Austin's tech and startup scene closed out 2018 with a bang.
Aceable, which makes an app for drivers education and real estate licensing, started off December by announcing a huge, $47 million Series B round that portends a lot of growth for the startup in 2019. And a few new startups emerged, including one that's planning to sell short-term life insurance policies to thrill-seekers.
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 November 2018.
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Funding
Enzyme Health, an Austin startup providing gig-based work for clinicians, raised $1.7 million in seed funding. The round was led by Austin’s Silverton Partners. The startup was founded byMichelle Davey, Griffin Mulcahey and Philip Johnson.
Aceable, which makes apps for drivers education and real estate certifications, secured a $47 million Series B led by Connecticut based Sageview Capital. As part of the deal, Sageview’s Dean Nelson and Mike McClure will join Aceable’s board of directors. Aceable founder Blake Garrett said the new funding will help Aceable expand its catalog of education products to new markets and education verticals.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative awarded a $2.5 million grant to Ning “Jenny” Jiang, an associate professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Dell Medical School’s Department of Oncology. Under the grant, she will study “high-throughput 3D profiling of single T cells in neurodegenerative diseases,” UT News reported.
Austin purchase order management and procurement software startup SourceDay secured a $6.5 million Series A from Silverton Partners, Draper Associates and ATX Seed Ventures. The same firms led the company’s $3.5 million seed round in 2017. SourceDay, launched in 2015, plans to channel the funding to new sales and marketing efforts. It has now raised $10.8 million total.
FlexFleet, a stealth mode startup, reported raising $2 million in an SEC filing. But it appears the seed round may have been $2.6 million, according to its founder, Gary Clarke. According to his LinkedIn page, Clarke was formerly in Army Special Operations and went to Harvard Business School. His resume is deep, with work at Netscape in the 1990s; founding and selling eTelligens; working at Blackbaud; and leading Hy9 Corp to acquisition.
Constellation Brands, a big alcohol beverage company, launched a new venture capital group that plans to invest $100 million into women-led businesses by 2028. One of its first two investments is here in Austin — Austin Cocktails, which is led by sisters Jill Burns and Kelly Gasink. They produce bottled cocktails like the Peppered Maple Blood Orange Bourbon Cocktail.
Seismos, an Austin company that makes software to monitor hydraulic fracturing oil and gas extraction, reported tacking another $320,000 of equity funding onto a prior round of about $9.9 million that was reported in August. The company is led by founder and CEO Panos Adamopoulos, who has previously founded two other startups in China and been an advisor at the Austin Technology Incubator.
Banyan Water, an Austin water conservation company, reported raising $325,000 in new equity funding. Founded in 2011, the Austin-based company uses advanced data analytics software to address water issues for properties and smart cities around the world. This is a new filing that follows a $927,000 in equity filing in March. The company raised about $2 millionin equity funding in 2013 and $1.4 million in 2016.
Olono, a guided sales software startup that was formerly known as Nexd, reported raising $3 million of a $5 million round of new equity funding. No word on who the investors were. But Olono is a portfolio company of ATX Seed Ventures, and partner Chris Shonk is on Olono’s board.
Bractlet, which makes software to run buildings more efficiently, reported raising $1.17 million in new equity funding. It wasn’t immediately clear who invested in the round, but Bractlet is a portfolio company of ATX Seed Ventures, and partner Chris Shonk is on its board.
Waldo Photos, a photo-sharing app that uses AI to identify and share photos, reported raising $4 million in equity funding. The startup previously announced raising a $5 million seed round in 2016 led by Upfront Ventures. Waldo Photos was founded by Rodney Rice and Michael Beaudoin, who previously co-founded HomeAdvisor.
Acquisitions
Truesource Labs, an Austin IT and IoT company, was acquired by Everise, a Singapore-based IT company, 512 Tech reported. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Trusource will keep its HQ in Austin.
Neverfail, an Austin cloud computing company, was acquired by Online Tech, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based cloud solution provider. Financial details weren’t disclosed. Under the deal, Online Tech will acquire the Infrastructure as a Service and data protection assets and products of IT provider Neverfail.
TeacherTalent, which as part of the Sputnik ATX accelerator and won its “Traction Horse” award for growing from $0 to $150,000 in monthly recurring revenue, was acquired by Tim Edwards, CEO of Austin-based marketing startup EBQuickstart, for an undisclosed amount. Edwards plans to reorganize it as a new subsidiary of newly-created QualityPPL.
Ambonare, an Austin design, software and app development consultancy, was acquired by Red River, a New Hampshire-based consulting and IT company. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Red River already had an Austin office, which it opened in 2017.
KaleidaCare, an Austin case management software company, was acquired by Alpine SG, a consortium of software companies. It’s joining the group with California-based Exym and New York- and New Jersey-based Foothold Technology. No financial details provided.
Q2 Holdings, Inc., an Austin provider of digital banking and lending solutions, acquired Atlanta-based Gro Solutions, a provider of account opening and digital sales and marketing solutions for financial institutions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Hypergiant Space Age Solutions announced that it is acquiring a Seattle-based startup known for building custom apps for The New York Times and Twitter. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. But Hypergiant noted that Black Pixel has audited 2017 revenue of $15.2 million. The company has also had a variety of high-profile clients, which it has made custom apps for. For example, it helped the Times build its NYT Cooking, NYT Now, NYT Opinion and NYT Crossword apps. And they’ve worked on apps for AppleTV and Starbucks. Hypergiant, which has offices in Austin, Dallas and Houston, will manage the Black Pixel team, which will largely remain in Seattle.
Planview, an Austin-based workplace software company, announced that it’s acquiring San Francisco-based Spigit, an innovation management software company that uses machine learning to analyze unstructured data. Spigit has 6M users, globally. The acquisition gives Planview an even broader set of tools for enterprise-scale planning and development. No financial details were provided. This is the latest in a string of acquisitions for Planview. Others include LeanKit, Innotas, Troux and Business Engine.
