While the coronavirus pandemic has slowed funding in the D.C. region, it's not all doom and gloom for local startups. Some are still grabbing cash to grow their businesses.
In this monthly roundup, we tracked five of the top D.C.-area funding rounds from July, totaling more than $40 million in venture funding.
And, on top of that, D.C.-based Rethink Impact closed a $182 million fund to back women entrepreneurs and other diverse founders.
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Here are five D.C. startups that raised capital in July:
Airside Mobile has raised nearly $13.6 million in new funding. For years, the Arlington startup has offered a “Mobile Passport” app that helps cut down wait times at airports. But even before the pandemic grounded air travel, the company started branching into a broader category of identity verification and management. And it seems that’s continuing. Here’s more from the WBJ. [subscriber content]
D.C. corporate transparency and financial intelligence startup Sayari Labs, one of DC Inno’s 2020 Inno on Fire winners, has raised another $2.5 million — an extension of the $9 million Series B round it closed in January to advance its financial intelligence capabilities. Investments came from In-Q-Tel, MissionOG, and TFX Capital, in addition to existing investors Growth, Lavrock Ventures, and SAP’s NS2 Ventures.
Arlington software company Second Front Systems raised $6 million in a seed round led by San Francisco’s Artis Ventures, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, 8VC, Gula Tech Adventures and Abstract Ventures. The new capital will enable the 6-year-old business, which develops cybersecurity tech solutions for the federal government, to expand its software platform. Here’s more, per Technical.ly.
Aquicore Inc. has raised $14 million in new funding, nearly doubling its total intake and capping a year of growth for the D.C. firm. The latest round was led by New York investment firm Keyframe Capital Partners, and accompanied by British real estate data firm A/O Proptech and Silicon Valley venture firm The Westly Group. Aquicore said it plans to use the new funding to build on its software platform and push into the European market. Its software platform helps building owners monitor energy usage, and is being used on more than 1,000 commercial buildings nationwide.
GreyNoise Intelligence, a D.C. cyber security company that collects, labels and analyzes Internet-wide scan and attack data, raised 4.4 million in equity funding from seven investors, according to a Form D filing. The company previously raised a $600,000 seed round in March 2019 led by Inner Loop Capital and StoneMill Ventures.
Honorable Mentions
D.C.-based Rethink Impact, the engine behind a local consortium investing in female-led startups, said it closed a new $182 million fund — bringing its total assets under management to $300 million. The venture capital firm, started five years ago by native Washingtonian and former tech startup CEO Jenny Abramson, has backed by more than 25 companies while aiming to help women entrepreneurs and other diverse founders gain equitable access to capital.
