Arkansas Business Looks at Success of IA Client Firms

Innovate Arkansas has roughly 85 currently active client firms in its portfolio.

All of them are helping propel Arkansas forward by creating high-paying tech jobs, and by their very existence are building on the tech startup foundation laid over the last decade.

But a few notable IA client firms have stood out. We look at five of them this week in Arkansas Business: Acumen Brands, DataRank, RxResults, Sumotext and Treatsie.

A sneak peek:

[IA] has played such a critical role in the development of the state's tech startups that Fund for Arkansas' Future, the state's first angel fund, looks to invest almost exclusively in IA client firms. In 10 years, 21 of the 26 early stage Arkansas startups in which it has invested have been IA firms, said FAF Director Jeff Stinson.

"Not only has IA fundamentally improved both the quantity and quality of our fund's deal flow, they've become such a fundamental factor for the success of these companies, it seems unlikely we'd invest in a company which isn't an IA client," he said.

 

A few of IA's successful client firms include Acumen Brands, the e-commerce giant behind Country Outfitters; Sumotext, the SMS messaging, short-code and mobile-management platform; DataRank, the social media analytics platform that helps businesses track conversations about their brands and competitors; RxResults, a self-styled pharmacy risk-management company that uses an evidence-based prescription model; and Treatsie, the online subscription service for, and promoter of, independent, artisan-crafted candies.

Together, these five IA startups account for more than 250 jobs and $65 million in revenue.

Full story here. Keep up the good work, guys.

 

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