In covering the D.C. innovation economy comes the inevitable: funding news. Trust us, there's a lot of it floating around the D.C. metro area. Here's a roundup of all of the major funding news from the region in May:
Spotluck
- Tech Madness 2016 darling Spotluck has closed a $4.8 million Series A round on May 16. The Bethesda-based startup plans to use the funds for its hearty expansion plans, which makes sense given how quickly they've expanded in recently years. This round, though, they want to focus on depth over breadth, using the money to expand within the app's current markets in D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York. Spotluck also plans to add an in-app payment feature to the service. Spotluck is an app that aims to help consumers find new restaurants to go to and help restaurants reach new customers. Open the app, spin the wheel and wherever it lands, the user receives a discount for a meal at the restaurant.
MPOWER Financing
- D.C.-based fintech startup MPOWER has secured an additional $500,000 in financing from 1776's venture fund ahead of its planned Series B round that will close later this summer, according to a press release on May 31. MPOWER aims to provide financial aid to low-income domestic, DACA and international students who are excluded from the current student loan system. MPOWER closed its $6 million Series A round in October led by India-based firm Zephyr Peacock and investments from 1776 and VilCap Investments, Village Capital's venture arm.
Wireless Registry
- According to an SEC filing May 17, D.C.-based Internet of Things analytics startup Wireless Registry has closed a $2 million funding round. It's unclear if this is an extension of the funding DC Inno reported on back in February, when the startup filed a Form D for $915,000 of what would've been a $1 million round. The startup raised a $1.7 million seed round in January 2016.
FS Card
- Washington, D.C. fintech startup FS Card closed an $8 million round, newsletter Strictly VC reported on May 25. The startup offers a credit card targeted at helping people with tarnished credit cards get the money they need. Its executive team includes Marla Blow, who spent 10 years at Capital One and also previously ran the credit card and payments division at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Second, the card itself has MasterCard branding and is designed to help consumers avoid the growing payday loan industry while also rebuilding their credit score.
Power Supply
- Power Supply, the D.C.-based healthy prepared food delivery startup, rebranded to Territory and announced $6.7 million in funding on May 9. The round was led by Upfront Ventures, NRV, Lewis & Clark Ventures and The Motley Fool Holdings. The startup was co-founded in 2011 by two former Motley Fool colleagues.
D.C. Capital Partners
- According to Fortune's Term Sheet on May 25, Alexandria, Va.-based DC Capital Partners closed its second fund recently. The private equity firm raised $450 million for its second fund.
ACON Equity Partners
- D.C.-based private equity firm ACON raised $1.07 billion for its fourth fund, ACON Equity Partners IV, on May 17. The fund targets mid-market investments in the U.S., and the pool's limited partners include public and private pensions, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies.
Kalibri Labs
- Rockville, Md.-based Kalibri Labs has closed $10 million in funding, according to an SEC filing on May 24. The company declined to comment on the round citing SEC rules. Kalibri Labs is a data analytics company focused solely on the hospitality industry. Specifically, the company is a platform aimed at helping hotels improve profits and predicting revenue performance net of acquisition costs. It's unclear if the company, which was founded in 2011, has raised any other funds. The startup hasn't filed with the SEC before, and its Crunchbase profile shows no other funding news.
BuildOnMe
- Virginia-based BuildOnMe, a startup focused on AI-based applications, raised an undisclosed amount from Santa Clara-based ServiceNow Ventures on May 17. The move comes the same day that ServiceNow acquired virtual messaging agent developer Qlue. ServiceNow, a publicly-traded cloud computing company, launched an AI and machine learning automation engine earlier this month.
AKUA
- Per Fortune's Term Sheet on May 15, Baltimore-based cargo container tracking solution provider AKUA has raised a $3 million seed round. Crosslink Capital, who has invested in mattress company Casper and Ancestry.com, led the round.
InRoad Toys
- Crofton, Md.-based InRoad Toys has closed its Series A round, WBJ reported on May 1. The toymaker's founder and CEO declined to disclose the size of the round, but it was led by North Carolina-based Shurtape Technologies, the tape-manufacturing company behind Duck Tape. You might remember InRoad Toys as the guy who created his own children's toy genre: tape. (Hence why their lead investor is the Duck Tape manufacturer.)
