Daily funding roundup - February 26, 2016

AppCard raised $20M; Vicampo closed third financing round; CREXi secured $4.3M Seed funding

• An online store for party supplies, Funcart, raised $70,000 in its first round of funding from a group of HNIs. Launched in March 2015 by Funcart is an online website that sells party supplies for kids’ parties, bachelorette parties, baby showers, and theme parties, among others. The startup plans to use the funding to expand its business and team, along with creating a robust marketing network for the website.
  
  
• Ribbit.me, a NY-based blockchain technology startup, closed a $1.5 million seed round, led by Hayaat Group, an investment company based in Dubai, with Privity FZ LLE acting as advisor. Ribbit.me's universal platform coupled with its patent-pending technology enables program operators to reduce costs by sharing a distributed ledger, thus streamlining the customer experience while more effectively managing the rewards liability.
  
  
• WigWag, Inc., an open-source platform company weaving together the fragmented Internet of Things (IoT), raised $3.175 million in seed funding led by Palo Alto-based CSC Venture Capital. The seed funding will be used to accelerate product development, expand the Austin-based development and marketing teams, and launch the company’s platform and consumer products.
  
  
• CREXi, a Venice, CA-based provider of a commercial real estate platform for brokers, buyers and sellers, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Backers included Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Freestyle Capital, TenOneTen Ventures, Founder Collective, Karlin Ventures and Leon Capital Group. Led by Michael DeGiorgio, founder & CEO, Erek Benz, Co-founder, and Ben Widhelm, chief technology officer, CREXi is a commercial real estate marketplace that aims to simplify transactions for brokers with a suite of tools to manage the entire process from listing to closing.
  
  
• iCharts, Inc, a cloud-based collaborative visualization platforms, closed $5.5 million in Series B2 funding to further accelerate its strong growth in the collaborative visual and business intelligence market. The investment was led by Software AG, with participation from new and existing institutional and private investors. With the $5.5 million investment, iCharts has now raised a total of $15 million.
  
  
• Vicampo.de, a Mainz, Germany-based online wine destination, closed its €5.3 million (approximately $5.8 million) third financing round. Backers included Passion Capital, e.ventures and unnamed family offices. The company intends to use the funds to continue to develop the platform and expand business operations. Co-founded in 2012 by Felix Gärtner, Max Gärtner und Daniel Nitz, Vicampo.de is online marketplace offering approximately 10,000 wines from 1,000 producers.
  
  
• 55Haitao.com, China's forum and shopping guide for Chinese cross-border shoppers, raised $15 million in a series A financing round led by Beijing-based venture capital JJ Capital.  55Haitao is based in Pasadena, California with offices in Shanghai and Chongqing China. "The additional capital will continue to fuel our growing editorial content initiatives for 55Haitao," said Rick Parada, the managing director of 55haitao.
  
  
• Juspay Technologies Pvt Ltd., which provides digital payments solutions, raised $5.8 million (around Rs 40 crore) from venture capital firm Accel Partners and BookMyShow founders Ashish Hemrajani, Parikshit Dar and Rajesh Balpande. Accel has picked up 20 per cent take in the company, which is currently valued at Rs 200 crore. As a part of the investment, Accel’s Subrata Mitra will be joining the board of the company.
  
  
• AppCard, a marketing and loyalty platform for small and medium sized retailers, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Alexander Rittweger, founder of Loyalty Partner, and PLDT Capital, the investment arm of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT, NYSE:PHI, PSE:TEL), led the round. Existing investors: Founders Fund (Peter Thiel), Innovation Endeavors (Eric Schmidt), and Jerry Yang also participated.
  
  
• Kika Tech, a downloaded Android Keyboard app in the Google Play Store, secured a $30.6 million round of Series B funding, that will allow the company to further solidify its market share across the globe. The Series B round was led by Honge Capital, Bole Zongheng, and Zhu Ye, the well-known Chinese investor and CEO of Zeus Interactive. With the latest round of investment, Kika Tech will consolidate its current market share in the United States, Europe, Brazil, andMexico while also supporting a strategic plan to introduce the product to a wider overseas audience.

VC's Raising Funds

• Mainsail Partners, a growth equity firm that invests in bootstrapped companies, raised $384 million for its fourth fund, Mainsail Partners IV, L.P. The oversubscribed fund closed in December and took just over two months to complete. The firm will use the fund to continue its strategy of investing in bootstrapped companies and driving accelerated growth through operational expertise and management support. 

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: bbj.hu