Daily funding roundup - October 13, 2015
EverString raised $65M; Audentes Therapeutics bagged $65M; SteelBrick received $48M
- Predictive marketing company EverString has raised $65 million, in what is the largest round ever for an AI company. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the Company’s Series B, with participation from return investors Sequoia Capital and IDG Ventures as well as new investors, including Lakestar. With this round EverString has raised roughly $79 million in venture funding. Founded in 2012, EverString helps build new pipeline and increase conversion rates with an account-based, full lifecycle, predictive platform for B2B sales and marketing.
- SteelBrick, a provider of next-generation quote-to-cash software applications built on the Salesforce1 platform, just received a $48 million cash infusion, in a led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), with substantial participation from existing investors Emergence Capital, Salesforce Ventures and Shasta Ventures. This new round brings SteelBrick’s total funding received to more than $78 million in the last 18 months. In addition to the funding, SteelBrick also announced that Jules Maltz from Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) will join SteelBrick as a Board Observer.
- Delhi-based Voodoo Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which owns and operates deals and price comparison app Voodoo, has raised $1 million in a seed round from SAIF Partners. The app was launched last week and the company claims to have over 1,200 downloads so far. It will use the fund for team expansion and product development. Currently, the team consists of 10 people. It plans to hire 15 more people across operations and technology divisions by the end of December 2015.
- Austin-based startup Roikoi is making strides, raising $1.7 million in funding since its 2014 launch and now slated to launch a new product in the coming week. The company is going live with its product that lets workers rate colleagues for job referrals and the new effort will be showcased at a major Las Vegas conference next week. Roikio funding was led by SocialStarts and Capital Factory as well as individual investors and Austin tech veterans such as Brett Hurt, Andrew Busey, Rob Taylor and Jason Story.
- Concord, a San Francisco, CA-based contract signing platform, landed $2.7 million in funding. Backers included Cota Capital, WTI, Alven Capital and angel investors like Zuora CEO and Cofounder Tien Tzuo, Bruno Deschamps and Arnaud Vaissie. Led by Matt Lhoumeau, CEO and cofounder, Concord is a platform to create, negotiate, sign and manage contracts. Users can collaborate online, track changes, receive legally binding e-signatures, automate templates and set deadline alerts through a cloud-based environment.
- FabFitFun announces the completion of the company's first round of funding, raising $3.5 million in an investment led by New Enterprise Associates and Upfront Ventures. Having bootstrapped to over $15 million in annual revenue run rate, the company expects the capital infusion to accelerate the company's remarkable growth and mission to inspire women to lead happier, healthier lives. Initially founded as an online magazine in 2010, FabFitFun is a full-size product lifestyle subscription box company. FabFitFun has channeled its deep understanding of what women want into curated seasonal boxes featuring the lifestyle industry's best full-size, premium products.
- Ultivue, an early stage life sciences tools company, today announced the completion of $5.15 million in Series A financing from a group of investors including ARCH Venture Partners, Hansjoerg Wyss, and several private investors. In addition to the Series A funding, Ultivue has received an exclusive license from Harvard University for the Wyss Institute's DNA-PAINT and DNA-Exchange technologies and acquired the rights to other key enabling technology from California Institute of Technology.
- Marfeel, a Barcelona-based technology company that powers the mobile version of sites such as MenHealth, Elle or National Geographic, has closed a new round of funding. Nauta Capital, Elaia Partners and BDMI are once again leading the company’s $3.5 million Series B around. The trio of funds first invested €1.6 million in Marfeel in 2013. Since its founding in 2011, Marfeel has gone through two accelerator programs, SeedRocket and Wayra. The Telefonica-backed accelerator is now selling its stake in the startup, becoming the program’s sixth exit worldwide.
- Boomtrain today announced it has secured $12 million in Series A funding with participation from Sierra Ventures, Cota Capital and Lerer Ventures. Boomtrain has raised more than $14 million to date, and will use the new funds to further advance its marketing personalization platform. By incorporating machine learning technology, Boomtrain enables marketers to automatically create personalized experiences for each individual customer across email, web and mobile apps.
- Mobile banking innovator Moven has picked up $12 million in new funding. The investment round was led by Route 66 Ventures, and takes Moven’s total capital tomore than $24 million. Anthemis Group, Atlas Asset Management, NY Angels, and Raptor Group’s Jim Palotta also participated in the Series B round. The new capital will help Moven expand internationally, particularly to Canada and New Zealand.
- DataVisor, a startup whose founders spent years working on computer security at Microsoft Research, is announcing today that it has raised $14.5 million in new funding. Based on Apache Spark, DataVisor’s technology can analyze great quantities of activity logs — billions of events per hour — to identify fake or stolen accounts and prevent fraud, abuse, and spam. GSR and New Enterprise Associates both led the new round, which follows a seed round of an undisclosed size.
- Doctolib, a Paris-based startup that helps patients find doctors and schedule appointments, has scored $20.5 million to help it expand into six new European countries. In addition to fueling new growth, the latest investment demonstrates the kind of maturity that France’s boosters hope to see more of from its growing startup economy. The latest round also included investments from Bertrand Jelensperger, cofounder and CEO of La Forchette, as well as from Nicolas Brusson, a cofounder of France’s BlaBlaCar.
- Danvers, Mass.-based CyPhy Works had raised $22 million in a round of funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The announcement is the latest in a series of private investments in companies in China and the U.S. building unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the consumer market. Led by iRobot cofounder Helen Greiner, CyPhy (pronounced Sci-Fi) did not disclose its valuation following the round, which brought its total funding to more than $30 million.
- Silicon Valley-based SentinelOne announced today that they have succeeded in pulling in $25 million in their Series B round. The boon from this latest funding venture comes in at 10X the value of their Series A, and brings their total investment to an impressive $40 million. Leading the charge in this round was new investor Third Point Ventures, joining previous funding participants Data Collective, Tiger Global, Granite Hill Capital Partners, and the Westly Group. SineWave Ventures also waded in as a newcomer, adding further cash for the cyber startup’s coffers.
- Online testing platform Optimizely said today it has raised a new $58 million funding round, which it will use to support its rapid growth in the web and mobile content optimization space. The new Series C funding round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Citi Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Danhua Capital, Pharus Capital Management, Salesforce Ventures, and Tenaya Capital.
- Softbank Corp, a subsidiary of the Japanese telecom conglomerate Softbank Group, has pumped $50 million into Cybereason, a security startup based in Tel Aviv, Israel and Boston, Mass., Cybereason said this week. The funding round—Cybereason’s Series C—totals $59 million and includes existing investors Charles River Ventures and Spark Capital.
- Audentes Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company committed to the development and commercialization of gene therapy products for patients with serious, rare diseases, today announced the closing of an oversubscribed $65 million Series C financing. The financing was co-led by existing investor Sofinnova Ventures and new investor Redmile Group. The proceeds from the Series C financing will be primarily used to advance the company’s three lead development programs to key clinical milestones and to establish internal GMP manufacturing capabilities.
- National Funding, a private lender of small business loans, announced that it has secured additional funding from its longtime bank partner, Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo Capital Finance will increase its line of credit up to $75 million, which will help fund small business, working capital and equipment leasing loans across its platform. This funding announcement comes on the heels of National Funding's recently announced company growth milestones: over $1Bdeployed to small businesses nationwide; a 172% revenue increase over the past three years and the addition of 50 new employees in the first eight months of 2015.
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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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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Angel group/VC
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NEA
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NEA is the entrepreneur’s venture capital firm.
When it is time to take a promising business or business idea to the next level, entrepreneurs want a venture partner who understands and believes in the power of big dreams, bold visions and fresh ideas that have the power to change an industry, a sector, the world.
Moreover, entrepreneurs want a venture partner who knows what it takes—through first-hand experience and carefully nurtured relationships—to make a company succeed, to turn an idea into an action, and to make a plan a reality.
For more than 30 years, NEA has been helping to build great companies. Our committed capital has grown to $13 billion, including a $2.6 billion fourteenth fund closed in 2012. We invest across stage and geography in technology, healthcare and energy.
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Whether you are seeking investment to get your idea off the ground or looking to propel a proven idea toward greatness, NEA is the venture partner who will be there—because we’ve been there—every step of the way.
Upfront Ventures
Angel group/VC
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Upfront Ventures, previously GRP Partners, is an LA based Venture Capital firm that focuses on early stage investments (mostly Seed & Series A).
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Index Ventures
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We believe you will want an investor with whom you can build a close, supportive relationship over a number of years, yet who will be bold enough to challenge your thinking and your expectations. If Index looks like a good fit, we encourage you to learn about us through the stories and news articles on this website. We invite you to read about the companies we have invested in, and to speak to the entrepreneurs we have partnered with. Their experience is our best reference.
Bessemer Venture Partners
Angel group/VC
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IDG Ventures
Angel group/VC
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IVP (Institutional Venture Partners)
Angel group/VC
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Lightspeed Venture Partners
Service provider
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Visit our website at www.lightspeedvp.com
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