Columbus startup Aware has raised an additional $50.5 million, nine months after a $12 million round, according to a regulatory filing.
Demand had soared along with the past year's work-from-home movement and rapid adoption of digital collaboration software such as Slack, Facebook Workplace and Microsoft Teams.
Aware's software analyzes those amorphous waves of communication – down to emojis and GIFs – to detect security risks and analyze employee productivity and sentiment in real-time.
Aware has 60 employees, but can't comment yet on the funding, a spokeswoman said via email. Companies typically do not talk about rounds that have not yet closed to avoid additional federal reporting requirements.
This Series C so far has 12 investors since Sept. 15 and a goal of $62 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The round last December had kicked off with the first equity investment from state economic development organization JobsOhio. New York-based Spring Mountain Capital led that Series B round, along with new investors Blue Heron Capital of Virginia and Allos Ventures of Cincinnati, plus returning Columbus investors Rev1 Ventures and Ohio Innovation Fund.
"We actually could have raised a significantly larger round," co-founder and CEO Jeff Schumann said then. "You have to be smart about how much money you take in and when."
The company had planned to double to 100 employees over the course of 2021. During the coronavirus pandemic, Aware had a mix of remote work and staff in its Brewery District office.
Aware, the DBA of Nullable Inc., has more than doubled annual revenue each year since it was founded in 2017, although figures are not disclosed. The company had been tracking at the end of 2020 for a second consecutive year of 150% growth.
In March, the growing company filled out its C-suite with three executives from Cardinal Health Inc. and Nationwide, as well as a veteran of San Francisco cloud communications company
