We rounded up all the funding deals out of Boston tech companies this week. As more news comes out, this post will be updated.
Tuesday, July 14
CallMiner (Waltham)
- Deal: $12 million in private equity funding
- Investors: Led by NewSpring Growth Capital, the financing was part of a larger round that included existing investors.
- What they do: Founded in 2002, CallMiner is a provider of speech and interaction analytic tools to clients across a range of industries including financial services, utilities and energy, manufacturing, government, communications, fulfillment and performance, marketing and travel and hospitality. CallMiner offers both real-time monitoring and post-call analytics. The company specializes in improving contact center performance and gathering key business intelligence by automatically analyzing contacts across all communication channels: calls, chat, email, and social.
- Other details: The proceeds from this funding are are being used for growth initiatives in sales and marketing. Glenn Rieger, NewSpring General Partner, has been added as a member to the CallMiner Board of Directors.
DataCamp (Cambridge)
- Deal: $1 million in seed financing
- Investors: The round was led by Chris Lynch at Accomplice.
- What they do: DataCamp is the first online platform for learning data science skills. All DataCamp courses are offered via an interactive learning portal for hands-on experimentation from within the browser. Students participate in practical, real-world exercises and challenges and glean personalized feedback.
- Other details: DataCamp has forged partnerships with Microsoft (edX) and IBM (Big Data University) on key big data learning initiatives, among other organizations. The company has also teamed up with professors from a number of academic institutions including Princeton, Duke and University of Washington. DataCamp says its course completion rates are 3 times that of other online learning platforms, with more than 150,000 users having completed courses. The majority—70 percent—of DataCamp’s users are professionals in the technology, finance and healthcare industries. Before closing this seed round, the company had previously raised $300,000. This new capital will be used to expand DataCamp’s learning platform by integrating new data technologies and techniques into the curriculum, such as Spark and Hadoop. DataCamp is also working on developing a model for academics and corporations to use in the classroom or blended learning environments to train entire teams of aspiring data scientists. The company, which launched in Belgium about 18 months ago and participated in TechStars last year, will be moving its office from Cambridge to Boston.
Scratch (Boston)
- Deal: $3.6 million in seed funding Investors: Led by Bessemer Venture Partners, the funding round also includes investors NextView Ventures, Red Swan Ventures and Matt Salzberg, CEO of Blue Apron.
- What they do: Founded in August of 2014, Scratch connects consumers with a network of shopping experts who help them find gifts, home decor, clothes and more. Users send a message describing what they're looking for through the Scratch mobile app or website, and within 24 hours, get a response from an expert with personalized recommendations for each request. They can also purchase any item directly through Scratch. The service continually collects information on shoppers' preferences and habits to provide better suggestions.
- Other details: This funding announcement comes simultaneously as Scratch launches its free, invite-only service. The company's long-term vision is to "build a fundamentally better e-commerce search experience, making it easy for consumers to discover amazing products and brands from the overwhelming choices the internet offers."
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