Daily funding roundup - September 15, 2015

Mitos Suson · September 15, 2015 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/401c

Compass closed $50M funding round; Emarsys raised $33M; Enevate secured $30M

  • Desktop Genetics has secured an investment of £1.37 million ($2.15 million) that will enable it to commercialise its proprietary DESKGEN genome editing software platform. The funding came from a syndicate of VCs and angel investors, including IQ Capital Partners, London Business Angels, the London Co-Investment Fund, Dr Jonathan Milner (Deputy Chairman and Founder of Abcam plc), Dr Martin Murphy (CEO of Syncona Partners LLP) and Dr Darrin M Disley (CEO of Horizon Discovery Group plc). DESKGEN allows researchers to expertly design and perform CRISPR-based genome editing experiments in virtually any cell line or species. 

  • Source3, a platform for licensing and distribution of 3D content, announced today that it has raised $4 million in Series Seed funding led by Contour Venture Partners and joined by Western Technology Investments,Correlation VenturesCrosslink Capital645 Ventures and numerous angel investors from both coasts. Autodesk, Inc. a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, also participated as an investor through Autodesk's Spark Investment Fund.

  • Neighborly, a San Francisco-based startup with an office in Kansas City, recently landed a multi-million dollar investment for its community investment marketplace. The company, which relocated its headquarters from Kansas City to San Francisco after struggling to raise local capital, raised $5.5 million from venture capital firms Formation 8 and Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures. Neighborly created a community investor platform that allows users to financially support the places and civic projects important to them via the municipal bond market.

  • HouseCall, a San Diego, CA-based mobile platform for running home services companies, raised $6 million in Series A funding. The round was led by August Capital with participation from existing investor e.ventures, and Michael Beaudoin, former Co-CEO and Co-founder of HomeAdvisor. The company intends to use the funds to expand its marketing, sales and customer service team to grow adoption of its mobile operations software platform.

  • ThinkHR, a HR solutions company that provides expert HR-related advice and training to employers, today announced that it has secured additional funding to fuel its growth and leadership. Kennet Partners, a leading international growth equity firm that invests in companies across North America and Europe, made the $12 million investment in ThinkHR. The additional funding will be used to further accelerate ThinkHR's aggressive product, technology and market development initiatives.

  • Datos IO, a startup that builds software intended to back up data stored in distributed applications and databases, announced $15.25 million in venture capital funding. The startup has developed disaster recovery software that lets companies go back to previous versions of the NoSQL database distributed by Cassandra. The idea is to provide similar tooling for other modern scale-out databases, such as MongoDB. The tools, including open-source “application listeners” that monitor for changes, will become available in the first quarter of next year.

  • Onapsis, an experts in SAP and Oracle enterprise application security, today announced it has closed a $17 million Series B funding round led by Evolution Equity Partners, with full participation of existing investor .406 Ventures as well as new investor Arsenal Venture Partners. This round brings the total investment in Onapsisto $30 million since the inception of the company.  J.R. Smith, partner at Evolution and former CEO at AVG Technologies will join the company’s board of directors.

  • Moviepilot, a startup geared around fan-generated Hollywood coverage aimed at millennials, has raised $16 million in Series B funding led by French digital publishing conglomerate Webedia. With the round, which brings Moviepilot to $23 million raised to date, the company plans to expand into gaming content and boost video production. Moviepilot’s previous investors, led by Deutsche Telekom’s T-Venture, also participated in the round. Moviepilot will use the funding to launch coverage of video games, using the same fan-generated model. In addition, the startup plans to expand its branded-video division.

  • Google Capital has made a $32.5 million investment in the online health insurer and doctor finder Oscar, bringing the startup’s funding total up to $352.5 million at a valuation of $1.75 billion. The investment comes not too long after Oscar took a monster $145 million funding round in April, at which time the company’s valuation was $1.5 billion.

  • Enevate Corporation, a technology leader in Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, announces they have secured $30Million in extended Series-B funding. The funding was led by Mike Lazaridis at Infinite Potential Technologies, Tsing Capital and Mission Ventures with participation by Presidio Ventures – a Sumitomo Corporation company. Headquartered in Irvine, California, Enevate has developed advanced Li-ion batteries based on new materials and cell designs with significantly higher volumetric and gravimetric energy density in thinner and lighter form factors. 

  • Emarsys, an all-in-one marketing cloud for predictive marketing, personalization, analytics, and marketing automation today announced a $33 million equity investment from San Francisco-based Vector Capital. Emarsys has more than 500 employees serving more than 1,300 clients in 140 countries from 16 global offices. The funding will be used to further develop the platform and allow for a full operational buildout of teams in the U.S. and Latin America. It’s the first investment in the company’s fifteen-year history.

  • Califia Farms, one of the fastest growing natural beverage companies in the United States, announced a minority investment of $50 million to further the Company’s innovation in plant-based beverages and foods. The investment comes from Stripes Group, a New York-based consumer and technology growth equity firm that focuses on partnering with high-growth, innovative and industry disrupting brands. This investment is the first outside investment received by Califia Farms. Stripes Group team members Dan Marriott and Karen Kenworthy will be welcomed onto Califia Farms’ Board of Directors. The new growth capital will be used primarily to invest in deepening production and distribution capabilities, research and development, new hires, and sales and marketing.

  • Compass, a NYC-based real estate platform, closed a $50 million funding round. The new round was led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) with participation from existing investors Thrive Capital, Founders Fund, 406 Ventures, Advance Publications, Inc. (the parent company of Condé Nast), Kenneth Chenault, CEO of American Express and Marc Benioff, Founder and CEO of Salesforce.com. The company, which has raised $123 million to date, intends to use the funds to accelerate expansion into additional markets and to build out engineering, product and design teams.

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: ccdaily.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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