Get details below on recent funding deals that caught our attention.
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Austin-based Core Scientific Inc., a publicly traded cryptocurrency mining and blockchain technology company, announced July 21 that is has struck a deal to sell up to $100 million of common stock to B. Riley Principal Capital II LLC over a 24-month period.
Core Scientific (Nasdaq: CORZ) went public through a January merger with a special purpose acquisition company, with shares opening at $9.74. Its shares closed July 22 at $1.83. The company in June sold 79% of its mined Bitcoin for $167M, Bloomberg reported.
For more details on the $100 million stock offering, check out Core Scientific's security filing.
Spruce Services Inc., a startup that offers housekeeping and other services in multifamily communities, plans to double its headcount after raising a $26 million series B round. The round was led by Houston-based Sweat Equity Partners with additional investment from SoftBank Corp., Mercury Fund, Fitz Gate Ventures, Seamless Capital, Raven One Ventures and New Age Ventures. The company works with 2,300-plus apartment communities nationwide and has a headcount of about 50, which it plans to double. Additionally, Steven Pho was named Spruce CEO.
Austin-based HiddenLayer Inc. announced July 19 it has emerged from stealth mode with a $6 million seed round. The cybersecurity startup's funding was led by Silicon Valley-based Ten Eleven Ventures. Other investors were not named.
The startup says its platform protects machine learning models and systems from specialized intrusions, such as training data poisoning and intellectual property theft. It was co-founded in March by Chris "Tito" Sestito, Tanner Burns and James Ballard, who previously worked together at security company Cylance.
In other startup funding news, John Deere is teaming up with Austin Technology Incubator on a new pitch competition that will involve about $12,000 in cash prizes, along with mentorship and a spot in the John Deere startup collaborator program. They're looking for startups with tech that could be applied to soil and plant health, job automation, sensors, mobile customer UX and UI enhancements, fintech and more. The deadline to apply is Aug. 5. For more details on the contest, called GroundBreakers Austin, go here.
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.
