Top image via Pixabay. CC0 Creative Commons
It has been a massive month for Austin tech startups.
SailPoint blew away expectations by raising $240 million in its initial public offering, which was the first IPO for an Austin tech company in about three years. Then, later in the month, Bazaarvoice announced it would be taken off the stock market in a $521 million buyout by Marlin Equity Partners.
Another big trend from November: Women-led startups had a bunch of big wins. Bumble, the dating app founded by CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, achieved unicorn status with a reported valuation of over $1 billion. EverlyWell, founded by CEO Julia Cheek, was on ABC's "Shark Tank" and landed the largest ever investment for a solo woman entrepreneur in the show's history. And Tiff's Treats, the cookie company led by Tiffany and Leon Chen, landed a $25 million Series D investment from Morgan Stanley's venture capital unit.
And that's just a glimpse of Austin tech's big month. Here's a roundup of all the other reported funding deals, acquisitions, layoffs and other activity.
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Funding Rounds
- Tiff’s Treats, a warm cookie delivery company, secured a $25 million investment from Morgan Stanely‘s investment arm. The Series D round came as the company expands to new cities. Its total funding is now at $50 million. The company was co-founded by Tiffany and her husband Leon Chen while they were students at the University of Texas in 1999. It now has 29 stores in Texas, five in the Atlanta area and it just signed a lease in September on a building in Nashville, Tenn. to open in a third state. It has about 750 employees.
- Ambiq Micro, Inc., maker of low-power microcontrollers for wearables, chip cards and IoT devices, closed on $10 million in additional equity funding, per an SEC filing. This is part of a pileup of equity and debt funding reported by the company, which used to be called Cubiq Microchip, Inc. In June, the company reported a $23.5 million round of equity funding.
- Rollick Outdoor, came out of stealth mode in early November by announcing a $5.6 million seed round. The round was led by Austin’s Silverton Partners. Pitching in on the round were Menlo Park, Calif.-based Autotech Ventures, Santa Monica, Calif.-based Troy Capital Partners, Capital Factory and data.world founder Brett Hurt.
- HELM Boots, an upscale boot startup, raised $2 million of a planned $3 million round of equity funding, a new SEC filing shows. HELM was founded in 2009 by Joshua Bingaman. In the new filing, Kendra Scott Designs founder Kendra Scott was listed as a director. Helm later updated its SEC filing to remove Scott from the role, noting that she previously was a director but is no longer in that role.
- Abraxus Technology closed on a $20,000 investment, according to Texas Venture Labs newsletter. The company, which is in the Fall 2017 TVL Accelerator, rebranded from its former name, AdsForTheRoad, and hired a new COO and CTO.
- One Model Inc., an Austin-based HR analytics software startup, reported raising $3.9 million in equity funding. The round came from The Geekdom Fund in San Antonio, Florida-based Otter Consulting, Techstars Ventures and Lontra Ventures in Austin. One Model was founded in 2014 by Chris Butler, David Wilson and Matthew Wilton -- each of whom are listed as company directors.
- Yan Engines, a startup making pistons to help build more fuel-efficient engines, reported raising $1.3 million in new equity funding from 7 unnamed investors. The company has now raised more than $6 million. Prior backers include New Energy Holdings Co., a private equity firm in Europe. The company was founded in 2006, and it was once part of the Austin Technology Incubator.
- Bueller RNDS, Inc., which makes the rn.d.s app to connect doctors, patients and nurses, has raised $350,000 in new debt financing, an SEC filing shows. The filing shows the startup planned to raise as much as $2.5 million. The company, led by interim CEO Chris Hurst and co-founded by Jayson Aydelotte and John Sabra, previously reported raising $360,000 in debt funding in December last year.
- ScaleFactor, an Austin startup that makes bookkeeping software for smallbusiness, announced it has closed on a $2.5 million seed round. The investment came from Austin’s Next Coast Ventures and a group of other firms, including Techstars Ventures in Boulder, Colo., Firebrand Ventures in Kansas City, Matchstick Ventures in Minneapolis, Edison Factory in Austin and Overland Park, Kan., and Flyover Capital in Overland Park, Kan. ScaleFactor raised $270,000 in March 2015 and completed the Techstars Austin Accelerator earlier this year.
- Art Craft Entertainment, Inc., an Austin game development company that lists Crowfall among its titles, reported raising $2.1 million in new equity funding. A new SEC filing shows the round came from five unnamed investors. The gaming company was founded by J. Todd Coleman and Gordon Walton, both of whom have worked on a variety of successful games previously. It has raised $13.7 million-plus in funding through crowdfunding, equity and licensing deals.
- Timebomb, an app that allows you to send texts that are sent in the future or unlocked when you reach a certain location, has raised $13.8 million from a single investor, according to a new SEC filing. That one big investment appears to have occurred on Halloween this year. The company is led by President and CEO Eric Clymer, whose LinkedIn shows he has worked as a managing partner at Rocket Mobile, a product manager at App’d and as a managing partner at GatxbyCapital. He’s joined by Scott Wiskus, a partner and CEO at Rocket Mobile, and Paul Scribner, the company’s CFO.
- Wee Golf, an Austin-based startup app-maker focused on golf games for children and parents, reported raising $275,000 in equity funding from two unnamed investors. The startup, led by Jason Black, a golfer and serial founder (Boundless Networks, HotLink), had looked to raise as much as $1 million, the SEC filing shows. Wee Golf, founded in 2015, previously raised $325,000 in equity funding.
- Visio Financial Services, an Austin-based real estate startup that helps finance low-price single-family home purchases for landlords, reported raising $2.6 million in new debt funding. Visio Lending, founded in 2011, is a spinoff from Econohomes. The Statesman reported in 2015 the company had raised more than $100 million in debt and equity funding to provide loans to buyers.
- GenXComm, an Austin wireless network startup, reported it has raised $7 million in new equity funding from nine unnamed investors. Earlier this year, the company raised a $1.5 milloin seed round from UT Horizon Fund, FAM Capital Partners and other investors. GenXComm was founded by Sriram Vishwanath and Hardik Jain in 2016 after being spun out of the University of Texas electrical engineering department.
Mergers, Acquisitions and IPOs
- Chameleon Cold-Brew, an Austin startup that grew to become one of the nation’s top cold coffee makers, has been acquired by Nestle for an undisclosed amount. Chameleon was founded in 2010 by Chris Campbell and Steve Williams, who were both neighbors and coffee aficionados. Chameleon had raised $9.2 million funding, including $8 million from Boulder Food Group.
- Drillinginfo, which makes software and data analytics for the oil industry, acquired Oklahoma City-based Oil-Law Records, which provides record keeping and updates for the production of oil and gas. This is Drillinginfo’s fifth acquisition. The company has previously acquired DataGenic, GlobalView Software, Transform Software and Service and County Scans. The company has raised about $200 million, mostly through large private equity firms.
- Carnegie Technologies, an Austin startup that improves connectivity across wireless networks, acquired the assets of SmartSwitch, a product of Canada-based Chemring Technology Solutions. The new tech assets give Carnegie, founded in 2010, Hot Spot 2.0 compliant connections to build into its existing Wi-Fi and mobile solutions.
- Austin’s E2open, a supply chain software and management company, announced it will acquire Zyme, a channel data management startup. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
- Accruent, a resource management software company, announced it has acquired Amsterdam-based BlueCielo. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. BlueCielo makes software to manage engineering information through asset lifecycles. The acquisition is one in a string of buyouts by Accruent. It has also recently acquired Lucernex, a workplace management software company, and Verisae, which makes cloud-based solutions to connect facilities and assets through the IoT networks. The deal gives Accruent 1,200 new customers, as well as presence in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
- The intellectual property of Austin’s Hypori, Inc. has been acquired by Intelligent Waves LLC. The companies announced that Intelligent Waves, based in Reston, Va., purchased the Virtual Mobile Infrastructure associated intellectual property for an undisclosed price. Hypori, which makes virtual mobile infrastructure for the federal government, was founded in 2011 (it was called DroidCloud back then) and has raised about $20 million.
- SailPoint Technologies, an Austin tech company that provides identity management and security, priced its offering higher than expected. It raised more than expected, too. SailPoint priced 20 million shares at $12. That was above the $9-$11 range expected coming into its IPO. The company raised $240 million from the IPO. The share price means SailPoint entered the New York Stock Exchange with a $1.08 billion market cap. SailPoint’s IPO marks a huge exit for the Austin tech startup, which was founded in 2005 by CEO Mark McClain, Chief Strategy Officer Kevin Cunningham and Jackie Gilbert. SailPoint raised $21 million in VC money from Austin Ventures, Silverton Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Then, in 2014, it sold a majority stake to the private equity firm Thoma Bravo.
- Upland Software, which IPOed in 2014, made its largest acquisition to date. The enterprise work management software company scooped up Chelmsford, Mass.-based Qvidian Corporation for $50 million cash. Upland said the deal will help them make $19.5 million more in annual revenue — and $17.3 million of that will be recurring. This is the latest and biggest in a string of buyouts. In July, Upland acquired Waterfall International Inc. out of San Francisco. Before that it had acquired Massachusetts-based Omtool Ltd., which sells secure document storage and sharing software, for $19.2M. That was fueled, in part, by the $90M line of financing Upland secured in 2016 from Wells Fargo Capital Finance and CIT Bank. Upland has now made a total of at least 13 acquisitions since its founding by Jack McDonald in 2013.
- Jwaala, an Austin mobile banking software company, was acquired by Georgia-based Alogent for an undisclosed amount. Jwaala was founded by former IBM workers in 2006, and it was initially backed by Amplify Federal Credit Union with an undisclosed amount.
- Bridgepoint Consulting, an Austin firm that provides financial and tech support to businesses, was acquired by Chicago-based Addison Group, a large professional services firm with 22 offices in the U.S. Bridgepoint will keep its Austin HQ and its 140 employees will remain here.
Other Activity
- CAVU Ventures Partners, a VC firm co-founded by Clayton Christopher, Rohan Oza and Brett Thomas, made a $19 million investment into Chicago-based Vital Proteins, the New York Business Journal reported. Vital Proteins makes ingestible collagen products, such as coffee creamer, designed to slow the aging process.
- Able Lending, a fintech startup with a small business lending platform, sold a “variety of assets” to Fundation Group, an online lender and credit solutions company in New York. It’s unclear what those assets were and what it leaves Able Lending with for future business.
- Capital Factory recently invested in four Austin startups. The new investments went to RoverPass, a marketplace for camping and RV spaces; OneSpot, which engages customers by personalizing digital content on an individualized basis; Plot, which helps airports consolidate their IT infrastructure; and Kiss & Tell, which simplifies booking venues and hotel blocks for weddings. The RoverPass funding was part of the startup's recent $50,000 funding. The size of other investments was not disclosed.
- Loop & Tie, the Austin gifting service, took home the top prize at Salesforce‘s Dreampitch event in San Francisco earlier this week. The startup was named a finalist on Nov. 3 and won over the judges to get a $250,000 investment from Salesforce Ventures. Loop & Tie, led by CEO Sara Rodell, has a gifting platform that helps businesses manage personalized corporate and client gifting.
- Overwatch Systems Ltd. is closing its southwest Austin office and is poised to layoff up to 46 people, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification. Those are filings that larger employers must submit when they’re making a lot of layoffs. The notice came Nov. 2, and it indicates 46 will be laid off on Dec. 31 this year.
- Bumble, the Austin-based dating app, has reached unicorn status. The startup, founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd, is now worth “well over $1 billion,” according to a new article in Forbes.
- TechShop, the workspace and consulting organization dedicated to the Maker Movement, has shut down, according to a message. The organization, which grew from one spot in Menlo Park to 10 across the U.S., including one in Round Rock, says it helped provide access to $1.4 million in tools and machinery to its 9,000-plus active members in the U.S. It launched its Austin-Round Rock location in 2012.
- EverlyWell Founder and CEO Julia Cheek made a deal with Lori Greiner on ABC’s “Shark Tank” Sunday night. The deal gives EverlyWell a $1 million line of credit with an 8 percent interest rate and it gives Greiner a 5 percent equity stake in the startup. Final terms of the deal won’t be locked in for a while, but EverlyWell, which makes at-home genetics tests, has been preparing for a boost in sales for months.
