Get details below on recent funding deals that caught our attention.
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• Topl Inc., a blockchain startup that recently moved to Austin from Houston, said July 26 it raised a $15 million series A led by Mercury, Republic Asia and Cryptology Asset Group. The startup, founded by Christopher Georgen, James Aman and Kim Raath in 2017, previously raised a $3 million seed round led by Mercury in 2020. It has now raised $20.4 million, which includes some pre-seed funding, according to Crunchbase.
Topl's blockchain programs help other businesses and organizations tokenize and track sustainability initiatives, such as monitoring water usage, tracking product chains to ensure conflict free diamonds and sourcing fair-wage cocoa. The company said it plans to launch a traceability platform for ethically and sustainably sourced products later this year. The startup also noted it is launching a grant award program to back Web3 startups making inclusive and sustainable supply chain tech.
"Topl's blockchain was purpose built to power the next wave of supply chains and markets, that are more sustainable and inclusive," Georgen stated. "Every decision we’ve made has been relentlessly focused on this problem and it's exciting to see this approach yielding results with more than 30 different impact-forward use cases already live or approaching launch."
• An Austin real estate startup focused on homeowners has raised millions in investment dollars after developing its platform in stealth mode for three years. Milestones Labs LLC said it's ready for a rapid go-to-market campaign with a lift from a $10.3M series A. The investment round was led by Updater, a New York company focused on relocations that operates brands Updater, Dolly and MoveHQ.
Other investors pitching in included Fidelity National Financial; Second Century Ventures, which is the investment arm of the National Association of Realtors; Peerage Capital; McLaughlin Ventures; WAV Group Ventures; T3 Partners; Tom Ferry; Sellers Shield; as well as other angels. Milestones is led by founder and CEO Dustin Gray, a former Deloitte consultant who went on to found an online marketplace for retrofitting called GreenPSF before becoming a senior vice president of consumer products and innovation at RealPage and, most recently head of operations at Realtor.com.
Milestone has built a free access home ownership portal that helps people manage their home's major maintenance issues, as well as track home value and manage transactions when owners decide to sell. It partners with real estate firms, as well as mortgage, title and insurance companies.
Gray said real estate agents should be less transactional and more of a fiduciary advisor for all aspects of the home buying, owning and selling processes. Milestones tries to reach a wide variety of education, services and resources.
"The average home has more than 150 systems that need to be maintained and consumers need help keeping it all organized," he stated. "Gutters need to be cleared, water filters replaced, concrete sealed, dryer vents cleaned and so on. Milestones has checklists for all of it, complete with DIY videos, or access to professionals who will do it for you."
• Recess Pickleball Inc., a local startup that sells pickleball rackets and other accessories, has raised nearly $634,000 of a planned $1.5 million funding round, according to a July 27 securities filing. The initial tranche came from a single investor, according to the filing. Recess Pickleball was co-founded in 2021 by CEO Maggie Brown, who was previously a strategic account executive with Uber, and Creative Director Grace Moore, a graphic designer and social media manager. The company has also created a set of guides to help get people into the sport, find out about places to play and learn new techniques.
• While a little different than a standard funding round, the latest news out of EnergyX is worth mentioning here. The Puerto Rico-based startup, which operates legally as Energy Exploration Technologies Inc. and has an innovation lab in Austin, has secured a $450 million commitment from private equity firm Global Emerging Markets.
EnergyX will decide how much of that capital it needs and when it wants to take it. It plans to go public, and after that the company will issues shares of stock to GEM over the course of 36 months.
The funding is intended to bolster the company's efforts to extract lithium from brine, refine it and manufacture it for next generation batteries.
"GEM’s funding for EnergyX is one of the company’s biggest accomplishments to date. It gives us a war chest, and rewards the hard work and long hours put in by every member of our team since the creation of the company," EnergyX CEO Teague Egan stated. "Everyone at EnergyX has been committed to developing cutting-edge technology capable of revolutionizing the lithium industry and having an impact on the global transition to low carbon."
EnergyX last May raised $20M in funding from Obsidian Acquisition Partners, Helios Capital and the University of Texas.
Earlier this year, Bolivian officials disqualified EnergyX from a direct-lithium extraction selection process. But the company indicated it believes it still may have an opportunity to work in Bolivia. And it also noted it recently signed an agreement with a Bolivian electric micro-mobility startup to build battery swap stations.
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.
