According to VentureBeat, Accelerator program and investment group 500 Startups which proudly uses the domain name 500.co, just announced $44.1 million in new seed fund today, the second the group has raised since launching.
The second fund is also substantially higher than its initial $29.6 million fund from 2011.
“As for 500 Startups, the group typically invests $25,000 to $250,000 in early-stage companies that are typically already making a profit or on their way to doing so. Some of its past investments include TaskRabbit, Twilio, Wildfire, SendGrid, and many others. Over the last year, the group has attempted to diversify its portfolio of companies by encouraging more women and international founders to apply.”
“To date, it’s invested in over 500 companies from more than 40 countries. Also, it’s expanded its team to more than 30 people across the world”
“Actually we’re getting closer to 600, but no we aren’t changing our name!,” 500 Startups partner Christine Tsai told VentureBeat via email.
500 Startups is also gearing up to announce its seventh batch of companies, who will go through its accelerator program.
Tsai told me about 1,200 startups applied for the batch, and only 30 were admitted in.
According to the company blog,
“It’s been a crazy 3 years at 500. ”
“We’re approaching our 7th batch of startups at 500 HQ, have founders and employees in more than 40 countries, and passed our 500th startup not too long ago. And no, we’re not changing our name anytime soon!
“Here’s a sweet infographic with an overview of the community our startups are a part of”
.Co along with GE, Rackspace and SoftLayer are Premium Annual Partners of 500.co.
“just announced $44.1 million in new seed fund today”
but not because its site uses a .CO … 🙂
Dave McClure is a veteran of VC