Get details below on recent funding deals. In the past week, six Austin companies announced fundings or reported deals with the U.S. Securities Commission worth nearly $187 million.
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Jasper AI Inc. scored one of the largest investments of the year for an Austin company with its $125 million series A round, announced Oct. 18. The startup that uses artificial intelligence to create content such as blog posts said the funding round valued it at $1.5 billion.
The funding round was led by Insight Partners. Other investors included Coatue, Bessemer Venture Partners, IVP, Foundation Capital, Founders Circle Capital and HubSpot Ventures. This brings its total funding to around $130 million.
While Jasper's subscription-based model has been developed with ad writing, blogs and other web content in mind, the platform has been used to write everything from birthday cards to a book created by an 8-year-old boy.
"People are using it for absolutely everything," CEO Dave Rogenmoser said.
SubjectWell Inc., an Austin health-technology startup that helps recruit people for clinical trials, said Oct. 20 it raised $35 million in series B funding led by Palo Alto firm Asset Management Ventures.
The big financial milestone came a few months after SubjectWell opened up its platform to people diagnosed with lung cancer and breast cancer. The company said revenue has climbed 800% in the past two years, with expectations to double in the next 12 months.
Founded in 2012 by Ivor Clarke, Rick Westervelt, Kip McKenzie and Joel Lucas, SubjectWell raised its $10 million series A in 2019 with backers including New York-based Windham Venture Partners, Healthy Ventures and San Antonio-based Geekdom Fund. Those firms reinvested in the series B. Plus, new investor Bertelsmann Investments joined in.
SubjectWell currently has 236 employees, including 62 at its corporate headquarters in Austin and 11 remote workers across the U.S. Its medical team office, in Cape Town, South Africa, has 163 employees. The company plans to add 20-35 new jobs in Austin in the next 12 months, and it's looking to hire 250 employees in South Africa to support new patient screenings generated by its clinical trials marketplace expansion.
Poppi, a prebiotic soda maker that moved to Austin from Dallas last year, reported in an Oct. 17 SEC filing raising $13.6 million in new equity funding. Poppi, legally known as VNGR Beverage LLC, is led by husband-and-wife co-founders Stephen and Allison Ellsworth. The new funding follows a $13.5 million round last year.
The startup, previously known as Mother Beverage, landed a $400,000 deal on "Shark Tank" in 2018. It didn't name investors in its new SEC filing. Poppi's prior investors include CAVU Venture Partners, Chainsmokers, Russell Westbrook, Ellie Goulding and Nicole Scherzinger, and influencers like Chantel Jefferies, Bryce Hall and Noah Beck.
Clairity Inc., an Austin-based health-tech startup using AI to identify risk factors in breast cancer, reported in an Oct. 17 filing raising $6.7 million in new equity funding from three unnamed investors. The filing indicates the company may raise up to $30 million for this round. Clairity is led by CEO Carrie Ivers Reeuwijk and co-founder Constance "Connie" Lehman. Lehman is also head of the Breast Imaging Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. While the SEC filing doesn't note who the investors are, the company lists Austin-based Santé Ventures as one of its backers and Santé co-founder Kevin Lalande and its director, Joe Cunningham, are among its board members.
A month ago, we noted Austin audience insights startup StoryFit Inc. had filed a Form D indicating it had raised $3.8 million. Now we have a lot more detail. The startup, which uses natural language processing and machine learning to provide audience and content insights before production, said Oct. 20 it raised $5.5 million in series A funding. The round was led by Cincinnati-based Refinery Ventures. Techstars, Elkstone Partners, Collective Capital Ventures, Alumni Ventures and others also invested. Refinery Managing Partner Tim Schigel will join the company's board.
StoryFit, led by founder and CEO Monica Landers, said it will use the new funding to expand client solutions and hire aggressively for roles in machine learning, marketing and sales. Along with the funding news, the company announced it added Andy Terrel, a former chief data scientist at Real Estate Exchange Inc. and adviser to several startups, as chief technology officer.
Mod Tech Labs Inc., an Austin startup that creates 3D content from photos and videos, was named one of five grand prize winners at the 43North business competition in Buffalo, New York. The startup will get a $1 million prize from the annual state-funded competition. Mod Tech Labs, led by CEO Alexandria Porter, raised about $507,000 in 2020. It was also part of the MassChallenge accelerator in 2021. As of February, it has raised about $770,000 from investors including Sputnik ATX. It was also one of Austin Inno's 2022 Startups to Watch.
Check out last week's funding wrap here. Subscribe to Austin Business Journal for startup resources like lists of venture capital and private equity firms, incubators and accelerators, angel investors and coworking providers.
