Startup Roundup: MAINGEAR, Wylei, RobustWealth and Throtle

MAINGEAR: MAINGEAR (Kenilworth) has partnered with Unikrn (Bellevue, Wash.), an esports betting brand, to create two co-branded luxury crypto-mining computers with UnikoinGold-mining capabilities.

The computers will be called the “MAINGEAR Advanced Crypto Miner” (MAINGEAR ACM) and “MAINGEAR ACM PRO.” The companies say that the computers will be available later this year. Both systems will enable the mining of Ethereum and the acquisition of Unikrn’s UnikoinGold, and will offer owners exclusive mining pools and rates, “so they will be able to build their UKG stores” efficiently.

The MAINGEAR ACM is engineered to be a premium crypto-mining system in desktop form. Featuring a unique cube-shaped chassis and options for MAINGEAR automotive paint finishes, as well as MARC II full-coverage artwork, the MAINGEAR ACM is designed to look as good as it performs, a hallmark of MAINGEAR.  For professional installations, the MAINGEAR ACM PRO will offer additional expansion, as well as a rack-mountable chassis.

MAINGEAR is now accepting purchases of any of their computers — with prices averaging $3,000 and ranging up to $30,000 — paid for in UnikoinGold. All machines will offer customers an option for an exclusive native link to Unikrn Connekt, which uniquely allows gamers to earn UnikoinGold for playing ranked matches in their favorite games, tracks their stats, monitors their performance and more on the Unikrn platform. Unikrn says that UnikoinGold is becoming accepted as payment by a growing number of partners, and can currently be earned and used on Unikrn’s platform to win gaming prizes such as peripherals, lifestyle products, gaming skins and more UnikoinGold.

Wylei: Cutting-edge personalized-marketing tech startup Wylei (Jersey City) has added a heavy hitter to its board of directors. Denice Torres is a recent past president of Johnson & Johnson and an industry thought leader, the company said.

“The addition of Denice to the Wylei board is a major milestone for the company. Denice is a well-known and award winning industry veteran and experienced executive. Her industry knowledge, mentoring and reach will be invaluable to Wylei,” said CEO Meg Columbia-Walsh.

The Wylei board provides leadership in carrying out Wylei’s mission to promote growth and revenue by leveraging advanced artificial-intelligence and machine-learning technologies to drive true 1:1 personalized marketing at scale.

The company was named Innovative Tech Company of the Year by the New Jersey Tech Council at its December 2017 event.

Robust Wealth:  RobustWealth (Lambertville), a digital wealth-management platform designed by and for investment advisers, is partnering with Apex Clearing (New York), an independent full-service clearing firm and leader in the digital wealth space. Using Apex’s technology, advisers have eliminated paper-centric onboarding processes, and reduced the time it takes to open and fund new accounts to just a few minutes, the company said in a press release.

The partnership will bolster RobustWealth’s platform and allow the inclusion of trades in ETFs (exchange-traded funds), mutual funds and U.S. stocks in the platform fee; it will also enable a rapid client onboarding experience, account linking, same-day funding and easy-to-use bank transfers. As part of RobustWealth’s BaseCAMP suite, advisers’ clients will continue to benefit from the sophisticated rebalancing and trading of their goal- and risk-based portfolios in a completely private-labeled environment, the company said.

Throtle: In December, Throtle (Red Bank), a data onboarding company focused on “deterministic identity resolution,” announced that it has closed a Series B funding round led by global credit-risk and information solutions provider TransUnion (Chicago, Ill.), with additional participation from Auren Hoffman, cofounder and former CEO of LiveRamp (New York). The new funding will accelerate the growth and breadth of Throtle’s ability to resolve consumer touch points, down to a single user, and to provide valuable audience insights for analysis, optimization and product development.

Data onboarding is the process of transferring offline data to an online environment for marketing needs. It is often used to connect offline customer records with online systems, according to industry sources.

 “We’re excited to see the continued traction and implementation of our onboarding and identity solutions across the omnichannel marketing space,” said Paul Chachko, founder, chairman and CEO of Throtle. “This investment is a great validation of our work to date. This new funding will enable us to continue to empower brands with true individual-based marketing.”

In conjunction with the Series B financing, Throtle announced the appointment of digital industry veteran and innovator David J. Moore to Throtle’s board of directors. Moore was the founder, chairman and CEO of 24/7 Media (New York), and has more than 35 years of experience in digital and media technology, including his current roles as chairman of Xaxis (New York) and president of WPP Digital (New York).