While we’re primarily focused on the Twin Cities 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 October. See all Midwest Reports here.
10/2: Carmel, Indiana-based Edify Labs, a software company focused on customer engagement and cross-team collaboration, raised a $10 million seed round.
10/2: Chicago-based NOCD, a digital behavioral health company focused on identifying and managing people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, raised a $4 million Series A from Chicago Ventures.
10/5: St. Louis-based Geneoscopy, a developer of diagnostic tests for gastrointestinal health, raised a $6.9 million Series A from Cultivation Capital and NT Investments.
10/10: Fishers, Indiana-based Emplify, a mobile-first employee engagement platform, raised a $15 million round of funding from Edison Partners, with participation from previous backers Allos Ventures, Cultivation Capital and more.
10/14: Troy, Michigan-based Billhighway, a provider of integrated software and payments solutions to membership-based organizations, was acquired by Lovell Minnick Partners. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
10/14: Columbus, Ohio-based FMX, a provider of facilities and maintenance management software, received an investment from Five Elms Capital. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
10/15: Ann Arbor-based DaySmart Software, a provider of business management software in the salon, pet, spa, and tattoo verticals, was sold to private equity firms LLR Partners and Parthenon Capital. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
10/16: Kansas City venture capital fund KCRise announced that it had promoted Edward Frindt to partner.
10/17: Des Plaines, Illinois-based Wheels, a micromobility company, raised over $50 million in funding from DBL Partners, with participation from TDK Ventures.
10/18: Chicago-based Rentgrata, a renter insights platform, raised $1 million in funding from M25, a seed stage venture firm focused solely on the Midwest.
10/19: Iowa City-based Winnow, a provider of AI tools for chefs, has raised a $12 million Series B funding from Ingka Group, Mustard Seed, Circularity Capital, D-Ax and The Ingenious Group.
10/22: Cleveland-based medical device company MediView XR raised $4.5 million in seed funding from Inside View Investment LLC, Plug and Play Ventures and Northwest Ohio Tech Fund.
10/23: Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based Total Expert, a marketing and customer engagement technology platform for banks, lenders and financial services, raised a $52 million Series C from Georgian Partners, with participation from Emergence and Rally Ventures.
10/23: Chicago-based AVIA, a partner for digital health insights, raised a $22 million round of funding from First Trust Capital Partners.
10/28: Brooklyn Park, Minnesota-based medical device company ShiraTronics raised a $33 million Series A from USVP, Amzak Health and Strategic HealthCare Investment Partners, with participation from Aperture Ventures and LivaNova PLC.
10/28: Sprout Social filed to go public, making it just the second Chicago tech company to file for an IPO since Grubhub went public five years ago. The social media management startup, founded in 2010, said in an S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it expects to raise $100 million, though that number is typically used as a placeholder and is likely to change. Sprout says it has more than 23,000 customers across 100 countries. It did $44.8 million in revenue in 2017 and $78.8 million in 2018. Through Sept. 30 of 2019, Sprout reported $74.6 million in revenue.
10/29: St. Louis-based PierianDx, a clinical genomics informatics startup, raised a $27 million Series B from ATW Partners and SJF Ventures, with participation from Health Catalyst Capital, Inova Health Systems, RTI International and ARUP Labs.
(Data culled from Inno reporting, Fortune’s Term Sheet newsletter, Axios’ Pro Rata newsletter, SEC filings and more)
