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.
Whats New
Excoastal Stats 📊
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A resource: the updated the Excoastal Investors Airtable sheet:
Midwest Venture Capital Firms and Angels
Now to the good stuff…
Venture Capital Deals
Inscripta, a Boulder-based developer of genome-engineering devices, raised $125 million in Series D funding led by return backer Paladin Capital Group with participation from JS Capital Management and Oak HC/FT. Inscripta plans to use the funding in part to commercialize its automated genome engineering platform.
Denver-based CyberGRX has raised $40 million in Series D funding led by Iconiq Capital. Bessemer Venture Partners, Blackstone, GV, AllegisCyber, ClearSky, MassMutual Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and TenEleven Ventures also participated. The company operates a data and analytics-based marketplace that provides third-party cybersecurity management services to major insurers.
Crusoe Energy Systems, a Denver-based flare migration startup that converts gas into energy for bitcoin mining, raised $30 million in new equity funding led by existing backer Bain Capital Ventures. Other backers include The KCK Group, Founders Fund, Winklevoss Capital, and Polychain Capital. Axios
Gtmhub, a Denver-based business success platform, raised $9 million in Series A funding. CRV led the round. Term Sheet
FoodMaven, a Colorado Springs-based food-sourcing startup, raised $15.3 million in Series B funding led by return backer Tao Capital Partners.
Sevan Multi-Site Solutions, a Downers Grove, Ill.-based provider of construction management services, raised $17.5 million in Series A funding. ABS Capital Partners led the round. Term Sheet
Bridge Connector, a Nashville-based workflow automation startup focused on health IT interoperability, raised $5 million. Jeff Vinik led, and was joined by return backer Axioma Ventures. Axios
Tulsa, OK-based Zero Card, a healthcare services marketplace for self-funded employers, raised $7 million in Series A funding led by the George Kaiser Family Foundation. Rise of the Rest also participated.
Private Equity Deals
No notable tech PE deals this week.
M&A
ClearCourse Partnership LLP, a group of companies backed by Aquiline Capital Partners, acquired Giftpro, a Nashville-based software platform that allows hotels, restaurants, spas and other venues to sell and manage gift vouchers and event tickets. Term Sheet
New Funds
Chicago-based Hyde Park Venture Partners has closed its third fund on $100 million, an increase over the $65 million sophomore fund. Hyde Park VP will continue to make early-stage tech investments in the mid-continent region.
May River Capital has closed its second flagship private equity fund on $300 million, meeting its target. The Chicago-based firm will use the capital to make lower-middle-market investments in the industrial sector according to Pitchbook.
IPOs
No notable tech IPOs this week.
What I’m Reading
The Four Stages of Data in a Consumer Internet Company
Introducing the Lightspeed standardized e-commerce model
Four Paths Forward for ‘Social Products’
32 Moments That Made the Decade
Startup/VC Twitter
Podcast Addiction
Investing in Marketplaces with Sarah Tavel and Nabeel Hyatt - Venture Stories
Getting the lay of the land in Startup Milwaukee - Upside
Culture Break
📚Read- Textbooks are about the only thing I’ll be reading from now through December 17.
🎬Watch- I watched The Report last night, which stars Adam Driver, and is based on the story behind the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Torture Report. It is an Amazon Studios original, streaming on Prime Video. It made me think how much better positioned Amazon is than some others in the streaming wars, since they won’t live or die by their content. The film was good but not outstanding so its unlikely I would subscribe to an independent service soley for similar content. It was enjoyable enough however that my Prime subscription seems like a better value because of it, a key input in the Amazon flywheel.
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- The Influencer and the Hit Man
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