ScriptDrop Raises a Series A
plus eCommerce, Fintech, D2C plants, 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 📊
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ICYMI: the Excoastal Investors Airtable sheet:
Midwest Venture Capital Firms and Angels
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Venture Capital Deals
📍 Chicago
ShipBob, an e-commerce fulfillment startup, raised $68 million in Series D funding. SoftBank Vision Fund led, and was joined by return backers Menlo Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels, and YC.
UPshow, which develops interactive digital displays for brick-and-mortar brands, added $4.8 million in funding led by 4490 Ventures to close out its $14 million Series A funding round according to Crunchbase.
AeroPay, a next-generation alternative payments platform, has closed on an undisclosed seed round led by PE firm Continental Investors.
📍 Ohio
ScriptDrop, a Columbus-based prescription delivery platform, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by the Ohio Innovation Fund. According to CrunchBase, the company has seen a 220 percent increase in revenue for 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic propelled the demand for pharmaceutical delivery.
📍 Detroit
Detroit-based Bloomscape, a direct-to-consumer online plant shop, raised $15 million in a Series B round led by General Catalyst. The company also announced the acquisition of the plant care app, Vera.
📍 Indianapolis
Malomo, a post-purchase platform for high-growth eCommerce merchants, raised $2.7 million in a seed round led by Base10 Partners and Harlem Capital. See more here.
📍 Texas
Digital banking specialist Alkami Technology has raised $140 million in a round led by D1 Capital Partners.
Payrix, a Frisco-based fintech company, raised $50 million in extended Series A funding. Blue Star Innovation Partners and Providence Strategic Growth. Term Sheet
Private Equity Deals
Riverside Partners has acquired a minority stake in G&A Partners, a Houston-based business that provides outsourced HR services to other companies.
M&A
VMWare acquired SaltStack, a Lehi, Utah-based software automation vendor that had raised $28 million from firms like Mercato Partners, Epic Ventures, Peak Capital, Deep Fork Capital, Album VC, and BYU Cougar Capital. Axios
Spectrio has purchased Industry Weapon, a digital signage company based in Pittsburgh. The deal will add to Spectrio's suite of digital tools. Industry Weapon had raised funds from Pittsburgh Equity Partners.
Ivanti, a Utah-based portfolio company of Clearlake Capital and TA Associates, agreed to acquire MobileIron, a provider of mobile-centric unified endpoint management solutions, for $872 million.
New Funds
7Wire Ventures of Chicago secured around $48 million for its $150 million-targeted second fund, per an SEC filing.
11Tribes, a Chicago-based VC firm, raised $20 million for its debut fund, per an SEC filing.
Others
Pitchbook reports that indoor farming startup AppHarvest has agreed to go public via a reverse merger with special-purpose acquisition company Novus Capital Corporation. AppHarvest, which operates a 60-acre greenhouse in Morehead, KY, will receive $475 million in gross proceeds, with $375 million coming via a PIPE investment from Fidelity Management & Research, Inclusive Capital, Novus Capital Corporation, and others. The deal has a total value of around $1 billion.
What I’m Reading
Colorado’s Burgeoning Startup Scene is Flying High
What it feels like when you've found product-market fit
The Pervasive, Head-Scratching, Risk-Exploding Problem With Venture Capital
The Students Left Behind by Remote Learning
Startup/VC Twitter
Thread 👇🏼
Podcast Addiction
Venture Unlocked Episode 1: Elizabeth Yin, Hustle Fund
Culture Break
📚Read- Separated by Jacob Soboroff
🎬Watch- The Comey Letter (Showtime)
🎧Listen-
🧐Think- The Pretender
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