Category: Hawaii

Arrests, Bankruptcy, and the End of the Mbloom Saga

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I’ve written quite a bit about mbloom, the oft-maligned VC fund based on Maui. This past week, their fund ceased to exist. It was replace by a new fund, Reef Capital. Here’s a recap of my coverage over the past few years.

 

Jumping in at Pele's Chair

More Money Aimed at Hawaii Startups

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UPDATE: Since this post, mbloom has made their first few investments, and they’ve invested in…themselves! It’s a tangled web of controversy, but you can read my thoughts over at Aloha Startups, both here and here.

Maybe I should change the title of this post to “Funny Money Aimed at Hawaii Startups?”

 

Mbloom, the Maui-based incubator and investment fund, announced the closing of their $10 million investment fund back in December, but little has been heard from them since. To get an update, I recently spoke with Arben Kryeziu who, along with Nick Bicanic, are the founders and driving force behind mbloom.

“Our whole mission over the past many months was to close the fund,” Kryeziu explained. “Now we’re working on our first few deals. We’ve also been working on the next stage of our incubator and will eventually take applications. And, we’re moving beyond Maui to establish a presence in Honolulu.”

Read the rest of my post as it originally appeared on HuffPost Hawaii:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-rushin/post_7100_b_4981557.html