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.
Jana (Boston)
- Amount: $57 million Series C
- Investors: Verizon Ventures led the round, with participation from Spark Capital and Publicis Groupe.
- Details: Jana provides free Internet access to people in emerging markets through its mCent marketplace, which lets people try out apps in exchange for receiving a few megabytes of free data. The company will use the funds to grow its current 85-person headcount and expand into other markets. Jana's mCent competes against Facebook's Free Basics service, which was just banned in India. Read more about why Jana has the upper hand over Facebook in reaching emerging markets here.
- Story
Constant Therapy (Lexington)
- Amount: $1.9 million
- Investors: The Form D filing lists 34 investors.
- Details: Constant Therapy has developed an iPad app that helps people with cognitive, language, communication and learning disorders improve brain function. Most recently, the company won honors from the American Heart Association and AARP for its app.
- Form D
BetterLesson (Cambridge)
- Amount: $6 million
- Investors: Reach Capital, New Markets Venture Partners, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Scott Cook and Signe Ostby.
- Details: BetterLesson offers lesson plans online and now also matches teachers with coaches, to help create a personalized plan for the teacher. The company has now raised $11 million in equity funding.
- Xconomy coverage.
Ellevation Education (Boston)
- Amount: $6.4 million
- Investor: The round was led by Emerson Collective, a group led by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs. Other investors were Zuckerberg Education Ventures, a fund affiliated with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's philanthropic efforts; and Omidyar Network, led by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
- Details: Ellevation Education develops a web-based software platform that assists with the education of English language learners. More specifically, it helps educators review the proficiency levels and accommodations for each student, and lets them shift attention to students who are in need of more attention. The startup previously raised a $2 million round in July 14 from LearnLaunchX co-founder Eileen Rudden, Berylson Capital Partners and former Circuit City CEO Alan Wurtzel, which brought its total funding to a little more than $5 million at the time. Ellevation's co-founders are Jordan Meranus and Teddy Rice.
- BetaBoston
Understory (Somerville)
- Amount: $7.5 million
- Investor: 4490 Ventures and Monsanto Growth Ventures led the round, with participation from existing investors True Ventures, RRE Ventures and 5K Ventures.
- Details: Understory is an alum of Bolt's hardware startup accelerator that has developed grids of weather-sensing hardware that uses data systems to better track storms. In its funding announcement, the startup said it its relocating its headquarters back to its home state of Wisconsin while expanding its presence in Somerville at the same time. It currently has weather-sensing networks in Kansas City, Boston and Dallas, and it plans to announce additional cities soon.
Talla (Brookline)
- Amount: A little over $4 million
- Investor: Jason Calacanis’s Launch fund, Charlie O’Donnell from Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Avalon Ventures, Hyperplane Venture Capital, Converge Venture Partners and Stage 1 Ventures.
- Details: Talla was started last year by Backupify founder Rob May, and it recently came out of stealth. On Talla's website, it says that it's focusing on developing machine intelligence for virtual assistants that will help with marketing, office management and recruitment tasks right from the comfort of your Slack, Hipchat or Gchat. The virtual assistant is currently in private beta.
- Form D
DraftKings (Boston)
- Amount: About $70 million
- Investor: The investors have not been disclosed.
- Details: DraftKings recently raised the $70 million round, The Boston Globe reported on Friday, citing two people who were briefed on the deal’s terms. The newspaper noted that the round was smaller than previous ones. The deal’s insiders told the Globe that the round prompted 21st Century Fox to make a roughly 60-percent reduction in the value of its $160 million investment in the company. The daily fantasy sports company previously raised about $500 million in two separate rounds over the summer.
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