Daily funding roundup - February 3, 2016

TravelStart secured $40M; GeoFeedia received $17M; DisputeBills raised $400k funding

• DisputeBills, provider of a medical bill reduction solution for individuals and businesses, closed a $400,000 seed round led by Chicago angel investor Stephen Lee. Since its launch last March, DisputeBills says it has a 90 percent success rate and has saved its customers over $500,000 in healthcare costs. The company says it will use its new funding to launch and develop the new online platform building on its prior success as an advocacy firm.
  
  
• Curalate, provider of a visual commerce platform, closed a $27 million Series C round of funding, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with participation from previous investors First Round Capital and MentorTech Ventures. NEA also led both the Series A and Series B rounds for Philadelphia-based Curalate, which has raised $40 million to date.
  
  
• LAC Group, a provider of mission-critical outsourced library, information, and knowledge management services, received an investment from TZP Growth Partners I, L.P. ("TZP Growth"), a private equity fund, focused on investments in growing business and consumer services companies and part of the TZP Group family of funds. "This recapitalization greatly facilitates our ability to enhance our technology and systems, recruit additional top-tier talent, and expand the breadth of our services to accelerate our growth to new heights," said Deb Schwarz, Chief Executive Officer. 
  
  
• Carfoldio Ltd, a UK and Israeli child car safety company, raised over $1.5 million in its third round (Seres AA) of funding. The round was led by Sweet Capital, with participation from Joe Stelzer, Founder of Silver Cloud Ventures, Riccardo Zacconi, CEO of King Digital Entertainment, and Howard Socol, former CEO of Barneys, New York and JCREW, along with original seed investors. Founded in 2013 by father of four, Jon Sumroy, Carfoldio is the maker of a compact and portable child car safety seat called mifold. 
  
  
• Totspot, a marketplace to buy and sell children’s clothes, closed a $1.5 million seed investment led by Seven Seas Venture Partners. GGV Capital, 500 Startups, and Structure Capital also participated. The mobile marketplace says it aims to help moms sell and restock their kids’ closets. However, as cofounder and CEO Vijay Ramani explained, Totspot quickly developed into a place where users shared more than styling advice for their kids.
  
  
• Elemental Machines, a venture based in Boston and San Francisco, has come out of stealth mode. The startup says it's raised $2.5 million in seed from investors including Founders Fund’s FF Angel, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and Project 11 Ventures. And now it’s ready to change the way our world does science, providing the infrastructure that will ensure experiment reproducibility for researchers.
  
  
• OpenMethods, a SaaS solutions for contact centers to deeply integrate telephony platforms with customer relationship management (CRM), secured $5 million in new financing from Kayne NewRoad Ventures Fund II, L.P., a growth fund co-managed by Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P. and NewRoad Capital Partners, LLC. By creating seamless and personalized customer experiences across email, chat, sms, social, telephony and IVR applications, OpenMethods’ solutions are enabling contact centers to dramatically reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction.
  
  
• Watchmaster announced its $8 million Series B financing round, led by Cherry Ventures who already invested in the company’s previous financing rounds; UK-based VC Piton Capital participated as well. The new funds will be used to further develop the business within Europe and launch first non-European markets.
  
  
• The Bouqs Company, a cut-to-order, farm-to-table flower retailer delivering straight from farms on a volcano in South America, announced a $12 million Series B funding round. The round includes existing investors Quest Venture Partners, Azure Capital Partners and KEC Ventures, along with Enspire Capital and Draper Associates, among others. The financing will be used to further invest in the company's proprietary supply chain technology, expand its farm and florist networks, grow the team and launch a new native app.
  
  
• Mobile ad platform Widespace secured $17.2 million (€15.8 million) in growth capital from Kreos, a European provider of growth debt to high-growth companies, which now joins existing investors in this round of financing. The majority of the investment has been raised through a new share issue to current owners Industrifonden, Northzone and other shareholders. Patrik Fagerlund CEO and co-founder says the cash will enable them to solidify their position in Europe as well as expand in key markets.
  
  
• After School, a social app that sells itself as a “private message board for your school,” raised $16.4 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Accomplice, formerly Atlas Ventures, Tikhon Bernstam, and AngelList-founder Naval Ravikant. Alongside the funding news, After School has revealed a partnership with DoSomething.org to “engage teens in social causes and campaigns to create positive change,” the company said in a press release.  The cash influx, which is the startup’s first significant funding, will be used to “further the company’s mission to improve the quality of life for their users through safety features and unique opportunities,” it said.
  
  
• Geofeedia, a real-time location-based intelligence, received $17 million in funding, led by Silversmith Capital Partners’ $15 million investment with participation from existing investors. The capital will help fund further innovation of Geofeedia’s map-based platform that allows organizations to predict, analyze and act on real-time data from social media sources such as Instagram, Twitter, Sina Weibo, Periscope, Vine, YouTube. Todd MacLean, managing partner and co-founder of Silversmith, will join Geofeedia’s Board of Directors.
  
  
• eSentire, Inc., an industry that managed cybersecurity services, secured an investment of $19.5 million co-led by existing investor Edison Partners and Georgian Partners, with participation from Cisco Investments and additional participants including Northleaf Ventures Catalyst Fund, and new investor, Information Venture Partners II, LP. The equity investment will enable the company to scale and strengthen its presence in key market, launch security operations in new geographies as well as verticals, and expand its early success in cloud-based threat intelligence harvesting, sharing and automated protection.
  
  
• Cape Town-headquartered travel booking company Travelstart, secured $40 million from Amadeus Capital Partners and MTN, which is an investor in the VC firm. The significant capital injection again reaffirms investor confidence in South Africa as a fruitful market for internet companies — a space which has seen growing interest within the last year. Founded in Sweden over a decade ago, Travelstart moved to South Africa in 2009 to focus on the growth of emerging markets.
  
  

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Image source: venturebeat.com