Startup picks up $500K

Chicago hedge fund manager Francis Wisniewski, who received national notoriety when he launched a high-end gym for extremely overweight people in 2011, has led a $500,000 investment into a Tampa technology startup.

The startup, The Daily Hundred, developed a smartphone application that allows users to take pictures of a business or product and then share the photo, over the app, with others. Business owners affiliated with the app can hand out prizes, like $100 or a free product, to The Daily Hundred user who generates the most likes or shares. The firm says The Daily Hundred users, through the cash and gift incentives, essentially become “an extension of that brand's marketing team.”

Founded in early 2012 by Nicholas Haase and Maxwell Finn, The Daily Hundred will use the $500,000 investment for both product development and national sales and marketing initiatives, according to a release. “As a greater percentage of ad spend shifts to mobile, we believe mobile-first companies like The Daily Hundred will benefit immensely,” Wisniewski says in the statement. “The team at The Daily Hundred saw this trend close to two years ago and built an incredibly powerful platform for businesses of all sizes looking to effectively advertise on mobile devices.”