While we’re primarily focused on Minneapolis-St. Paul'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 August. See all Midwest Reports here.
8/1: Chicago-based Kin Insurance, a startup that aims to make buying home insurance easier, raised $4 million from investors, such as Commerce Ventures, Omidyar Network, 500 Startups, Chicago Ventures, Portag3 Ventures, Sandalphon, M25, Nameless Ventures and others. The startup was just launched in August by several experienced Chicago entrepreneurs, including CEO Sean Harper, founder of FeeFighters, a payments startup that sold to Groupon in 2012; CTO Lucas Ward, who was the previous CTO and co-founder at Rippleshot; and Kin’s product head Sebastian Villarreal, who previously founded LendSquare, which was bought by Avant in 2015.
8/4: Earth City, Missouri-based Interface Security Systems, a provider of cloud IP managed security services, raised $125 million in funding from SunTx and Prudential Capital Partners.
8/4: Chicago-based eazyScripts, a provider of e-prescribing software for telemedicine providers, raised $2 million in Series A funding from private equity firm Bluff Point Associates.
8/6: Detroit, Michigan-based Banza, a chickpea pasta startup, raised a $7.5 million Series A from Beechwood Capital, with participation from Strand Equity Partners and RSE Ventures.
8/6: Cleveland-based Neuros Medical, a neuromodulation startup, raised a $20 million Series A from U.S. Venture Partners, with participation from Boston Scientific, Aperture Venture Partners and Osage University Partners.
8/7: Tulsa-based Nadel and Gussman NV, an exploration and production company, raised $100 million from Post Oak Energy Capital.
8/6: Chicago-based Groove Health, a digital healthcare company that helps patients with medication adherence through predictive analytics and patient engagement, raised $1.6 million in new funding. The startup launched in 2016 and targets diseases including congestive heart failure, Type-2 Diabetes, COPD, hypertension and high cholesterol.
8/6: St. Louis and Texas-based Interface Security Systems, a provider of IP managed security services, raised $125 million in new funding from Prudential Capital Partners and SunTx Capital Partners.
8/7: Grimes, Iowa-based Crop Pro Insurance, an insurance and tech firm helping farmers manage risk and maximize profitability, raised an $8 million Series A from Finistere Ventures, Seed 2 Growth Ventures (S2G), and GuideOne Insurance.
8/9: Oklahoma City-based Valiant Midstream, a provider of midstream energy services, raised $150 million from Tailwater Capital.
8/14: Chicago-based HealthJoy, an artificial intelligence-driven platform for employee benefits engagement, raised a $3 million Series A, led by Chicago Ventures, with participation from Social Capital, Sidekick Ventures, and angels including Andrew Sieja, CEO of KCura; Brad Hoover, CEO of Grammarly; Ben Evans, CEO of OurHealth; Eduardo Vivas, Founder of Bright.com; and Jason Theofilis, CEO of MUNDOMedia.
8/15: Cleveland, Ohio-based MacroPoint, an electronic transportation network providing location-based truck tracking and predictive freight capacity data content, has been acquired by logistics giant Descartes Systems Group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
8/15: Chicago-based Reverb, an online marketplace for musicians to buy and sell music gear, landed $15 million in new funding from a handful of notable investors including Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal; Jon Oringer, CEO of Shutterstock; and Adam Bain, former COO at Twitter. Reverb has now raised $47 million in funding since it launched in 2013. CEO and founder David Kalt has said he wants to take Reverb public by 2020.
8/23: Chicago-based Truss, a commercial real estate tech company, raised $7.7 million in Series A funding. The round brought the company’s total funding to more than $9 million, and was led by Navitas Capital, with additional monies coming from Hyde Park Angels, Hyde Park Venture Partners and others. Truss said the money will be used on market expansion and product development.
8/24: Indianapolis-based Sigstr, a cloud platform for employee email personalization, raised a $5 million Series A from Hyde Park Venture Partners, with participation from Battery Ventures, HubSpot, Grand Ventures and High Alpha Capital.
8/25: Novi, Michigan-based Five Lakes, a process automation firm, has been acquired by integrated photonics group Jenoptik. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
8/29: Chicago-based ExplORer Surgical, a surgical workflow management and analytics startup, raised $3 million in Series A round funding from Aphelion Capital, Elliott Management, M25 Group, HBS Angels and the University of Chicago.
8/29: Chicago-based Wise Apple, a lunch delivery startup for children, raised $3.6 million in seed funding last month. The round was led by Pritzker Group Venture Capital and Levy Family Partners, but Chicago Ventures, Greycroft, BoxGroup and IrishAngels also contributed. Since it launched in 2015, Wise Apple has raised a total of $4.3 million.
8/30: Columbus, Ohio-based PriorAuthNow, a startup that enables quicker access to care by connecting the healthcare landscape through prior authorization automation, raised $3.6 million from NCT Ventures, with participation from Detroit Venture Partners.
8/31: Indianapolis-based Upper Hand, a provider of sports facility software, received an additional investment from Elevate Ventures, brining its total raised to $2.4 million.
(Image via Wiki Commons)
