June has been relatively quiet in terms of term sheets for Richmond-area startups and tech companies, but a handful of deals over $1 million kept the momentum going.
At least six funding deals, led by Hatchify's first equity raise, collected a combined $7 million from investors last month. Meanwhile, resident tobacco giant Altria led the acquisition list as it expands the scope of its products into e-cigarettes and cannabis.
Here are the biggest startup funding and M&A deals from June.
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Funding
Three-year-old RVA startup Hatchify, which pivoted last year into a software maker for salespeople, closed on its first equity raise with a $2.5 million haul. Co-founders Chris Bache and Bill Violante landed the venture funding during pitches they made at Y Combinator. With the new capital, which came from Boston's NextView Ventures and Detroit's Ludlow Ventures, Hatchify plans to roughly double its staff of 16 and find clients in a wider range of industries.
A Virginia Commonwealth University engineering professor, René Olivares-Navarrete, received a $1.76 million grant to further his research on tissue healing and immune system responses to biomaterials like implants or hip replacements. Olivares-Navarrete, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, snagged the grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research at the National Institutes of Health.
WynnVision, a biotech startup headquartered at the Virginia Bio+Tech Center, has received a $1.5 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to continue its medical product development. The grant is part of the National Institutes of Health SBIR FastTrack awards, and follows a $225,000 award in August 2018 for Phase I of the two-part cash injection. The new funding will continue the startup's work on reducing infections associated with medical devices.
AnswersNow, a platform that matches parents of children with autism to clinicians for counseling, closed an $850,000 seed funding round as it looks to scale. The funding round was led by Richmond-based venture capital group Trolley Ventures and California's Kapor Capital. AnswersNow, a Startup Virginia member, previously had raised $375,000 in angel funding in early 2018, and since then has amassed over 50 clinicians and 1,000 users.
Richmond tech startup Tablee, which makes a device for service in hospitality venues, took on an investment for undisclosed terms from two local tech entrepreneurs – David Gallagher and David Fratkin. The co-founders of locally based Dominion Payroll described the funding as a seed investment. Tablee, which currently has 14 employees including interns, plans to expand its sales and marketing teams with the new funds.
The University of Virginia Licensing and Ventures Group announced an investment for undisclosed terms in Direct Spinal Therapeutics Inc., a Charlottesville-based medical device startup. DSTI is developing a spinal cord stimulation product to enhance treatment for chronic back pain and other spinal cord injuries. DSTI was co-founded in 2013 by two engineering and neurosurgery scientists working in translational research and a medical device industry expert, all of whom graduated from UVA.
Acquisitions
Henrico County-based tobacco titan Altria Group announced it will acquire a Swiss maker of oral nicotine products with an 80 percent stake in certain companies of Burger Söhne Holding. It's paying $372 million for a majority stake in the firm, whose smokeless nicotine pouch is sold under the On! brand. The investment continues a diversification strategy away from cigarette sales for Altria, which spent $1.8 billion for a 45 percent stake in Canadian cannabis company Cronos Group and invested $12.8 billion in e-cig maker Juul Labs.
Other Tech & Startup Deals
Six-year-old car dealer Carvana, known for its car vending machines, is expanding its footprint in the River City with plans for a 191,000-square-foot distribution center near I-95 in Chesterfield County. The project, estimated at $40 million, includes about 9,000 parking spots and a two-story center for processing, inspection and other operations. The center would eventually employ about 500 workers on two shifts.
Richmond-based engineering firm PermitZIP is boosting its Virginia presence with a new office in Norfolk. The 4-year-old startup offers mechanical, electrical and plumbing designs for small projects in two weeks. It started considering the expansion after picking up a few Norfolk projects, including locally based Veil Brewing's upcoming taproom there. Co-founder Kenny Shultz said PermitZIP will look to open a third office in Northern Virginia before filing for the ability to franchise, which is its long-term growth strategy.
