Arlington’s Interos Inc. has secured millions in new funding from a group of women tech investors, just five months after a gargantuan $100 million raise that propelled the company into exclusive unicorn territory.
The risk management startup said Thursday it has raked in another $6.5 million — not exactly small potatoes, though also not quite as much as its last eye-popping haul from the VC arena. But what’s particularly notable? The latest financing comes from San Francisco’s Broadway Angels, a national network of more than 60 female venture capitalists and executives that aims to put half of its funding into women entrepreneurs leading disruptive tech and consumer companies.
It’s one of many efforts to close the gap in access to capital, as women famously and consistently raise a tiny fraction of the funding secured by their male counterparts. Interos, led by founder and CEO Jennifer Bisceglie, fits that bill.
The backing from Broadway Angels “presents a unique opportunity to demonstrate how a woman-led investment group and a woman-led business can support one another, especially in an area that has long lacked female representation,” Bisceglie said in a statement.
Ramping up to aid with the slumping supply chain
Interos plans to use the fresh financing to expand its artificial intelligence platform’s features and broaden the data it provides to its customers. Its product uses machine learning to develop complex databases of supplier relationships — to track other companies’ supply chains and assess risk factors. Simply put, it helps Interos' customers manage their supply chains and business relationships, two things that have been threatened during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The past year has highlighted the vulnerability of the global supply chain and Interos provides the solution that gives organizations real time visibility that is essential to business continuity in today’s world,” Broadway Angels co-founder Sonja Perkins said in a statement.
With this raise, the company can build on recently added capabilities, including alerts for risk events such as cyber breaches and bankruptcies, Bisceglie told us in an email. The latest influx brings the company’s lifetime funding to $128 million, and comes after a tremendous growth year for the venture, one of our Fire winners of 2020. The business continues to ramp up, after growing revenue by 303% annually in the last two years, Bisceglie added.
She declined to disclose specific financials, but said her priority “is to keep pace with the growing demand we’re seeing” and that Interos “is poised for growth, as supply visibility and operational resilience are among the most pressing board- and C-suite issues in business today.”
To that end, the 280-employee company is also hiring. “The growth we’re seeing and the quality of people we are bringing into Interos is extraordinary. We’re looking to double our headcount by the end of next year," Bisceglie said.
The CEO said she has a few priorities heading into 2022. That list includes expanding globally into target markets such as the U.K. and Ireland; Germany, Austria and Switzerland; Canada; and France. The roadmap also involves growing Interos' partner portfolio, which already counts firms such as Accenture, to bring to market new products and tools for their customers, she said.
Click through the gallery to see the largest VC raises by woman-led firms in Greater Washington.
Largest VC raises by woman-owned companies in Greater Washington
Leadership: CEO and founder Jennifer Bisceglie
Raised: $100 million in July 2021 for a valuation of $1 billion
What it does: Founded in 2005, this Arlington risk management startup now uses machine learning to develop complex databases of supplier relationships, to track companies’ supply chains and assess risk factors. Its software-as-a-service platform helps those customers manage their supply chains and business relationships. Read more here.
Leadership: CEO and co-founder Anjali Kataria, President and co-founder Vinay Bhargava
Raised: $25 million in June 2021 for a valuation of $85 million
What it does: Founded in 2011, as an ed-tech startup, the Bethesda software company pivoted to health care and now builds custom enterprise software and incorporates its platform that hosts video, audio and written content that aims to keep patients more engaged with their care. Read more here.
Raised: $17.5 million in March 2020
More details: That's right, Interos appeared twice on the list of largest raises by woman-founded companies, with its 2020 raise coming in third in terms of deal size. Together, Interos' raises in 2020 and 2021 bring its total raised to $125 million, which is the most raised ever through VC in Greater Washington by a woman-owned and woman-led firm, according to Pitchbook. The previous record holder was Framebridge, which sold to Graham Holdings in 2020.
Leadership: CEO and co-founder Dipanwita Das, Chief Commercial Officer and co-founder Richard Graves
Raised: $14.54 million in August 2021
What it does: This D.C. cognitive tech startup uses artificial intelligence to break down complex scientific and medical data and serves life sciences and insurance companies as well as other STEM industry players. The company said in August it may look to expand beyond health care into financial services and supply chain areas. Read more here.
Leadership: CEO and co-founder Ashanthi Mathai
Raised: $6.71 million in September 2021
What it does: This Bethesda pharmaceutical company makes therapeutic products for opioid overdose management, including an over-the-counter antidote of naloxone hydrochloride. Its $6.71 million seed round was funded in part by Keiretsu Capital and Kern Venture Group, among others. The company was also awarded a $2.38 million grant in September from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to test its new naloxone intranasal delivery product, which it it says would cost just $10 per dose. Read more here.
Leadership: CEO and co-founder Serene Almomen; Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Julien Stamatakis
Raised: $4.7 million in February 2021
What it does: This Tysons software company developed a platform to monitor and manage construction sites, buildings and other structures to promote energy efficiency and sustainability. Its $4.7 million Series A was led by GreenGen, an energy company out of Bethesda. Read more here.
Leadership: CEO and founder Kellee James
Raised: $3.86 million in April 2020
What it does: This Silver Spring market intelligence startup operates a subscription-based platform to track the organic and non-GMO commodities marketplaces an sells reports used by producers, mills, manufacturers and retailers related to the food industry. The company's Series A1 round, as Pitchbook called it, was led by Fall Line Capital of San Mateo, California. Read more here.
Interos is rare woman-led unicorn
Interos didn’t step away from the fundraising arena for long. The company last clinched $100 million in Series C funding in July from lead investor NightDragon of San Francisco, as well as existing investors Kleiner Perkins of Menlo Park, California, and Venrock of Palo Alto, California. That dwarfed its prior raise of $17.5 million in March 2020.
That raise not only elevated Interos to a $1 billion valuation, alongside a growing group of local unicorns including Morning Consult, Cava, Vox Media, ID.me and Afiniti. It also put the company into an even more elite group of women-led companies to achieve that status; about 4% of unicorns across the board have female founders and CEOs, according to Crunchbase.
Interos also joined a growing list of D.C.-area ventures to secure at least $100 million in a single round, alongside Arcadia, Class Technologies, Aledade, MPower Financing, Sirnaomics and ID.me. And Bisceglie became Greater Washington’s new record-holder for the most funding raised by a female founder. Before that July round, Framebridge founder and CEO Susan Tynan — the Washington Business Journal's CEO of the Year in 2019 — held the title.
Bisceglie started Interos in 2005. She has a deep background in supply chain management, including as CEO of North Carolina’s Quantum Leaps, which aimed to build collaborative networks among women-led organizations. Bisceglie, one of the WBJ’s Women Who Mean Business in 2009, was also the longtime chair of Women Impacting Public Policy and was the director of federal programs at supply chain firm Manhattan Associates Inc.
