RVshare raises over $100M in a growth round.
Plus data analytics attracts financing in Wisconsin and 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
What’s New
Excoastal Stats 📊
Last Week’s Open Rate: 41%
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ICYMI: the Excoastal Investors Airtable sheet:
Midwest Venture Capital Firms and Angels
Excoastal will be off next week!
I’ll have family visiting next weekend, but Excoastal will be back in your inbox in November.
Venture Capital Deals
📍 Ohio
RVshare, an Akron-based peer-to-peer RV rental marketplace, raised over $100 million led by KKR. Existing backer Tritium Partners also participated. The company has seen a sharp growth in demand amid the pandemic, as more would-be travelers seek socially distanced options for hitting the road according to Crunchbase.
📍 Wisconsin
Synthetaic, a Delafield, WI-based maker of data for training A.I., raised $1 million in pre-seed funding and $3.5 million in seed round funding. Lupa Systems led the round and was joined by investors including Betaworks Ventures and TitletownTech.
DataChat, a Madison, WI-based data analytics platform, raised $4 million in seed funding co-led by WRVI Capital and Nepenthe Capital.
📍 Minnesota
Bind Benefits, a Minneapolis-based health insurance startup, raised $105 million in Series B funding from backers like Ascension Ventures.
Arctic Wolf, a provider of concierge cybersecurity services that help organizations monitor, detect and respond to threats, has raised $200 million in a round led by Viking Global. The funding values the company at $1.3 billion. In March, Arctic Wolf raised $60 million at a $285 million valuation, according to PitchBook data. As part of the new round, the startup is moving its global headquarters from Sunnyvale, Calif. to Eden Prairie, Minn.
📍St. Louis
Textel, a texting platform for contact centers, raised $4 million in Series A funding. Cultivation Capital led and was joined by Stout Street Capital and Capital Midwest Fund.
📍 Silicon Slopes
EveryoneSocial, a Salt Lake City-based employee-focused social platform, raised $7.6 million in Series A funding. Next Frontier Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Crane Group and Epic Ventures. Term Sheet
📍 Arizona
eVisit, a Mesa, Ariz.-based provider of telehealth enablement SaaS, raised $14 million in Series A funding. TVC Capital led, and was joined by Kickstart Seed Fund and University Growth Fund.
Private Equity Deals
Sageview Capital invested in XSELL Technologies, a Chicago-based provider of an augmented intelligence platform. Term Sheet
Madison Dearborn Partners invested in Carnegie Learning, a Pittsburgh maker of artificial intelligence tools for education and formative assessment.
M&A
CapVest agreed to buy Datasite, a Minneapolis-based provider of M&A SaaS.
Prometheus Group, backed by Genstar Capital, acquired Utopia Global, a Mundelein, IL-based data governance and migration company.
Versapay merged with Solupay, a Twinsburg, OH-based payment services provider.
Chicago-based Vision acquired DX Marketing, a Savannah-based digital marketing firm.
Achievers acquired TemboSocial, a Toronto-based employee feedback tool.
Filogix acquired Doorr, a Toronto-based provider of point-of-sale mortgage software.
New Funds
New Frontier Capital, a Bozeman, MT-based VC firm, has raised $55 million of a planned $100 million for its third fund.
Others
Root, a Columbus, OH-based auto insurer, plans to raise $568 million in an offering of 24.2 million shares priced between $22 to $25. It also plans to raise $500 million via a concurrent private placement from Dragoneer Investment Group and Silver Lake. Term Sheet
What I’m Reading
Did COVID actually impact dealflow?
The Search for the Rare Breed Entrepreneur
Audio’s Opportunity and Who Will Capture It
The Future is Happening Now: Accelerating into a New World of Edtech: Part I
Startup/VC Twitter
Podcast Addiction
Special: Invest Like the Best on Acquired - Acquired FM
Culture Break
📚Read- Dewey Defeats Truman by A.J. Baime
🎬Watch- The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- Why Facebook Can’t Fix Itself
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