Fueled by big time deals, the Austin metro had one of its best quarters of venture capital funding ever in the first quarter of this year, according to new data from PitchBook. Local startups raised $1.5 billion across 99 deals. That's the second best the metro area has ever had, save for the third quarter of 2021, which was just slightly higher.
Driving the overall dollar figure were huge funding rounds for Cart.com ($240 million), Wheel ($150 million), SparkCognition ($123 million), Triumvira Immunologics ($100 million) and Atmosphere ($100 million). Also in the top 10 were Colossal ($75 million), Firefly Aerospace ($75 million), Cesium Astro ($60 million), Tecovas ($47 million) and Tomo ($40 million), according to the Q1 data.
Austin's big quarter put it just below Seattle ($1.6 billion) and just ahead of Chicago ($1.4 billion). The Bay Area, New York, LA, Boston and Washington, D.C., were the only other metros with more dollars invested.
But, overall, VC funding nationwide is down. The first quarter of 2022 was the slowest quarter since 2020, the report shows. Meanwhile, funding for U.S. startups founded solely by women declined 34% compared to Q4 2021. That's a faster rate than the overall decline in venture dollar flow of 26%.
Here's a closer look at venture funding deals for Austin startups in early April.
• Austin-based Trace, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to produce youth sports video highlights, announced April 12 that it raised $47 million. The series C round, led by Pelion Venture Partners, brings the company’s total funding to $65.2 million since it was founded in 2011. Lakestar, Toba Capital and Next VP also invested. Trace, which operates legally as AlpineReplay Inc., frames its platform as a tool for do-it-yourself parents looking to capture their child’s latest highlights on the sports field. Trace boasts the ability to record and deliver personalized highlights within hours of the completion of a sporting event, using “wide-angle cameras and proprietary GPS sensors,” according to today's announcement.
• Diligent Robotics Inc. said April 11 that it raised a $30 million series B funding round led by New York-based Tiger Global Management LLC. New investor Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures joined the round, as did prior investors, such as Austin-based Next Coast Ventures, as well as True Ventures, DNX Venture, Ubiquity Ventures, E14 Fund, Boom Capital and Gaingels. The startup, which Andrea Thomaz and Vivian Chu founded in 2017, has raised about $45.9 million in total, according to Crunchbase.
• E-commerce software maker SamCart Inc. on April 7 announced an $82 million series B funding round. SamCart helps businesses sell digital products — such as e-books, online courses and other creative endeavors — directly to consumers. It helps creators design sales pages, process payments and ultimately get customers from the sales cart to the payment screen. The big round was led by Eldridge, a Connecticut-based investment firm, with money also coming from TTV Capital, Fin VC, the George Kaiser Foundation and eGateway Capital.
• Surely Health Inc. on April 8 reported raising just over $25 million from seven investors. That fee "excludes an additional $9,168,345.86 USD of convertible note principal and interest that has been converted into equity," according to the filing. Joshua Hix is listed as the company's top executive.
• Maxwell Biosciences Inc. on April 5 reported raising nearly $11 million from 96 investors. It initially announced the raise on March 10. Joshua McClure is the company's president and CEO.
• Lung Therapeutics Inc. on April 4 reported raising just over $10 million from 213 investors. The company previously raised a $36 million series C in June 2019. The company's top executive is Brian Windsor.
• On April 5, Data.world announced it had raised a $50 million series C round led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Other investors included Prologis Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Vopak Ventures, Sandbox Insurtech Ventures, Paul Albright, Zachary Karabell and Scott Stephenson.
• Stealthy cybersecurity startup Nudge Security said April that it had landed $7 million in seed funding led by Ballistic Ventures, a newly hatched security-focused firm in the Bay Area. Nudge was co-founded by CEO Russell Spitler and CTO Jaime Blasco, who is based in Austin, according to LinkedIn. Spitler previously co-founded Fortify Software in 2003 and led products through acquisition by Hewlett Packard. Blasco was previously AlienVault's chief scientist. The startup is focused on affecting human behavior as a way to reduce security breaches. That includes nudges to prompt employees to do certain things, although the company appears to be early on its journey.
• Ghost Financial on April 5 said it had emerged from stealth with $2.5 million pre-seed funding to fuel its launch. The long list of investors includes HOF Capital, 305 Ventures, Hustle Fund, Active Capital, Anthony Ghosn, The Council, Amber Illig, Dr. Molly Maloof, Sarah Kaney, Meg Fitzpatrick, Samantha Stein, Sabrina Halper, Kosinski Ventures, House Capital, Starship Ventures, Ben Yu, Adam Guild, Cory Levy, Ditec Ventures, Draft Ventures, Pareto20 and Kepler Operator Fund. The startup said its investors are about half women who are angel investors or women-led funds. Ghost Financial's platform uses AI to generate incentives like cash back credit cards to fund inventory expenses.
Investment funds
• Austin venture capital firm Silverton Partners filed paperwork with the SEC April 11 indicating it plans to raise around $220 million in new funding to fuel its startup investments. Venture firms typically don't comment on fundraising until commitments are solidified. But the Form Ds give us a hint at what may be to come. One fund, titled Silverton Partners VII, appears to be the firm's next flagship fund, with plans to raise $140 million. The Silverton Opportunities II fund, slated to raise up to $50 million, appears likely to fuel future follow-on investments. Meanwhile, the firm has opened fundraising for a fund called Silverton Partners Entrepreneurs VII and Silverton Opportunities Entrepreneurs II, with targets of $20 million and $10 million, respectively. The new filings come a couple years after the firm raised a $144 million fund mostly dedicated to making new investments in Texas startups.
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.
