After a relatively slow summer for startup funding, local companies had a flurry of successful rounds raised as the kids started going back to school.
The fundraising activity includes a few smaller rounds for seed- and early-stage companies, as well as larger private equity deals involving companies that have been growing in the Austin area for years.
Let's take a look at some of the funding deals that emerged in the first half of September.
Austin-based CLEAResult Consulting Inc., a company that helps develop energy efficiency programs, said Sept. 3 that it landed a majority-stake investment by funds managed by New York-based Kohlberg & Company. It didn't provide financial details. Kohlberg acquired its shares from TPG Growth and TPG's The Rise Fund.
CLEAResult, founded in 2003 and based in Austin, has 2,700 employees across 60 cities in the U.S. and Canada. It's led by CEO Rich McBee.
MirrorWeb, a tech company that helps businesses capture, archive and monitor web-based content for oversight and regulatory compliance, said on Sept. 5 that it landed a $63 million growth equity investment from Austin-based Mainsail Partners. As part of the deal, Mainsail's David Farsai and Garret Jackson will join MirrorWeb's board.
The company was founded in the United Kingdom in 2016. In 2022, its CEO, David Clee, moved to Austin and opened its U.S. headquarters here at 500 West 2nd St. downtown. It plans to grow its employee and customer bases here, as well.
MirrorWeb said it plans to use the new funding to accelerate product development and find new customers in the financial, government and regulatory fields.
“Regulators have never been more focused on ensuring the integrity of financial markets, protecting investors and preventing systematic risk to our economy,” Clee stated. “Mainsail’s investment and operational resources will help us continue to support financial institutions as they navigate this environment and to meet their compliance and digital preservation needs.”
Austin-based no-code platform Fastn said Sept. 5 that it landed a $2.6 million seed round led by Austin's LiveOak Ventures and Antler. Other investors included Netlify co-founder Chris Bach and Loop co-founder Kyle Hency. The startup, founded by CEO Khalid Muaydh last year, uses AI to help developers connect data sources, APIs and other app components. Muaydh was previously vice president of engineering at Fabrick and Veeve. Before that, he was a software engineering leader at Amazon.
Along with the funding, the startup announced that tech giant HP has adopted its platform for composable app development.
“Leveraging Fastn, we've eliminated development bottlenecks and significantly expanded the customer environments we address, connected disparate systems more efficiently, and significantly the scale our application can handle," HP VP of Engineering Gaurav Roy stated. "By white-labeling aspects of Fastn within our UI, we've empowered our customers with guided, self-serve capabilities, allowing us to meet their evolving needs. Backed by robust security and SOC-2, Fastn provides enterprise-grade assurance that HP requires to scale securely.”
Edtech startup Ediphi raised a $1.5 million funding round led by a group of investors that includes Tripadvisor co-founder and former CEO Steve Kaufer, as well as investors Pixel Perfect Ventures, Allied VC and Techstars. Ediphi's VR platform, which can operate in almost any language, simulates hotel settings and includes training for routine work, as well as emergency preparedness, including hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, basic first aid and more. Its AI-powered trainer, Yumi, also helps guide trainees through potential career paths and suggests future roles that they might consider to rise in the ranks and boost their salaries and responsibilities.
The startup, which has an office at Capital Factory as well as teams in Slovenia and the Philippines, has about 20 employees. Read more.
Austin-based FlashParking Inc. is opening a new chapter in its growth with the help of $85 million in debt financing from Vantage Infrastructure. It also has an option for an extension to $100 million.
The debt funding is intended to help the company, founded in 2011, create a special purpose vehicle offering that will help parking garage operators pay for installation and operation of Flash's parking and EV charging technologies with flexible payment options.
“Asset owners and operators have a myriad of budgetary and deployment preferences — the payment options we can now extend through the SPV will allow customers to join the Flash platform on terms that work best for them," Flash President Chris Donus stated. Read more.
Austin-based Ai Fleet Inc. announced that it has added to that with a $16.6 million series B funding round. The investment is intended to help continue growth, make key hires and develop new products. It has now raised nearly $50 million in total.
Investors in the new round include Tom Williams at Heron Rock, as well as Volvo Group Venture Capital, Obvious Ventures, Ibex Investors, Compound, Winthrop Square and Cooley.
The startup uses customized artificial intelligence to help boost truck utilization, manage loading and routes and help boost revenue for its truckers. It offers its drivers relatively new trucks, guaranteed weekly pay and a minimum of 34 hours per week at home. In 2021, the company, led by co-founder and CEO Marc El Khoury, landed a $21 million series A investment. Read more.
Austin's Sigo Insurance Services, an insurtech startup doing business as Sigo Seguros, said that it has raised a $10.5 million series A funding round. The investment was led by Varco Capital, a family office formed by the founders of Pronto Insurance, and Chicago-based firm Listen. Other backers included Angeles Ventures, Flintlock Capital, Zeal Capital Partners, Rise of the Rest and Fiat Ventures. As part of the deal, Varco Capital Partner Rafael Varela will join the company's board.
The startup, which specializes in non-standard auto insurance for Spanish speakers, operates fully remotely. It has 21 employees, and its CEO, Néstor Hugo Solari, and two other employees are based in Austin. The company, founded in 2019, is hiring for roles on its tech and customer experience teams.
Sigo said its gross written premiums increased by 500% last year and that its underwriting technology is generating profitable loss ratios.
“The existing insurance industry overlooks the Latino community despite its outperformance in terms of loss ratios," Solari stated. "Large, national insurance carriers intentionally ignore our customers and prioritize the use of credit score, while small, regional carriers provide antiquated service through opaque, fee-heavy independent agent channels."
WebAI Inc., an Austin-based AI development platform, has raised a $43 million series A funding round. The new round came at a $700 million valuation and added to the $17 million it had previously raised.
Among its investors were Forerunner Ventures, Mike Abbott, David Beirne and David Shuman.
Abbott, a computer science professor at Stanford University and a former general partner at Kleiner Perkins, and Beirne, founder of X10 Capital and former general partner at Benchmark Capital, will join WebAI's board, along with Dennis Durkin, former chief financial officer at Activision Blizzard and former chief financial officer and chief operating officer at XBOX.
The startup, which recently crossed 60 employees, was founded in 2019 by Chief Executive David Stout, Ethan Baird and Tyler Mauer. It also has a presence in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more.
Austin area avionics services company L2 Aviation said that it secured a strategic growth investment from New York growth equity firm Argentum. Financial details weren't shared, but L2 characterized it as a minority stake. The companies said the deal will help L2 expand its production capacity and seek acquisitions to expand its business.
The company, led by founder and CEO Mark Lebovitz, helps OEMs, airlines, operators and satellite and communications service providers shorten the time to market for new products.
65 Equity Partners, a Singapore-based private equity firm owned by Temasek Holdings, said today that it has made a minority investment in Austin-based jewelry and lifestyle company Kendra Scott Design Inc.
The firm didn't immediately respond to questions about the size of the investment.
Under the deal, two of the company's earlier private equity backers, Berkshire Partners and Norwest Venture Partners, have fully redeemed the preferred stock investments they held. Berkshire initially made a minority stake investment in 2016 that valued the company at more than $1 billion. Norwest Venture Partners made an undisclosed minority investment in 2014. Read more.
