Excoastal Issue 53
Year two starts with a busy week...
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 📊
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Last Week’s Open Rate: 47% 📉
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A quick thank you!
As the newsletter kicks off its second year, I wanted to thank all of you who read and have subscribed. It’s awesome to have a supportive community around Excoastal.
ICYMI: the Excoastal Investors Airtable sheet:
Midwest Venture Capital Firms and Angels
Venture Capital Deals
📍 Chicago
Evertas, a crypto asset insurance company, raised $2.8 million in seed funding. Morgan Creek Capital Management led, joined by Plug and Play, Kailash Ventures, RenGen, Vy Capital, and Wavemaker Genesis.
Workbox, a coworking accelerator, raised $1 million in seed funding. According to the company, “funding was led by a consortium of strategic investors in the real estate and technology sectors.”
Cohesion, a smart office building startup, raised $6.5 million in seed funding led by Hyde Park Angels with participation from CMT Capital Markets and various individual angels.
📍 Indianapolis
Docket, the maker of meeting collaboration software for agendas and notes has raised $1.25 million in additional seed funding from Sequoia. Docket recently secured a first-place finish in Zoom’s Marketplace App competition.
📍 Twin Cities
Joshin, a Minneapolis-based disability care app, raised $1.6 million in funding. Anthemis led the round and was joined by investors including M25 and Sure Ventures. Term Sheet
📍 Nebraska
CompanyCam, a Lincoln-based documentation and communication mobile app maker for residential contractors, raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Blueprint Equity.
📍 Boulder/Denver
Denver-based pediatric behavioral health startup Manatee has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from SpringTime Ventures and Grand Ventures.
📍 Silicon Slopes
VideoPeel, a Lehi, Utah-based video testimonial platform, raised $1.5 million of funding. ActiveCapital led the round and was joined by investors including Next Coast Ventures, and eonCaptial.
📍 Austin
Pattern Bioscience, an Austin-based in vitro diagnostics company founded to help combat the problem of antibiotic resistance, raised $9 million in Series B funding. Illumina Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Omnimed Capital .
Eterneva, an Austin-based grief wellness startup that crafts memorial diamonds raised $3 million in seed extension funding. Springdale Ventures led the round. Founder Collective and Next Coast Ventures participated.
📍 Arizona
Cyr3con, a Tempe-based provider of cybersecurity prediction software, raised $8.2 million led by Pivotal Group. Trumpf Ventures, 3Lines Venture Capital, DF Enterprises, and Hike Ventures also participated.
CampusLogic, a Phoenix-based education tech company focused on student aid, raised $120 million from Dragoneer Investment Group. CampusLogic recently acquired RaiseMe, a startup focused on improving access to higher education for low-income and first-generation students.
Private Equity Deals
BV Investment Partners invested in Becklar , an Ogden, Utah-based parent company of emergency response companies Freeus and AvantGuard.
M&A
Voyager Space Holdings has acquired Pioneer Astronautics, a Lakewood, Colorado-based space exploration company, in a transaction made up of both cash and stock.
New Funds
McCarthy Capital, an Omaha-based private equity firm, is raising $425 million for its seventh fund, per an SEC filing.
Others
GoHealth, a Chicago-based health insurance marketplace with a focus on medicare backed by Centerbridge Partners and Norwest, raised $914 million in its IPO at $21 dollars per share. The company will list on the Nasdaq as “GOCO” and reports $1.4 million of net income on $141 million in net revenue for Q1 2020. S-1
Jamf, a Minneapolis-based Apple device management company backed by Vista Equity plans to raise $288 million in an offering of 16 million shares (16% insider) priced between $17 to $19. It posted revenue of $204 million in 2019 and a loss of $32.6 million. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “JAMF.” S-1
DoorDash has entered into wellness with a Walgreens partnership to offer on-demand delivery of more than 2,300 convenience, health, and wellness products in Chicago, Atlanta, and Denver. There are plans to expand the service to markets in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, and Sacramento.
What I’m Reading
What you need to know before raising a Micro-VC fund today
Startup/VC Twitter
Podcast Addiction
Jake Liu on Seeing an Opportunity, Outer - Demo Day
Culture Break
📚Read- How To Be An Antiracist - Ibram X. Kendi
🎬Watch- Greyhound on Apple TV+ (I don’t know that it lives up to the hype, but its work watching if you’re into history or just love Tom Hanks.)
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- This Recession Is a Bigger Housing Crisis Than 2008
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