Philly EnterpriseTech Daily Roundup 11/5: CloudMine, Amazon HQ2, Billtrust, Uber

Tom Paine


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CloudMine, the Center City-based startup that Safeguard Scientifics had financed to the tune of $11 million, declared Chapter 7 Bankruptcy today .


Lender Comerica Bank "declared a default and swept the company’s bank account during the week of October 29." an attorney representing CloudMine's board said in an email Monday, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported.

A highly rated vendor of 'Backend as a Service' (BAAS), which is important in facilitating mobile apps. Cloudmine had honed in on the healthcare
for its product / market fit. But apparently there wasn't enough revenue there and CloudMine was out of financing alternatives.

Healthcare-related BaaS apps require considerable client development time and expense, complicating cashflow management.

Cloudmine had already downsized considerably, but the closure cost 11 remaining employees their jobs.

CloudMine had raised total funding of $15.6 million.

Co-founder and ex-CEO Brandon McCorkle left last year.





A story by the Washington Post over the weekend suggesting that Amazon had settled on Arlington, VA's Crystal City development as its HQ2
site and was negotiating final terms led to a very annoyed response from Amazon.

After the Post story came out, Amazon’s Mike Grella addressed “the genius leaking info,” saying: “You’re not doing Crystal City, VA any favors. And stop treating the NDA you signed like a used napkin.”

Of course, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Post.


Later reports pointed to a multi-city solution, and then to a two-city solution possibly including Dallas or New York in addition to Crystal City.




Lawrenceville, NJ-based Billtrust has launched a B2B payments platform for buyers and suppliers in conjunction with Visa .

The Billtrust Business Payments Network (BPN) is built upon a database of suppliers' preferred payment methods. The goal is to facilitate transactions more quickly and efficiently by helping buyers find out how to pay. Billtrust CEO Flint Lane told Pymnts.com that BPN will do what other B2B payment platforms have struggled to do: put paper checks on the path to extinction.




Uber has asked Pennsylvania for permission to resume self-driving car testing on public roads, claiming it has improved the autonomous vehicle software, the company said on Nov 2, more than seven months after it suspended testing following a deadly crash in Arizona.

The company disclosed in a report to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it would resume testing with two employees in the front seat, enable an automatic braking system at all times, and more strictly monitor safety employees.



Utah-based software firm Qualtrics is about to raise up to $500 million in an IPO. Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith in July 2015: "Congratulating me for raising VC is like congratulating someone for taking out a mortgage."