Excoastal Issue 57
A Big Week in the Windy City
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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ICYMI: the Excoastal Investors Airtable sheet:
Midwest Venture Capital Firms and Angels
Venture Capital Deals
📍 Chicago +
Kin Insurance, a home insurance technology company, raised $35 million in Series B funding. Commerce Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Hudson Structured Capital Management, Flourish Ventures, QED, Alpha Edison, Allegis NL Capital, Avanta Ventures, August Capital, and the University of Chicago.
Fyllo, which offers compliance cloud enterprise-grade software and database services for the cannabis industry, raised an additional $10 million. This brings the total Series A funding to $26 million. JW Asset Management and K2 & Associates led the investment and was joined by investors including Arcadian, Salveo Capital, and Phyto Partners.
Trala, a developer of a music education application used to teach users to play the violin, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Next Play Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Techstars Ventures, Blue Titan Ventures, Hyde Park Angels, Webb Investment Network, Phoenix Rising and Concrete Rose Capital.
High Definition Vehicle Insurance, a commercial auto insurance business, has raised $16 million in Series A funding led by 8VC and Munich Re Ventures. Qualcomm Ventures and Autotech Ventures also participated. The Chicago-based startup provides policies and tools to help small and mid-size trucking fleets improve their safety, compliance, and operations.
Natural Fiber Welding, a Peoria, Illinois-based startup that develops technology for manufacturing high-performance textiles from reused plant and natural fibers, has raised $13 million in funding. The round was led by fashion designer Ralph Lauren Corp along with Central Illinois Angels and other investors.
📍 Madison
Allergy Amulet, a Wisconsin-based company with a portable allergen sensor, raised $3.3 million in seed funding. TitletownTech, a joint venture between Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers, led the round. Term Sheet
📍 St. Louis
Mission Control, a developer of an esports platform used to create recreational gaming leagues for friends, raised $1.8 million in seed funding. Dundee Venture Capital led the round and was joined by investors including M25, Cultivation Capital, and MATH Venture Partners.
📍 Silicon Slopes
Pattern, a Lehi-based maker of e-commerce software used by brands to improve their online sales, has raised $52 million in funding led by Ainge Advisory and KSV Global.
Mighty, a Salt Lake City-based platform for remote and cross-functional teams, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Investors included Slack Fund, GSV Ventures, Origin Ventures, Album VC, Acadian Ventures, and Village Global.
📍 Denver/Boulder
Stream, a Boulder-based maker of chat and activity feed software tools, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by GGV Capital, with 01 Advisors, Knight, Arthur Ventures, Olivier Pomel, and Tom Preston-Werner also participating. Axios
📍 Texas
Editing tool LitLingo raised $2 million in a seed round led by LiveOak Venture Partners. The Austin-based startup’s platform uses AI to evaluate written correspondence, including emails, office chats, and customer service ticketing, and provide real-time feedback.
K2View, a Dallas-based maker of data management software, has raised $28 million in a funding round led by Forestay Capital, with Genesis Partners also participating.
Private Equity Deals
OceanSound Partners recapped Netrix, a Bannockburn, Illinois-based provider of cloud infrastructure, collaboration, data, and development services and solutions to small and midsize enterprise customers.
TA Associates has agreed to invest in Ivanti, a Salt Lake City-based provider of IT management and security software backed by Clearlake Capital. Axios
M&A
Intelerad Medical Systems acquired Radius, a Nashville, Tennessee-based provider of private and public cloud hosting.
Improving acquired Object Partners, a Minneapolis-based custom software development firm. Term Sheet
New Funds
Firebrand Ventures has closed over 90% of a $40 million target for its second fund, which was formed via a merger with Boulder-based Blue Note Ventures.
Others
Bain Capital and Vista Equity Partners are in negotiations for a sale of Denver-based insurance software specialist Vertafore to software giant Roper Technologies for around $5.5 billion, according to Reuters.
What I’m Reading
In a Wistful Age, Farmers Find a New Angle: Chore TV
Will Rolling Funds Roll Over the Venture Capital Industry?
How VCs Judge Your Startup (on Zoom): 15+ Tactics Behind Successful Fundraises
Startup/VC Twitter
Podcast Addiction
A quantitative approach to product-market fit, Tribe’s 8 ball for objective evaluation, and approaches to reduce talent biases | Jonathan Hsu - The Full Ratchet podcast
Culture Break
📚Read- Heavy by Kiese Laymon
🎬Watch- Home, episode two - Chicago, on Apple TV+
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- The European Cities Using the Pandemic As a Cure for Airbnb
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