Get details below on recent funding deals: In the past week, six Austin-area companies reported a combined total of nearly $157 million in funding secured. 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.
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In the biggest funding of the week, SparkCognition Inc. said it raised a $123 million series D round at a $1.4 billion valuation. The artificial intelligence company said the money came from investors including March Capital, Doha Venture Capital, B. Riley Venture Capital, AEI Horizon X, Temasek, Alan Howard and Peter Löscher. It has raised a total of about $300 million in venture backing since it was founded in 2013 by CEO Amir Husain.
The company currently has more than 300 employees. About 70%, or 210 of them, are based in Austin.
First Dollar Inc. said Jan. 27 it has raised $14 million in series A funding to expand its wallet platform and integrate more types of benefits. The round was led by Blue Venture Fund, which is a collaboration by Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and Sandbox. Other investors include Austin's Next Coast Ventures, as well as New York-based Meridian Street Capital. Angel investors included Everly Health CEO Julia Cheek, Zus Health CEO Jonathan Bush and several others. That brings its total funding to about $21 million.
The startup has developed a health wallet for member-driven health care plans, including health savings accounts and prescription plans. First Dollar was founded by serial entrepreneurs Jason Bornhorst and Colin Anawaty in 2019. It emerged from stealth in May 2020 with a $5 million seed round led by Next Coast Ventures. The co-founders sold their previous company, Patient IO, to Athenahealth in 2016 for an undisclosed sum. First Dollar counts Sidecar Health, Kind Health and Decent Health among early customers.
Austin real estate-technology startup Milestones Labs Inc. reported in a securities filing raising $10.3 million in new equity funding. The startup, led by co-founder and CEO Dustin Gray, helps real estate agents and others in the industry develop personalized real estate websites, drive engagement and generate leads. Gray was previously head of operations at Realtor.com and, before that, was senior vice president of consumer products at RealPage.
Those swimming pools won't clean themselves. That's why Austin startup Skimmer Inc. developed what it calls a pool service software platform to help service and repair professionals engage with pool owners. The startup said Jan. 27 it has raised $5 million in fresh funding to bring its total raised to $10 million. The round came from Austin-based Unbundled Capital, along with Skimmer employees. Led by CEO Jack Nelson, Skimmer moved to Austin from Phoenix in 2020 after Unbundled's first investment.
With the new capital, the startup plans to add more features and expand its network, Nelson said in a statement. The startup recently added three people to its team, and it plans to hire five more in key engineering and marketing roles.
Austin-based Bodhi, which makes customer experience and automated communication software for the solar energy industry, has closed a $4 million round of funding led by Boston firm Clean Energy Ventures. The company plans to grow its engineering, sales, marketing and operations team with the new backing. Bodhi, which operates legally as 17TeraWatts Inc., was founded in 2018 and is led by co-founder and CEO Scott Nguyen. Nguyen is an Energy Institute Fellow at the University of Texas, and he previously founded Bracket Technologies.
Banking giant JPMorgan Chase has given a $480,000 grant to DivInc, an Austin-based accelerator for diverse founders. The money will expand DivInc's batch of resources and programs for founders in its Austin and Houston programs, including a venture studio to assist founders as their companies grow and a validation bootcamp for early founders. "We, DivInc, knows we can't do this work by ourselves, so it's a blessing to have premier partners willing to get in the trenches with us to make a difference in our communities," DivInc CEO Preston James said in a statement. "We can't create real change without making the heavy lift."
Investment firms
Austin-based Revival Healthcare Capital led the $90 million series E funding round in Distalmotion SA, a Switzerland-based company making a surgical robot. Rick Anderson, Revival chairman, will join the Distalmotion board as chairman, while Lauren Forshey, Revival's president, will join the board as an observer. 415 Capital and "existing investors" joined in the round.
Austin-based venture firm Santé Ventures has led a $25 million funding round for Nashville-based oncology startup Reimagine Care. Other investors included Martin Ventures and LRVHealth. Santé Ventures, founded in 2006, focuses on early-stage healthcare startups and it has about 30 companies in its portfolio. In 2021, Santé raised $260 million for its fourth fund.
Get ABJ's latest list of local venture capital firms here, and see the list of angel investors here. A list of local startup incubators can be found here.
