It was a record-setting year for venture-backed Greater Cincinnati startups in 2021 as the region nearly quadrupled its fundraising totals from the previous year — led by a pair of headline-grabbing, nine-figure blockbuster deals.
80 Acres Farms and CinCor Pharma, respectively, raised nearly half of the region’s more than $650 million in capital in 2021. That shatters previous year tallies, including 2019 when local companies brought in $347 million in VC cash, according to Cintrifuse director of startups John Stieger.
Compare that to a Covid-laden 2020, when local startups raised $187 million, and it’s about a 248% gain year-over-year. There are even some last-minute deals still looking to close before the year's end, Stieger said.
Anecdotally, here at Cincy Inno, it seemed like the hits kept coming. While not a comprehensive list, here are some of the region’s top funding stories of 2021 — some you’ve probably seen and a few mixed in to boot.
Blue Ash-based Hearty, a LinkedIn alternative that lets you build a professional network based on personal recommendations, closed a $1.1 million pre-seed round in April, led by Chicago-based Hyde Park Venture Partners and Cleveland’s North Coast Ventures. Hearty’s founders, Bob Gilbreath and Ryan Watson, are repeat founders. They helped guid Ahalogy to a $50 million exit in 2020.
Cincinnati-based Uprising, a superfood bakery offering keto-friendly foods, closed a $1.25 million Series A in January led by L.A.-based Trousdale Ventures and former ad agency executive Nick Brien. Several food and beverage entrepreneurs also participated, including Hayden Slater (Pressed Juicery), Daina Trout (Health-Ade) and Rosie O’Neill and Josh Resnick (Sugarfina). The deal was announced in conjunction with a new retail partnership with Meijer. Uprising, founded in 2019 by former P&G’er William Schumacher and his wife Kristen Schumacher, along with Blue Oven Bakery founders Mark and Sara Frommeyer, was on pace to hit $4 million in sales this year. The Schumachers made a “Shark Tank” TV appearance in October, seeking a $500,000 deal from the celebrity VC panel, but failed to land a deal.
GoSun, a designer of solar-powered outdoor gear — also of “Shark Tank” fame — has raised $1.3 million in equity via crowdfunding site StartEngine, short of its nearly $4 million goal with just a few days remaining in the round. Crowdfunding has long been GoSun's go-to strategy for raising capital (it held a Kickstarter campaign dating back to October 2013). GoSun posted $3.9 million in revenue in 2020 (a 109% sales increase over 2019), and said in its pitch deck that the outdoor recreation industry is ripe for investment as solar and climate change investments go viral.
Akru, a Cincinnati real estate investing startup, landed investments from angel investing group Milwaukee Venture Partners and Santa Monica, Calif.-based heavyweight Draper Goren Holm as part of a $2.2 million seed round. Akru, formerly known as Tokenism prior to its rebranding earlier this year, allows users to invest in fractions of commercial real estate properties for as little as $1,000.
LuckyTruck, a startup founded by St. Xavier High School and Saint Joseph University alum Devin Bostick, raised $3.5 million in seed funding for its platform, which helps small trucking companies purchase and manage their insurance. The capital was announced in mid-December along with a new strategic partnership with SiriusPoint (NYSE: SPNT), a global specialty insurer and reinsurer. LuckyTruck aims to disrupt commercial trucking insurance brokerage, offering an alternative to an often slow, difficult and paper-laden process. Bostick told me the company, which has 36 employees and 600 trucking customers, plans to use the funds to speed up product development.
Amplicore, an early-stage biopharma startup founded in 2018 by University of Cincinnati scientist Chia-Ying "James" Lin, closed a $4 million seed round in March. The company, which is developing a new pipeline of drugs to treat musculoskeletal disorders, said it would use the funds to complete preclinical development of its two leading products, AM3101 and AM1101, which are treatments for meniscus tears and osteoarthritis, respectively. The therapeutics, Amplicore said, have the potential to facilitate healing or slow degenerative progression; current therapies for conditions like osteoarthritis, cartilage damage, disc disease and acute meniscus tear are largely palliative, or offer only short-term relief. The round, led by Photon Fund, included participation from West Coast and Asian-based firms Industrial Technology Investment Corporation, Berkeley Catalyst Fund and SVE Capital.
Downtown-based fintech Struxtion, which provides working capital to contractors and subcontractors, raised a $5.5 million seed round led by Cincinnati-based North American Properties, one of the city’s largest developers. Struxtion founder and CEO Gregg Lund said the company aims to remove financial obstacles that many subcontractors face. Struxtion’s tech-based platform gathers information about a project to provide best possible pricing. It creates a customized rate that adjusts over time by rewarding reputation and performance. The company said it's easy to sign up, begin to borrow, view account activity and manage additional requests on an ongoing basis by uploading newly submitted invoices. In addition to North American Properties, the startup counts Cintrifuse, the region’s startup catalyst group; Allied Construction Industries; and the Associated Builders and Contractors, both trade organizations; as partners.
Eikonoklastes, a preclinical stage biopharma startup developing immunotherapies to treat a variety of cancers, closed a Series A in June — less than one year after the company emerged from stealth mode with its seed round. Eikonoklastes did not disclose the amount, only that the target was significantly oversubscribed, but an SEC filing from March logged the company’s initial offering at $4 million. The round was led by CincyTech with participation from New York-based Elk Capital Ventures, Jobs Ohio, Columbus-based Rev1 and others. Eikonoklastes is looking to develop therapies that target triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive and often lethal form of breast cancer, as well as other diseases.
RedCircle, a podcast platform that caters to independent creators, announced a $6 million Series A in September. The round was co-led by Salt Lake City’s Epic Ventures and Over-the-Rhine’s Refinery Ventures. RedCircle’s home base, like many startups these days, is fuzzy, but its co-founder and CEO Mike Kadin relocated to the Tri-State this year and has plans to grow the company’s Cincinnati team. That potential ramp-up is one of the many reasons the company was named a Cincy Inno “Startup to Watch” for 2022.
Blue Ash-based Cerkl, which tailors employee and corporate communications, raised a $7 million Series A in October. The company has experienced a tidal wave of growth driven by the Covid-19 pandemic. The round, led by Florida-based River Bay Investments, will almost exclusively be used to hire and grow the business, founder Tarek Kamil told me. Cerkl’s 40-person headcount is expected to more than double over the next year.
Downtown-based Electrada, which installs, owns and operates electric vehicle charging stations, is raising $20 million, according to a July filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and has collected at least $11.9 of that total to date. Electrada recently inked its first university partnership, adding new EV stations at Northern Kentucky University, and was on pace to hit 350 installations by the end of this year.
West Chester-based AeroFlexx, a sustainable packaging startup spun out of technology developed at Procter & Gamble, raised $12.5 million in venture funding from undisclosed investors in November, according an SEC filing (the total offering was listed at $25 million). AeroFlexx, formed in 2019, claims its proprietary design uses at least 50% less plastic, offers greater flexibility in size and shape and requires no molds for efficiency in manufacturing.
Mantium, which bills itself as an “AI-for-anyone” startup, raised $12.75 million in a round led by Columbus-based Drive Capital in August. Mantium’s website and regulatory filings place the company in Cincinnati, so its funding total was localized for convenience, but a spokesman said its headquarters has since moved to Ohio’s capital city. Still a boon for the Buckeye State.
Kurome Therapeutics, a Cincinnati Children’s Hospital spinoff, announced a Series A worth $15 million in June — 16 months after it closed a seed round in February 2020. Kurome is developing novel therapies to help combat cancers like AML, or acute myeloid leukemia. The company will use the funds to expand its R&D program and de-risk its drug development process. The round was co-led by Medicxi, a European-based life sciences investment firm, and Affinity Asset Advisors, a New York hedge fund. CincyTech and other existing seed investors, including Queen City Angels, also participated. Jan Rosenbaum, Kurome’s CEO and chief scientific officer, said Kurome is considered a “fast follower.” Interest in the company spiked in December 2020 when one of its competitors released promising clinical trial results.
Blue Ash-based Standard Bariatrics, which is developing medical devices for surgical treatments for obesity, raised a $35 million Series B in June led by Silicon Valley-based U.S. Venture Partners. The new capital will allow Standard Bariatrics to scale its commercialization plans, including for its flagship product, the Titan SGS, a surgical stapler approved by the FDA in April. The Titan has since exceeded $1 million in sales and counting.
Tealbook, which is based in Toronto but maintains a major office in Cincinnati, completed a $50 million Series B earlier this month. The round was led by Connecticut-based private equity firm Ten Coves Capital with participation from Over-the-Rhine-based Refinery Ventures. The company is on a funding spree: It closed a Series A in December 2019 and seed round in December 2018. The company will use the capital to accelerate its data roadmap, introduce new partnerships and integrations and expand its team to fuel global expansion.
Blue Ash-based insurtech Coterie doubled down in 2021. It closed a $11.5 million Series A-1 in February and a $50 million Series B in October. The funding will allow Coterie to “skyrocket” its growth and build out its team, David McFarland, Coterie co-founder and CEO, said. Coterie’s digital platform delivers insurance solutions to small businesses, contractors and gig workers, and its agent portal allows for the instant quoting and issuing of policies as well as a 100% digital underwriting process.
Madisonville-based CinCor Pharm in October announced a $143 million Series B led by General Atlantic, a New York City-headquartered growth equity firm, which stands today as the region’s second-largest fundraising total to date. CinCor, a clinical-stage biopharma developing treatments for cardio-renal diseases like hypertension, said the proceeds will support the continued development of the company’s lead asset, CIN-107, for the treatment of hypertension, primary aldosteronism and chronic kidney disease as well as help fund ongoing clinical trials. The round bring the company’s total capital raised to $193 million.
80 Acres, a Hamilton-based vertical farming startup, tops the list of fundings in 2021 — and with gusto. Its $160 million Series B from August not only ranks as the region’s largest capital raise in history, it’s almost more than all Greater Cincinnati startups raised in 2019 combined. The round was led by General Atlantic, a New York City-headquartered growth equity firm, and included Siemens Financial Services, the U.S. financing arm of global technology company Siemens, among others. CEO Mike Zelkind said the funds will help 80 Acres launch new farms, both domestically and abroad (80 Acres has four farms in Hamilton, a site in Cincinnati and farms in Daphne, Ala.; Springdale, Ark.; and Granite Falls, N.C.) Its team, north of 200 now, could double or triple over the next year.
