As the cherry blossoms come to life entering spring, The District continues to heat up as an investment magnet.
In March, at least 15 D.C.-area tech companies raised $130 million in venture capital, topping February's $100 million haul and putting the region on pace for another record year.
The funding was led by Pie Insurance, a 2-year-old D.C. insurance startup that wasted no time closing a $45 million round toward its goal of national expansion. Venture capital groups got in on the action, as well, with a massive new fund underway by New Enterprise Associates and a smaller, hyper-focused effort by cybersecurity investor DataTribe.
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Pie Insurance, a D.C.-based provider of workers’ compensation insurance for small businesses, closed a $45 million Series B round less than a year after its first sale. The company says it will use the funds to expand geographically and add new distribution sources toward its goal to expand nationally by the end of 2019.
Herndon-based NS8, which develops a SaaS solution to combat online fraud, raised $26 million in series B financing. The round was led by New Jersey's Edison Partners, with participation from Sorenson Ventures, Lytical Ventures, TDF Ventures, Hanna Ventures and others. It follows a previous $7.5 million seed round that closed in November 2017 and brings its total raised to nearly $40 million.
Fulton, Md.-based cybersecurity startup RackTop Systems closed a $15 million equity round to boost its data storage and security platform. The financing comes from a who’s who of local investment groups. It was led by Virginia-based Razor’s Edge Ventures and Grotech Ventures, with participation from Maryland Venture Fund, Vienna’s Blu Venture Investors and Maryland’s Gula Tech Adventures.
One of the District's original medical cannabis players is getting very serious about expansion with $13.8 million raised of a potential $50 million equity raise. SEC filings show 22 investors have signed on to back Holistic Industries, the creator of D.C.'s first grow operation and the first to bring CBD to market. It was founded in 2014 and currently has seven medical cannabis facilities, including grow operations, processing plants and dispensaries.
Arlington-based hourly-staffing platform Snag hauled in a $10 million funding round to support its growth initiatives. The new capital follows an up-and-down 2018 for the company, which raised an $18 million round in July and eliminated about 60 positions in October.
Alexandria-based auto refinance startup MotoRefi raised $4.7 million in seed funding led by Massachusetts' Accomplice. It was joined by a pair of Alexandria venture groups in the round, QED Investors and Motley Fool Ventures, among others. The company's online platform connects users with lenders like credit unions and community banks, claiming to save them an average of $100 per month.
Weeks after bringing on Mondelez and Amazon alum Abigail Coleman as CEO, Alexandria-based Territory Foods raised nearly $4 million in an equity round. The move comes after the prepared meal startup hit nearly $30 million in revenue last year, according to the WBJ, with plans to grow substantially – and possibly become profitable – in 2019. Territory, which rebranded from Power Supply in 2017, now has amassed about $20 million in total funding.
Reston-based trucking software developer Trucker Tools raised at least $3 million from a single investor toward a $5 million Series B equity round, according to SEC filings. The company, founded in 2009, will add the funds to a $4.4 million Series A round that closed in July last year, bringing its combined funding total to $8.2 million. It also announced a partnership with J.J. Keller & Associates to use J.J. Keller's truck-location data in its app.
Reston-based CargoSense added to its equity haul, tacking on $2.8 million to a seed funding round that has so far raised $10.1 million. The raise is ongoing and capped at $17.8 million, according to SEC filings. The startup, which develops supply-chain tracking technology, recently fired up its expansion into the pet-shipping industry by introducing its Maven Pet Tracker device at SXSW.
Arlington restaurant software platform MarginEdge raised $2.5 million for its next round of growth. The startup's second seed round includes investments from Greg Casten of Nick’s, Tony & Joe’s and Ivy City Smokehouse; Geoff Tracy of the Chef Geoff’s Deluxe Hospitality Group; and Tim McLaughlin, founder of Caboose Brewery and GoTab. Other investors included Nigel Morris, co-founder of Capital One, and Yohan Allender of chef Mike Isabella’s restaurant group. Osage Venture Partners also participated in the round. MarginEdge, which provides management software for inventory, ordering and accounting for restaurants, plans to use the funds to expand its product and customer base.
Newly created D.C. startup Gigantum came off the block with $1.5 million in equity funding from a single investor, according to SEC filings. The company, which filings say was founded this year, is developing a platform that lets users format and share scientific analyses – think GitHub but for data science.
Gaithersburg-based LKC Technologies raised $635,000 of a maximum $1.2 million round of equity and other securities from a single investor, according to SEC filings. The biotech company, founded in 2014, makes devices for visual electrophysiology testing – measuring retina function to diagnose eye diseases and disorders. This round brings its total funding to about $3.8 million.
Woodbridge, Va.-based MSolar Industries raised $550,000 in equity from 11 investors, according to SEC filings. The company, which filings say was founded last year, has a large-scale solar farm in Maryland and plans to build one in Woodbridge. MSolar is led by Michael O'Connor, and this appears to be its first outside funding effort.
D.C. tech startup Babyscripts, which connects expectant mothers with doctors, is teaming up with Falls Church-based Inova Health System through a $500,000 investment. It follows the $6 million Babyscripts raised earlier in 2019, giving it a combined $14 million in funding to date. Inova will use Babyscripts' tool in its employee health plan through Innovation Health, then within the larger health system. The goal is for Inova to use the tool to engage women during pregnancy and postpartum, according to a release.
Predictive analytics startup TransVoyant hauled in $500,000 in equity funding from a single investor, according to SEC filings. The company analyzes big data using machine learning software to predict the behavior of carriers, ports, roads, suppliers and other nodes in the supply chain. It had previously raised about $3.6 million in a pair of 2017 funding rounds.
Honorable Mentions
Year-old MedImmune spinoff Viela Bio, created to focus on autoimmune disease, is raising $75 million and could hit the 100-employee target by yearend, CEO Bing Yao told the WBJ. The funding would add to a $282 million Series A round led by three Chinese investment groups when it launched in February 2018. The Gaithersburg-based biotech company's lead candidate is inebilizumab, which treats NMOSD, a rare disease that affects the central nervous system.
Chevy Chase venture capital juggernaut New Enterprise Associates is raising a new fund with a ceiling of $3.6 billion, according to SEC filings – the largest NEA fund so far. The group has increased its fund size each time since its first $16 million effort in 1978, and along the way has made dozens of investments in Greater Washington companies. Those capital injections include D.C. financial education company EverFi, software developer ScienceLogic, cloud operating system Fugue and Herndon wearable software company Upskill. NEA is also active in heath-related companies, including GlycoMimetics, NexImmune and Supernus Phamaceuticals.
Fulton, Md.'s DataTribe is doubling down on its cyber-funding model, having raised $50 million in new commitments to invest in another 12 companies. As it did before, DataTribe will invest the funds in 60-90 days then embed executives with those companies and provide in-kind services like technology, rent, legal services and food. One of the biggest DataTribe-backed successes so far is Dragos, a Hanover, Md.-based cybersecurity platform for critical industries. The fund has also invested in D.C. data security platform Enveil and Reform Labs, among others.
