Excoastal Issue 60
Mountain States lead the way this 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 📊
Last Week’s Open Rate: 43%
Last Week’s Views: 181
ICYMI: the Excoastal Investors Airtable sheet:
Midwest Venture Capital Firms and Angels
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Venture Capital Deals
📍 Chicago
GoGo Wireless, the in-flight wireless provider, raised a post-IPO round of equity financing from GTCR.
Cityzenith, a startup that provides data visualization platform software and applications for IoT and smart cities, raised an undisclosed amount of financing led by Meyer Equity.
📍 Indiana
Indianapolis-based Sharpen Technologies, a provider of software and voice solutions, raised $12 million in a round of venture financing from Lightchain, Cultivation Capital, Allos Ventures.
📍 Arizona
StatHero, a fantasy sports platform, raised a “multi-million dollar round” of seed funding from Breslow Forsythe Group. Term Sheet
📍 Denver/Boulder
Proov, a Boulder-based at-home hormone testing kit company, raised an undisclosed amount of funding. Lightship Capital and Texas HALO Fund invested.
The Pro’s Closet, a Boulder-based company that specializes in selling pre-owned premium bicycles and cycling accessories, raised $12 million in a strategic funding round led by Foundry Group and Edison Partners.
📍 Silicon Slopes
RecursionPharma, a Salt Lake City-based digital biology company, raised $239 million in Series D funding. Bayer led, and was joined by Casdin Capital, Catalio Capital, Laurion Capital, Samsara BioCapital, and return backers Baillie Gifford, Mubadala, DCVC, Lux Capital, Obvious Ventures, Felicis Ventures, EPIC Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Advantage Capital, and Intermountain Ventures. Axios
📍 Texas
Sana Benefits, an Austin-based provider of self-funded health insurance for small businesses, raised $20.8 million in Series A funding. Gigafund led the round and was joined by investors including Trust Ventures and mark vc.
Decent, an Austin-based health insurance startup focused on small businesses, raised $10 million in Series A funding. QED Investors led.
Private Equity Deals
Cove Hill Partners acquired part of Vista Equity’s stake in SecureLink, an Austin, Texas-based third-party remote access software company. Axios
Providence Strategic Growth recapitalized Wagepoint, a Toronto-based online payroll software provider.
ParkerGale Capital acquired a majority stake in SMA Technologies, a Houston-based provider of workload automation software.
M&A
KAR Auction Services will acquire BacklotCars, a Kansas City-based automotive platform, for $425 million. Investors in the company include Stripes, Origin Ventures, and Pritzker Group Venture Capital.
Innovative Discovery, a data management consultancy, has acquired Integro, a Colorado-based provider of governance and technical consulting services.
Hyland, an Ohio-based provider of content management software, has agreed to acquire Alfresco Software, which offers digital business software.
Astute, a Columbus, Ohio-based customer engagement company backed by Audax Private Equity, acquired Socialbakers, a Czech unified social media marketing platform that raised over $30 million from Index Ventures, Earlybird VC, and Draper Esprit.
New Funds
Benford Capital Partners, a Chicago-based lower mid-market private equity firm, raised $130 million for its debut fund.
Mountain Capital Management has raised nearly $414.8 million for its second flagship fund, according to an SEC filing. Based in Houston, Mountain Capital primarily makes growth investments of between $50 million and $150 million in North America's middle-market energy sector/.
Others
General Motors acquired an 11% stake in Ohio-based electric truck developer Nikola.
What I’m Reading
It's Not a Venture Bubble (With Charts!)
The Two Men Buying Your Favorite Retailers
How to Find the Side Door: Startup Lessons from RXBar, 5-hour Energy, and More
Startup/VC Twitter
Podcast Addiction
Fintech, Consumer Social, and Transportation with Andy Johns - Venture Stories
Culture Break
📚Read- A Castle in Wartime by Catherine Bailey (another truly fantastic read. Aventure, tragedy, courage, and survival woven together in a beautiful and gripping narrative)
🎬Watch- Mrs. America on Hulu
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- ‘Were your grandparents slaves?’ and Why Americans Really Go to the Gym
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