As we finish the final month of 2019, funding rounds and acquisitions in Atlanta continue to flood in. The city has already surpassed the dollar amount for total VC funding collected in Atlanta in 2018, so the remaining deals for the rest of the year are icing on the cake.
Financial deals, mergers and acquisitions in the tech ecosystem are mentioned daily in the Atlanta Inno Beat newsletter, along with insights on how personnel moves may impact a startup’s future. Sign up for the Beat to get it each day in your inbox.
Check out the most important mergers, acquisitions and investments from Atlanta technology companies from December 2019. Did we miss a deal? Let me know at mhogan@americaninno.com.
Makeswift Inc., an Atlanta-based landing page builder, raised $1.5M, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Formerly known as Landing Lion, Makeswift’s founders and team are Georgia Tech graduates. The startup joined the state’s tech incubator ATDC last year. Founded in 2015, the company’s platform allows users to build highly customized web sites from scratch and without coding.
Motivo, an Atlanta-based platform that helps mental health professionals on their path to licensure, raised $2.2M in a seed round led by Cox Enterprises. Techstars, SEI Ventures, ECMC, Great Oaks VC, The Jump Fund, Emmett Partners and Next Wave Impact Fund participated in the round, along with multiple angel investors. The startup will use the funding to grow its team, acquire contracts with mental health agencies and clinics and sign channel partnerships with therapist associations and universities. Motivo has already identified 12 credential types in the healthcare industry that require supervised hours — a $6.5B market opportunity, according to a press release.
The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta’s GoATL Fund raised more than $1.4M in donor co-investment this year. The fund provides cost-effective impact capital for nonprofits and social enterprises. The organization plans to raise over $5M in 2020 to meet the growing demand of the fund, according to a news release.
BAMFi, an Atlanta-based provider of software for the secured lending industry, sold off the legacy part of the company to TAB Bank. TAB Bank acquired BAMFi’s $46M BAM Capital Division. As part of the acquisition, TAB will retain the operations and staff at BAM’s office in Dallas, according to a news release.
Emory University’s Goizueta Business School received a gift of $30M from The Goizueta Foundation. The gift will support a virtual classroom, the use of holograms to facilitate “pop-up” campuses at remote locations, VR simulations for experiential learning, enhancement and expansion of the business school’s entrepreneurship and innovation programs and programming focused on the impact of business on communities, and social responsibility.
Exponential Machines, a software company that specializes in AI, merged with automation company PurpleLogic Inc. The combined entities have rebranded to become Exponential AI and the company will relocate its headquarters to Atlanta, according to company representatives. Prior to the merger, Exponential Machines was based in San Francisco and provided enterprise AI solutions to large organizations across the globe. Together, the merged companies will offer intelligent automations, custom AI solutions development and access to its AI platform and products across the health care, life sciences, retail and financial services industries, according to a news release.
The University of Georgia is making bigger strides to go green. The school was awarded $7.46M under the Federal Transit Administration’s Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Program to purchase an additional 13 electric buses. UGA will use the funding, along with 30% matching share from the school, to grow its fleet to 33 electric buses. The move is to reduce emissions and increase opportunities for experiential learning and research.
Tempus, a cancer-fighting startup from Groupon founder Eric Lefkofsky and Chicago’s most valuable tech startup, acquired AKESOgen, an Atlanta-based genomics lab and data company that provides sequencing, biomarker profiling and other analysis to clients in biotech, pharmaceutical, government and other industries. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the company said the move will help it expand into disease areas outside of cancer and operate lab space beyond its Chicago headquarters.
LocatorX, an Atlanta-based tracking tech startup, raised $2.6M of a $6M round, according to a filing with the SEC. Records show this is the first funding collected since the company raised $225K in 2017.
mCloud Technologies Corp., a Vancouver-based software company that uses AI to provide asset management solutions, announced this afternoon that it has signed the final binding SPA to acquire Construction Systems Associates Inc., an Atlanta-based 3D technology company. mCloud leaders hope the acquisition will help the company become one of the largest providers of 3D asset management capabilities to the nuclear power industry in North America. More than 80% of all nuclear plants in the U.S. “rely on technology provided by CSA to facilitate plant operations and complex change management activities,” according to a news release.
FineLine Technologies, a Norcross-based company that provides RFID and barcode ticketing solutions for global retailers, acquired Consolidated Printing, a Van Buren, Ark.-based commercial printer of tickets for sporting and entertaining events. FineLine Technologies is a portfolio company of Summit Partners.
Terminus, an Atlanta-based company that focuses on targeting, engaging and growing marketing and sales for B2B marketers, acquired Sigstr, an Indianapolis email signature marketing platform. The acquisition will allow Terminus to use Sigstr’s end-to-end account-centric marketing platform. The company will maintain and grow its presence in both Atlanta and Indianapolis, as well as the Terminus office in San Francisco, according to a news release. All Sigstr employees will become Terminus employees and Bryan Wade, CEO of Sigstr, will join the executive team at Terminus.
PlayOn! Sports, an Atlanta-based high school sports media company, raised $25M in a Series B round led by local VC firm BIP Capital. New investors included in the round are Tampa Bay Lightning owner and serial Tampa Bay investor Jeff Vinik, Teall Capital and Crossover. The funding will primarily be used for accelerating the deployment of PlayOn! Sports’ Pixellot, an automated production solution, throughout the high school market. The company plans to use some of the investment to also advance consumer products and automated marketing infrastructure. David Rudolph, CEO of PlayOn! Sports, said the company would be expanding its staff of 75 employees as a result of the funding.
