Get details below on recent funding deals that caught our attention. In the past week, three Austin companies reported a combined $33 million in equity and debt funding, while an investment firm indicated it was raising $100 million for a new fund.
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Investment firms
• Last summer, Austin-based venture capital firm Moonshots Capital LLC closed on its $36 million second fund. It's been busy since, making 14 investments, including ID.me, Pacaso, Cart.com, NXCR and Transmute.
In a June 30 securities filing, the firm has indicated it plans to raise $100 million for its third fund. Venture firms typically cannot discuss fundraising with reporters prior to securing investment commitments. But the company has a track record of backing fast-growing Austin startups.
Moonshots is led by co-founders and general partners Craig Cummings and Kelly Perdew. Perdew is a West Point graduate who was a military intelligence officer before entering the business world, co-founding a consulting firm, winning season two of "The Apprentice" and working as a vice president managing real estate for Donald Trump's organization in New York.
Cummings was also a military intelligence officer working closely with the National Security Agency. He was also co-founder of RideScout, which was acquired by Daimler.
Moonshots firm has an emphasis on backing veteran-led startups, which includes Austin cybersecurity startup Threatcare, which was acquired in 2019 by ReliaQuest. Moonshots tends to back startups that have already raised at least $500,000 in seed funding and generate $1 million or more in recurring revenue. One of its most recent investments was in San Mateo, California-based mobile gaming platform VersusGame.
Companies
• Cleartrace Technologies Inc., an Austin startup that helps renewable energy buyers track hourly energy and carbon use data, raised $20 million in a funding round led by Florida-based energy sector VC firm ClearSky. It also included strategic energy sector investors Brookfield Renewable, EDF Energy North America, Tenaska and Exelon. The company, formerly known as swytchX, has added board seats for ClearSky, Brookfield Renewable, EDF Energy North America and Tenaska as part of the new funding round. Cleartrace counts JPMorgan Chase, Brookfield Properties and Iron Mountain as customers. For example, it provides auditable proof of decarbonization for all of Iron Mountain's U.S. data centers. The new funding came a couple years after it raised a $4 million series A round.
• Austin startup Spot Insurance Inc. announced June 30 it added $8 million in debt funding to a $25 million funding round led by locally based Ensemble VC as it continued to secure new partnerships for its short-term insurance policies. Ensemble Managing Partner Collin West and Zach Abrams, former chief product officer at Brex, are joining its board of directors. Spot had about 65 employees as of early June. The company, led by co-founder and co-CEO Matt Randall, provides short-term insurance that covers injuries. It has partnered with major ski resorts including Ikon Pass, as well as many other organizations such as USA Cycling, USA BMX and National Ski Patrol.
• R Labs, a Web3 startup that aims to use blockchain technology to produce and market digital assets in the metaverse, said June 28 it had raised about $5 million in pre-seed funding. While it didn’t list investors individually, it said they represent people associated with Softbank, AGF and Prodege. Chelsea Cain Maclin, a former Bumble marketing vice president, founded R Labs earlier this year with Geeta Sankappanavar, who co-founded Canada-based energy investment firm Grafton Asset Management and is CEO of Akira Impact, an essential assets investment firm that supports UN Sustainable Development Goals. The startup has seven full-time employees and operates remotely, with Maclin serving as chief marketing officer in Austin, along with one other employee, and Sankappanavar and several others working in Canada.
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.
