Rivian raises at a $25B dollar valuation
Plus superfood bread in Cincinnati, tax software for crypto, and much more...
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
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ICYMI: the Excoastal Investors Airtable sheet:
Midwest Venture Capital Firms and Angels
Venture Capital Deals
📍 Michigan
Groundspeed Analytics, an Ann Arbor-based maker of software for the property and casualty insurance industry, raised an undisclosed amount of Series C funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Oak HC/FT. Term Sheet
Rivian, a Plymouth-based electric truck-maker, is raising new funding at a $25 billion valuation. Last summer the company secured $2.5 billion from T. Rowe Price, Soros Fund Management, Fidelity, Baron Capital, Amazon, and BlackRock. Axios
📍 Ohio
Paycor, a Norwood-based payroll services company backed by Apax Partners, raised $270 million in funding. Neuberger Berman and Qatar Investment Authority led the round and were joined by ClearBridge Investments, Franklin Templeton, Leumi Partners, and Teca Partners. Term Sheet
Uprising, a Cincinnati-based superfood bakery, raised $1.25 million led by Trousdale Ventures.
📍 Toronto
iLobby, which develops software that helps enterprises track, manage, and monitor people in their facilities, raised $100 million from Insight Partners.
📍Chattanooga
Echelon Fitness, a connected fitness company, raised $65 million. Goldman Sachs Growth led, and was joined by insider North Castle Partners.
📍Colorado
AMP Robotics, a Denver-based developer of robots for sorting recyclable materials, raised $55 million in Series B funding. XN led the round and was joined by GV, Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, Congruent Ventures, and Closed Loop Partners.
Colorado Springs-based Quantum Metric, the developer of a continuous design platform for digital products, raised $200 million in a Series B round led by Insight Partners. The valuation was reported to be greater than $1 billion.
Pax8, a Denver-based marketplace for cloud products, raised $96 million led by Catalyst Investors and Sageview Capital. They were joined by Blue Cloud Ventures and Liberty Global Ventures.
📍 Silicon Slopes
SimpleNexus, a Lehi-based homeownership platform, raised $108 million in Series B funding led by Insight Partners.
Divvy, a Draper-based corporate spend management company, raised $165 million at a valuation of $1.6 billion. Investors included Hanaco, PayPal Ventures, Whale Rock, Schonfeld, NEA, Insight Venture Partners, Acrew, and Pelion. Term Sheet
WeLink, a Lehi-based wireless broadband provider, raised $185 million from Digital Alpha Advisors.
TaxBit, an SLC-based startup that provides software to automate cryptocurrency taxes, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from PayPal Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and Winklevoss Capital.
📍 New Mexico
BayoTech, an Albuquerque-based producer of on-site hydrogen, secured up to $157 million in new funding. Newlight Partners led, and was joined by Fortistar and return backers Cottonwood Technology Funds and Sun Mountain Capital. Axios
📍 Texas
Brightpearl, a London-based company with an office in Austin, has raised $33.8 million in a round led by Sage.
Dallas-based Kanarys, a startup developing a technology platform for companies to measure and change their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, has raised $3 million in seed financing. Zeal Capital Partners led the round.
Private Equity Deals
Providence Equity Partners has acquired a majority stake in Michigan-based 365 Retail Markets, which provides software, payment processing, point-of-sale hardware, and other technologies for the foodservice industry.
Bain Capital and HGGC have made an investment in Omaha-based Buildertrend, a developer of cloud-based software for home builders and contractors.
Vector Capital acquired Mood Media, an Austin-based provider of customer engagement software for a range of industries including music, automotive, and retail.
Hellman & Friedman invested in PointClickCare Technologies, a Toronto-based provider of healthcare software. Term Sheet
M&A
AutoVitals acquired BayIQ, an Arizona-based provider of marketing software to the independent tire and automotive repair industry.
Teledyne agreed to buy Ohio-based thermal imaging company FLIR for around $8 billion in cash and stock.
Sysnet Global Solutions acquired NuArx, a Southfield, Michigan-based maker of security and payments compliance software.
New Funds
Ludlow Ventures, a Detroit-based seed-stage firm, is raising $65 million for its fourth fund, per an SEC filing.
Others
What I’m Reading
2020 changed America's startup landscape
We Only Have 100 Points of Equity to Split Up
Investing in Public: Non-Obvious Lessons from 100+ Angel Investments
Startup/VC Twitter
Thread 👇🏼
Podcast Addiction
Ron Stubblefield (Jumpstart) - Lay of the Land (a new show from the upside podcast network, check out more here)
Culture Break
📚Read- Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre
🎬Watch- Lover’s Rock - the second film of the Small Axe series by Steve McQueen
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- Inside the U.S. Army’s Warehouse Full of Nazi Art
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