WS Deal Flow is a quarterly breakdown of all the Wisconsin tech and startup deals that have gone down in the past 90 days. We'll be updating this post with new activity through to the end of March.
3/4: Madison-based EnsoData, a healthcare artificial intelligence company, raised $1.5 million in seed funding from Colle Capital, with participation from HealthX Ventures, Sternhill Associates, Wisconsin Investment Partners, and M25 Group. EnsoData, which is led by two Y Combinator graduates, provides software that analyzes sleep data in order to help physicians identify potential sleep disorders. Since receiving FDA approval in April, 2017, EnsoSleep, the name of the company's first product, has already been in used in over 50 sleep clinics, assisting doctors in analyzing sleep studies.
The funding will be used to double the size of the startup's engineering and sales teams, as well as on R&D. Explained Colle Capital founding partner Victoria Grace in a release, "based on the company’s traction and FDA milestones, we have practical evidence that EnsoData’s artificial intelligence approach to automating data analysis just works. Clinicians have seen a lot of hype stories about AI in the healthcare space, and it’s refreshing to see EnsoData standing out as a clear, in-use, example of AI pushing medicine and diagnostics forward."
1/13: Waukesha, Wisconsin-based PhishLine, a SaaS platform for social engineering simulation and training, was acquired by Barracuda Networks, a leader in security, application delivery and data protection solutions. Combining the two companies will give customers comprehensive defense against email-borne targeted attacks and social engineering. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. PhishLine was founded in 1996 and Baracuda Networks is based in Campbell, California.
Added PhishLine president and CEO Mark T. Chapman in a statement, "an effective security strategy demands a collaborative effort between the employees using the network and the security technology designed to protect it. Barracuda's innovations around targeted attacks, AI, archiving, and data protection complement PhishLine's solutions well."
1/11: Milwaukee-based TAI Diagnostics, a biotech startup focused on providing a non-invasive and highly sensitive diagnostic test to monitor transplant patients, raised a $10 million Series A. Investors were not disclosed. Since launching in 2015, the startup has raised $21 million in funding. The capital will be used to support on-going research, back clinical studies and help commercially launch its first product.
(Deals are curated from SEC filings, Axios' Pro Rata newsletter, Fortune's Term Sheet newsletter, and our own reporting. Featured Pic via Getty Images)
