The coronavirus pandemic has significantly changed how the startup and venture capital ecosystems interact. But money is still flowing, including a lot of deals that were likely locked in before stay-at-home orders started in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus.
In April, we reported on several major rounds of funding, including Coder's $30M raise, Medici's $24M round and AlertMedia's $15M funding. Meanwhile, Austin's Silverton Partners announced it has raised a new fund, which will likely lead to 25-plus new investments.
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Now, let's check out all the Austin startup funding activity from April ...
Funding Rounds
Aurigo Software Technologies, which makes software that helps government agencies plan big projects, reported raising $8M in new equity funding. And this one appears to be funding a merger, acquisition or other trnsaction, according to the filing. No immediate details on that.
Austin-based Factom has notified creditors it’s starting liquidation after not getting new funding, Coindesk reported. That puts investor FastForward in position to take much of the company’s assets and intellectual property, the article said. The company has raised more than $18M since its founding in 2014.
Austin IoT edge computing startup ClearBlade reported raising $6.6M of a planned $12.9M round. The company was founded in 2007 byEric Simone and, prior to this, had raised $8.1M total, according to Crunchbase. Prior backers include Align Capital, Hypergiant, Corsa Ventures and Capital Factory, as well as several angel investors. The company currently has job openings posted on its site for software engineers, sales engineers and software executives.
Austin-based emergency communications startup AlertMedia announced it raised $15M in Series C funding to hire about 20 new employees to help its growing customer base. The new investment was led by AlertMedia’s prior investors — JMI Equity, Next Coast Ventures and Silverton Partners. The new funding comes a little more than a year after it announced a $25M growth equity investment from JMI Equity, a software investment company based in Baltimore. In essence, the new round is an extension of that, taking their Series C from $25M to $40M. The new round brings its total amount raised to $57M. Citing a source with knowledge of the funding, Forbes reported AlertMedia’s valuation grew from about $120M to about $250M in this latest funding round.
Austin men’s skincare company Let’s Disco reported raising $1.7M in new equity funding. The startup, previously called Winston Products, was founded in 2018 and is led by Benjamin Smith. It says all of its products are natural, vegan and cruelty-free.
SourceDay announced $12.5M in Series B funding to develop its software that automates purchasing for manufacturers and distributors, helping them better manage their supply chain and expenses. New investor Baird Capital, based in Chicago, led the round. All existing investors also participated, including Silverton Partners, ATX Ventures and Draper Associates.
Austin trip-planning startup KEY, which operates as Key Travel Concierge, reported raising about $2.3M in new equity funding. It appears to be their most recent round since a $3.9M round last summer and a $3M round in 2018. Prior to this latest round, it had raised a total of $15.7M from investors including ATX Venture Partners and Wildcat Venture Partners, according to Crunchbase. The company noted in a recent Facebook post that it’s working with small businesses to deliver services and amenities for Easter, including brunch and mimosas. It’s also donating a meal to a health care worker for each booking.
Airbrake, which has a remote team and leadership split between the Bay Area and Austin, announced an $11M round of funding led by Austin-based Elsewhere Partners. The company merged with Exceptional Cloud Services in 2012 and was acquired by Rackspace in 2013. Rackspace later sold the business to San Francisco VC firm Turn/River. In addition to the new funding, Airbrake also announced it added several new leaders, including CEO Treb Ryan, formerly of Dimension Data and OpSource. Other additions include Shelley Perry as executive chairman, Eric Anderson as CTO, Chad Savoy as CRO and Joe Godfrey as CPO.
Austin cybersecurity education startup Living Security has closed a $5M Series A funding round, Crunchbase News reported. It was led by Austin’s Silverton Partners, with prior investor Active Capital and newcomers Rain Capital and SaaS Venture Partners joining, as well. The startup’s platform helps large enterprises train their teams about how to protect company data. It was founded by husband and wife co-founders Drew and Ashley Rose in 2017.
Austin edtech startup Degree Analytics announced it raised a $2.5M Series A. The startup, founded by CEO Aaron Benz, launched in 2016 and went through Capital Factory‘s accelerator program. Its platform helps universities with insights and engagements that can help students graduate on-time.
Austin startup Coder raised a $30M Series B, with plans to further develop its coding platform and double the size of its team over the next year or so. Coder, founded by Ammar Bandukwala, Kyle Carberry and John Andrew Entwistle, has created a cloud-based platform that developers at large enterprises, including government agencies and big banks, use to write more code and accelerate workflows. The new round of funding was led by GGV Capital. Redpoint Ventures, Uncork Capital and In-Q-Tel, a VC firm with close ties to the CIA, were also in on the investment round, which brings Coder’s total funding raised to $43M. Glenn Solomon, managing partner at GGV, is joining Coder’s board as part of the deal.
Austin product development startup Gembah announced it raised $3.3M in seed funding to grow its team and build upon its product development networks. The new funding round came from local investors — it was led by Silverton Partners, with ATX Venture Partners and Capital Factory joining in.
Austin startup HealthClicks reported raising $635K of a planned $1M round of equity funding. The company, founded last year, helps health care facilities set up, plan and structure for audits. Its website says it is launching soon.
Austin automotive repair operating system startup CarServ reported raising $2.5M in new equity funding. The company, founded in 2015, uses machine learning to automate and optimize workflow for auto repair shops. The company won a $250K investment from Salesforce Ventures after winning the Dreampitch competition at Dreamforce in 2018. Prior to this filing, the startup had raised a total of $1.2M, including a seed round backed by HATCHER+, T-Mobile, Quake Capital Partners, Techstars and others, according to Crunchbase.
ActiveProspect, an Austin marketing software startup, announced a strategic growth investment from Kansas City-based Five Elms Capital. The company, led by founder and CEO Steve Rafferty, didn’t disclose how much it raised. As part of the deal, Five Elms founder Fred Coulson joined ActiveProspect’s board. The company is currently hiring for four positions.
Austin fintech startup CapWay is one of eight companies to land grant money from RevTech Ventures, a Dallas-based VC firm focused on retail technology. The startup is providing mobile financial services and products to under-banked communities. The company is offering its financial literacy programs to Dallas residents affected by the economic downturn. The company said that if only 1% of city residents took advantage of the program, it would equate to more than $1M in professional financial coaching.
Talk about making lemonade… Me & the Bees Lemonade, an Austin beverage startup founded by Mikaila Ulmer, reported raising $175K in new equity funding and $1.5M in options and other securities. Ulmer became well-known nationally back in 2015 when, at age 12, she pitched her business on “Shark Tank.” She later had a White House visit, and in 2016 she got the chance to introduce then-President Barack Obama at the United State of Women Summit.
Expedia, the travel tech giant that owns Austin’s Vrbo, is raising $3.2B in new capital, with Apollo Global Management and Silver Lake investing $1.2B, the Pudget Sound Business Journal reported. Of that, about $2B will be debt financing. The company also named a new CEO, Peter Kern, the company’s vice chairman.
Medici, which provides text, video and voice chats between patients and doctors, announced Monday it has completed a $24M Series B funding round. The investment was led by returning investors, including Barry Sternlicht, chairman of Starwood Capital Group; Howard Jenkins, founder of Publix; Kenneth Griffin, CEO of Citadel; and Nathan Kirsh, head of Jethro. The startup had previously raised about $46.6M, including a $22M Series A in mid-2018.
Austin real estate software company Flueid Software Corporation announced it landed a strategic investment from a fund managed by New York- and London-based private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners. It didn’t disclose the amount, but said it plans to use the funding for product expansion and new hires in its sales and marketing team. It currently has two positions open in Austin, one in Dallas and another remote. The company’s software automates and streamlines title processing and closing processes.
Austin mobile data startup Datum Tech announced it raised a $950K Seed round from Quansight Initiate which is led by CEO Travis Oliphant, founder of Anaconda and the primary author of NumPy. Datum Tech uses mobile data to create custom audiences and profiles. It plans to use the funds to expand into commercial and political markets. The company is led by CEO Jennifer McEwan, and it previously secured initial investment from Sputnik ATX after completing its accelerator last year.
A $12M series A funding round will help Austin’s Ontic Technologies Inc. continue to expand during a pandemic that has increased potential threats the company helps businesses predict. Ontic has built a digital platform that helps companies, schools and other organizations analyze data to anticipate possible security threats. California-based Felicis Ventures led the round, which also included participation by all existing investors such as Austin’s Silverton Partners, Floodgate and Village Global. The round’s close brings the total funding raised by Ontic to $17.64M, said CEO Lukas Quanstrom, who co-founded the startup in 2017 with Gagan Jain and Thomas Kopecky, according to Crunchbase.
Acquisitions and VC firm activity
Austin venture capital firm Silverton Partners raised a new, $144M fund that will be mostly dedicated to making new investments in Texas startups. That appears to make it the largest early-stage fund in the state. The firm plans to invest in 20 to 25 startups with its new fund, with about 25% set aside for non-Texas startups.
Austin employee referral and talent recommendation software startup ROIKOI has been acquired by San Francisco-based Terminal. Terms of the deal weren’t announced. ROIKOI had raised $1.9M in funding from backers including Andrew Busey, Rob Taylor, Deep Space Ventures, Stephen Hays, Jason Story, Capital Factory, Brett Hurt and Social Starts, according to Crunchbase. It was also part of the Oracle accelerator in 2018.
