Excoastal Issue 23
Kenzie Academy brings in $100M, AI for reg-tech, plus Starting Line's new fund.
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: 139
Last Week’s Open Rate: 55% 📉
Last Week’s Views: 169 📉
Excoastal News Roundup
Starting Line VC makes it official. (See New Funds below)
Accelerator gBETA’s inaugural cohort for MN St. Cloud.
St. Louis uses Arch Grants to lure startups.
Drive Capital is now one of the Midwest’s highest AUM investors.
From last week: the updated the Excoastal Investors Airtable sheet:
Midwest Venture Capital Firms and Angels
Now to the good stuff…
Venture Capital Deals
Indianapolis-based Kenzie Academy, which operates a design and coding school to develop tech talent outside Silicon Valley and New York, raised $100 million in funding from Community Investment Management and others.
Ascent, a Chicago-based AI-driven solution that helps customers automate regulatory compliance, raised $19.3 million in Series B funding. Drive Capital led, and was joined by investors including ING, Wells Fargo, Alsop Louie, and The University of Chicago.
Imbed Biosciences, a Madison, WI-based developer of advanced material therapies for burns, chronic ulcers, and surgical wounds, raised $4 million in Series A funding from WISC Partners and a group organized by Formidable Asset Management. Axios
Ash & Erie, a Detroit-based apparel e-commerce startup focused on shorter men, raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by Irish Angels.
Private Equity Deals
Greenridge Investment Partners made an investment in GrowthZone, a Nisswa, MN-based provider of association management software. Term Sheet
M&A
SalesLoft, an Atlanta-based sales software company valued at around $500 million by VC firms like Insight Partners, bought Costello, an Indianapolis-based sales assistant software company that last year raised $2 million in seed funding from M25, Elevate Ventures, and Dundee VC. Axios
New Funds
Chicago-based Starting Line VC has closed it’s first official fund on $17M to discover and fund early stage consumer startups building products and services for the 99% economy. Led by Ezra Galston, former professional poker player and VC with Chicago Ventures, the firm has made early investments in companies including Cameo, Made In Cookware, and Clyde. Read their announcement.
Drive Capital, a Columbus-based and Midwest-focused venture capital firm, raised $350 million for its third venture fund. Drive has also raised $284 million for their Overdrive Fund, whose target is $400 million.
Toronto-based Altas Partners closed on its second fund with $3 billion in capital commitments.
IPOs
No notable tech IPOs this week.
What I’m Reading
The Big Exit: Can Minnesota Expect Another One Soon? Why or Why Not?
Why is venture capital so misaligned?
Pitch Deck Success: Drip Campaign for Term Sheets
The World Has Gone Mad and the System Is Broken
Poker Pro-Turned-Investor Ezra Galston Launches Fund to Bet on Consumer Startups
Startup/VC Twitter
Podcast Addiction
Greg Robinson of 4490 Ventures // leading series A/B rounds in underserved markets - Upside FM
Culture Break
📚Read- Crazy busy week, check back her later.
🎬Watch- See above 👆🏼
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
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