- Exo, developer of insect-based protein bars, raised $4 million in Series A funding led by AccelFoods. As its name suggests, AccelFoods backs businesses developing innovative approaches to food and beverage. The round also saw participation from a diverse group of new and existing investors, including Collaborative Fund, Start Garden, Tim Ferriss (investor and/or advisor in Facebook, Twitter, and Uber), Nas (the legendary New York rapper), and Amelia Boone (American obstacle racer). Added to $400,000 in pre-seed funding and $1.2 million in seed funding, Exo has raised a total of $5.6 million in venture financing.
- Consumer analytics platform AreaMetrics, which uses Bluetooth beacons to help shopping malls, retail stores, and restaurants gain insight into customer demographics and shopping patterns, raised a $2 million seed round of financing, led by early stage venture capital firms Startup Capital Ventures and Quest Venture Partners. Other early stage investors, including Seraph Group, Social Starts, and previous angel investors, also joined the round. AreaMetrics had previously raised $500,000 in angel funding, bringing the company’s total raised to $2.5 million.
- Staff Finder, provider of an on-demand platform for filling temporary job positions, secured a new growth equity round led by One Peak Partners and Goldman Sachs Private Capital. The company didn’t disclose the size of the round in the press release, so I’ve reached out to confirm this detail. (TechCrunch has the amount pegged at €20 million, or approximately $22 million). It’s also unclear whether this is the company’s first venture capital round or not, so I’ve reached out to confirm.
- Property Partner, a property crowdfunding platform based in London, closed a £15.9 million (approximately $22.4 million) funding round led by Octopus Ventures with participation from Index Ventures and Dawn Capital. The company has raised a total of £22.5 million (approximately $31.7 million) in venture capital funding to date.
- The Floor, a new fintech hub launched in Tel Aviv, Israel, raised $2 million in funding. Pando Group, a Chinese venture capital firm, made the investment. Led by by Avi Cohen, Gil Devora and Moises Cohen, The Floor is a hub providing a platform for startups, entrepreneurs, venture capital firms and banks to connect in one place with the aim to develop and implement financial technology solutions.
- Attractions marketplace for travelers and travel companies Tiqets landed a $4 million equity Series A round led by Capital Mills, a Dutch venture capital firm. The founders of the 3-year-old startup, based in Amsterdam, raised $1.45 million previously. Tiqets, which has 35 full-time employees, offers travelers mobile tickets to attractions, museums, and entertainment, through its direct-to-consumer channels.
- NexWafe, a Freiburg, Germany-based developer of wafers to solar cell producers, raised €6 million (approximately $6.6 million) in Series A funding. The round was led by the Swiss-based private equity firm Lynwood (Schweiz) AG. The company intends to use the funds for the commercialization of the EpiWafer technology.
- Zaloni, a data lake company, closed $7.5 million in Series A financing led by Sierra Ventures, with participation from Baird Capital. The company, which has been experiencing 100% year over year growth from its data lake management solutions, will use the proceeds to fund further expansion of the Zaloni software suite, sales and marketing, research and development, and international expansion.
- United Wind, a provider of distributed wind energy solutions, closed an $8 million Series B financing led by Statoil Energy Ventures and Forum Equity Partners. This financing enables United Wind to offer its unique, industry-leading WindLease program to new markets, empowering more customers throughout the Midwestern U.S. and beyond to save on electricity costs by harvesting their on-site wind energy through a fixed rate, 20-year maintenance-free lease without any initial out-of-pocket costs required from the customer.
- Culture Amp, a people analytics platform for data-driven insights on employee engagement and company culture, closed a $10 million Series B round. The round was led by Index Ventures with participation by Felicis Ventures and Blackbird Ventures. The funding will be used to launch advanced analytics features on the Culture Amp platform, and finance the company’s expansion into the U.K. and Europe, with an office opening in London this month. Ilya Fushman, General Partner at Index Ventures will join Culture Amp’s board of directors.
If you are interested in being included in our funding roundup, submit your press release or blog post about your financing round to mitos@vator.tv.
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