Military social network RallyPoint raises $1M from angels

RallyPoint Co-founders Yinon Weiss and Aaron Kletzing announced a $1 million round of funding from angel investors.

RallyPoint, a startup founded by two Iraq War veterans that bills itself as ?LinkedIn for the military? has raised $1 million in equity from angel investors in Boston, Washington DC, and London.

In a statement Tuesday, the Boston company said this month?s investments are on top of the $550,000 in equity raised in April, as well as a $100,000 award from MassChallenge when it was named the winner of the startup competition in October, and funding from Harvard Business School for being runner-up in the 2012 Business Plan Competition.

The company, which officially launched on Veteran?s Day, has developed a website, www.RallyPoint.com, where currently-serving members of the armed forces can create a profile in order to grow a professional network and access graphical maps on how their connections can help pursue the best positions around the Department of Defense. The profiles are only visible to other members of the armed forces.

Next year, the company says it plans to expand the website to allow the estimated 1 million military members expected to enter the civilian workforce over the next five years to network for their careers and education.

?Some of the new investment funds will help us spread the word to active U.S. military personnel about RallyPoint?s value proposition, accelerate RallyPoint member acquisition, and also expand our efforts to partner with trusted employers, academic institutions, and brands to connect them more precisely and cost effectively with the right service members at the right time,? said RallyPoint CEO Yinon Weiss in a statement.

Weiss spent a decade in the military, most recently as a special forces commander in the U.S. Army, before earning an MBA at Harvard Business School. It was there that he connected with Co-founder Aaron Kletzing, although the pair had met earlier in Iraq, where Kletzing was serving as an Army fire support officer at the time.

The company is located at the Harvard Innovation Lab in Allston. Development of the site has been outsourced, Weiss said.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bizj_boston/~3/CxBfweOdth0/military-social-network-rallypoint.html

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