SensorFlow: SensorFlow is a Singapore government-funded company who make smart energy-efficient hotels a reality. SensorFlow has raised a $2.7-million Series A financing round led by private investor Pierre Lorinet, with participation from earlier backer Cocoon Capital and others. Read more
Zoba: Zoba is a platform for building and deploying spatial machine learning models. Zoba has raised $3 million in seed funding led by CRV. Other participants include Founder Collective and Mark Cuban. Read more
Back to the Roots: Back to the Roots is an Oakland, California based company founded in 2009 by two UC Berkeley seniors who gave up corporate jobs to become urban mushroom farmers. Back to the Roots has raised $3 million in Series C funding. Central Garden & Pet led the round, with participation from Blue Scorpion Investments. Read more
Capitalise.com: Capitalise uses a little funding magic to identify the best financing options available for your business. Capitalise has raised £3.5 million in Series A funding led by QED Investors. Read more
WaitWhat: WaitWhat invents boundary-breaking and profitable media properties that change our cultural landscape. WaitWhat has raised $4.3 million in Series A funding led by Cue Ball and Burda Principal Investments, with participation from numerous individual investors, including Hoffman himself. Read more
Tillable: Tillable is an online marketplace for farm landowners and growers to rent and manage farmland. Tillable has raised $8.25 million in Series A funding co-led by First Round Capital and The Production Board. Read more
Epogee: Epogee Fat Replacement is the one and only solid fat replacement that can safely & dramatically lower calories without sacrificing taste, texture or appearance. Epogee has raised $8.3 million in funding led by HG Ventures. Read more
Neighborhood Goods: Neighborhood Goods is a contemporary evolution of — and alternative to — the department store. Neighborhood Goods has raised $8.8 million in seed funding led by Global Founders Capital. The company has now raised $14.5 million in funding altogether, including from Forerunner Ventures, Maveron, NextGen Venture Partners, Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Ground Up Ventures, Capital Factory and Dollar Shave Club CEO Michael Dubin. Read more
NeuSpera Medical: NeuSpera, formerly known as Vivonda Medical, is developing injectable neuromodulation devices, so called “electroceuticals. NeuSpera has raised $26 million in Series B funding. Investors include 6 Dimensions Capital, Action Potential Venture Capital, Windham Venture Partners, Delta Capital, and Purple Arch Ventures. Read more
BiomX: BiomX discovers and develops innovative microbiome therapeutics. The Company's mission is to develop novel therapeutics for preventing and treating diseases in which microbiome imbalances have been implicated. BiomX has raised $32 million in Series B funding, including from OrbiMed,Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Takeda Ventures, 8VC, MiraeAsset and Seventure Partners. Read more
Lytics: Lytics helps companies personalize engagement with customers through the industry’s most advanced Customer Data Platform (CDP). Lytics has raised $35 million in Series C funding led by JMI Equity. Read more
Lalamove: Lalamove connects with van, truck, and motorcycle drivers to deliver under 55 minutes. Lalamove has raised $300 million in Series D funding co-led by Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia China. Read more
DoorDash: DoorDash enables small businesses to provide its customers with local delivery services. DoorDash has raised $400 million in Series F funding led by Temasek and Dragoneer Investment Group, with participation from previous investors SoftBank Vision Fund, DST Global, Coatue Management, GIC, Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator. Read more
Flexport: Flexport is a full-service global freight forwarder and logistics platform using modern software to fix the user experience in global trade. Flexport has raised $1 billion in fresh funding led by the SoftBank Vision Fund. Earlier backers of the company, including Founders Fund, DST Global, Cherubic Ventures, Susa Ventures and SF Express, all participated in the round. Read more
Beamery: Beamery is a talent engagement platform, enabling companies to attract, identify & engage candidates on one unified platform. Beamery has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Workday Ventures. Read more
Opiniion: Opiniion is an automated tool for businesses to collect authentic real time feedback from customers. Opiniion has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from investors, including BitWealth. Read more
If you are interested in being included in our funding roundup, submit your press release or blog post about your financing round to kristin@vator.tv. If you want a longer write-up, please do give us a couple days heads up. If you'd like to be included in our Today's Entrepreneur column, please send me your Vator profile.
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Back to the Roots is an Oakland-based startup developing products that connect families with their food. Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez founded it straight out of college in 2009 after they learned in a business ethics class at UC Berkeley that gourmet mushrooms could be grown from recycled coffee grounds. Inspired, they turned down their finance and consulting job offers to become full-time urban mushroom farmers. BTTR has since grown to distribute two award-winning products, the Mushroom Kit and AquaFarm, in over 2500 retailers nationwide. The Mushroom Kit is a small brown box that grows up to 1.5 lbs of oyster mushrooms in 10 days, and the AquaFarm is a self-cleaning fish tank that also grows food! BTTR was recognized at the White House during last year's Empact Awards, and the co-founders have been awarded Inc’s 30 Under 30, Forbes 30 Under 30, and Businessweek’s Top 25 Social Entrepreneurs.
More about Back to the Roots:
Kickstarter Video; Martha Stewart; ABC's "The Chew"; Cool Hunting
More about Alejandro Velez:
Alejandro Velez co-founded Back to the Roots in 2009 as a senior at UC Berkeley, giving up a potential career in investment banking to become an urban mushroom farmer. Alejandro oversees the sales and finance half of the business, and with his co-founder, Nikhil Arora, has led the company to triple digit annual growth.
Alejandro also founded the Sage Mentorship Project, a 1000+ member non-profit that is the largest student-run organization at UC Berkeley. He has been named one of BusinessWeek's Top 25 Entrepreneurs under 25, BusinessWeek's Top 25 Social Entrepreneurs in America, 2010 Social Venture Network Social Innovation winners, 2010 20 Influential Hispanics Under 40, and 2010 Hitachi Young Entrepreneur Winners.
Alex graduated summa cum laude from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business with a degree in business administration and a minor in education. He is originally from Medellin, Colombia and is also a proud Hodgkin's Lymphoma cancer survivor.
More about Nikhil Arora:
Nikhil Arora co-founded Back to the Roots in 2009 as a senior at UC Berkeley and gave up a potential career in consulting to become an urban mushroom farmer. Nikhil oversees the marketing, product development, and operations half of the business, and with his co-founder, Alejandro Velez, has led the company to triple digit annual growth over four years.
Since co-founding BTTR, Nikhil has been named one of BusinessWeek’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs under 25, Top 25 Social Entrepreneurs in America, UCLA’s Opportunity Green Top 25 Green Company Leaders, 2010 Social Venture Network Social Innovation winners, and 2010 Hitachi Young Entrepreneur Winners. Nikhil is currently on the Board of Directors of the Sage Mentorship Project and Social Venture Network.
Nikhil graduated summa cum laude from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business during which he spent 6 months in Africa creating a profitable recycling program for the University of Ghana.