The news: Tangibly raised $1.3 million, providing the Seattle-based trade secret management startup fresh cash to boost its product development as well as its sales and marketing teams.
The team: The 8-person startup emerged from stealth mode in February, raising $700,000 at the time. It was founded by CEO Tim Londergan, a former exec at Intellectual Ventures and founder of Wavefront Venture Labs. He is joined by CTO Liat Belinson, who co-founded AI Patents, a search engine for patents, and co-founder and advisor Christopher Buntel, who held multiple board seats and leadership roles for tech companies.
The tech: The first iteration of Tangibly’s platform is designed for companies to upload their private documents to organize and manage permissions. Such documents could be a product design or non-disclosure agreement, and these documents can be accessed for litigation cases or to present to potential funders or acquirers.
The platform is currently being used by general counsel teams, professionals that specialize in intellectual property, and outside consultants helping clients manage their trade secrets, Londergan told Startup in an email. He said the platform is not industry-specific, with users able to protect anything from biotech inventions to recipes.
The competition: Tangibly will need to compete with traditional law firms that specialize in protecting trade secrets and have their own internal databases and platforms, along with software-enabled intellectual property managers like Questel.
The funders: Wilson Sonsini, a law firm that specializes in intellectual property law, and Madrona Venture Group participated in the pre-seed round. Other investors include Brainstorm Ventures, Incisive Ventures, PatentVest, Family Angel Management Fund, as well as other angels.