Atlanta startup Motionworks AI Inc. raised $6.8 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
About the round: Motionworks CEO and co-founder Ryan Kinskey declined to comment on the round. According to the SEC filing, five investors participated. Motionworks plans to raise $10 million total in this round.
Who's involved: Kinskey and co-founder and chief technology officer Matthew Martimo are listed as directors and executives in the filing. Ed Kennedy, Lenn Kurtzman and Neal Miller are listed as directors, which often indicates they are either investors or partners in firms that invested in Motionworks.
Details on Motionworks: The population intelligence startup is based in the Atlanta Tech Village and has 25 employees. It has no open positions on its website right now. Motionworks’ goal is to make population mobility and location data more accessible for its customers, who might include event or urban planners.
Why it matters: The use of data to describe population movements could help cities implement more smart city functions, which could help allocate public safety resources, guide economic development projects and inform traffic-alleviating efforts. Data analytics are now commonplace for companies making different types of decisions, such as where to put a logistics distribution center or how to price a product. Big data analytics is a market projected to grow from about $241 billion to $655.5 billion in 2029, according to Fortune Business Insights.
More on the market: Motionworks' funding comes as venture capital activity remains down in the first quarter of 2023, according to PitchBook. Early-stage funding rounds declined to 34% of the total deals in the first quarter. Georgia startups raised $550.4 million in the first quarter across 63 deals. That's slightly higher than the previous two quarters, $409.2 million and $419.9 million respectively. But it still doesn't compare to the flurry of funding throughout 2021 and early 2022, when each quarter hovered around $1 billion for Georgia startups.
