AI-powered Analytics in Chicago
Numerous companies raise funds in Ohio and Colorado + some personal news.
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: 37%
Last Week’s Views: 159
Some personal news…
I will be joining the Chicago Office of Michael Best & Friedrich as a summer associate in the VentureBest practice group. I’m excited to join a great group of attorneys to help serve entrepreneurs and the funds that back them. I started this newsletter because I was bullish on the greater Midwest as a place to start and grow great companies. That conviction is so strong that I’m betting a career on it. I can’t wait to get started.
If you want to know more about what I’m doing this summer or want to talk Midwest/Chicago startups, just reply to this email!
ICYMI: the Excoastal Investors Airtable sheet:
Midwest Venture Capital Firms and Angels
Venture Capital Deals
📍 Chicago
Arturo, an AI-powered analytics provider of residential and commercial property predictive analysis, raised $25 million in Series B funding. Atlantic Bridge Capital led, joined by RPS Ventures, Crosslink Capital, and IAG Firemark Ventures.
📍 Ohio
Columbus-based Forge Biologics has raised a $120 million Series B led by RA Capital Management.Additional Investors include Drive Capital, Octagon Capital, Perceptive Advisors, Surveyor Capital, and Xontogeny.
Rapchat, the Columbus-based music app that lets users record rap and hip hop vocals, raised $2.3 million in funding in an extended seed round. Adjacent and Sony Music Entertainment led.
Denver-based interviewIA, an interview workflow platform, raised $2 million in seed funding. Colorado Impact Fund led and was joined by FirstMile Ventures, Rockies Venture Club, Outbound Capital, Dasein Capital, Stout Street Capital, and Service Provider Capital. Term Sheet
📍 Toronto
Sherpa, a startup aiming to make international travel more seamless, has raised $8.5 million in funding led by True Ventures and Narrative Fund.
📍Denver/Boulder
Boulder-based Automox, an endpoint management software provider, closed a $110 million Series C round led by Insight Partners. Also participating were Blackstone, Koch Disruptive Technologies and TechOperators.
Kickfurther, a Boulder-based crowdfunded inventory platform, raised $5.9 million in extended seed funding. Grand Oaks Capital led.
CareCar, a Denver-based benefit manager, raised $3 million in seed funding. Kapor Capital and Impact America Fund co-led.
Crusoe Energy Systems, a Denver-based startup that converts gas into energy for bitcoin mining, raised $128 million in Series B funding. Valor Equity Partners led, joined by Lowercarbon Capital, DRW Venture Capital, Founders Fund, Bain Capital Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Upper90, Winklevoss Capital, and others.
Unsupervised, a Boulder-based provider of customer data analytics, raised $35 million in Series B funding co-led by Cathay Innovation and Signalfire.
📍 Silicon Slopes
Sera Prognostics, a maternal and neonatal health company, raised $100 million in Series E funding fromVivo Capital, aMoon Fund, Parian Global, Anthem, and Blue Ox Healthcare Partners.
📍 Idaho
Engage Technologies Group, a Boise-based video content platform focused on healthcare, raised $15 million in Series A funding.
📍 Texas
RapidDeploy, an Austin-based provider of dispatch software for 911 centers, raised $29 million in Series B funding led by Morpheus Ventures. GreatPoint Ventures, Ericsson Ventures, Samsung Next Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, Clearvision Ventures, and Tau Ventures also participated.
Take Command Health, a Dallas-based health benefits platform, raised $12 million in Series A funding from LiveOak Venture Partners and SJF Ventures.
Dallas-based Zirtue, a relationship-based lending app, raised additional seed funding to bring the round to $4 million. Investors included Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, Google for Startups Black Founders Fund, and Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.
Private Equity Deals
Alpine Investors acquired Aspira, a Dallas-based provider of software for the outdoor recreation industry, from Vista Equity Partners.
M&A
Salt Lake City-based FranklinCovey, a provider of performance improvement services for companies, has acquired Strive, a management training startup, for around $20 million.
Cloud communication platform provider MessageBird will acquire SparkPost, a Missouri-based developer of email marketing technology, for $600 million.
New Funds
Valor Equity Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm, closed Valor Equity Partners V with $1.7 billion fund.
What I’m Reading
Chicago and Denver Led the Nation in VC Funding Growth in Q1 2021
Mapped: The State of Small Business Recovery in America
Startup/VC Twitter
Podcast Addiction
Jackie DiMonte of Chicago Ventures - Upside
Culture Break
📚Read- The Duel by Anton Chekhov
🎬Watch- Nomadland on Hulu (not my favorite out of the best picture nominees but worth a watch for the quality of the acting performances)
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- How Long Can We Live?
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