Deal flow picked up toward the end of January, with six deals announced in the past two weeks totaling nearly $61 million in new funding. Plus, there's more dry powder waiting to be deployed after middle market private equity investor Tritium Partners closed a $684 million third fund.
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• RapidDeploy Inc., an Austin startup that develops mapping and analytics software for 911 and emergency management agencies, said on Jan. 25 that it has raised $34 million in growth capital led by New Jersey-based Edison Partners. Other firms contributing to the investment include GreatPoint Ventures, Morpheus Ventures, GM Ventures, Ericsson Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, Clearvision Ventures, Tau Ventures and NedBank CIB.
RapidDeploy, founded in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2014 by CEO Steven Raucher and CIO Brett Meyerowitz, opened its Austin headquarters at 310 Comal St. in January 2019. This new investment brings RapidDeploy's total funding to $87 million, including a $29 million round in 2021. Meanwhile, the company says it now has secured 10 statewide contracts, in addition to more than 1,500 contracts with 911 centers. Read the full story.
• Austin-based Forward Lending Inc., which does business as Method Financial, said Jan. 26 that it has raised a $16 million series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other investors included Truist Ventures, SV Angel, Abstract Ventures and several fintech founders. Method's seed round investors — Y Combinator, Ardent, Cameron Ventures and Leonis Capital — also joined in the series A round.
Method has developed debt repayment and balance transfer tools that operate through a single API, or application programming interface, making them easy for developers to embed in apps. The startup was founded in 2021 by Jose Bethancourt and Marco del Carmen and went through the highly selective Y Combinator accelerator program. The duo previously founded student loan repayment platform GradJoy.
In a blog post, Bethancourt said Method has secured 45 customers, including banks, credit unions and personal finance apps.
"Our Series A will allow us to double-down on our mission and build upon Method’s core technology that allows our customers to retrieve and pay all of a user's liabilities using just their phone number," Bethancourt wrote. "2023 will bring the next generation of liability experiences within Method."
• Employee payments platform Grazzy announced Jan. 23 its $4.25 million seed round, which brings its total seed funding to date to $6.8 million. The new money came from Next Coast Ventures and Tuesday Capital. The funds are expected to help Grazzy "fuel the rapid expansion and growth of its digital tipping, same-day pay, and better, more inclusive banking capabilities," according to the announcement.
• Austin startup Suppli, which provides an accounts receivable platform for construction suppliers, said Jan. 26 it has raised $3.1 million in seed funding led by New York-based Equal Ventures. Others in on the round included Audacious Ventures, Dash Fund, Built Technologies CEO Chase Gilbert and Wrapbook CEO Ali Javid.
Suppli, which launched late last year, is led by co-founders Thanasi Skafidas and Ryan Ayers.
"Trade credit is the lifeblood of a material vendor, but is often viewed as a ‘back office’ function," Skafidas stated. "Suppli turns the credit relationship into a competitive advantage by making it convenient, seamless and less risky."
• Austin-based crypto payments platform SphereOne said Jan. 20 it has closed a $2.5 million seed round led by Distributed Global. Other investors included Newark Venture Partners, Zero Knowledge and angel investors Leore Avidar of Alt.xyz and Lob.com and Eric Feldman of Bolt.com.
The startup, which operates legally as Sphere Global Inc., is led by co-founder and CEO Ryan McNutt and co-founder and COO Christopher Ries. McNutt was founder and CEO of ApplyAll. Ries was a security infrastructure manager at Oracle and was an in early product hire at Cylance. This appears to be SphereOne's first funding round. The startup offers a one-click checkout and simplifies swapping dollars for crypto and vice versa.
"We're so focused on creating the best user experience for first-time crypto users that I often joke with Chris that we're building crypto for grandmas since we want anybody to participate in Web3," McNutt stated.
• Austin-based Within Health has raised a $1.1 million series A funding round, according to a Jan. 25 announcement.
The startup bills itself as a "psychedelic medical clinic, retreat center and integration program" that uses ketamine therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, addiction and other mental health issues. The startup's flagship clinic is in Austin but it expects to use the new funds to expand into three new markets and develop a content strategy.
For more local deals, check out another recent funding wrap. And subscribe to Austin Business Journal for startup resources such as lists of venture capital and private equity firms, incubators and accelerators, angel investors and coworking providers.
