While we’re primarily focused on Wisconsin's innovation economy, we also have our eyes on all of the startup and tech activity happening throughout the entire Midwest. Here are the major tech fundings, acquisitions, mergers, moves, and IPOs that went down in the region in April. See all Midwest Reports here.
4/3: Chandler, Indiana-based Hydromax, a provider of data collection services for infrastructure assets, acquired the technical services unit of New Brighton, Penn.-based Miller Pipetech. Explained CEO Steve Lacy in a statement, “We are excited to add Miller Pipetech to our growing platform of infrastructure data collection solutions."
4/4: Chicago-based private equity firm Merit Capital Partners closed its sixth fund at $536 million, $36 million above its $500 million target.
4/5: Chicago-based Conga, a portfolio company of Salesforce Ventures and Insight Venture Partners and a global leader in Intelligent Document Automation, acquired NYC-based Counselytics, a provider of contract discovery and analytics AI solutions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
4/6: Chicago-based startup Edovo, which provides tablet-based education to inmates in an effort to reduce recidivism, raised a new round of funding to help it expand its program to correction facilities across the country. The company raised $9.8 million in a Series A from several social impact investors, including Impact Engine, the Lumina Foundation, Sustain VC, the IDP Foundation, Series Change Investment, Evolve.Foundation, Kapor Capital and Ekistic Ventures.
4/6: Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based HelpSystems, a provider of IT network management solutions, was acquired by HGGC, a Palo Alto-based middle market private equity firm. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
4/7: Milwaukee-based Wind Lake, a provider of geographic information systems, was acquired by Centennial, Colorado-based SSP Innovations.
4/7: St. Louis-based Summersalt, a startup designing eco-friendly swimwear, raised a $2 million seed round from Dundee Venture Capital, with participation from Breakout Capital, Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Cultivation Capital, Victress Capital, M25 Group, the Syndicate Fund and Silas Capital.
4/10: Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Karamba Security, a provider of end-to-end automotive cybersecurity prevention solutions, raised $10 million in funding from Western Technology Investment.
4/10: Minneapolis-based Connexeo, a SaaS platform for education and community organizations, raised $110 million in funding from private equity firm Great Hill Partners.
4/11: NuMat Technologies, a Skokie-based advanced materials startup, raised a new round of funding to expand its product offerings to Europe and East Asia. The startup raised $12.4 million in a round led by OS Fund, a New York-based VC firm founded by Braintree Founder Bryan Johnson. Other participating investors include Osage University Partners and Tin Shed Ventures, Patagonia’s investment arm, which invests in startups offering solutions to the environmental crisis.
4/11: Indianapolis-based DemandJump, a customer acquisition platform, raised a $6 million Series A from Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Flyover Capital, Cultivation Capital, 4G Ventures and Hyde Park Venture Partners.
4/13: Minneapolis-based Local Crate, a recent Techstars + Target Retail alum, raised $1.4 million in seed funding from several Midwestern venture capital firms, including the Syndicate Fund, Matchstick Ventures, M25 Group and Router Ventures. The startup, which works with local chefs and farmers to create meal kits with ingredients and recipes from the region, plans to use the funding to expand its local food distribution platform into Illinois.
4/15: Chicago-based logistics tech startup Project44 raised $35 million in a new round of funding led by Boston-based VC firm OpenView. San Francisco-based 8VC - which has backed companies like Oculus and Hyperloop One - eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s Omidyar Technology Ventures, Chicago Ventures and Pritzker Group Venture Capital also participated in the round.
4/16: Cincinnati-based Airway Therapeutics, a developer of interventions for acute and chronic lung disease, raised a $11 million Series B funding from CincyTech.
4/27: Minnetonka, Minnesota-based venture capital firm Rally Ventures plans to raise a $150 million third VC fund, according to an SEC filing.
4/28: Columbus, Ohio-based Ready Robotics, a provider of RaaS (robotics as a service), raised $15 million in funding from Drive Capital, with participation from Eniac Ventures and RRE Ventures.
4/28: Minneapolis-based Ceridian HCM Holding, a provider of human capital management software, raised $462 million in its initial public offering, signaling the largest IPO in Minnesota history. [More Here]
4/28: Chicago-based private equity firm Thoma Bravo raised $2.4 billion for its recent Discover fund, according to an SEC filing.
4/30: Cleveland-based Datavant, a company that organizes and structures the world's healthcare data for use in clinical trial decision-making, raised $40.5 million in new funding. The round was co-led by Roivant Sciences and Travis May.
Image via Public Domain
(Data culled from Inno reporting, Fortune’s Term Sheet newsletter, Axios’ Pro Rata newsletter, SEC filings and more)
