Get details below on eight recent funding deals that totaled $53.8 million. These kinds of deals are a useful gauge of a company's evolution, and are sources of leads for real estate pros and other service providers.
Want daily updates on fundings, hires and other news of interest to the startup community? Subscribe to Austin Inno's Beat newsletter.
An Austin-based health insurance startup plans to hire dozens and open a health clinic in Austin on the heels of raising a new round of venture funding. Sana Benefits Inc. said Oct. 26 it secured $20 million in an extension of its series A funding round.
The investment was led by Austin's Gigafund. Other firms supplying fresh capital included American Family Ventures, Breyer Capital, JAM Fund and Harmon Brothers Ad Ventures. Sana has raised a total of $47 million since its founding in 2017 by Will Young and Nathan Hackley.
With the new funding, the startup is looking to extend into new markets and grow in the states where it already offers its insurance plans: Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Illinois and Kentucky.
Austin-based software testing startup Testlio Inc. reported closing a $12 million series B round led by Boston-based Spring Lake Equity Partners. Altos Ventures and Vertex Ventures US also got in on the deal. The new money will be used to beef up its client services and platform capabilities. It also provided some employees with secondary proceeds. And the profitable company has 30-plus job openings.
The funding comes as the company has hit a growth spurt, with a $20M annualized revenue run rate and boosting revenue 50% year-over-year. Testlio is led by CEO Steve Semelsberger. Its clients include the NBA, Netflix, Microsoft and Fox.
Jeff Williams, a partner at Spring Lake Equity Partners, is joining Testlio's board as part of the deal.
Atlanta- and Austin area-based EV charging startup Resilient Power has raised $5 million in new funding led by Energy Transition Ventures. Others in on the round included Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund and GS Futures, the venture arm of Korea-based GS Group. The company is led by Tom Keister, who is based north of Austin in Georgetown, according to his LinkedIn page. He was R&D manager of power electronics at TECO-Westinghouse Motor Company before launching Resilient in 2015.
Resilient Power previously secured $3 million in contracts and grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, Savannah River National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Austin security startup Scylla Technologies Inc. reported in an Oct. 19 securities filing raising $4 million in new equity funding. The company had previously reported in June that it raised a total of $4.9 million in a seed round led by Mucker Capital. The company, formed in 2018, uses AI-powered video analytics to identify objects, such as a weapon, as well as thermal readings and abnormal behavior recognition, such as fighting. Scylla is led by founder and CEO Albert Stepanyan, who previously founded Armenian AI company Develandoo.
Austin-based firmware security startup NetRise Inc. has raised $6.8 million in venture funding, according to an Oct. 20 filing with regulators. The stealthy company, which was formed last year by co-founders Thomas Pace and Michael Scott, has a platform that "provides comprehensive insight into the many risks present in a firmware image," according to its website. Pace was most recently VP of global enterprise solutions at BlackBerry. Scott was most recently a senior software developer at Tanium.
A startup working on using AI to help develop drugs for neurological disorders, such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease, has emerged from stealth with $5.5 million in seed funding. NeuraLight landed the new funding from investors including MSAD, Kli and high-profile angel investors from Instacart, Clover Health and others, Techcrunch reported Oct. 28. The company is dual headquartered in Austin and Tel Aviv.
Big Wheelbarrow, an Austin-based SaaS startup that helps grocers manage their supply chains, won $500,000 in the final round of the 43North competition in Buffalo. It was one of seven companies named as runners-up. The company, led by co-founder Sam Eder, pitched for a chance at the $1 million grand prize lat Oct. 28. 43North is a state-funded business competition that seeks to seed startups in Buffalo. Those that accept prizes give up 5% of their company and pledge to operate from Buffalo for a year. To more about all the companies that competed, go here.
Chicago-based private equity firm Periscope Equity has made an undisclosed investment in Austin-based IT services firm Praecipio Consulting. Praecipio, led by founding partner and CEO Christian Lane, plans to use some of the new capital for acquisitions and other opportunities. Praecipio was founded in 2006, and it doesn't appear to have raised venture capital funding. The company recently ranked among Austin Business Journal's Fastest Growing Companies in the region, with revenue growing at a compound annual growth rate of 31% from 2018 to 2020, reaching nearly $30.1 million.
"Praecipio Consulting has experienced significant growth over the past five years and with that growth, they have made the necessary investments to scale, creating an ideal platform investment," Periscope Equity Principal Eric Hinkle said in a statement. "Our strategy is to join forces with Atlassian Solution Partners and build the dominant Scaled Agile, DevOps, and Service Management consulting firm with global reach."
