Jibo (courtesy photo)
Get a daily dose of Boston startup funding news in The Beat. Sign up here. New Money is BostInno's report on all the tech funding deals this week. Check back for updates with more new money.
Jibo (Boston)
- Amount: Not disclosed
- Investor: Fenox Venture Capital
- Details: San Jose, Calif.-based Fenox announced that its "strategic investment" will "help Jibo bring its 'social robot' to more households across the globe." The robot is expected to have features including high-resolution cameras that can recognize faces, capture photos and facilitate video calls. Jibo raised a $25.3 million Series A round led by RRE Ventures in January, and the company is now working to fulfill its $2.3 million Indiegogo campaign from last year. The first units were originally slated to ship late 2015 but have since been pushed back to next year. "This intelligent humanoid is expected to become a central part of every home and lead the emerging social robotics space," Fenox said in its news release. Other investors in Jibo have included Fairhaven Capital and CRV.
LovePop Cards (Cambridge)
- Amount: $2.6 million
- Investors: 22 undisclosed investors.
- Details: This is the largest round yet for the Cambridge-based maker of pop-up greeting cards. The fundraise was disclosed in a Form D filed on Wednesday, and the filing says the startup is looking to raise an additional $825,185, which would bring its total offering to $3.4 million. Earlier this fall, LovePop launched a Kickstarter for two new card designs of presidential candidate Donald Trump and faux presidential candidate Deez Nuts.
Jebbit (Boston)
- Amount: Undisclosed
- Investors: MassVentures. No other investors disclosed.
- Details: MassVentures announced Tuesday that it participated in the latest funding round for Boston-based marketing tech startup Jebbit. It did not specify how much the total funding was for or who the other investors were. "Jebbit has been very successful in filling a real void for companies that need to better engage their customers post-click," Nick Pappas, VP of MassVentures, said in a statement. "The simplicity and versatility of the Jebbit platform is very exciting and we look forward to helping these exceptional entrepreneurs scale the business." The startup had filed a Form D back in July saying that it had raised $1.5 million.
Harvest Power (Waltham)
- Amount: $20 million
- Investors: True North Venture Partners, Industry Ventures and Generation Investment Management, all previous investors
- Details: The company uses organic waste to produce renewable energy and gardening products (soils, mulches and fertilizers); the firm is now launching a five-year growth plan that's “designed to significantly scale the organics business while launching new initiatives in food waste management and renewable energy,” according to a news release. Harvest Power also said it's promoted CFO Christian Kasper to be its new CEO, replacing CEO Kathleen Ligocki, who has left the company for an unspecified CEO role elsewhere. Ligocki, formerly of Kleiner Perkins (an investor in Harvest Power), had joined the company in January 2014. She'll remain on Harvest Power’s board. The company has raised at least $220 million in funding since its launch in 2008.
Placester (Boston)
- Amount: $27 million Series C
- Investors: New Enterprise Associates and Romulus Capital, both previous investors
- Details: Placester’s core service lets real estate agents and brokers to more easily launch a customized website featuring their listings. After three years of honing and growing that service, Placester earlier this year expanded into offering CRM, marketing automation and reporting/analytics for real estate. The major impetus for the new round is to keep up the growth pace after inking a major deal with Keller Williams and RE/MAX Integra, two major real estate firms, which brings Placester to serving 200,000 total customers—or one in five real estate agents in the U.S. The Techstars Boston alum has now raised $50 million since its launch in 2011.
Photos courtesy of Harvest Power and Jibo.
