Daily funding roundup - July 20, 2015

Mitos Suson · July 20, 2015 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/3ed9

Fidelity Growth Partners secured $150M; Survata landed $6M; Vroom announced $54M

  • Vroom, an online pre-owned car retailer that seeks to tack the hassle out of the experience by increasing transparency, announced a $54 million Series B round of funding. The investors in the round are Catterton, who are investors in major consumer retail brands such as Restoration Hardware and P.F. Chang’s; General Catalyst Partners, who are investors in Snapchat, Warby Parker and Kayak; and funds and accounts managed by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., who are investors in Redfin and Workday. Jeffery Boyd, Chairman and former CEO of The Priceline Group, and Bob Mylod, former CFO of The Priceline Group, also participated in the round.

  • Survata, a company that conducts consumer surveys for CPG companies, ad agencies, hedge funds, and even some VCs has now raised a $6 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by IDG Ventures with participation from Bloomberg Beta, Alexis Ohanian & Garry Tan, and strategic angels like Tom Patterson, who was SVP at MarketTools. The company says that it "aimed for investors who understand selling data and information products." The company has previously raised a $1.5 million seed round in May 2013 from SoftTech and PivotNorth.

  • Besomebody Inc., a social media website operator launched by a former GoProInc. executive, has completed a $1 million round of funding. The Austin-based company founded by CEO Kash Shaikh received the financing from the Ohio-based E.W. Scripps Co. Besomebody plans to use the capital to build what it calls “the world’s platform for passion,” a mobile-based technology designed to enable users to post inspirational content, according to a Thursday news release.

  • Calendar42, a Delft, The Netherlands-based provider of a real-time travel & data information platform, received funding from informal investors and current shareholders. It concerns a seed investment of $1.1 million, which enables the company to further realise its ambition to eliminate unnecessary 'planning'.

  • Luna, a smart bed startup lifted $1.3 million in appropriation from personal buyers — roughly a matching apportion as its income from pre-orders and crowdfunding.

  • Blockchain Identity Startup ShoCard raised $1.5million in funding from AME Cloud Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Enspire Capital and Morado Venture PartnersThe funding will help the startup advance on what might be its core barrier to mainstream adoption 

  • Limelight Health, provider of mobile enterprise technology for the health insurance industry, received $3 million in Series A funding from MassMutual Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), and AXA Strategic Ventures.  Also investing in the round is the series seed lead investor LaunchPad Digital Health. The company will use the funds to help grow its sales and engineering teams, to deliver innovative product enhancements to its cloud-based SaaS technology platform and aggressively expand distribution nationally.

  • SuperAwesome, a digital marketing platform for the kids industry, bagged $7 million financing round to continue its rapid growth internationally. The Series A round is led by Parminder Basran’s Twenty Ten Capital, Henry Chamberlain and Jamie Kirkwood of IBIS TMT , with participation from existing investors including Hoxton Ventures.

  • SemaConnect, a North American leader in Class "A" commercial electric vehicle charging solutions, completed its third round of financing. The $15 million funding round, led by Pear Tree Partners, LP, will enable the company to significantly expand sales, marketing, customer service and project management resources to better serve its customers in the multifamily, office, hospitality and parking property space.

  • Insight Venture Partners, a New York-based tech investment specialist, was the sole investor in a $22.8 million Series A funding round for Chrono24, a Germany-based internet watch website backer.  The company plans to use the capital to open new sales and customer services offices in the United States and Asia, as well as to continue to invest in innovations aimed at improving its website and transaction services.

  • Bidtellect, a native advertising technology and solutions company, today announced a new round of strategic funding to further accelerate its robust growth in the native advertising marketplace. The company has landed $22.35 million in total funding in its series B round, led by Blue Chip Venture Company, and joined by G20 Ventures and previous venture investor Valhalla Partners

  • Sensity Systems Inc., a Sunnyvale, CA-based developer of Light Sensory Networks (LSNs), closed a $36 million private funding round. The round was led by Cisco Investments with participation from Acuity Brands, GE Ventures and Simon Venture Group (corporate investment arm of Simon Property Group).

  • Partech Ventures announced Partech Growth’s first European investment as lead investor in the new $60 million financing round in MADE.COM, a European online design brand. MADE.COM will use the funds from this to accelerate its strong growth in markets where it is already present: the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. 

  • Clean Fund, a Sausalito, Calif.-based nationwide provider of property assessed clean energy (PACE) capital for commercial properties, raised $60 million in new financingThe capital was raised from both venture investors and a major investment manager. The company intends to use the funds to dynamically expand its capital base.

  • Marlette Funding LLC, a Wilmington financial services company, snagged $75 million in equity funding to fuel growth. Invus Opportunities, a New York private equity fund, led the fund raising efforts. Marlette will use the money to further potential business partnerships, expand the company and put loans its own balance sheet. 

  • Fidelity Growth Partners Europea private equity and venture capital firm announced a new $150 million fund and a complete rebrand under a new name, bringing its sister funds globally (such as Fidelity Growth Partners Asia and Moonray Investors, for instance) under one new brand name: Eight Roads Ventures.

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. 

Image source: venturebeat.com

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Mitos Suson

I produce Vator Events and enjoy the challenge. I am learning and growing a lot, being involved with Vator and loving every moment of it!

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