October was a huge month for Austin startups and tech companies. SolarWinds IPOed, Yeti IPOed, Dell talked about IPOing, Bumble talked about IPOing and there were 15-plus Austin companies involved in mergers and acquisitions.
Meanwhile, millions of dollars flowed to Austin startups -- including a massive seed round for 3D-printed home startup ICON.
That’s just a glimpse at all the activity from last month. Below, we’ll find all the local tech startup funding announcements, mergers, acquisitions and venture capital fund activity from October 2018.
We cover funding rounds, acquisitions and other deals in our daily newsletter, The Beat. You can sign up to get that here.
Fundings
CognitOps, an Austin analytics software startup, reported raising about $505,000 of a planned $1 million round of equity funding. The SEC filing shows the money came from one investor. The company’s website shows it was founded by former Reddwerks Corp CEO Alex Ramirez and former Reddwerks Corp VP of Sales Engineering Reas Macken earlier this year.
Stoplight, which makes enterprise-grade API tool kits, announced a $3.25 million seed round led by Bill Wood Ventures, the venture firm ran by Austin Ventures co-founder and Silverton Partners founder Bill Wood. Also in on the round were NextGen Venture Partners (Washington, D.C.), Next Coast Ventures (Austin), Social Starts (has offices in Austin) and Capital Factory. The startup was founded by CEO Marc Macleod, who previously was co-founder of The Whoot and Limelight. It has raised $4.65 million total. The company also announced it hired Brian Rock as director of engineering. He previously worked as director of engineering and automation product at Applause.
Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said her dating and networking startup has secured a new investor — Priyanka Chopra — and will expand to India. Chopra is an Indian actress, singer and film producer who has been named as one of Time’s most influential people in the world. Wolfe Herd also told folks at a Fortune summit in California that her app now has 41 million registered users and that the company is “just getting to the tip of the iceberg with what we can do.”
Kettle & Fire, a local startup that makes a variety of bone broth products, reported raising an additional $8 million in equity funding. The founders, brothers Nick and Justin Mares, reported raising an identical amount back in late August, which was led by Austin’s CAVU Ventures. So, there’s at least a chance this is a duplicate filing — although subtle changes in other details make me think it’s a new filing. Anyway, we like to share what’s out there in the filings.
Shipwell, an Austin freight shipping software startup, announced in a blog post that it has closed a $10 million Series A round led by Venice, Calif.-based Fifth Wall, with participation from Global Founders Capital, Aspect Ventures, First Round Capital, Base10 and Village Global. The new money adds to about $2.1 million in prior funding. Fifth Wall principal Vik Chawla will join Shipwell’s board of directors as part of the deal. The company will use the money to make new hires, expand its products and market its offerings to more users.
The Guild, an Austin startup that turns upscale apartments into tech-enabled hotel suites, has raised a $9 million round led by Seattle-based Maveron, with addition funds from San Francisco-based Convivialite Ventures and New York-based Corigin Ventures, according to TechCrunch.The startup, founded by Brian Carrico and Chris Herndon, also announced it has hired Justin Krost, a former corporate finance and accounting manager at HomeAway and former director of accounting at Phunware, as its head of finance. The Guild has properties in Austin, Dallas, Miami, Cincinnati and Denver.
Austin Cocktails Investments, better known simply as Austin Cocktails, has raised $4.2 million in equity funding, a new SEC filing shows. The infused vodka and tequila company was founded by sisters Jill Burns and Kelly Gasink in 2012. They’ve previously raised about $2 million. Learn more about them in this article.
Hops & Grain, an Austin craft beer startup, raised $125,000 in new equity funding en route to a planned $500,000 raise. It’s the first equity funding reported to the SEC. But Crunchbase indicates the company raised $1 million in equity crowdfunding in 2016.
Rollick, a marketing and sales network for the motorized sports and RV industries, landed an $8.3 million Series A investment to fuel its growth. The round was led by Austin’s LiveOak Venture Partners. Other new investors contributing funds included Santa Monica-based Anthem Venture Partners and Des Moines-based ManchesterStory Group. Rollick’s earlier investors — Silverton Partners, Autotech Ventures and Capital Factory — also contributed.
ICON, which developed a large-scale 3D printer and has built a 3D printed home in Austin, has raised a $9 million seed round to further develop its printers and start building more. And its new investors are likely to give the company a lot of industry insight. The new round was led by Oakhouse Partners, an early-stage investment firm in San Francisco that has invested in SpaceX, Ziplineand Palantir. Others include D.R. Horton, which is one of the nation’s most active homebuilders, and Emaar, which was a developer on the Burj Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates. Additional investors included Capital Factory, CAZ Investments, Cielo Property Group, Engage Ventues, MicroVentures, Saturn Five, Shadow Ventures, Trust Ventures, Verbene Road Holdings and Vulcan Capital, an investment firm founded by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen, who passed away last month.
ClearCam, an Austin medtech company, reported raising about $635,000 in equity funding. The company was formed by UT engineering students who used a Slurpee straw design to help assist in surgeries. As we previously reported, ClearCam won the $150,000 the Houston Angel Network Investment Prize and $25,000 Texas Business Hall of Fame Best of Texas Prize at the Rice Business Plan Competition.
BeatBox Beverages, an Austin startup making wine-based cocktails, reported raising $2.6 million in equity and other securities. The company, which received funding on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” had previously raised about $5.7 million, according to Crunchbase.
Here’s a type of financing you don’t see everyday: Austin-based real estate marketing startup RealSavvy announced it has landed $2.5 million in revenue financing, which requires payback based on monthly revenue and doesn’t dilute ownership. The funding comes from TIMIA Capital Corporation, which specializes in that type of investment deal.
Coder Technologies, Inc., an Austin startup with a platform to expedite software development, reported raising almost $7 million in equity funding. The company was founded by John A. Entwistle, Kyle Carberry and Ammar Bandukwala, and they moved to Austin about a year ago.
Alafair Biosciences, an Austin company that makes a hydrogel wrap for tendon injuries, reported raising $2.3 million in equity funding. The company is led by CEO Greg Brophy, COO John Joyoprayitno and Chief of Clinical Affairs Sarah Mayes.
Austin startup regulatory and compliance software maker Eventus Systems reported raising about $649,000 in new equity funding. The company, founded in 2014, previously reported raising $5.2 million in equity funding in December 2017. And, before that, Eventus Systems raised about $2 million in 2016.
Mergers, Acquisitions & IPOs
Conversable, an Austin-based conversational AI marketing startup, was acquired by New York City-based LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN). Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. LivePerson, which was founded in 1995 and is perhaps best known for its LiveEngage platform, said the acquisition will add a variety of new tools to add to its marketing and campaign capabilities, including structured and unstructured conversations, social listening and consumer engagement.
Back in 2016, Austin-based Yeti Coolers filed the paperwork required to set up an IPO — only to pullback on the idea because of market conditions. In October, the company came back to the table. It filed documents indicating it would look to raise up to $100 million in an IPO — and that was later revised to $400 million with shares offered in the $19 to $21 range. All but $50 million would go largely to Cortec, the private equity firm that acquired about two-thirds of Yeti in 2012. Naturally, it wants to trade under the ticker “YETI” if and when it debuts on the New York Stock Exchange.
Austin-based Spanning Cloud Apps, which spun out of Dell Technologies and acquired by Insight Venture Partners last year, is being acquired by Kaseya, an IT service provider that’s headquartered in Dublin. Spanning will keep its headquarters here in Austin and will operate as a independent business unit. With the acquisition, Kaseya will roll out a new product called Kaseya Office 365 Backup powered by Spanning. No financial details of the deal were provided.
E2open, an Austin supply chain software company, is acquired Cloud Logistics, a transportation management company based in West Palm Beach, Fla. Financial terms weren’t provided. E2open CEO Michael Farlekas said the deal gives E2open an end-to-end global business network that will improve supply chain convergence of data, planning, execution, supply and demand and distribution. Cloud Logistics will continue to operate under its brand name.
argodesign, an Austin design and technology firm, is being acquired by DXC Technology, a Virginia-based IT services company with a reported $22 billion in 2018 revenue. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. A news release said argodesign will continue to serve its clients. DXC said the acquisition will boost its user experience capabilities. argodesign was founded in 2014 by Mark Rolston and Mark Gauger. Fast Company reported that the company has 45 employees and that all employees are being kept on after the acquisition.
Softvision, an Austin digital engineering and consulting firm, is being acquired by Cognizant, a publicly-traded company in New Jersey. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. Softvision was founded in Silicon Valley 20-plus years ago and has since moved to Austin. It works with big companies to help agile delivery teams, and it has a big engineering hub in Romania.
Upland Software, an Austin company that makes enterprise work management software, has acquired U.K.-based Rant & Rave for $65 million, the ABJ reported. It’s Upland’s 19th acquisition since 2013.
INFICON, a Syracuse-based company making instruments and software for semiconductor manufacturing, has acquired all the assets of Final Phase Systems, an Austin-based smart manufacturing company founded in 2009 and led by CEO John Behnke. All of FPS’s 22 employees will join INFICON.
Glenmount Global Solutions, an Austin manufacturer that works with metals, mining, data and wastewater, is being acquired by E-Technologies Group, a Cincinnati area manufacturing tech firm. No word on the price. The companies will retain their brands and operate out of E-Tech’s West Chester offices.
NuPark, a Cedar Park-based parking management startup, has been acquired by Charlotte-based Passport, which makes parking, transit and tolling platforms. No word on the financials or any staffing changes. NuPark, founded byKevin Uhlenhaker in 2012, has raised about $2.4 million in funding from backers including Techstars Ventures and Wild Basin Investments Managing Partner Rosa McCormick.
OJO Labs, a fast-growing AI-based real estate tech startup, has acquired WolfNet Technologies, a real estate data manager based in St. Louis Park, Minn. No financial details provided. WolfNet brings big value in its ability to pull listings to build databases for about 100 million properties. As the ABJ reported, that gives OJO a chance to pour a ton of data into its machine learning systems. Both companies will keep their brands and OJO will remain in Austin.
Astrotech Corporation, a publicly-traded tech commercialization company, announced a private sale of equity securities valued around $3 million. It plans to use the money for general corporate purposes. The purchaser is close to home — its chairman of the board and CEO Thomas B. Pickens III, who is scooping up about $2 million of it. Another Astrotech shareholder is buying the rest.
SolarWinds, an Austin IT management software company that trades as SWI on the New York Stock Exchange, was valued at about $4.8 billion in its IPO in October. Not too shabby — and this was a significant reduction from the IPO SolarWinds had initially pitched before some existing stockholders held their shares.
E2open, an Austin supply chain software company, announced it’s acquiring INTTRA, an ocean shipping logistics platform that was founded in New Jersey in 2001. No financial terms were released, and the deal is expected to close by the end of 2018.
Kony, an Austin-based mobile app platform, is acquiring the assets of Pivotus, a Portland-based subsidiary of digital banking company Umpqua Holdings Corporation, which is the parent company of Umpqua Bank. Terms weren’t disclosed.
GitLinks was founded about three years ago by Cornell Tech grads Ian Folau and Nwamaka Imasogie. Folau, a West Point graduate, had spent almost a decade in the U.S. Army analyzing threat information. Last year GitLinks raised about $555,000 in equity capital. The company was part of Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural Innovation Lab. It also partnered with Cybersecurity Factory in Cambridge, Mass. In January, it officially released its open source monitoring platform. In late October, the company announced it has been acquired by Infor. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Venture Capital Fund Activity
From our sister publication Minne Inno: Logistics firm Navegate has been sold to an investor group in a deal led by Next Coast Ventures, a venture capital firm that largely invests in companies outside of coastal tech hubs. The transaction marks Austin-based Next Coast’s first deal in the Twin Cities. Mendota Heights-based Navegate will spin off its trucking operation as part of the transaction. Next Coast closed on a $85 million fund last year. The firm’s Managing Director Michael Smerklo told the Biz Journal that Next Coast does not have immediate plans to open an office in the Twin Cities, but may consider doing so in the future. Financial terms of the deal with Navegate were not disclosed.
Moonshots Capital, which was founded last year and is co-based in Austin and Los Angeles. Today, the firm, which is backed by several prominent Austinites, announced it has locked down $20 million for its inaugural fund. Moonshots differentiates a bit from many more generalized VCs in that it focuses on “veteran-led companies and trial-by-fire founders.” The firm is led by managing partners Kelly Perdew and Craig Cummings, both of whom have military and startup experience.
Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm with offices in Austin, has raised $11.4 billion for its seventh fund, the Wall Street Journal reported. The firm is well-known for buying out and improving software companies in Austin and around the globe. Vista plans to raise as much as $16 billion, which would make it the largest fund ever for an independent firm (as the WSJ notes, SoftBank Group is aiming for $100 billion). Vista has already committed about 80 percent of its $11 billion, one source told the WSJ.
