Last week was a modest one for startup funding in Austin, with four deals announced worth about $69 million combined.
Want daily updates on fundings, hires and other news of interest to the startup community? Subscribe to Austin Inno’s Beat newsletter.
Austin-based Episode Six Inc. said May 23 it raised $48 million as it develops software that helps businesses, including banks and other financial-technology companies, implement modern payment processing systems and virtual ledgers for their digital cash registers. The series C round was led by New York-based investment firm Avenir. Santa Monica-based firm Anthos Capital, which had previously invested in Episode Six, also joined the round.
Episode Six — founded in 2015 by CEO John Mitchell, Chief Technology Officer Futeh Kao and Chief Financial Officer Chermaine Hu — said the new venture funding will help it expand its reach and grow its team. The new money brings the company's total funding to nearly $100 million.
Acadeum — an Austin-based company that helps college students take online courses at other schools, giving them more flexibility and helping them move toward graduation — said May 24 it closed an $11.9 million series B funding round led by Austin-based Green Street Impact Partners, the fund's first investment. Other investors included ECMC Group's Education Impact Fund and Pearson Ventures.
Acadeum, which operates legally as College Consortium Inc., counts both large institutions such as Texas A&M and smaller schools among its clients. It was founded in 2016 by Joshua Pierce, Luis Felipe Rincon, Nathan Green, Osei Bonsu and Robert Manzer. It has now raised a total of $23.9 million, according to Crunchbase.
Volcon Inc., maker of electric off-road vehicles, on May 24 closed a stock offering of 6 million shares priced at 75 cents apiece. The Round Rock-based company said the offering generated gross proceeds of $4.5 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and other expenses. The money will be used for "general corporate purposes," it said, including day-to-day expenses, operations and buying new equipment.
Underwriter Aegis Capital Corp. also has the option to purchase an additional 900,000 shares of Volcon at the same price within 45 days.
Volcon also has a placement deal to issue convertible senior notes and warrants to an investor in exchange for roughly $4.9 million. The investor will have the option to convert the notes into common stock shares at a later date.
Volcon, which launched in 2020, said last year that it had abandoned its plans for an expansive headquarters campus in Liberty Hill. Earlier this year, Volcon’s manufacturing partner, GLV, picked a new ElectraMeccanica facility in Mesa, Arizona, for final assembly of its next generation Grunt EVO and Runt fat-tired electric motorcycles.
Austin startup SocialNote on May 23 was named winner of the 2023 Austin FC Dream Starter Competition. The competition, a collaboration between Q2 Holdings Inc. and nonprofit accelerator DivInc, aims to support entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds.
SocialNote, which has developed a web application for school-based social workers, will receive $100,000 in funding. The check will be presented at halftime during Austin FC's June 3 home match versus Real Salt Lake.
"It is an honor to be selected as the 2023 Dream Starter Competition winner," SocialNote co-founder Vanessa Newton stated. "We look forward to using the funds to grow and expand the reach of our business and mission of providing K-12 schools with the tools needed to support their social workers and counselors, which has a direct impact on the mental health and wellness of our students and children."
Other finalists in the competition were skincare product company Daybird; Jale, an app that creates opportunities between companies and blue-collar Latino workers; Player2Player, which creates opportunities for high school and college-age athletes to coach young players; and Mammoth Creameries, which makes ice cream and frozen custard for people with diabetes or on sugar-conscious diets.
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.
