Due to significant job losses in its manufacturing sector, Oklahoma City needed a strategy to diversify and boost its economy. To move the city forward and create more opportunities for innovation and technology-based businesses, EDA partnered with local nonprofit, i2E, Inc., to support their “Oklahoma City Technology Business Initiative.” The initiative allowed i2E toRead more
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By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Company If you look at economic development from the state perspective, there are three areas of concentration. One, Oklahoma can be in an arms race against other states for the next new manufacturing plant or the next corporation looking to move. Two, the state can createRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. I’ve been writing (and talking) a lot about the exits of WeGoLook and Selexys over the few weeks. In fact, when I sat down to work on this column, my wife even asked me if I was ever going to come up with something new.Read more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2016, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. As 2016 draws to a close, entrepreneurs and early stage investors in Oklahoma are ending the year with big smiles. In the past few weeks, the exits of Selexys and WeGoLook have been strong validations that in this state we do have the talent, capitalRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2016, The Oklahoma Publishing Company Now that the acquisition announcements of Selexys by Novartis and of WeGoLook by Crawford & Co. have been made, I’m looking forward to what happens next. In the case of Selexys, like any biotech deal, seeing the “next” will take some time. But with WeGoLook,Read more
By The Oklahoman Editorial Board Copyright © 2016, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. OKLAHOMA legislators have another tough session ahead, one in which they are expected to have perhaps $600 million less to appropriate than they did in 2016 — when there was $1.3 billion less than the year before. It will be challenging work, toRead more
Oklahoma startups are cashing in By Jack Money Copyright © 2016, The Oklahoma Publishing Company Chalk up WeGoLook, LLC’s deal with Crawford & Co. as another success story for i2E and the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. On Dec. 6, Crawford & Co. announced it would acquire an 85 percent membershipRead more
Two major acquisitions of local firms good news in several ways By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2016, The Oklahoma Publishing Company I had an amazing Friday a couple of weeks ago. Literally, in one day, I found out that two of i2E’s portfolio companies were being acquired by major corporations — the two biggest exitsRead more
CRAWFORD & COMPANY® ACQUIRES MAJORITY INTEREST IN WEGOLOOK®, LLC Acquisition gives Crawford® the potential to transform the insurance industry Oklahoma City, Okla. – December 8, 2016 – WeGoLook® today announced that Crawford & Company® (NYSE: CRD-A and CRD-B), one of the world’s largest independent providers of claims management solutions to the risk management and insuranceRead more
WeGoLook sells majority interest By: Journal Record Staff Copyright © 2016 The Journal Record OKLAHOMA CITY (JR) – WeGoLook, the 7-year-old company headed by CEO Robin Smith, sold an 85-percent interest to Crawford & Company for more than $36 million. The acquisition was approved by the directors of both companies for $36.125 million and willRead more
Company moves ahead with WeGoLook deal Copyright © 2016, The Oklahoma Publishing Company Atlanta-based Crawford & Co. has agreed to buy 85 percent of the membership interest in Oklahoma City-based WeGoLook for $36.1 million, the companies announced Tuesday. The deal is expected to close next month. Crawford & Co. provides claims management for insurance companiesRead more
CRAWFORD & COMPANY® ACQUIRES MAJORITY INTEREST IN WEGOLOOK®, LLC Atlanta, GA – December 6, 2016 – Crawford & Company® (www.crawfordandcompany.com) (NYSE: CRD-A and CRD-B), one of the world’s largest independent providers of claims management solutions to insurance companies and self-insured entities, today announced the acquisition of a majority interest in WeGoLook®, LLC (WGL(TM) or WeGoLook),Read more
BrewFest attracts more than 500 people. It’s a unique opportunity for the entrepreneurial community in Oklahoma to come together for a few hours to network and enjoy tasting products from yet another emerging and nontraditional segment of Oklahoma’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Events like BrewFest draw together people from across Oklahoma who are interested in the innovation economy here. In this casual environment, they learn things they didn’t know about making wine, brewing beer and about what’s happening in innovation across Oklahoma.
Entrepreneurs are the drivers of this phenomenon we have branded Innovation to Enterprise. They prove concepts. They convince investors to invest. They convert the doubtful. They persuade first customers to take a risk on their new ideas. They encourage founding teams to stay the course on the darkest days. And entrepreneurs inspire. They show the rest of us what is possible and what is NOT impossible. Their inspiration is what the 2016 Oklahoma Entrepreneurial Summit and Who Wants to Be is all about.
i2E was born from an Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) initiative and has now become a nationally-recognized private not-for-profit corporation that invests in entrepreneurs who are building high-growth companies in Oklahoma. i2E works directly with entrepreneurs, researchers and companies to help them commercialize their technologies, launch and grow new businesses and access needed capital.
For venture and economic development organizations like i2E, a key aspect of our responsibility is acceleration. It’s figuring how to find the best athletes, amp up their training, speed up the track, improve the car. We also measure and communicate the metrics of innovation progress over time by distributing an economic impact survey to our entire population of client companies every year. In March, we submitted the 2016 economic impact survey to 153 active clients.
It’s exciting when a young Oklahoma company signs up Fortune 500 companies as customers — Hyundai Motor Co., Ritchie Bros., the world’s largest industrial auctioneer, eBay Motors and JPMorgan Chase. It’s even more exciting when that young Oklahoma company is at the leading edge of a monumental shift in the way the world works. That’s the story of WeGoLook, a company that started in 2009 and in June hired its 100th employee.
From TechCo: WeGoLook is a mobile technology platform which features over 25,000 nationwide agents (Lookers) who are dispatched on behalf of an individual or corporate client to capture onsite data in the form of photos, measurements, video, answering custom questions or perform low-complex tasking.
Oklahoma City-based real estate tech startup CrowdSeekr.com is proud to announce that it has partnered with fellow Oklahoma City company WeGoLook to offer commercial property inspection reports to investors.
This year’s group of honorees for The Journal Record’s Innovator of the Year program demonstrates that Oklahoma’s pioneering spirit is still alive and well. The companies, representing a variety of industries, will be recognized during the Innovator of the Year luncheon Aug. 11 in Oklahoma City.
