Flatiron Partners

Flatiron Partners, established in 1996 by Fred Wilson and Jerry Colonna, was a New York-based venture capital firm that primarily focused on early-stage investments in the technology sector, with a particular emphasis on emerging technologies, software, and services. The firm, named after the Flatiron District, was initially backed by SoftBank Technology Ventures and Chase Capital Partners, raising a $150 million fund. It later raised a $500 million fund with Chase Capital Partners as the sole investor. Flatiron Partners invested in numerous companies during the dot-com boom, including both successful and failed ventures such as Alacra, comScore Networks, Geocities, and Kozmo.com. The firm ceased new investments in 2001 and subsequently managed its remaining portfolio.

Charles Lax

Founder

40 past transactions

Green Check Verified

Convertible Note in 2021
Green Check Verified, Inc. is a company that specializes in providing a cloud-based regulatory compliance platform tailored for legal cannabis-related businesses and financial institutions. Founded in 2016 and based in North Haven, Connecticut, the company offers a software-as-a-service platform that includes compliance monitoring and reporting tools. This platform allows cannabis businesses to access traditional banking services while effectively managing and sharing their compliance history. By enabling transparent and verifiable banking solutions, Green Check Verified helps dispensaries and other cannabis enterprises foster stable and productive banking relationships, streamlining their operations and ensuring adherence to regulatory requirements.

PathogenDx

Series B in 2019
PathogenDx, Inc. specializes in innovative testing solutions for the botanical, food, and agricultural sectors. The company offers a range of nucleic acid microarray diagnostic assays that can test for multiple pathogens simultaneously, providing results in less than a day and significantly reducing costs compared to traditional testing methods. Its technologies include PathogenDx for pathogen detection, QuantX for quantifying key indicator organisms, and DetectX, a DNA-based platform for comprehensive pathogen testing. By streamlining the testing process, PathogenDx allows laboratories to bypass extensive sample preparation steps, enhancing efficiency and affordability. The company's solutions deliver real-time data on product quality, helping growers, processors, and producers maintain safety standards. Established in 2014 and headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, PathogenDx also operates an office in Tucson and collaborates with partners such as Icon Farms and Nationwide Laboratory Services, Inc.

Willow Industries

Venture Round in 2019
Willow Industries, LLC is a Denver-based company specializing in technology for the decontamination of cannabis and hemp. Founded in 2016, the company provides innovative solutions to reduce harmful contaminants such as yeast, mold, bacteria, and various pathogens, including Aspergillus and Salmonella. Its flagship product, the WillowPure machine, employs ozone-based oxidation to effectively cleanse and purify cannabis flower and trim without compromising their medicinal properties, aroma, or potency. In addition to its decontamination technology, Willow Industries offers consulting services related to post-harvest procedures, compliance, regulations, and evaluations of dry and cure rooms, ensuring that businesses adhere to industry standards while maintaining product quality.

comScore

Series E in 2003
comScore, Inc. is an information and analytics company that specializes in measuring audiences, consumer behavior, and advertising across various media platforms worldwide. The company provides a comprehensive suite of products and services, such as Media Metrix and Mobile Metrix for measuring web and app performance, Video Metrix for tracking digital video consumption alongside TV metrics, and Plan Metrix for consumer lifestyle insights. Additionally, comScore offers validated Campaign Essentials, which ensures the visibility and safety of digital ad impressions, and Campaign Ratings for evaluating cross-platform campaigns. Its offerings also include TV Essentials, StationView Essentials, and OnDemand Essentials for understanding viewing patterns and transactional tracking. Furthermore, the company provides analytics and optimization tools for advertising campaigns and brand protection. comScore's capabilities extend to movie reporting and analytics, delivering insights into box office performance and audience trends. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Reston, Virginia, comScore serves over 3,200 clients across more than 75 countries, positioning itself as a leader in audience measurement and analytics.

comScore

Series D in 2002
comScore, Inc. is an information and analytics company that specializes in measuring audiences, consumer behavior, and advertising across various media platforms worldwide. The company provides a comprehensive suite of products and services, such as Media Metrix and Mobile Metrix for measuring web and app performance, Video Metrix for tracking digital video consumption alongside TV metrics, and Plan Metrix for consumer lifestyle insights. Additionally, comScore offers validated Campaign Essentials, which ensures the visibility and safety of digital ad impressions, and Campaign Ratings for evaluating cross-platform campaigns. Its offerings also include TV Essentials, StationView Essentials, and OnDemand Essentials for understanding viewing patterns and transactional tracking. Furthermore, the company provides analytics and optimization tools for advertising campaigns and brand protection. comScore's capabilities extend to movie reporting and analytics, delivering insights into box office performance and audience trends. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Reston, Virginia, comScore serves over 3,200 clients across more than 75 countries, positioning itself as a leader in audience measurement and analytics.

Bigfoot Interactive

Series C in 2002
Bigfoot Interactive specializes in permission-based email marketing programs, having served over 150 leading companies since its inception. As a pioneer in email communications, the company has played a significant role in shaping the industry's best practices and philosophies. Its technology platform has evolved to offer a variety of solutions, including full-service broadcast, collaborative ASP, and enterprise-level integrations, catering to the diverse needs of marketers and communicators. In addition to its robust technology offerings, Bigfoot Interactive provides a comprehensive suite of professional services aimed at optimizing marketing outcomes. These services encompass list acquisition, strategic consulting, creative design and production, as well as data solutions and analytics. Through these combined efforts, Bigfoot Interactive positions itself as a key player in the marketing analytics landscape.

comScore

Series C in 2001
comScore, Inc. is an information and analytics company that specializes in measuring audiences, consumer behavior, and advertising across various media platforms worldwide. The company provides a comprehensive suite of products and services, such as Media Metrix and Mobile Metrix for measuring web and app performance, Video Metrix for tracking digital video consumption alongside TV metrics, and Plan Metrix for consumer lifestyle insights. Additionally, comScore offers validated Campaign Essentials, which ensures the visibility and safety of digital ad impressions, and Campaign Ratings for evaluating cross-platform campaigns. Its offerings also include TV Essentials, StationView Essentials, and OnDemand Essentials for understanding viewing patterns and transactional tracking. Furthermore, the company provides analytics and optimization tools for advertising campaigns and brand protection. comScore's capabilities extend to movie reporting and analytics, delivering insights into box office performance and audience trends. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Reston, Virginia, comScore serves over 3,200 clients across more than 75 countries, positioning itself as a leader in audience measurement and analytics.

Vindigo

Series B in 2001
Vindigo is one of the industry's leading mobile media companies. The company publishes and distributes mobile media through a network of partnerships that includes all tier-one U.S. wireless carriers, with combined reach of more than 140 million mobile subscribers. Vindigo sells mobile content including wallpaper, ringtones, local information, maps, news, entertainment and sports. Vindigo also provides a full suite of mobile marketing solutions to more than 100 advertisers including Cadillac and MasterCard. Vindigo is a wholly owned subsidiary of For-Side.com, one of the largest mobile media companies in the world. Vindigo understands the mobile user—and consumers love our products. Since 1999, millions of subscribers have downloaded our content, and Vindigo continues to deliver fun and easy-to-use mobile media services to consumers today. To learn more about how to add life to your phone, or how to extend your brand to mobile media, contact us today.

Planetout Partners

Series D in 2001
Based in San Francisco, PlanetOut Partners is the premier online community services and media company serving gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their families and friends. The company's two largest online portals, Gay.com and PlanetOut.com, leverage the distribution power and reach of the Internet to provide products and services to more than 4.3 million consumers each month (DoubleClick DART) and more than 2.4 million registered members. The Gay.com portal offers an extensive global network that provides interactive services including chat, message boards, email, Kleptomaniac ecommerce services and original content channels. The Gay.com network includes sites in the U.S., France, the United Kingdom, Latin America, and Italy. The PlanetOut.com portal offers premium services such as the popular PersonalsPlus matchmaking service, as well as news, entertainment, travel, Kleptomaniac ecommerce services, Internet radio, online cinema and advice columns. PlanetOut.com has key distribution partnerships with America Online, Netscape, ICQ, Yahoo, RealNetworks, CompuServe, MSN and other major Web companies.

PlanetOut

Series D in 2001
PlanetOut, Inc. is a leading global online media company serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered, or LGBT, community, a market with reported buying power of approximately $485 billion annually in the United States alone. Their network of websites, including their flagship websites Gay.com and PlanetOut allows their members, or those visitors who registered on their websites by providing them with a name, e-mail address and other personal data, to connect with other members of the LGBT community around the world. According to Nielsen NetRatings, in June 2004, Gay.com ranked second in terms of average time online per person and sixteenth in terms of visits per person among all websites measured. They generate most of their revenue from subscription fees for premium membership services that they offer in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish to their members who identify themselves as residing in more than 100 countries. They also generate revenue from online advertising and e-commerce targeted to the LGBT community.

PortalPlayer

Series C in 2001
PortalPlayer is a semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, specializing in the design and development of platform solutions for personal media players. The company offers a system-on-chip platform that integrates a central processing unit, memory interfaces, and other essential components. This enables manufacturers to create feature-rich, hard disk drive-based personal media players and notebook computers with secondary displays. By focusing on comprehensive solutions that include both hardware and accompanying firmware and software, PortalPlayer supports the growing demand for advanced multimedia devices in the consumer electronics market.

comScore

Venture Round in 2000
comScore, Inc. is an information and analytics company that specializes in measuring audiences, consumer behavior, and advertising across various media platforms worldwide. The company provides a comprehensive suite of products and services, such as Media Metrix and Mobile Metrix for measuring web and app performance, Video Metrix for tracking digital video consumption alongside TV metrics, and Plan Metrix for consumer lifestyle insights. Additionally, comScore offers validated Campaign Essentials, which ensures the visibility and safety of digital ad impressions, and Campaign Ratings for evaluating cross-platform campaigns. Its offerings also include TV Essentials, StationView Essentials, and OnDemand Essentials for understanding viewing patterns and transactional tracking. Furthermore, the company provides analytics and optimization tools for advertising campaigns and brand protection. comScore's capabilities extend to movie reporting and analytics, delivering insights into box office performance and audience trends. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Reston, Virginia, comScore serves over 3,200 clients across more than 75 countries, positioning itself as a leader in audience measurement and analytics.

SportsYA

Venture Round in 2000
SportsYA is a sports portal that caters to the Hispanic market by providing comprehensive sports news and content across various domains, including video games, esports, tourism, technology, and the economy. The company specializes in producing and broadcasting sports and radio content in both Spanish and English, covering a wide array of sports such as esports, baseball, basketball, boxing, football, soccer, and bullfighting. Additionally, SportsYA offers analysis and reviews related to casinos and electronic betting, aiming to deliver relevant information and entertainment to Latin Americans and Hispanic communities.

AppGenesys

Venture Round in 2000
AppGenesys, an eInfrastructure management services provider, focuses on the complex process of staging, systems testing and deploying Web initiatives for Fortune-class clients. The company offers a scaleable suite of standardized hardware and software management solutions that accelerate implementation and improve site performance. AppGenesys manages clients' Internet infrastructure operations through a global framework. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., AppGenesys was spun-out of iXL Ventures' managed network services business with $50 million in funding from a dynamic investor coalition comprising Chase Capital Partners, DynaFund Ventures, Flatiron Partners, Inktomi Corporation, Kelso & Company, NeoCarta Ventures and Softbank Venture Capital.

Powerful Media

Venture Round in 2000
Powerful Media, Inc. operates an online portal Inside.com which provides business-to-business online information services to the entertainment and media industries. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

MercadoLibre

Series B in 2000
MercadoLibre, Inc. is the leading online commerce platform in Latin America, offering a suite of services designed to facilitate buying and selling across various categories. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the company operates the MercadoLibre Marketplace, which allows businesses and individuals to list and sell products through a fixed-price or auction format. It also provides MercadoPago, an integrated payment solution that enables users to send and receive payments both on its marketplace and externally. Additional offerings include MercadoEnvios for logistics services, MercadoCredito for lending solutions, and MercadoFondo for asset management. The company also features a classifieds service for listings related to vehicles, real estate, and services, alongside MercadoLibre Advertising for brand promotion. Further, it offers MercadoShops, a software-as-a-service solution that helps users create and manage their online stores. With over 218 million active users and 1 million sellers, MercadoLibre operates in 18 countries, positioning itself as a comprehensive e-commerce and fintech ecosystem in the region.

Scout Electromedia

Venture Round in 2000
Scout Electromedia is a consumer wireless company dedicated to creating innovative lifestyle products. Through user-centric product design, stable technology and critical content, Scout is pioneering a new space in the wireless industry termed "Electromedia". Grounded in the belief that technology should be enabling, not frustrating, Scout creates wireless products that are intuitive, reliable, useful and fun. Working with a variety of partners, Scout is committed to leading the development of consumer-friendly products that add value to people's lives.

Answers Corporation

Series D in 2000
Answers’ mission is to connect businesses, organizations and consumers with the right answers. The Answers Platform comprises a suite of cloud-based solutions that enable companies to engage their customers throughout the entire customer lifecycle, helping both brands and consumers alike make better-informed decisions about products and services. The key components of the platform - content publisher, customer analytics and advertising solutions via the top-20 comScore site Answers.com - enable brands to engage their customers in dialogue at key moments of their decision-making journey, across multiple channels and devices.

Alacra

Series C in 2000
Alacra, Inc. is a provider of compliance workflow, reference data, and business research solutions designed for financial institutions, professional service firms, and corporations. Founded in 1996 as Data Downlink Corporation and renamed in 2001, Alacra is headquartered in New York, with an additional office in London. The company offers innovative tools that help clients conduct regulatory searches by organizing financial and legal information from over 75 premium publishers and a curated selection of more than 3,000 web-based sources. These workflow solutions streamline operations by delivering user-ready results, enabling clients to stay informed about customers, prospects, and market dynamics. Alacra’s applications also facilitate know-your-customer and anti-money laundering processes, providing comprehensive compliance risk and screening intelligence. With a dedicated team of over 60 professionals, Alacra serves more than 400 global clients, enhancing business development and operational efficiency.

Vindigo

Series A in 2000
Vindigo is one of the industry's leading mobile media companies. The company publishes and distributes mobile media through a network of partnerships that includes all tier-one U.S. wireless carriers, with combined reach of more than 140 million mobile subscribers. Vindigo sells mobile content including wallpaper, ringtones, local information, maps, news, entertainment and sports. Vindigo also provides a full suite of mobile marketing solutions to more than 100 advertisers including Cadillac and MasterCard. Vindigo is a wholly owned subsidiary of For-Side.com, one of the largest mobile media companies in the world. Vindigo understands the mobile user—and consumers love our products. Since 1999, millions of subscribers have downloaded our content, and Vindigo continues to deliver fun and easy-to-use mobile media services to consumers today. To learn more about how to add life to your phone, or how to extend your brand to mobile media, contact us today.

FusionOne

Venture Round in 2000
FusionOne specializes in mobile content portability, allowing users to transfer and synchronize content between mobile devices and popular internet applications. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in San Jose, California, with additional offices in Tallinn, Estonia, the company provides software that enables users to manage and transfer various types of mobile phone content, including contacts, photos, messages, and purchased items. This technology supports millions of subscribers on major carriers globally, helping individuals organize their address books through a unified interface and facilitating the sharing of contacts across different networks.

Expression Engines

Series B in 2000
Expression Engines is a leading provider of comprehensive direct e-mail marketing solutions aimed at enhancing online marketing investments for businesses. The company specializes in delivering services that include the integration of graphics into e-mails and strategies to improve customer acquisition and retention. By leveraging direct marketing expertise and innovative technology, Expression Engines offers a full-service approach that supports clients in maximizing revenue through effective online marketing campaigns. The company's flagship product, Favemail, exemplifies its commitment to driving high-response marketing efforts while ensuring cost-effectiveness for its clients.

The New York Times

Venture Round in 2000
The New York Times, established in 1851, is a leading American media company renowned for its flagship daily newspaper, The New York Times. It operates 18 newspapers worldwide, including the International New York Times, and maintains over 50 websites. The company generates revenue primarily through subscriptions, advertising, and other sources, with its New York Times Group segment being the major contributor. It also offers digital newspaper websites, licenses archive databases, and distributes databases through its subsidiary, New York Times Digital. The New York Times has won 98 Pulitzer Prizes, reflecting its commitment to seeking the truth and helping people understand the world.

Electron Economy

Series B in 2000
Electron Economy is a commerce enabler that integrates essential components of commerce operations for both traditional and e-business companies. The company collaborates with clients to design, deploy, and manage their e-commerce operations, utilizing advanced technology and expertise to address the dynamic requirements of online business. Central to its offerings is the Internet TONE, an open and extensible Internet Transaction Operations Network that enables businesses to utilize shared services and infrastructure for their e-commerce activities. Additionally, Electron Economy provides E-Commerce Operations Management services that operate on the Internet TONE, offering an outsourced solution that seamlessly connects a company's online storefront with back-end logistics such as order processing, customer interaction, warehousing, fulfillment, shipping, and delivery. Furthermore, the company specializes in supply chain event management services, which enhance the management of funds, goods, and information through an intelligent and scalable platform, helping manufacturers and distributors to accelerate market entry, reduce costs, boost revenue, and improve customer satisfaction.

gay.com

Series A in 2000
Gay.com is the largest online community of gay men. Gay.com is the best gay dating website for gay men looking for a connection. Discover local gay guys in their free gay chat rooms where singles mingle in the digital world. Make virtual reality an actual reality in the world’s largest online community of gay guys. Millions have logged onto their free gay website to find romance, love, and more with other local gay men. Browse hot bodies as well as the hottest news that is relevant to members of the gay community.

Internet Appliance Network

Series B in 2000
Internet Appliance Network is a marketing and media services company.

Quixi

Series A in 2000
QUIXI operates as a personal bandwidth company, focusing on enhancing the bandwidth levels of its subscribers. Additionally, it has developed a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform that simplifies the management of customer data. This platform features a user-friendly phone-based service and includes live sales support representatives who assist in capturing, updating, and retrieving CRM information. The data collected is seamlessly integrated into clients' existing CRM systems, helping businesses to optimize their CRM investments and improve overall value.

Small World

Venture Round in 2000
SmallWorld.com (www.smallworld.com) is the largest independent developer of online fantasy sports games and is host to one of the "stickiest" sites on the Internet. Founded in 1994, Small World was recently ranked by Media Metrix as the number one fastest growing web site and by Nielsen Net Ratings as the stickiest site on the Internet. They will soon offer new games that expand beyond sports into other areas of interest, including politics.

Urban Box Office Network

Series B in 2000
UBO is a next generation media company that provides a unique on and off-line cultural and commercial platform for the Urban Mindset. UBO defines the Urban Mindset as a global community that shares common interests in music, arts, sports, and fashion and establishes trends for the emerging worldwide market. UBO aggregates this community by providing a network of vertical properties for the creation and distribution of cutting-edge music, animation, information, sports, events, live-action series, as well as direct access to urban cultural icons and celebrities. UBO aims to be the leading destination for both producers and consumers of the Urban Mindset.

SportsYA

Venture Round in 2000
SportsYA is a sports portal that caters to the Hispanic market by providing comprehensive sports news and content across various domains, including video games, esports, tourism, technology, and the economy. The company specializes in producing and broadcasting sports and radio content in both Spanish and English, covering a wide array of sports such as esports, baseball, basketball, boxing, football, soccer, and bullfighting. Additionally, SportsYA offers analysis and reviews related to casinos and electronic betting, aiming to deliver relevant information and entertainment to Latin Americans and Hispanic communities.

Submarino

Series B in 2000
Submarino is an online seller of Spanish- and Portuguese-language books, CDs and toys.

PlanetFeedback

Series A in 1999
PlanetFeedback is a developer of an online community platform that facilitates effective communication between consumers and businesses. This platform enables companies, brands, and enterprises to collect, analyze, and utilize consumer feedback in real time. By leveraging this feedback, businesses can enhance their customer service and reduce operational costs. The focus of PlanetFeedback is to streamline the interaction process, ensuring that both consumers and companies benefit from improved engagement and communication.

Mainspring

Venture Round in 1999
Mainspring designs and develops digital business strategies. The company provides consulting services focusing on digital technologies, business optimization, and technology enablement. Mainspring, formerly known as Mainspring Communications Inc., was founded in 1996 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

MercandoLivre.com

Venture Round in 1999
MercandoLivre.com is an e-commerce technology company providing solutions to individuals and companies buying, selling, advertising, and paying for goods online. It serves millions of users and creates a market for a wide variety of goods and services in a safe and efficient way. The platform is among the top 50 in the world in terms of page views and is a retail platform with unique visitors in each country, which it operates according to metrics provided by comScore Networks. MercandoLivre.com was launched in 1999 and is based in Santana De Parnaíba.

Kozmo.com

Series A in 1999
Kozmo.com is an online delivery service that specializes in providing a range of products, including groceries, food, and convenience items. The company is known for its quick delivery times, typically completing orders in about 30 minutes. By leveraging the internet, Kozmo.com aims to meet the needs of customers seeking fast and efficient access to essential goods and entertainment products.

Starbelly.com

Private Equity Round in 1999
Starbelly.com is a U.S.-based company specialized in promotional products. It manufactures branded t-shirts, key chains, and coffee mugs for promotions by client companies. Starbelly.com was co-founded by Eric Lefkofsky and [Brad Keywell](https://www.crunchbase.com/person/brad-keywell) in 1999. It was sold to Halo Industries in 2000 before filing for bankruptcy.

Alacra

Venture Round in 1999
Alacra, Inc. is a provider of compliance workflow, reference data, and business research solutions designed for financial institutions, professional service firms, and corporations. Founded in 1996 as Data Downlink Corporation and renamed in 2001, Alacra is headquartered in New York, with an additional office in London. The company offers innovative tools that help clients conduct regulatory searches by organizing financial and legal information from over 75 premium publishers and a curated selection of more than 3,000 web-based sources. These workflow solutions streamline operations by delivering user-ready results, enabling clients to stay informed about customers, prospects, and market dynamics. Alacra’s applications also facilitate know-your-customer and anti-money laundering processes, providing comprehensive compliance risk and screening intelligence. With a dedicated team of over 60 professionals, Alacra serves more than 400 global clients, enhancing business development and operational efficiency.

Acurian

Series A in 1998
Acurian provides solutions needed to recruit, enroll, and retain patients for clinical trials. The company offers recruitment feasibility, site identification and selection, patient recruitment and retention, and cancer solutions. Acurian was founded in 1998 and is based in Horsham, Pennsylvania.

GeoCities

Series C in 1997
Yahoo! GeoCities was a free web hosting provider that launched in 1994. GeoCities offered a free website and all the tools required to build a hosted, dynamic personal site, and it was one of the most popular websites on the Internet. Yahoo! officially shut down GeoCities on October 26, 2009.

GeoCities

Series B in 1996
Yahoo! GeoCities was a free web hosting provider that launched in 1994. GeoCities offered a free website and all the tools required to build a hosted, dynamic personal site, and it was one of the most popular websites on the Internet. Yahoo! officially shut down GeoCities on October 26, 2009.
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