As Colorado startups and tech companies prepared for the holidays, December was full of huge funding announcements.
We tracked more than $370 million in funding across 17 deals in December, topping November's mark of 11 local deals totaling nearly $238 million. Looking back at our monthly roundups from 2019, December was one of Colorado's busiest for tech deal flow.
The total funding was bolstered by two huge biotech deals, as Inscripta closed a $125 million Series D and ArcherDX landed a $55 million Series C.
We cover funding rounds, acquisitions and other transactions in our daily newsletter, The Beat. You can sign up for that here and we gathered some of the state’s top fundings from December in a roundup below:
Votigo, a Boulder-based social media marketing and promotions company with a SaaS platform and full-service solutions, raised $995,000 in equity funding according to a Form D filing.
As it develops its animal-free and protein-rich pet food, Bond Pet Foods raised a $1.2 million seed round led by Lever VC, a venture capital fund specializing in alternative protein investments. Bond employs the same fermentation technology that is used to produce ingredients for cheese making or insulin for diabetics. And they adjust the process to harvest high-quality meat proteins like chicken, turkey, beef, pork and fish, but without the animal.
Bitsbox, a monthly subscription box startup that teaches kids computer coding, raised an additional $850,000 as part of a $3.1 million equity funding round, according to a Form D filing. The Boulder startup landed a spot on our 2019 Startups to Watch list released last year.
Loveland's Lightning Systems raised $41 million in equity, debt and working capital line funding from existing and new investors. The round was led by BP Ventures, with participation from new investor Cupola Infrastructure Income Fund, a private equity fund focused on sustainability and infrastructure opportunities. Lightning Systems designs and manufacturers zero-emission, all-electric powertrains for commercial fleets. The company will use the funding to support inventory purchases as it has a backlog for electric powertrains for a variety of vehicles.
Denver's Crusoe Energy Systems, a tech-driven natural gas flare mitigation provider, closed $30 million in equity funding and $40 million in project financing to rapidly expand its services. The $30 million equity round was led by existing investor Bain Capital Ventures and new investor The KCK Group, with additional participation from Founders Fund, Winklevoss Capital and Polychain Capital. The $40 million project financing was led by New York-based credit fund Upper 90. Crusoe uses natural gas that would have otherwise been burned in the air as a "flare," and instead powers modular, mobile computing systems designed specifically for the oilfield. More on the announcement here.
Denver's Covered Insurance Solutions, an independent digital insurance marketplace, raised $1.5 million in debt as part of a $2.5 million round, according to a Form D filing.
As it prepares to expand out of Colorado for the first time, FoodMaven raised a $15.3 million Series B to fuel that growth. The Colorado Springs-based company sells oversupplied and imperfect produce and other food products to restaurants at a significant discount. The company operates an online marketplace system, matching buyers with available supply to limit food waste.
Denver-based CyberGRX, a global cyber risk exchange provider, raised a $40 million Series D, bringing its total funding to $100 million. This investment comes as CyberGRX experiences a period of rapid growth, with the company preparing to close the year with a five times increase in recurring revenue and more than 54,000 organizations worldwide on their exchange. More on the round here.
Boulder biotech company Inscripta raised a $125 million Series D round led by Paladin Capital Group, bringing the total amount raised by the company to $259.5 million. The new funds will be used to accelerate expansion and commercialization of the company’s Onyx Digital Genome Engineering platform. The Onyx platform is a fully-automated benchtop instrument for genome-scale engineering. More from the Denver Business Journal here. [Subscriber Content]
Gtmhub, a Denver software startup that helps companies stay focused on key objectives, announced an injection of capital that will help it expand its global operations. Gtmhub closed a $9 million Series A round that was led by CRV and will support the growth and adoption of Gtmhub’s software. The startup helps enterprises bridge the gap between strategy and operational execution, and enables companies to achieve better goals using integrated enterprise success systems. More on the company's plans to quadruple its Denver workforce here.
Boulder's ArcherDX, a biotech company developing personalized genomic medicine, closed a $55 million Series C round to grow its commercial footprint and further its product offerings. This funding comes after the company raised a $60 million Series B in May. ArcherDX is focused on molecular diagnostics with a technology platform for genetic mutation detection. Its platform detects variants associated with cancers and inherited diseases.
Centennial’s BillingPlatform, a cloud-based monetization and billing software provider, raised a $10 million Series B to continue product development and double its headcount. The funding was led by Columbia Capital, which has contributed $14 million to BillingPlatform since 2017.
Panacea Life Sciences, a Golden-based CBD company, raised $7 million in equity and debt funding, according to a Form D filing. This appears to be the first wave of funding from 22nd Century Group, as it has pledged to provide $24 million in funding to the company over the next 18 months. More on the recent raise here.
Hailios, a Colorado Springs-based startup creating roof mounted sensors to capture the unique vibration patterns of hail, has raised a $775,000 debt funding round, according to a Form D filing. The company's sensors help customers improve their hail insurance claims' efficiency and accuracy.
GoSpotCheck, a Denver-based software company building tools for the mobile workforce, raised $25.3 million in equity funding, according to a Form D filing. Since graduating from Techstars in 2011, GoSpotCheck had raised $46.5 million prior to this round and has more than 125 employees.
Love Grown, a Denver-based health food company, raised $4.55 million in equity funding, according to a Form D filing. The company's primary offerings are breakfast-focused, as it has a line of granolas and cereals for adults and children.
Denver's Speqtral Quantum Technologies, a startup building and deploying quantum key distribution systems in space, raised $500,000 in equity funding, according to a Form D filing.
Other Deals
Revelstoke Capital Partners, a Denver-based private equity firm focused on healthcare services companies, raised $1.4 billion for its second fund. Since the firm's inception in 2013, Revelstoke has raised over $2.3 billion in equity commitments across various investing entities and has invested in 17 platform companies and 48 add-on acquisitions. More here.
Manna Tree Partners, a Vail-based asset manager that invests in healthy food companies, announced it led a $12.7 million investment in Nutriati, a Richmond, VA-based developer and manufacturer of plant-based ingredients, including protein, flour and oil. More from Richmond Inno here.
