Excoastal #14
Fyllo raises a massive seed round, two Utah companies bring in money, and some new PE funds...
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.
This newsletter is the collision of my Chicago/Michigan roots and a love of all things startups and venture capital. It’s inspired by Brendan Boken’s excellent newsletter The Strand, which covers the thriving tech scene in LA. The catalyst for its creation was VC University Live at the University of Michigan, where one of the focuses of the conversation was on building stronger startup communities in the Midwest. From what I’ve seen demonstrated by the #givefirst ethos in Boulder, and from what I’ve observed across other tech hubs, strong communities are often the products of individuals who care enough to invest not just resources, but time and energy. Bringing it home, I wanted to do something to contribute to the ecosystems between the coasts, Excoastal is the start.
You can connect with me on Twitter @evanjlonergan, on Medium, and send deals/jobs/intel to evanlon92@gmail.com.
Whats New
Excoastal Stats 📊
Subscribers: 102
Last Week’s Open Rate: 63% 📉
Last Week’s Views: 142 📉
See that subscriber number above? That’s 💯 and some, all thanks to you. It’s good to have great readers!
Now to the good stuff…
Venture Capital Deals
Chicago-based VillageMD, a primary care startup has completed a $100 million Series B led by Kinnevik AB, contributing $75 million to the round. Oak HC/FT, Town Hall Ventures and Adams Street Partners also participated.
Fyllo, a Chicago-based marketing tech platform for the cannabis industry, raised $16 million in seed funding. JW Asset Managementand K2 & Associates led the round. Term Sheet
75F Inc., a Burnsville, Minnesota-based provider of wireless building automation for commercial properties, raised $18 million in Series A financing. Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Climate Initiative co-led, joined by investors including Building Ventures, Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and Clean Energy Trust. Term Sheet
Salt Lake City-based SmartBeat, a provider of infant monitoring solutions, raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Ideaship.
Cogito, a Draper, Utah-based provider of relationship analytics software solutions, raised $20 million. Investors include New York Life Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and Goldman Sachs Growth Equity. Term Sheet
Hotel Engine, a Denver-based business travel hotel booking and management platform, raised $16 million in Series A funding led by Telescope Partners. Axios
Private Equity Deals
Silver Lake has agreed to make a $1 billion investment in Motorola Solutions, a Chicago-based provider of communications services, command center software, video security and analytics.
GI Partners and TA Associates are seeking a buyer for MRI Software, a Solon, Ohio-based real estate software business that could fetch upwards of $3.5 billion, per Buyouts.
Pamlico Capital is seeking a buyer for Service Express, a Grand Rapids, MI-based provider of third-party maintenance for data center infrastructure, per Buyouts.
The Carlyle Group has agreed to purchase a majority stake in HireVue, a Salt Lake City-based provider of video and AI services for hiring and recruiting, according to Pitchbook
M&A
Resonetics, a portfolio company of GTCR, acquired Tru Tech Systems, a Mount Clemons, MI-based provider of precision processing services for the medical device market. Axios
Advarra, a Columbia, Md.-based portfolio company of Genstar Capital, agreed to buy Forte, a Madison, Wis.-based provider of clinical research software, from Primus Capital Funds. Axios
New Funds
Minneapolis-based Vensana Capital, which makes VC and growth equity investments in the healthcare sector, has closed it first fund on $225 million.
MiddleGround Capital, a Lexington, KY-based private equity firm, raised $459.5 million for its debut fund.
What I’m Reading
Becoming an Investor (Ivan poses some great questions in this post)
Startup/VC Twitter
Podcast Addiction
Marc Nager & Dave Mayer on building rural startup communities - Give First
Culture Break
📚Read- Slogging through a torts textbook this week, watch this space.
🎬Watch- See above.
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- Elite Failure Has Brought Americans to the Edge of an Existential Crisis
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