New Money is BostInno's report on all the funding deals out of Boston tech companies this week. As more news comes out, this post will be updated.
Monday, July 27
Confirmed: DraftKings Raises $300M Led by Fox Networks
- Deal: $300M
- Investors: Fox Networks Group, Atlas Venture, the Raine Group, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer and the Kraft Group.
- What they do: Daily fantasy sports
- Valuation: $1.2B+, post-money
- Total funds raised to date by DraftKings: $375M
The first bit of funding news this week was a big one. DraftKings, the Boston-based company competing for a slice of the fast-growing daily fantasy sports pie, closed a round it's been working on for a while, with a changing roster of investors, and confirmed FOX's participation.
Fox Networks Group led the round, which values DraftKings at more than $1.2 billion, post-money. BostInno was first to report that Fox was in the deal, in the BostInno Beat email newsletter two weeks ago. Fox took the place of Disney, which had been talking to DraftKings about investing since March at a similar valuation, but reportedly backed out of the deal due to concerns about DraftKings' incompatibility with its family image. Disney also owns ESPN.
DraftKings put up $30 million in revenue last year; its chief rival, FanDuel, posted $57 million. Yahoo Sports entered the fray a few weeks ago, ending speculation that it might invest in one of the two leaders. Daily fantasy is expected to generate $2.6 billion in entry fees this year, and grow to $14.4 billion by 2020, according to Eilers Research.
The Wall Street Journal has the announcement of DraftKings' closed round, Monday. No word in that announcement whether Fidelity was in the deal, as we originally reported. Other investors include Atlas Venture, the Raine Group, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer and the Kraft Group. --Galen Moore
Ecovent (Boston) raises $$ for climate control
- Deal: $6.9 million Series A
- Investors: The round was led by Emerson Climate Technologies (the business segment of Emerson), with participation from Tamarisc and Blue Fog Capital.
- What they do: Ecovent produces a smart HVAC zoning system that delivers total climate control over each room in consumers' homes. Its advanced system of wireless vents and sensors can identify factors affecting room temperature, and then automatically adjust airflow to each room as needed to achieve the desired temperature.
- Other details: A grad of last year's Techstars Boston spring class, Ecovent also banked a $2.2 million seed round back in October and $605,000 in angel funding the previous spring. The last round of financing raised in the fall allowed the company to start accepting pre-orders through its website—and Ecovent has racked up more than $1 million in pre-orders. Previous investors include Techstars Boston managing director Semyon Dukach via Boston Syndicates, Otter Consulting and a number of angels: Stewart Alsop, Julia Austin, Will Herman, Warren Katz and Michael Mark.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story had $1.25 billion as DraftKings' valuation. But the Wall Street Journal reported more than $1.2 billion. Other outlets had the same language.
