Beam Dental Raises an Oversubscribed Round
Plus two digital health companies raise, truck sharing in Denver, and automation tools for omni-channel retail in Arkansas.
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
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📆 Virtual Event News
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ICYMI: the Excoastal Investors Airtable sheet:
Midwest Venture Capital Firms and Angels
Venture Capital Deals
📍 Ohio
Columbus, Ohio-based Beam Dental, a digital-first dental insurer, raised $80 million in an oversubscribed Series E round of funding. Mercato Partners’ growth equity fund, Traverse, led the financing, joined by investors including Drive Capital, Georgian, Nationwide, and Breakout Capital. The company started out as an app-enabled toothbrush provider before pivoting into insurance.
📍 Toronto
Snapcommerce, a message-driven mobile commerce platform focused on promotions via mobile, raised $85 million. Inovia Capital and Lion Capital led and were joined by Acrew DCF, Thayer Ventures, Full In Partners, Telstra Ventures, and Bee Partners.
CorVista Health, a digital health startup for diagnosing cardiovascular diseases, raised $65 million Series C funding. Ambix Life Science led and was joined by MedVenture Partners.
📍 Tennessee
Stony Creek Colors, a Goodlettsville-based maker of natural dyes, raised $9 million in funding from Lewis & Clark Ventures.
📍 Colorado
Denver-based DispatchHealth, a provider of in-home medical care, raised $200 million in Series D funding at a valuation of $1.7 billion. Tiger Global led the round.
Fluid Trucks, a Denver-based truck-sharing platform for delivery companies, raised $63 million in Series A funding led by Bison Capital. Axios
Stream, a Boulder-based provider of chat and activity APIs, raised $38 million in Series B funding. Felicis Ventures led, and was joined by insiders GGV Capital and 01 Advisors. Axios
Harvest Hosts, a Vail-based membership program for RV users, raised $37 million from Stripes.
Cipher Skin, a Denver-based company making wearable technology to track and capture motion data, raised $5 million in Series A funding. Boyett Group led the round, and was joined by investors including Draper Capital, Tribe Capital and TKC Capital. Term Sheet
📍 Silicon Slopes
Salt Lake City-based TaxBit, a cryptocurrency tax and accounting software platform, raised $100 million in Series A funding. Paradigm and Tiger Global led, joined by PayPal Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and Winklevoss Capital.
📍 Arkansas
Ox, a Bentonville-based automation platform for omni-channel retail operations, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. MaC VC and Cortado Ventures co-led, and were joined by Rise of the Rest, Vuzix, Florida Funders, KCRise Fund and Willow Growth Partners. Axios
📍 Texas
Rollick, an Austin-based marketing and technology provider for RV and boat dealers and manufacturers, raised $8.5 million in funding from Sandbox Insurtech Ventures, TechNexus Venture Collaborative, Dallas Venture Capital, Alumni Ventures, London Technology Club, LiveOak Venture Partners, Silverton Partners, Autotech Ventures, ManchesterStory, Anthem Venture Partners, and Capital Factory. Term Sheet
Jungle Scout, an Austin-based platform for selling on Amazon, raised $110 million. Summit Partners and the company’s founder, Greg Mercer, led the round.
Goldfinch Health, an Austin-based surgery and recovery company, raised $1.4 million in seed funding. BrokerTech Ventures led the round. Term Sheet
📍 Arizona
Postscript, a Scottsdale-based SMS marketing platform for Shopify stores, raised $35 million in Series B funding. Greylock led, and was joined by YC, 1984vc, Ali Capital, and Elephant VC.
Oats Overnight, a Tempe-based oats formula company, raised $2 million in seed funding from FabFitFun’s CTO Danilo Stern-Sapad and Spacestation Investments.
Private Equity Deals
An investor group led by Schneider Electric and Huck Capital are nearing a deal to invest in Uplight, a Boulder-based utility software company, in a deal valued at $1.5 billion, per Bloomberg.
Five Elms Capital invested in Karbon, a management software provider for accounting firms.
M&A
Infostretch agreed to acquire Saggezza, a Chicago-based technology solutions provider.
New Funds
Chicago Ventures, the Chicago-based seed-stage venture firm, raised $63 million for its third fund. Congrats to the team over there!
Hannah Grey Ventures, a Denver-based VC firm led by Kate Beardsley (ex-Upslope Ventures) and Jessica Peltz-Zatulove (ex-MDC Ventures), is raising $25 million for its debut fund, per an SEC filing.
Chicago-based first check fund LongJump VC has officially launched. See below 👇🏼
Others
What I’m Reading
Everything You Need to Launch a Startup in Denver
The Rise of Private Equity in SaaS: A Gift to Founders
Startup/VC Twitter
Podcast Addiction
FreshFry: How Jacob Huff is Bringing Innovation to Frying Oil
Culture Break
📚Read- Still reading Reaganland from last week, this one might take me a bit.
🎬Watch- As mentioned last week my schedule has been a bit busy and as a result I haven’t been watching much. It’s less than ideal for this section, but check back soon!
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- In Defense Of Substack
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