You can now get a clear view of how many venture-backed companies are headed by people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer.
On Thursday, the first day of June — a.k.a. Pride Month — venture capital database provider Crunchbase added a feature that allows users of service to find startups who are founded or led by members of the LGBTQ community. The feature is a new addition to its Diversity Spotlight function, which previously allowed users to search for companies started or headed by women or people who are members of various ethnic or racial groups.
"Having concrete data helps in advocating for policy changes, funding initiatives and resource allocation to support LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs," Ryan Husk, Crunchbase's director of business development, said in a post on TechCrunch. "It enables us to make evidence-based arguments for greater equity and access within the startup ecosystem."
Crunchbase's new feature comes as the Business Journal is seeking companies for its LGBTQ-Owned Business List. The Business Journal will publish that List, which is comprised of companies that are majority owned by members of the LGBTQ community in August, when San Jose celebrates Pride. You can get more information on the List and how to submit a company here.
Here's more venture and startup news at the end of the week:
Funding Rounds
- Swing Education Inc., San Francisco, $38 million, Series C: Apax Partners and Reach Capital co-led the round for this provider of a service that connects schools with substitute teachers.
- Cortex Applications Inc., San Francisco, $35 million, Series B: IVP led the round for this provider of a software development service. Craft Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global and YCombinator also participated.
- 8Flow Inc. (dba 8Flow.ai), Palo Alto, $6.6 million, Seed: Caffeinated Capital led the round for this provider of automated software for tech and customer support representatives. BoxGroup, Liquid2, HNVR and Trilogy also participated.
- Squint Inc., San Jose, $6 million, Pre-Seed and Seed: Sequoia Capital and Menlo Ventures co-led the round this provider of a mobile app used to train factory workers.
- Demox Labs Inc., San Francisco, $4.5 million, Seed: HackVC led the deal for this provider of a privacy-focused cryptocurrency wallet. DCVC, Amplify Partners, Coinbase Ventures, CRV, OpenSea and CSquared also invested.
- Platformatic Inc., San Francisco, $3.5 million, Seed: Decibel led the round for this provider of backend services for app development. Panache Ventures and GitHub Inc. founder Tom Preston-Werner also participated.
M&A
- Stripe Inc. purchased Okay Software Inc. for an undisclosed amount. Based in San Francisco, Stripe offers payment processing services. Okay, which is also based in San Francisco, offers a data analysis service for software developers. Prior to the acquisition, the startup had raised $6.6 million from investors including Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins.
- Unbabel Inc. acquired Bablic Ltd. for an undisclosed amount. Based in San Francisco, Unbabel offers translation services for customer service operations. Israel-based Bablic offers a service that helps companies create versions of their website in different languages.
Misc.
- SavvyMoney Inc. won took home Best Embedded Finance System honors at the 2023 Banking Tech Awards USA. Led by CEO JB Orecchia, the Dublin-based company offers a service that helps banks and credit unions offer credit scores to their customers. The Silicon Valley Business Journal and the San Francisco Business Times named the company one of the Bay Area's Best Places to Work earlier this year.
Business Journal contributor Anthony Duignan-Cabrera and Editor-in-Chief J. Jennings Moss contributed to this report. If you have funding or venture capital news, please let us know at svbjnews@bizjournals.com.
