Austin's tech startup ecosystem continued to boom in 2020, despite the pandemic. But it's that other thing that Austin is known for that attracted the single largest round of funding – tacos.
Austin-based Torchy's Tacos, which was created as a food trailer in 2006, landed the largest funding round of 2020 — a $400 million infusion of private equity in November intended to help it continue its national expansion.
The investment in tasty tacos, however, is a bit of an outlier.
The largest venture capital funding round of the year in Austin went to Everlywell, which has developed at-home health test kits for everything from STDs to Covid-19, food sensitivity and allergies. In early December, the startup founded by Julia Cheek in 2015 announced it had raised $175 million in venture funding at a $1.3 billion valuation.
And, don't forget, Everlywell had just raised a $25 million series C round in February.
While that might not have hit the high water mark from last year — a $300 million round for RigUp — it was easily the biggest venture round for an Austin startup in 2020.
Here are the funding rounds of $10 million or more logged by Crunchbase and our own reporting in 2020. In several cases, we've grouped multiple funding rounds from 2020 on one line. Sometimes this occurs when a company raises one round early in the year and another round later. And, in some cases, it's a combination of debt and equity funding. We've also linked to coverage of funding rounds when available.
Top funding rounds for Austin companies in 2020
- Torchy's Tacos: $400 million in private equity
- Everlywell: $175 million series D and a $25 million series C
- Shattuck Labs: $118 million series B
- RVshare: $100 million
- Vapor IO: $90 million series C
- Homeward: $20 million in venture funding and $85 million in debt financing
- OJO Labs: $62.5 million series D
- DISCO: $60 million in venture funding and $40 million in debt funding
- FlashParking: $60 million in private equity
- Ambiq Micro: $55.8 million in venture funding
- ZenBusiness: $55 million series B
- Triumvira Immunologics: $55 million series A
- Aceable: $50 million series C
- ActivTrak: $50 million series B
- Restream: $50 million series A
- Uhnder: $45 million series C
- Self Financial: $40 million series D and $20 million series C
- Eagle Eye Networks: $40 million series E
- The Zebra: $38.5 million series C
- ICON: $35 million series A
- Coder: $31.8 million series B
- SpyCloud: $30 million series C
- RigUp: $28.7 million in venture funding
- Savara Pharmaceuticals: $26.8 million in post-IPO equity
- Data.world: $26 million series B
- TFFPost: $25.9 million in post-IPO equity
- The Guild: $25 million series B
- Prospect Pools Group: $24.4 million in private equity
- Medici: $24 million series B
- Riskpulse: $22.7 million series A
- SigmaSense: $22 million series A
- Pattern Bioscience: $21.9 million corporate funding
- Sana Benefits: $20.8 million series A
- Membersy: $20 million debt funding
- Fetch Package: $18 million series B
- Overhaul: $17.5 million venture funding
- Tiff's Treats: $15 million venture round and $10 million in venture funding
- Altr: $15 million venture round
- AlertMedia: $15 million series C
- Tecovas: $15 million series B
- CesiumAstro: $14 million debt financing
- Wheel: $13.9 million series A
- Atmosphere: $13.7 million series A
- Babson Diagnostics: $13.7 million series A
- SourceDay: $12.5 million series B
- Podium Education: $12 million Series A
- Ontic: $12 million series A
- Art Craft Entertainment: $11.7 million series A
- ClosedLoop.ai: $11 million series A
- Locale: $11 million series A
- Eventus Systems: $10.5 million series A
- QuickStart: $10 million in venture funding
- Aspire Food Group: $10 million grant
- HealthGrowth: $10 million in debt funding
- Diligent Robotics: $10 million series A
- BeatStars: $10 million in venture funding
- Praetorian: $10 million series A
Want more? Check out the largest funding rounds of 2019. Much of that capital is still in play.
Editor's note: This story was updated to include RVshare's $100 million. The company is co-headquartered in Austin and Akron, Ohio.
