Chicago-based Ocient picks up $40M
Plus brand protection in Boise, e-commerce tech in Austin and Toronto, a Series A for Ohio-based SmileMD, 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: 41%
Last Week’s Views: 206
ICYMI: the Excoastal Investors Airtable sheet:
Midwest Venture Capital Firms and Angels
Excoastal will be off next week and back in your inboxes on the 13th of February.
Venture Capital Deals
📍 Chicago
Mediafly, which makes tools for creating sales pitch decks and other presentations, raised $25 million in debt and equity financing. Boathouse Capital provided the equity tranch, with Sterling National Bank providing the senior debt.
Ocient, a data analytics startup, raised $40 million in Series B funding. OCA Ventures and Greycroft co-led, and were joined by Valor Equity Partners, PSP Partners, Hyde Park Angels, Pritzker Group VC, Gaingels, and Alumni Venture Group.
Booksy, a booking platform for beauty companies, raised $70 million in Series C funding. Cat Rock Capital led, and was joined by Sprints Capital, OpenOcean, Piton Capital, VNV Global, Enern, and Manta Ray Ventures. Axios
Catalytic, a no-code company, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from In-Q-Tel. Term Sheet
📍 Ohio
OFFOR Health (SmileMD), a Columbus, Ohio-based provider of sedation services to dental offices, raised $5 million in Series A funding. SpringRock Ventures led, and was joined by Loud Capital. Axios
📍 Toronto
Tealbook, the provider of a data platform for enterprises to better understand their supply chains and make procurement decisions, raised $14.4M in a Series A round led by RTP Global.
BlackCart, a try before you buy platform for e-commerce, raised $8.8 million in Series A funding. Origin Ventures and Hyde Park Ventures Partners co-led and were joined by Struck Capital, Citi Ventures, and 500 Startups.
📍 Idaho
Appdetex, a Boise-based scam detection company focused on brand protection, raised $12.2 million in Series C funding. Baird Capital led the round and was joined by investors including First Analysis, Origin Ventures, and EPIC Ventures. Term Sheet
📍 Denver/Boulder
RxRevu, a Denver-based prescription drug pricing company, raised $7 million in Series B funding. JAZZ Venture Partners led.
📍 Texas
Darwin Homes, which offers property management software for real estate owners and managers, has raised a $15 million Series A from investors including Canvas Ventures and Camber Creek.
SamCart, an Austin-based startup developing an e-commerce platform designed for direct-to-consumer brands, raised $10 million in a Series A funding. The round was led by TTV Capital and was joined by investors including Fin VC and George Kaiser Foundation.
Literati, a subscription startup that provides curated books, personalized stickers and artwork to subscribers, has raised $40 million in a round led by Felicis Ventures and joined by 01 Advisors, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Shasta Ventures, Silverton Partners, Springdale Ventures, and Stephen Curry.
Preciate, a Dallas-based virtual business social and peer recognition startup, raised $4.6 million in seed funding. Inspiration Ventures led and was joined by Founders Capital Partners and the Santa Barbara Angel Alliance. Axios
Pinecone, an Austin-based vector database for building machine learning apps, raised $10 million in seed funding led by Wing VC.
Private Equity Deals
Partners Group has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Idera, a Houston-based provider of B2B software productivity tools, from HGGC and TA Associates.
Chicago-based Shore Capital Partners invested in Tandem, a Westchester, IL-based operator of four HR software platforms that manage payroll processing, benefits administration, and more.
M&A
Symplr, a provider of healthcare governance, compliance, and risk management software, will acquire Phynd Technologies, a Dallas-based company that offers data management software to the healthcare industry.
Ivanti, a South Jordan, Utah-based portfolio company of Clearlake Capital Group and TA Associates, acquired Cherwell Software, a Colorado Springs-based provider of IT service management and enterprise service management solutions.
Xerox acquired CareAR, an Austin-based based AR support platform for field workers and customers.
New Funds
Arch Venture Partners, a Chicago-based venture capital firm, closed on Arch Venture Fund XI, with over $1.9 billion in commitments.
Jackson, WY-based Prime Movers Lab has raised $245 million for its sophomore flagship fund.
Texas-based Gauge Capital has closed its third flagship fund on $800 million. The fund will invest in middle-market companies in healthcare services, business services, consumer products, and transportation.
What I’m Reading
Report: Colorado’s VC Funding Neared a Record High in Q4 2020
Meet the team behind your feed
The Story of a Cap Table: Affirm
The Missing Insight Around Software Multiples for Valuing Companies
Startup/VC Twitter
Podcast Addiction
GameStonk Emergency Podcast - Stonky Tonk (hilarious commentary on the wild events in the market this week)
Culture Break
📚Read- Yellow Bird by Sierra Crane Murdoch
🎬Watch- Lupin on Netflix (it’s been a while since a Netflix original has grabbed my attention. This french-language retelling of the story of Arsène Lupin, gentleman thief and master of disguise is a uniquely enjoyable watch)
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- A Vast Web of Vengeance
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