Cincinnati-based Physna raises $20M from Sequoia
Plus healthtech in Denver and Minneapolis, $41M for KC Rise Fund II, 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
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I know I said that the newsletter would be off this week, but there were some very interesting deals announced this week. So here is an abbreviated version of Excoastal to round up the news.
📆 Upcoming Webinar: 2020: The State of VC Activity & Investment in Colorado - February 17
Venture Capital Deals
📍 Chicago
Anthill, a provider of talent mapping software for a deskless workforce, raised $1.2 million in seed financing. Origin Ventures led.
Tovala, a smart oven and accompanying meal kit service, raised $30 million in Series C funding. Left Lane Capital led, and was joined by Finistere Ventures, Comcast Ventures, OurCrowd, Origin Ventures, and Pritzker Group Venture Capital.
Prisidio, the maker of a way to securely store important documents and information, raised $3.3 million in a seed round of funding. OCA Ventures and Origin Ventures led the round. Term Sheet
Upkey, which offers career readiness tools for students, raised $2.6 million in seed funding. S3 Ventures led, and was joined by investors including Tensility Venture Partners, Bronze Valley, and Lofty Ventures.
📍 Ohio
Physna, a Cincinnati-based startup developing an AI-powered 3D modeling platform for industrial engineering, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Sequoia Capital led the round with Drive Capital also participating. The company had previously raised $9 million.
📍 Minnesota
Flywheel.io, a Minneapolis-based data management platform for medical research and collaboration, raised $15 million in Series B funding from Beringea, 8VC, and Great North Labs.
📍 Denver/Boulder
Plume, a Denver-based company developing a healthtech platform focused on providing care to transgender patients, raised $14 million in a Series A round. Craft Ventures led, with participation from General Catalyst, Slow Ventures, and Town Hall Ventures. Launched in 2019, Plume offers patient care, monitors lab reports, and delivers medicines, among other services. Co-Founder, Dr. Jerrica Kirkley is a trans woman and is board-certified in Family Medicine. She has provided gender-affirming care (GAC) in various clinical settings and is the author of a GAC protocol implemented by health systems across multiple states.
New Funds
KCRise Fund, a VC firm focused on accelerating growth in the greater Kansas City region, raised $41 million for its second fund. The fund has already made eight investments and the portfolio now includes backstitch, Bungii, Cariloop, Daupler, Degree Insurance, Kenzen, Super Dispatch, and TripleBlind. Read more here.
ARCH Venture Partners, a Chicago-based firm, closed ARCH Venture Fund XI with nearly $1.9 billion in commitments.
New Harbor Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm, is seeking to raise $350 million for its third fund.
What I’m Reading
VC meets the land of opportunity
Here Are the 11 Startups in Techstars Boulder’s 2021 Accelerator Program
After GameStop, the role of CEO will never be the same
That’s it for this week!
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