Daily funding roundup - February 10, 2016

Latch picked up $10.5M; Hexadite raised $8M; SchoolMint secured $5.6M funding

• Hexadite, an Israel-based company that focuses on automated cybersecurity incident response, raised an $8 million Series A funding round from new investors Hewlett Packard Ventures and Ten Eleven Ventures, along with previous investor YL Ventures. The company had previously raised a $2.5 million round in 2014, bringing its total funding to $10.5 million. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate research and development in Israel, and expand its marketing and sales operations worldwide. That means growing its team from 20 to 40 by the end of the year.
  
  
• Lantern, provider of mobile and Web programs for mental health wellness, raised a $17 million Series A funding round led by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) with participation from previous Lantern investors Mayfield Fund, SoftTech Venture Capital, and Stanford University. UPMC, a private, nonprofit healthcare organization with a network of 20 hospitals and 3,500 physicians, chose to invest in Lantern for its “accessible, scalable, and cost-effective platform” for mental health wellness.
  
  
• Capzest, a Mumbai, India-based online lending platform, raised $200,000 in seed funding. The round was led by Lion Ventures with participation from Anurag Mehrotra, Varun Dua, Amit Tambe, Vikas Jhunjhunwala, and others. The company now intends to use the funds to expand operations by hiring new people and launching new product loans.
  
  
• Statflo Inc., a wireless customer service, closed a $2.4 million seed round to accelerate its growth. Statflo delivers a powerful data-driven platform helps wireless retail stores drive more sales, keep sales reps more engaged, and deliver a more modern, authentic customer experience. The latest funding was led by Round13 Capital. It also includes a consortium of investors from Toronto, Waterloo, Vancouver and Silicon Valley, including participation by Extreme Venture Partners, MaRS IAF, Globalive Capital, Rising Tide Fund, Garage Capital, Hedgewood and TIO Networks.
  
  
• scriptr.io, a cloud platform for IoT solutions, raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), Berytech Fund, and Insure & Match Capital (IM). Headquartered in New York City, scriptr.io will use the funding to expand business operations in the U.S. which includes opening a new office in San Francisco. The company currently has development teams in Beirut, Lebanon and Hyderabad, India. The Series A round will also drive continued research and development.
  
  
• San Francisco-based SchoolMint, a provider of mobile and online enrollment and school choice systems for PreK-12 public, charter and private schools, secured $5.6 million in funding. Runa Capital led the round with participation from other investors that included Reach Capital (New Schools), Fresco Capital, Govtech Fund, Kapor Capital, Crosslink Capital, Maiden Lane Ventures and CSC Upshot. In addition to the funding, Andre Bliznyuk of Runa Capital has been added to SchoolMint’s board.
  
  
• Latch, a New York City-based universal smart access system that works for enterprise, consumer, and hospitality users, raised $10.5 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by Lux Capital, with participation from Primary Venture Partners, Corigin Venture Partners, Camber Creek, Expansion Ventures, PCH, and Wan Li Zhu of Fairhaven Capital, with additional investments from a group of large strategic real estate funds. The company has raised $16m in total funding.
  
  
• Sunverge Energy, a storage and distributed energy resource management, announced a $36.5 million Series C round of financing. New investor AGL Energy Ltd., Australia’s largest publicly traded energy retailer, joined current investors the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), SBCVC, Siemens Venture Capital and Total Energy Ventures International.
  
  
• Launched initially as Overseas Student Living (OSL) in 2011 by an expat living in China, the web-based platform that matches students with professional landlords was rebranded as Student.com last year, raised $60 million from a number of high-profile investors. The round is being led by global investment firm VY Capital, with participation from Expa, Horizons Ventures, former Google exec turned Xiaomi VP Hugo Barra, and — interestingly — Spotify founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.
  
  
• A10 Capital, a middle-market commercial real estate lender, closed a $75 million investment facility from KKR. This platform investment will bolster A10’s core capital base to fuel the future growth of its on-balance sheet bridge and permanent loan products. KKR joins A10’s top-tier institutional backers, which include BlackRock, H.I.G. Capital, and THL Credit. A10 has recently financed over 30 million square feet of both stabilized and un-stabilized commercial properties nationwide.

VC's Raising Funds

• Karma Ventures announced the first closing and launch of a €40 million, Luxembourg-domiciled fund targeted at early stage investment in the most promising startups in Europe. The fund will be managed by seasoned investors Margus Uudam, Tommi Uhari and Kristjan Laanemaa. Margus Uudam and Kristjan Laanemaa previously worked together managing Ambient Sound Investments’ global portfolio, and are joined by Tommi Uhari to form the three founding partners of Karma Ventures. The key investors in the new Karma Ventures fund are Ambient Sound Investments and the Baltic Innovation Fund, an initiative created by cooperation between the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania and the European Investment Fund (EIF). A number of pension funds and family offices have also joined the fund. The fund is targeting its second funding close by the end of 2016.

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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