Here are all of the funding deals out of the Washington, D.C., area this week. We’ll be updating this post as more news comes out.
Thursday, July 1
Thycotic (D.C.)
- Deal: Undisclosed amount; described as a "significant investment" in a news release
- Investors: Insight Venture Partners
- What they do: Cybersecurity software focused on privileged account management
- Other details: Two from Insight, a well-known New York private equity and venture capital firm, will join the board at Thycotic — managing director Mike Triplett and senior associate Philip Vorobeychik
Leesa Sleep (Virginia Beach, Va.)
- Deal: $9 million
- Investors: TitleCard Capital
- What they do: Developer of a new type of memory foam mattress, which the company sells online for $890
- Other details: The new funding values the company at $45 million, according to Fortune
Wednesday, July 1
Sweetgreen (D.C.)
- Deal: $35 million Series F
- Investors: T. Rowe Price, Revolution Growth
- What they do: Sweetgreen is a quickly growing "fast-casual" salad chain with 31 current locations and more than 1000 employees. The company has raised $95 million to date.
- Other details: Per Eric,"the goal for the new money is focused on boosting the number of Sweetgreen locations ... More than a quarter of all its transactions already go through Sweetgreen's online payment system and its recently launched mobile ordering system is gaining in popularity." Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman told DC Inno, that more locations in California and in the greater D.C. area are definitely on the horizon.
Tuesday, June 30
Venafi (Utah) / Questmark Ventures (Baltimore, Md.)
- Deal: $39 million Series C venture capital raise
- Investors: Questmark, Intel Capital, Silver Lake Partners, Foundation Capital, Origin Partners and Pelion Venture Partners
- What they do: Venafi is a cybersecurity firm based in Salt Lake, Utah, that focuses on protecting cryptographic keys and digital certificates. The company calls itself the,"Immune System for the Internet."
- Other details: The investment will accelerate development of Venafi's Trust Protection Platform and to secure more Global 5000 businesses and government clients.
Distil Networks (Arlington, Va.)
- Deal: $21 million, Series B
- Investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, Foundry Group, Techstars, ff Venture Capital, Idea Fund and Correlation Ventures
- What they do: Distil develops cybersecurity software for enterprises that monitors, detects and stops malicious bot-based attacks. Bots are the culprits behind Web scraping, brute force attacks, competitive data mining, account hijacking, unauthorized vulnerability scans, spam, man-in-the-middle attacks and fraud.
- Other details: Founded in 2011, the company plans to increase its team of about 60 by 100 new hires within 12 months, CEO Rami Essaid said. The hiring spree will be used to accelerate the release of Distil’s second product, which is set for early October. The capital will also be used to open a new office and expand the size of two others, in San Fransisco and Arlington. According to Matt Brady, COO of Militello Capital: "Distil has a great team that has consistently executed over the three years we've known them. Rather than focusing on developing a complete cybersecurity solution, they have carved out a niche in helping companies protect their online IP from bots and other threats."
