US-based cloud computing public relations (PR) service Upbeat has raised $1.5m in a seed round featuring StartX, the accelerator affiliated with Stanford University, according to VentureBeat.
The round included strategic investment from Draper Associates, Maverick Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, FirstRock Capital, UpHonest Capital, Quest Venture Partners, SV Angel, 500 Startups and Y Combinator.
Upbeat is a cloud-based service that uses data science technology to automate and better target press releases towards journalists.
The latest funding will be used to build a media database and take its PR platform from public beta to full launch.
Stanford graduates Ricky Yean and David Tran co-founded Upbeat – formerly called PRX.co – in 2015.
The service costs $800 for a single campaign and annual membership. Additional campaigns with membership are reduced to $500, which Upbeat said is significantly lower than many PR agencies whose retainers run into tens of thousands.
