A Week of Mega Rounds in the Midwest
M1 Finance, Nature's Fynd, Path Robotics, Loop Returns, EquipmentShare, and more...
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.
You can connect with me on Twitter @evanjlonergan, on Medium, and send deals/jobs/intel to evanlon92@gmail.com
What’s New
Excoastal Stats 📊
Last Week’s Open Rate: 36%
Last Week’s Views: 251
ICYMI: the Excoastal Investors Airtable sheet:
Midwest Venture Capital Firms and Angels
Venture Capital Deals
📍 Chicago
M1 Finance, the automated investing, borrowing, and banking startup, raised $150 million in Series E funding. SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 led, joined by Coatue Management, Left Lane Capital, Jump Capital, and Clocktower Technology Ventures.
Nature’s Fynd, a food company growing protein from microbes derived from geothermal springs, raised $350 million in Series C funding. SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 led the round and was joined by investors including Blackstone Strategic Partners, Balyasny Asset Management, Hillhouse Investment, EDBI, SK, and Hongkou.
Paro, a freelance accounting and financial services startup, raised $25 million in Series B funding. Madrona Venture Group led, joined by Revolution Ventures, Sierra Ventures, and KGC Capital.
Rise Gardens, maker of an indoor gardening setup, raised $9 million in Series A funding. TELUS Ventures led, joined by investors including True Ventures, Amazon Alexa Fund, and Listen Ventures.
📍Ohio
Axuall, a Cleveland-based identity network, raised $10.4 million in Series A funding led by Flare Capital Partners.
PathRobotics, the Columbus-based developer of autonomous robotic welding systems, raised $100 million in Series C funding. Tiger Global led, joined by insider SVB.
Loop Returns, a Columbus-based provider of software for processing returns, raised $65 million in Series B funding. CRV led, joined by Shopify, Renegade Partners, FirstMark Capital, Ridge Ventures, Peterson Ventures, and Lerer Hippeau.
📍 Iowa
Dwolla, the Des Moines-based maker of an API for payments, raised $21 million. Foundry Group led and was joined by investors including Park West Asset Management, Union Square Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Firebrand Ventures, and Next Level Ventures.
📍 Minnesota
Arctic Wolf, operator of a platform for monitoring and managing cyberattacks, has raised $150 million in a Series F from Viking Global and Owl Rock. The deal values the company at $4.3 billion.
📍 Missouri
Columbia-based EquipmentShare, the maker of equipment-tracking tech for the construction industry, raised $230 million in funding. Tiger Global Management, The Spruce House Partnership, and RedBird Capital Partners co-led and were joined by Tru Arrow Partners, Romulus, Insight Partners, and Anchorage Capital Group.
📍 Toronto
Swift Medical, a wound care company, raised $35 million in Series B funding. Virgo Investment Group led, joined by DCVC, BDC Capital, Claritas Capital, Chrysalis Ventures, Pender Ventures, and Export Development Canada.
📍 Denver/Boulder
Native Voice, a Denver-based voice services company for communicating with brands, raised $14 million in seed financing from Gutbrain Ventures, PBJ Capital, and Signal Peak Ventures.
Denver-based Pomp, a company offering virtual skincare consultations, raised $1.5 million from FirstMile, Kickstart, SpringTime, and GAN.
📍 Boise
Tovuti, a Boise-based maker of tech for building lessons, raised an $8 million Series A. Blueprint Equity and ScOp Venture Capital led.
📍 Texas
Gembah has raised an $11 million Series A led by ATX Venture Partners. The company runs a platform that helps entrepreneurs, e-commerce sellers and small and medium-sized businesses research, design and manufacture products in industries such as consumer electronics, beauty and home décor.
Saranas, a Houston-based bleed-detection company, raised $12.8 million in Series B funding led by Baird Capital.
Austin-based Paradromics, a brain-control startup, raised $20 million in seed funding. Prime Movers Lab led, joined by Westcott Investment Group, Dolby Family Ventures, Synergy Ventures, Pureland Global Venture, IT-Farm, and Alpha Edison.
📍 Arizona
Virtuous, a Phoenix-based provider nonprofit software, raised $18 million in Series B funding. Fulcrum Equity Partners led the round, joined by investors including MATH Venture Partners, Seven Peaks Ventures, and PHX Venture Partners.
Private Equity Deals
Monogram Capital Partners and LightBay Capital have invested $100 million in debt-free equity capital into the launch of Foundry, an Austin-based platform that acquires and scales online brands.
Charlesbank Capital Partners will invest in symplr, a Houston-based healthcare governance, risk management, and compliance software company.
Bain Capital Private Equity acquired PartsSource, an Ohio-based online marketplace for medical equipment.
Leeds Equity Partners invested in eLuma, a Utah-based marketplace for providing online special education and mental health services.
M&A
Pluralsight, which is backed by Vista Equity Partners, acquired A Cloud Guru, an Austin-based cloud skills development company.
Circle Graphics, a Longmont, Colorado-based portfolio company of H.I.G. Capital, acquired Canvaspop, an online retailer of personalized wall décor.
Sophos acquired Braintrace, a Salt Lake City-based cybersecurity company.
New Funds
San Francisco and Boulder-based Moxxie Ventures, a seed-stage investor, raised $85 million for its second fund.
Capstar Ventures, an Austin-based early-stage firm, raised $41 million for its debut fund.
Renaissance Venture Capital, an Ann Arbor-based venture fund of funds, closed its fourth fund with $77.5 million.
Kansas City-based Five Elms Capital raised $780 million for its fifth, software-focused growth equity fund.
Chicago-based Shore Capital Partners has raised nearly $700 million across three new funds, including $366 million for its fourth healthcare vehicle, $213 million for its first business services fund, and $107 million for its first real estate effort per Pitchbook.
Others
Portillo’s, an Oak Brook, Illinois-based hot dog chain restaurant company, confidentially filed for an initial public offering, per Reuters.
What I’m Reading
PE tech investors move beyond their traditional hunting grounds
Could Duolingo’s IPO Fuel Pittsburgh’s Startup Scene?
Spread the Wealth: Why The Rust Belt Can Drive The Post-COVID Economy
Startup/VC Twitter
👇🏼 Thread
Podcast Addiction
Culture Break
📚Read- Have not had time to read anything longer than an article recently, but looking forward to picking up some books later in the summer.
🎬Watch- Same as above.
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- The Day the Good Internet Died
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