The many may not be smarter than the few, but the wisdom of the tech consumer crowd sure seems to satisfy VCs.
Tile, the location-tracking device startup that vastly exceeded fundraising goals in a $2.6 million Selfstarter campaign last year, is the latest crowdfunding success turning to venture capital to keep up with popular demand.
Today Tile announced a combined $13 million seed and Series A round that it will use to make good on its promises to the 200k customers still waiting for their devices to ship. With the influx of VC money, Tile joins the ranks of startups that have used crowdfunding platforms to convince investors of their worth.
Oculus VR raised over $90 million in venture capital and got picked up by Facebook less than two years after concluding a record-breaking 2012 Kickstarter campaign, in which it raised $2.4 million for its immersive virtual reality headset.
Formlabs, after surpassing Oculus’s Kickstarter record with $2.8 million for its 3D printer, went on to raise a $19 million Series A round from investors including DFJ Growth and Innovation Endeavors.
Which VCs are most keen on backing popular hits?
Andreessen Horowitz leads the way, investing in three successfully crowdfunded projects in the past year and a half – Oculus VR, DNA sequencing startup uBiome, and Twitter alternative App.net.
This is not the first time Tile investor AME Cloud Ventures has listened to popular demand either. AME participated in a $10.5 million Series A round for Scanadu late last year after the medical tech startup collected $1.6 million on Indiegogo for its vital sign scanner.
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Photo via Flickr user akahawkeyefan.
