The Center for Innovative Technology announced today that its CIT GAP Funds closed an investment in Urgent.ly, a Northern Virginia-based startup offering a mobile on-demand platform that quickly and easily connects users with nearby and available roadside assistance.

CIT President and CEO Pete Jobse said, 'Each year, we are seeing more entrepreneurs like the experienced team at Urgent.ly develop innovative ideas that solve problems and create opportunities. The innovation and experience that they offer is what we seek when making CIT GAP Funds investments.'

As American families begin to make plans for summer travel, Urgent.ly is offering them an easy and quick way to connect to safe on-demand roadside assistance, saving them time, money and worry. Their app quickly locates the nearest available help, while allowing users to track and identify the help in real time on their smartphone, as it travels to their vehicle's location. In addition, Urgent.ly's platform benefits towing providers by quickly connecting them to nearby customers in need. It helps towing providers grow revenue, create business efficiencies and cost savings by improving fleet management and increasing job flow without a corresponding increase in paperwork or administrative burden.

'Urgently's two-fold mission is to provide consumers with the quickest, most reliable and transparent roadside assistance service in the market, while providing towers the opportunity to more efficiently grow their business by connecting them with nearby, high quality customers,' said Urgent.ly CEO Chris Spanos. 'We will use the investment from CIT GAP Funds to expand our presence in the DC market, rapidly bring our service to additional markets and continually evolve our product experience.'

CIT GAP Funds is a family of seed- and early-stage investment funds placing near-equity and equity investments in Virginia-based high-growth technology, life science and clean technology companies.

Tom Weithman, CIT Vice President and GAP Funds Managing Director, said, 'Companies like Urgent.ly are still finding it difficult to access seed-stage funding, despite providing important and innovative services. CIT GAP Funds fills that funding void with a proven public-private leveraged investment model that creates 21st century companies and jobs throughout the Commonwealth.'

Since its 2005 launch, CIT GAP Funds has invested in over 100 companies across the Commonwealth of Virginia, deploying more than $13 million of public funds and attracting over $200 million more in private funding.

About the Center for Innovative Technology, http://www.cit.org

Since 1985, CIT, a nonprofit corporation, has been Virginia's primary driver of innovation and entrepreneurship. CIT accelerates the next generation of technology and technology companies through commercialization, capital formation, market development and revenue generation services. To facilitate national innovation leadership and accelerate the rate of technology adoption, CIT creates partnerships between innovative technology start-up companies and advanced technology consumers. CIT's CAGE Code is 1UP71. To learn more, please visit http://www.cit.org. Follow CIT on Twitter @CITorg and add the Center for Innovative Technology on LinkedIn and Facebook.

About the CIT GAP Funds, http://www.citgapfunds.org

CIT GAP Funds makes seed-stage equity investments in Virginia-based technology, clean tech and life science companies with a high potential for achieving rapid growth and generating significant economic return for entrepreneurs, co-investors and the Commonwealth of Virginia. CIT GAP Funds investments are overseen by the CIT GAP Funds Investment Advisory Board (IAB). This independent, third-party panel consists of leading regional entrepreneurs, angel and strategic investors, and venture capital firms such as: New Enterprise Associates, Grotech Ventures, Valhalla Partners, Harbert Venture Partners HIG Ventures, Edison Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Intersouth Partners, SJF Ventures, Carilion Clinic, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric and Alpha Natural Resources.

About Urgent.ly, http://www.urgent.ly

Urgent.ly is the on-demand roadside assistance revolution- a free smartphone web app which puts consumers just a few taps away from quick, nearby and available help in the event of a roadside emergency; saving them time, money and providing increased peace of mind. Urgently offers towing and roadside assistance providers a powerful platform to more efficiently grow their business by connecting them with new customers close to their open and available service vehicles. Consumers in Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. can get roadside assistance by going to http://m.urgent.ly on their smartphone today. Urgent.ly is expanding through the greater Washington D.C. metro area and Mid-Atlantic region during the spring and summer months.