Welcome to Excoastal, a newsletter covering deals, startups, venture capital, and more from Chicago to Boulder, Detroit to Columbus, and beyond. I’m Evan Lonergan, a native Midwesterner.
This newsletter is the collision of my Chicago/Michigan roots and a love of all things startups and venture capital. It’s inspired by Brendan Boken’s excellent newsletter The Strand, which covers the thriving tech scene in LA. The catalyst for its creation was a VC University Live at the University of Michigan few weeks ago, where one of the focuses of the conversation was on building stronger startup communities in the Midwest. From what I’ve seen demonstrated by the #givefirst ethos here in Boulder, and from what I’ve observed across other tech hubs, strong communities are often the products of individuals who care enough to invest not just resources, but time and energy. Bringing it home, I wanted to do something to contribute to the ecosystems between the coasts, Excoastal is the start.
You can connect with me on Twitter @evanjlonergan, on Medium, and send deals/jobs/intel to evanlon92@gmail.com.
Whats New
Excoastal Stats 📊
Subscribers: 53
Last Week’s Open Rate: 65% 📉
Last Week’s Views: 111 📉
My apologies for getting this issue out late, I was road tripping around Northern Michigan (upper and lower peninsulas). As you may imagine, cell service was sparse and wifi nonexistent. I also added a new member to my family and as you can see below, she’s a handful. Hopefully these phots make up for the delay:
If you missed it last week: A Resource for Entrepreneurs, VCs, and Tech Professionals.
Midwest Venture Capital Firms and Angels
And now to the good stuff…
Venture Capital Deals
Cedar Rapids-based AI ag-tech company SwineTech filed paperwork last week indicating it has raised $3.1 million in funding according to Clay and Milk.
DMC, a Boulder-based early-stage biotechnology company, raised $10.3 million in a Series A round. Sofinnova Partners led and was joined by investors including Capricorn Venture Partners and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Term Sheet
PlanetiQ, a Boulder-based weather startup, raised $18.7 million in Series B funding. New Science Ventures and AV8 Ventures co-led, and were joined by Valo Ventures, Kodem Growth Partners, Access Venture Partners, Virginia Tech Innovation Fund, Hemisphere Ventures, Service Provider Capital, Earth Investments and Moonshots Capital. Axios
Nashville-based data analytics company, Stratasan, has raised $26 million in a round led by Fulcrum Equity, with participation from Frist Cressey Ventures, Blue Heron Capital and Bridge Bank.
Blue Water Vaccines, a Cincinnati-based developer of a universal flu vaccine, raised a massive $7 million in seed funding led by CincyTech. Axios
Perq, an Indianapolis-based marketing cloud company, raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Poplar Ventures. Axios
Park City, UT-based Amp Human, company that makes products for athletes, raised an undisclosed amount led by Next Ventures.
Mobile Doorman, a Chicago-based software provider of custom mobile apps connecting residents and their communities, raised $6.5 million in funding. Reimagined Ventures led the round. Term Sheet
Private Equity Deals
Francisco Partners invested in Perforce Software, Inc, a Minneapolis-based provider of enterprise scale software solutions to technology developers and development operations teams. Term Sheet
Gemspring Capital acquired a majority stake in Rapid Displays, a Chicago-based provider of point-of-purchase displays. Axios
Veregy, a portfolio company of Bow River Capital, acquired Dynamix, a Columbus, Ohio-based energy engineering services company. Axios
Prototek, a portfolio company of CORE Industrial Partners, acquired Cal-X, a Grafton, WI-based provider of precision machining and sheet metal fabrication rapid prototyping services. Term Sheet
Audax Private Equity agreed to buy Aspen Surgical, a Caledonia, MI-based maker of single-use surgical products, from Hillrom. Axios
Frontier Capital invested in GovQA, a Chicago-based provider of public sector compliance software. Axios
Leeds Equity invested in Scaled Agile, a Boulder-based provider of SAFe agility software.
M&A
Specialty chemicals company Synthomer has agreed to buy Ohio-based chemicals supplier Omnova Solutions for a reported $824 million. Pitchbook
Tonka Bay Equity Partners has sold Denver-based specialty food distributor Freshpack Produce to fellow food supplier What Chefs Want. Pitchbook
Volkswagen will invest $2.6 billion into Argo AI, a Pittsburgh-based self-driving tech upstart owned by Ford Motor Co.
Avaap, a portfolio company of NMS Capital, acquired Navigator Management Partners, a Columbus, Ohio-based cross-platform management and technology consulting firm. Term Sheet
New Funds
Next Ventures, a VC firm co-founded by Lance Armstrong, has secured $25 million for its $75 million-targeted debut fund, per an SEC filing.
Flexpoint Ford has closed its fourth flagship private equity fund on $1.5 billion. Based in Chicago, the firm invests in the financial services and healthcare industries. Flexpoint Ford had raised $950 million for a previous flagship fund in 2015.
Fruition Partners has launched as a Denver-based private equity firm.
What I’m reading
Two Simple Questions When Considering a Career in VC
Inside the Geeky, Quirky, and Wildly Successful World of Quant Shop Two Sigma
Sun, Sand, and the $1.5 Trillion Offshore Economy
How to make Better Phone Calls in Business
A Brief History of the Corporation: 1600 to 2100
Human Capital
Startup/VC Twitter
Podcast Addiction
Bryce Roberts, Indie VC - Origins
Jason Mars is taking a break from the classroom to build a massive company - Differential
Culture Break
📚Read- Upheaval by Jared Diamond
🎬Watch- Stranger Things on Netflix
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- The Epidemic of Disbelief
If you like Excoastal and want to help it grow, please share this newsletter with your colleagues, followers, and friends. If you hate it, send it to your enemies. Have a great week!