While the amount of deals remains low amid the coronavirus pandemic, Colorado's tech and startup funding got a boost in August.
We tracked nearly $130 million in equity funding across eight deals, topping July's total of $65 million in funding over 11 deals.
We cover funding rounds, acquisitions and other transactions in our daily newsletter, The Beat. You can sign up for that here. We gathered some of the state’s top fundings from August in a roundup below:
AgentSync, a Denver-based insurance compliance software startup, has raised $4.4 million in new funding. The round, first reported by TechCrunch, was led by Elad Gil and Caffeinated Capital. Others in on the round included Affirm's Max Levchin and Harry Stebbings, a podcaster and investor. The startup, founded by CTO Jenn Knight and CEO Niji Sabharwal in 2018, recently moved to Denver from San Francisco and currently has two open positions in Denver.
Denver's Pioneer Interests, a vertically-integrated cannabis company, raised $7.55 million in equity funding, according to a Form D filing. Pioneer operates two indoor cultivation facilities, an extraction facility and retail stores across the state.
Boulder startup Stream closed a $15 million Series A round led by GGV Capital, with participation from new investor 01 Advisors, Knight, seed round lead investor Arthur Ventures and other backers, including Olivier Pomel, CEO of Datadog, and Tom Preston-Werner, co-founder of GitHub. Tiffany Luck from GGV Capital will join the Stream board of directors. The company plans to use the funding round to scale its global team across engineering, sales and marketing and to further build out its products.
Boulder's Stedi, a messaging platform for B2B transactions, reported raising $50 million in equity funding from 11 investors, according to a Form D filing. This is the company’s largest reported round to date, having filed a Form D in June for $21 million.
CaliberMind, a Boulder-based B2B marketing intelligence software startup, raised $2 million in seed extension funding, led by Newark Venture Partners and Falmouth Ventures. The company will use the funds to invest in product development and scale go-to-market functions. More here.
Fort Collins-based fintech startup BillGO, a provider of bill pay and payments systems, has reported raising $41.6 million as part of a $60 million equity funding round, according to a Form D filing. This news comes as BillGo recently announced a partnership with regional bank holding company Huntington to provide bank customers with a faster, more secure process that provides guaranteed payments and decreases payment processing time.
Lootcakes, a startup creating a network for spenders in free-to-play games, announced the closing of a $2 million seed round led by Denver gaming VC Konvoy Ventures. Lootcakes, which is based in New York City, Denver and Seattle, empowers players who spend money in free-to-play games by inviting them to share their in-app purchase receipts, self-identifying their unique gaming preferences and buying behavior.
Boulder-based Watchmaker Genomics, a company using advanced enzymology to enable breakthrough applications for reading, writing and editing DNA, reported raising $6.7 million in equity funding, according to a Form D filing.
Less than a decade after launching, Denver digital asset management company Brandfolder has been acquired in a deal worth approximately $155 million. Bellevue, Wash.-based Smartsheet, a collaboration and work management platform, is acquiring Brandfolder to create a comprehensive solution to manage workflows around content. Brandfolder launched in 2012 and had raised $11M prior to this move, according to Crunchbase data. The company provides a centralized platform to organize, discover, control, distribute and measure all forms of digital content. Brandfolder touts customers like Slack, Lyft and Mastercard, among others.
AngelMD, a Denver fintech platform for medical startups, raised $12.14 million in debt, according to a Form D filing. AngelMD relocated to Denver health care hub Catalyst HTI from Seattle in late 2018.
Denver-based cannabis investor KEY Investment Partners announced the financing of two companies in the cannabis sector, Front Range Biosciences and springbig. Founded in 2015 and based in Denver, Front Range Biosciences is currently raising a $30 million Series B financing round and springbig recently closed its $11.5 million Series B.
Denver insurance software giant Vertafore announced that it will be acquired by Roper Technologies, a Florida-based diversified technology company. Roper will acquire Vertafore from Bain Capital Private Equity and Vista Equity Partners, with the acquisition expected to close in the third quarter, subject to regulatory approval.
