EZ Newswire, an AI-enabled platform that makes it easy for businesses to create and publish their news, today announced that it was selected as a winner in The MBA Fund’s sixth annual pitch competition for pre-seed and seed startups. In addition to the investment from The MBA Fund, Contour Ventures committed to investing separately in EZ Newswire’s latest round.
Started in 2018, The MBA Fund is an early-stage venture capital firm that backs student and alumni founders from Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton. Since 2019, the fund has also organized an annual pitch competition where student/alumni founders present their startups to VC judges in a bid to receive funding. The fund has made over 150 early stage investments with portfolio companies subsequently raising follow-on capital from tier 1 funds, including, Founders Fund, Accel, Bessemer, Lightspeed, and others.
This year, over twenty venture capitalists from funds including Contour Ventures, Greycroft, Forerunner Ventures, and Switch VC were represented on the judging committee. From a highly competitive field of 72 applicants, 11 finalists were chosen for a live presentation to the panel of judges on April 12, 2024. The judges selected three winners: IseAI, AmorSui, and EZ Newswire. Each winner receives $50K in investment from The MBA Fund as well as potential additional investment from the top-tier VC judges who “vote with their money.”
"We are honored to be recognized as a winner by The MBA Fund and are excited for them and Contour Ventures to join us on our journey,” said Neel Shah, a Wharton alum and founder of EZ Newswire. “Receiving validation from top VC investors is incredibly motivating as we further our mission to streamline and improve the way organizations create and share their news.”
Since EZ Newswire’s launch last June, the company’s offering has attracted a wide range of customers, including Priceline, College of Charleston, and hundreds of organizations in over 800 cities and towns across the country. In addition to the Associated Press, EZ Newswire added The Post and Courier, a Pulitzer Prize winner and South Carolina’s paper of record, Alex Kantrowitz’s Big Technology, and Claire Atkinson’s The Media Mix to its exclusive publisher network with dozens more slated in the coming months.
In October 2023, out of nearly 400 applicants, EZ Newswire was selected as one of three winners of Pitch HearstLab, Hearst’s premier pitch event for early stage startups, and received a $100K investment. Beyond Hearst, EZ Newswire is backed by a suite of media executives, including the former heads of Forbes, IAC, Ziff Davis, and Sinclair.
About MBA Fund
The MBA Fund is an early-stage venture capital firm that backs founders from the top startup-producing universities and helps them create legendary companies. We’re a group of investors, founders, and operators who love to take the riskiest leaps with founders who are just getting started. Since our inception in 2018, we’ve invested in 150+ companies started by founders from our alma maters: Harvard University, Stanford University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Our portfolio includes companies like Jeeves (valued at over $1B), TRM Labs (valued at $700M), DataFleets (acquired by LiveRamp), and many more. We’re proud to be supported by top-tier VC firms, repeat founders, and super angels with ties to the communities where we invest. This network is ready and willing to help founders in our portfolio with financing, hiring, customer growth, and more. For more information, visit www.thembafund.com.
About EZ Newswire
EZ Newswire empowers organizations to communicate smarter. Our AI-enabled platform and exclusive publisher network make it easy for customers to create, distribute, and amplify news so that the right audience stays informed. From startup to scale-up to S&P 500, thousands of organizations rely on EZ Newswire to achieve their communications goals. For more information, visit www.eznewswire.com.