Temasek, Winklevoss twins invest $7m in FiscalNote

By Team DealStreetAsia

November 21, 2014

Singapore wealth fund Temasek Holdings and Winklevoss twins, famous for their lawsuits against Facebook, have joined other investors to pump in $7 million in Series A funding into the US-based startup F​iscalNote, that uses artificial intelligence to predict the outcome of legislation.

The investment was led by Visionnaire Ventures, a joint fund between Taizo Son and Temasek, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund.

The company said it would use the funding to continue its content expansion and its engineering capacity to cover information both domestically and around the world; while continuing to expand its sales and marketing teams. By applying artificial intelligence to real-time and historic legislative data, FiscalNote said it has built a platform with robust search and advanced notification functionality, along with the ability to forecast legislative outcomes with 94% accuracy.

Other institutional investors involved in the funding round are, Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, NEA, Winklevoss Capital, Enspire Capital, Green Visor Capital, and Middleland Capital. Among the round’s angel investors is Duke Chung (co-founder and CMO of Parature).

Last year, the company raised a $1.3 million round of funding led by Dallas Mavericks owner  Mark Cuban​, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang,​ NEA, and First Round’s Dorm Room Fund.

According to the company’s website, it was founded by Tim Hwang, Jonathan Chen, and Gerald Yao, who are high school friends (from Thomas Wootton High School). The trio moved out to Silicon Valley and on June 2013 incorporated FiscalNote. After raising their first round of investment, the FiscalNote moved office to Bethesda, Maryland, the firm’s website adds.

Image:Freedigitalpictures.net

Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.
APPLY NOW

Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.
APPLY NOW