Earlier this week, Fetch Rewards, the Madison company that created a smartphone app where shoppers can scan their grocery receipts to upload codes and save on future items at checkout, announced the details of its $80 million Series C funding round, which tied as the largest funding round for a startup in Wisconsin in 2020.
San Francisco-based ICONIQ Growth led the round. Other investors included London-based DST Global, Greycroft in New York City and San Francisco's e.ventures. The latest round brings the company's total amount raised since its founding in 2013 to $118 million.
Wes Schroll, a former University of Wisconsin-Madison student, founded Fetch Rewards. At the end of 2019, Fetch Rewards stated it employed 110 people in Madison, Chicago and New York City. The company has since opened an office in San Francisco.
Schroll and co-founder Tyler Kennedy were named to the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list and earlier this year, Fetch Rewards ranked No. 116 on the 2020 Inc. 5000, the premier list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. The company reported a growth rate of 3,160% between 2016 and 2019 and its ranking was the highest for any company from Wisconsin.
The company states it has processed more than 700 million receipts and delivered nearly $100 million in savings to its users. It also boasts 16 million downloads of its app. Due to increased shopping by consumers during the Covid-19 pandemic, the company experienced growth in both food retail and total household grocery bills.
"Innovation and speed have been key to our growth this year," Shroll said in a statement via the announcement. "Covid-19 has forced us to adapt to the feedback that our shoppers are giving us. We've always cared about what our shoppers say. They help to inform a lot of our product strategy. But now, that's heightened."
Here's who else raised large amounts of capital in Wisconsin this year:
Janesville nuclear tech company SHINE Medical raises additional $80M from investors
The funding round was led by Fidelity Management and Research Co. and included funding from existing investors in the company.
“This funding round will help SHINE’s continuing efforts to commercialize vital diagnostic and therapeutic isotopes that will be created by our revolutionary, responsible production technologies,” Greg Piefer, founder and CEO of SHINE, stated in an announcement. “The opportunity for SHINE to fill an urgent market need by creating a more robust supply of these isotopes was evident once again as patient supplies were being disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. This equity round is an affirmation by high-quality investors of our long-term business strategy and the ongoing success of our efforts to build a U.S. production platform that will produce a reliable isotope supply, fill an urgent market need and meet the needs of tens of millions of patients each year.”
Madison biotech company using $10M in recent funding to build therapeutics
Vascugen Inc., a Madison biotechnology company, is applying $10 million in recently raised capital to build out its manufacturing capacity for its product – therapeutics that repair human tissue.
The company is developing regenerative medicines based on technology developed at Indiana University. The technology being licensed from IU repairs human tissue damaged by reduced blood flow due to disease or injury. The core intellectual property being used was developed by Dr. Mervin Yoder, a Vascugen founder and IU distinguished professor emeritus.
Madison startup EnsoData raises $9M to better diagnose sleep disorders
EnsoData, the Madison-based AI health care startup, announced in June that it raised a $9 million Series A round led by Venture Investors and Zetta Venture Partners. Other investors in the round include SleepScore Ventures, Dreamit Ventures and Necessary Ventures. The startup has now raised $11 million to fund technology to diagnose health conditions, starting with sleep disorders.
FluGen raises $8.2M (PitchBook says $19M)
Madison biotechnology company FluGen, which is working with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and India-based Bharat Biotech to develop and test a vaccine for Covid-19, reported to the SEC in May it had raised $8.18 million in debt funding from a total of 47 undisclosed investors. The company's offering amount was stated to be $8.5 million, though PitchBook reported the company actually raised $19 million.
Frontdesk raises $6.8M to ‘survive’ coronavirus, expand when it's over
Frontdesk, a Milwaukee startup that offers short-term apartment rentals for business and vacation travelers that was founded by Kyle Weatherly and Jesse DePinto, announced in April that it raised $6.8 million in a Series A round in a combination of debt and equity. Weatherly declined to disclose the investors, but said the company surpassed its original funding goal of just $4 million.
Madison Startup Ionic Raises $6M
Madison-based app software company Ionic announced it raised $6 million in new funding in February. The round was led by the company’s longtime investors Arthur Ventures in Minneapolis, and General Catalyst out of Boston. The startup has now raised $18 million to date.
Delafield data company Synthetaic raises $4.5M from investors, including TitletownTech
Synthetaic, a Delafield-based data technologies company, announced in October it raised $4.5 million from private investors, including Green Bay's TtitletownTech.
The round includes $1 million in pre-seed funding, and $3.5 million in seed funding. The round was led by Lupa Systems, an investment fund in New York.
Madison's DotCom Therapy receives investment from OSF, New Capital Partners
The company, founded in 2015 by speech language pathologist Rachel Robinson, recently received investments from OSF Ventures, the venture capital arm of Peoria, Illinois-based health care system OSF Healthcare, and Birmingham, Alabama-based venture capital and private equity firm New Capital Partners, according to a press release from both investors.
According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, DotCom Therapy recently secured $4.25 million from the two investors.
Weather tech company Understory looks to fuel growth with $4.1M capital raise
According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company is raising $4.1 million from private investments. The company had secured $3.5 million from six investors as of mid October.
Runner-Ups
(Tie) Data company spun from UW-Madison raises $4M from Silicon Valley investors
DataChat, a Madison company that developed an intelligence interface that allows business users to extract insight from their data simply by talking to a chatbot, raised $4 million to build its team and customer base.
DataChat was created at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by computer science professor Jignesh Patel. The round of funding was led by Silicon Valley venture capital firms WRVI Capital and Nepenthe Capital. Other participants included individual investors from Google and Santa Clara, California-based cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks.
GenoPalate raises $4M to grow genetic-based nutrition platform
GenoPalate, the Milwaukee-based nutrition company that uses genetic testing to help people make analytics-based changes to their diet, recently secured $4 million from investors.
Since launching in 2016, founder and CEO Sherry Zhang has raised more than $6 million from investors to grow the company. This round marks the company's third and largest so far.
After this story published, another Wisconsin company reported a funding round. We also omitted a funding round by FluGen in mid-2020 in error.
