Verb announced Tuesday that it has raised $2.3 million in seed stage funding.
The Austin-based social enterprise connects large corporations and foundations to thousands of social entrepreneurs worldwide through competitions and its platform. It plans to use the funds to fund global expansion and for platform development and to hire key employees.
Investors included Tom Meredith, John Thornton, Bobby Epstein, Matthew Dowd, David Hunt, Herbert Simon, the Tingari-Silverton Foundation and Graham Family Foundation and other angel investors and philanthropists.
Suzi Sosa and Tom Meredith founded Verb in 2013. Previously, Sosa and Meredith ran a competition at the University of Texas called the Dell Social Innovation Challenge for seven years. They have worked with clients such as IBM and Livestrong. Verb also recently struck a partnership with the Everglades Foundation to run its $10 million science prize.
“Verb has huge market potential” Meredith said in a news release. “Verb helps organizations to source creative ideas as well as top talent to address the problems and opportunities that interest them most. Verb’s platform and ecosystem provide entrepreneurs and organizations with the means to replicate and scale their innovations well beyond their local communities or existing markets. Verb helps entrepreneurs around the globe to identify strategic partners, sources of capital and mentors.”
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