteen  local Triangle startups took on investment from the locally organized, locally managed Triangle Tweener Fund in the third quarter of the year.

Scot Wingo, the founder and a general partner of the Triangle Tweener Fund, and a serial entrepreneur in the region, told WRAL TechWire this week that the fund, established last year, made a record number of investments in a one-quarter period of time.

The fund poured more than $700,000 into early-stage startup companies that are based in the Triangle in the third quarter of 2022, and since inception in the fourth quarter of 2021, the fund has invested more than $2 million across 38 portfolio companies.  And, said Wingo, there are now 123 limited partners who invest in the Triangle Tweener Fund, which requires a minimum investment of $20,000, or $5,000 per quarter, to invest in the fund portfolio.  In total, said Wingo, the fund has now attracted more than $5 million in committed funds from the Triangle Tweener Fund investors, to date, with the locally-operated novel fund still accepting additional new limited partners.

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The latest investments

The latest companies to receive investment from the Triangle Tweener Fund as described by the fund include:

  • Acre (Pre-Tweener) – Serial entrepreneur Mike Schneider (First) has an interesting take
    on fractional ownership. What if you could co-own your home with a financial sponsor
    that’s not a traditional mortgage? Acre is working on building a marketplace to bring
    home buyers and financial sponsors together.
    • Dendi (Tweener)- Dendi offers a LIS (Lab Information Software) system for clinics that
    run clinical trials. Dendi has been under the radar executing and growing revenue and
    making customers happy.
    • Udu (Tweener) – Udu has built a machine learning platform that helps Private Equity
    (PE) firms to source, learn more and track potential investments.
    Stashpad (Pre-tweener) – Founded by CEO Cara Borenstein, Stashpad is building an
    essential developer notepad.
    • TRAKID (Tweener) – TRAKID provides theme park, zoo and other experience venues
    with an IoT and phone enabled child-oriented experience that not only tracks children so
    they won’t get lost. On top of that, there are treasure hunts and other adventures that
    make the park experience educational and fun.
    • Wrangle (Pre-Tweener)- Many modern teams use Slack, but after the salesforce
    acquisition, Slack hasn’t been innovating. Wrangle builds innovative solutions on top of
    slack including a robust ticketing system.

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More Tweener investments

CureMint (Tweener)- Dentist offices need a lot of help procuring all the different supplies
that go into operating a business that sees hundreds of patients a week. On top of
‘repleneshables’, CureMint helps offices acquire larger more expensive equipment.
• Muuk Test (Pre-Tweener) – Modern agile teams are moving so fast, Quality Assurance
(QA) is frequently left by the side. Muuk Test has developed technology that allows
teams to get to 95% coverage with automatically generated tests.
Green Places (Tweener) – Alex Lassiter left the Triangle (UNC grad) for the ATL where
he co-founded Gather (software for the restaurant industry) and then sold it after ~8yrs.
That prompted him to move back to the Triangle where he met Jess Lipson
(ShareFile/Levitate). Together they came up with the idea for Green Places – a platform
for SMBs to measure and track their carbon footprint while also helping with offsets.
• Playmetrics (Tweener) – Founded by serial entrepreneur, Mike Doernberg, Playmetrics
is modern software for club sports and leagues to manage their teams, stats and more.
• Social Equity (Pre-Tweener) – CEO Brian Lora was CTO at SageWorks and has
started Social Equity. SE has a proprietary platform and technology to bring fractional
ownership to more home owners.

Homes for all: Triangle startup SocialEquity looks to redefine real estate

Still more investments

• Blue Recruit (Pre-Tweener) – Most of the HRTech on the market is geared towards
college-degreed professionals. What if you want to recruit trades people? Blue Recruit
is building HRTech for recruiting trades people.
• Keen (Tweener) – Keen uses predictive modeling to enable marketers to run what-if
scenarios around marketing mix, funnel optimization, etc.
• CompostNow (Tweener) – CompostNow helps individuals and businesses implement
compost programs that reduce waste and increase nutrient rich soil.
• Ivy Clinicians (Pre-Tweener) – Ivy Clinicians is building a vertical recruiting/hiring
marketplace for the emergency medicine employer and employee.
• Offline Media (Tweener) – Offline Media has created a hyper-local two-sided
marketplace. On one side are millennials and GenZ consumers looking to have new
local, exclusive, curated eperiences and perks. On the other side of the marketplace are
local merchants (restaurants, etc.) looking to mee this coveted demographic and explose
them to their offerings.

The Triangle Tweener Fund only invests in companies that are headquartered in the Triangle.  Wingo told WRAL TechWire that, in a way, what the fund is working to achieve is “an index of Triangle startup investments” so that the fund and its investors “never miss a winner.”

4 Triangle companies raise money from Triangle Tweener Fund