Tech{dot}MN

Serge Vardanyan became a Minnesota Tech entrepreneur when he up and moved here last year with his family.

This esports enthusiast left the safety, security, and sunshine of Los Angeles for the big O: Opportunity. Vardanyan followed the money to Minnesota where a couple of investors put a$3m bet on his nascent tech startup WIN Esports.

Vardanyan’s venture is part of a notable trend in Minnesota’s esports arena where just last week Wombo banked $600k and Phluxy went pro.

WIN Esports is currently the biggest play in the space as it’s known so  let’s learn more:

When and why did Win Esports begin? 

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Via News Release

“ST. PAUL, Minn., Feb. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — The Schulze School of Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas and nationally ranked start-up accelerator gener8tor announce a new partnership to bring professional accelerator services to St. Thomas.”

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Minnedemo31 went off in Minneapolis earlier this month when these six startups showed their stuff:

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Via News Release

“Minneapolis – February 14, 2019 – Edmentum, a global leader and pioneer in online teaching and learning programs, announced a new partnership today with Reflection Sciences, Inc.”

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Thank you Tarmac for underwriting our Meet a Minnesota Tech CTO series, where we get up close and personal with Minnesota’s chief techies.

 
The CTO: Peter Fares, VidGrid

How long have you been working in tech for and what is your technical background?

I’ve been working in tech since graduating from the University of Minnesota in 2013. Even though I got a degree in Electrical Engineering, founding VidGrid was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Before that, I’ve been coding since I took an introductory programming class in my freshman year of high school.

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In this running column, we are tracking which Minnesota corporations of all sizes are making strategic financial investments into external technology companies near and far. 

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Via News Release

“MINNEAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Avtex, an end-to-end Customer Experience (CX) consulting firm, announced today its acquisition of Automated Voice & Data Solutions (AVDS), a Houston-based leader in contact center and customer experience communications solutions.”

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Via News Release

“SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Phylagen, the San Francisco-based data analytics company building the world’s largest environmental microbiome database, today announced $14 million in Series A financing led by Cultivian Sandbox, Breakout Ventures and Working Capital. The funding will be used to expand Phylagen’s microbial forensics service and grow its microbiome database.”

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Via News Release

“Over the past five years, I [Nels Pederson] was incredibly fortunate to have dedicated, focused time to help build and grow the startup ecosystem in the Twin Cities. Simply put, it has been a pretty kick-ass five years.

I’m going to continue helping startups grow and build, but moving forward I’ll be doing it in a slightly different role. I am excited to share that beginning later this month I will be transitioning from my role as Managing Director of Beta.MN into a new opportunity at Livefront called Partnerships.”

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Via Star Tribune

“Perforce Software, the Minneapolis-based software firm, is on a run of acquisition-fueled growth. Perforce, owned since early 2018 by private equity firm Clearlake Capital, recently acquired Colorado-based Rogue Wave Software in an unspecified-terms transaction that should help Perforce reach its sales goal of about $600 million by 2021.”

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