Photo Credit: nikom khotjan, Getty Images
They say it's all about the money.
Well, money is a good sign of a healthy tech ecosystem, and you can bet your bottom dollar that we saw a lot of funding in 2018.
Each month, we’ve included a wrap-up of all the funding announcements and SEC filings in the ecosystem and mentioned the top three announcements we believe to be the most important in the Beat.
Check out the year’s top funding below.
Note: Since Atlanta Inno did not officially launch until March 2018, we have only included funding announcements we have covered.
December
Coming soon…We will add the top three hires after completing the list of all hiring and departure announcements for the month at the close of December.
November
- Deputy, a workforce management software program based in Atlanta and Sydney, Australia, had the biggest funding raise we covered this month and the largest Series B in Australian history. The startup closed a $81 million round led by Silicon Valley-based VC firm IVP and included previous investor OpenView and Australian VC firms Square Peg Capital and EVP. IVP has previously invested in Dropbox, Snap, Slack and Twitter. The newest round brings Deputy’s total amount raised to $106 million, according to a news release.
- Flock Safety raised nearly $10 million from eight investors in a recent round, according to a filing with the SEC. Just three months prior, the company reported raising $9.59 million in a round led by Matrix Partners. This brings the startups total funding raised to $19.7 million, according to Crunchbase. Though the eight investors remain unnamed and the company has yet to announce the funding publicly, Ilya Sukhar, a Matrix Partners partner, is listed among the directors in the new SEC filing. Sukhar was also listed as a director of Flock Safety in the last funding round in August. Flock Safety provides video technology to communities to record and provide evidence to police. The startup says its mission is to solve more crime, in addition to preventing it.
- Oncology Analytics Inc., a health care data company that recently moved to Atlanta from Florida, announced it raised a $21 million Series B funding round led by Oak HC/FT, a Greenwhich, Conn.-based VC firm. They were joined by new investor McKesson Ventures (San Francisco) and returning investors Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Partners and Sandbox Advantage Fund. As part of the deal, Annie Lamont, managing partner at Oak HC/FT, and bioethicist and oncologist Ezekiel J. “Zeke” Emanuel will join Oncology Analytics’ board. The ABC reported that the company plans to create up to 100 jobs in the next two years.
October
- Surterra Wellness, an Atlanta-based medical cannabis company, raised $54.6 million in debt, according to a filing with the SEC. The company gained notoriety earlier this year after raising $65 million in a Series C equity round led by chewing gum billionaire William “Beau” Wrigley, Jr. II. Sure, this is a debt round, but given that Surterra gained notoriety after snagging Wrigley as an investor, it’s worth noting.
- Springbot, an Atlanta-based data-driven marketing platform for e-commerce retailers, closed $15 million in equity funding led by North Atlantic Capital. The round included participation from existing investors TechOperators, TTV Capital, Harbert Growth Partners, TechSquare Labs, Forte Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.
- Axion Biosystems, Inc., an Atlanta-based biotech company, successfully raised about $8 million, according to a recent filing with the SEC.
September
- GroundFloor, a real estate investment platform based in Atlanta, announced it has raised $4.2 million in crowdfunding. This recent round has brought GroundFloor’s total capital raised to $13.8 million. Meanwhile, the company reports it has reached a 64 percent increase in year-over-year-revenue.
- Ternio, an Alpharetta-based startup providing a scalable and decentralized blockchain framework, is raising a series A round of $10 million shortly following its initial coin offering. San Francisco private financial group US Capital Global has partnered with Ternio to support the firm’s capital formation needs, according to a news release. Ian Kane, founder and COO of Ternio, said the funding would be used to build out the team and continue to focus heavily on R&D and marketing.
- GreyOrange, a global tech startup designing AI-powered robotics systems for flexible automation for supply chains, raised $140 million in Series C funding, making it the largest round ever raised by an industrial robotics company. This round of funding was led by Mithril Capital, co-founded by Ajay Royan and Peter Thiel, which included Binny Bansal and other existing investors including Blume Ventures. They join Mitsubishi, Flipkart and the Project Verte as investors in the company.The company recently announced a U.S. expansion and the opening of a headquarters and manufacturing facility in Atlanta.
August
- Bark, originally based in Savannah and a member of Atlanta Tech Village, raised a $9 million Series A round. The investment was led by Signal Peak Ventures, with participation from Two Sigma Venturesand existing investors Symmetrical Ventures, Fuel Capital, Hallett Capital and Atlanta Seed Company. With the recent funding round, the company has raised a total of $10.9 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.
- A local medical marijuana therapeutics startup raised $65 million in a Series C equity round led by chewing gum billionaire William “Beau” Wrigley, Jr. II. Surterra Wellness, a medical cannabis company founded in 2014, has raised a total of $100 million with the new round since 2015.
- Steady, an “income-building” platform that provides workers in the gig economy with flexible on-demand jobs and financial services that fit their needs, raised $9 million in Series A financing round led by Propel Venture Partners and has attracted notable backers, including former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal.
July
- Patientco, an Atlanta-based fintech platform that help providers maximize patient payments, has raised $28 million in a Series B round. According to company representatives, the investment was led by California-based private equity firm Accel-KKR with participation from existing investor BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners/Sandbox Advantage Fund.
- Greenlight Financial Technology, an Atlanta fintech firm that supplies smart debit cards to kids, has brought its original $16 million Series A round to $20 million, according to company representatives. The funding will be used to help fuel growth, a company spokesperson said. New investors to Greenlight include Amazon Alexa Fund, SunTrust Banks Inc. and Ally Financial Inc. Existing investors TTV Capital, New Enterprise Associates and Relay Ventures also participated in the round.
- Rimidi, Inc., an Atlanta-based digital health company that provides software and clinical analytics for chronic disease management, has raised $6.6 million in Series A round. The investment was led by Eli Lilly and Company and Turner Investments, with participation from existing investors Cox Enterprises, Village Capital, The Jump Fund and JAMB Global. In exchange for participation in the round, both Lilly and Turner will take board seats.
June
- You42, an Atlanta-based social entertainment startup that allows users to exchange and monetize their content using cryptocurrency, announced it will launch its Initial Coin Offering. You42 hoped to raise a total of $50 million to fund content and user acquisition, alongside attracting a large and financially-invested pool of users, after raising $21 million in its presale. The company has not updated how much it sold during its ICO since June.
- Cypress.io, an Atlanta-based startup that offers automated testing for applications in web browsers, has completed a $4 million seed funding round. The round was co-led by Las Olas Venture Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners. Previous investors Tech Square Ventures, BLH Ventures and Buckhead Partners also contributed to the round.
- OutSystems, a low-code rapid application development software company founded in Portugal and headquartered in Atlanta, announced it has raised $360 million in an investment round from KKR and Goldman Sachs. KKR’s investment was made through its Next Generation Technology Growth Fund. The new funding values the company at over $1 billion, and much of the proceeds will be used to accelerate business expansion in North America and for R&D in new advancements in software automation, according to company representatives.
May
- GreenSky, Inc., a digital platform for lending and one of Atlanta’s fastest-growing fintech firms, has raised a total of $1.01 billion from its IPO after closing the offering, according to a May press release. The raise is one of the highest fintech IPOs to date.
- EVO Payments International, a payment solutions provider based in Atlanta, began trading on the Nasdaq, raising a total of $244 million. The firm announced the pricing of its IPO of 14 million shares at a price of $16 per share, the high end of its $14 to $16 range. However, shares opened at $20.18, a near 26 percent raise from its IPO price, according to Reuters.
- The sovereign wealth fund of New Zealand has made a $65 million investment into trash-and-recycling startup Rubicon Global. Also known as the NZ Super Fund, this $38 billion fund backed by the country’s government will make its investment as part of Rubicon’s soon-to-be-authorized $140 million round of funding with the SEC.
April
- Gramarye Media has launched $175 million ICO to fund its movie studio on the East coast. At least $80 million of the funding will go towards the distribution of their movies to theaters across the country without the aid of a third-party company. It's unclear how much the ICO has raised since launching.
- SalesLoft, a marketing automation software firm in Atlanta, has raised $50 million in a Series C funding round led by Insight Venture Partners. In addition to the VC funding, LinkedIn joined in on the round, along with existing investor Emergence Capital. SalesLoft currently employs more than 220 people and announced plans to add more than 200 employees with the recent investments.
- Atlanta blockchain payments provider, BitPay, announced it has closed a $40 million extended Series B funding round and plans to nearly double the company’s employees at home and in Asia. Menlo Ventures, Capital Nine, G Squared, Nimble Ventures and Delta-v Capital joined BitPay’s initial round investor Aquiline Capital Partners. BitPay said it extended the funding round “due to increased investor demand,” and the recent funding has raised the startup’s total venture capital funding to more than $70 million.
March
- Norcross-based DataOceans, LLC, a customer communications management solutions and services company, reported raising an additional $2 million in an equity funding round, according to an SEC filing. The filing shows DataOceans has raised $3.2 million of a planned $5 million round.
- Landing Lion, a landing page platform that lets digital marketers build pages without coding, has raised a $500,000 round of funding from Austin-based venture capital firm Active Capital, according to Crunchbase. The company is a graduate of Techstars Atlanta Accelerator’s 2017 class.
- Athens, Ga.-based Reservoir, closed a seed round for an undisclosed amount with Macon-based angel fund Central Piedmont Investment Group. Reservoir develops wireless irrigation for landscapers and horticulturists.
