Start-up Society #77: Series B
Keeping the American Dream Alive
Published in
8 min readNov 30, 2021
Welcome to the 77th edition of Start-up Society! This blog highlights some of the most exciting start-ups in the country striving to keep the American Dream alive.
Make sure you check out the previous issue, if you have not already, here!
This week we are kicking off our new fundraising stage series by taking a dive into two Series B start-ups that have each recently raised substantial Series B rounds of over $40M!
Today, Crunchbase published an article examining the industries where Series B funding is growing the fastest. The news & data site used the Series B stage as a proxy for the broader venture funding ecosystem as this funding stage typically represents the point in a start-up’s lifecycle when it has proven technology or market traction and is on the cusp of major scaling.
As we can see in the graphics above, there has been a substantial increase in the amount of Series B funding raised for emerging technology companies. Let’s dive into Shopify for mobile and auto repair disruptors to see what drove these double-digit funding rounds!
CALIFORNIA
RepairSmith
HQ: El Segundo
Founded: 2018
Total Employees: 126 (on LinkedIn)
ABOUT THE COMPANY
- RepairSmith is on a mission to deliver convenient auto repair everywhere with its disruptive service, offering the first and only full-service mobile solution for automotive repair and maintenance.
- The company delivers complete mobile repair and maintenance to car owners with the convenience of online booking and instant price quotes, combined with five-star quality service at fair, affordable prices. RepairSmith also delivers repair and scheduled maintenance on-location to fleet operators, car rental agencies and dealership customers.
- RepairSmith offers service in 650+ cities across six states with over 100,000 service appointments completed to date. All RepairSmith technicians are employees of the company, equipped with customized state-of-the-art mobile service vans to deliver a best-in-class experience.
- On August 19, 2021, RepairSmith announced it raised a $42 million Series B funding round from investors, including TI Capital, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche Ventures, and Spring Mountain Capital. RepairSmith will use this cash infusion to continue rapid expansion of its service, already available in 650 cities across six states with over 100,000 service appointments completed to date.
MEET THE TEAM
Joel Milne, CEO
- Joel is a serial technology entrepreneur, with a love for building consumer-facing products. Joel previously co/founded four venture-backed technology startups and brings a lifetime of experience building and operating technology companies to RepairSmith.
- As a technical founder, Joel has served as CEO, COO, and CTO for his previous companies, having raised over $100M in venture financing and scaled multiple businesses nationally.
- Joel began programming at age 10, started college at 16, and founded his first technology company upon graduating at 21. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Queen’s University and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
Andreas Biebl, Chief Marketing Officer
- Andreas is an accomplished Marketing Executive with over 20 years of global experience working for Fortune 500 companies and startups alike. He is an expert in e-commerce, strategy and all aspects of Internet Marketing, and has successfully scaled revenue ranging from $1MM to $1+ billion.
- Notable career highlights include the launch of eBay’s Austria office, succeeded by Director International Marketing at eBay’s HQ in San Jose, where he spearheaded global growth and the centralization of locally driven Marketing teams. For the past ten years, he has resided in Los Angeles where he worked as VP Marketing for HauteLook | Nordstromrack.com and most recently served as CMO at Winc and PrettyLitter.
- Andreas completed his undergrad degree at the University of Innsbruck in Austria with highest distinction. He also received an MA from Stanford University in International Policy Studies and an MBA from INSEAD in France.
- When Andreas is not busy with work or spending time with family, he likes to engage in an intense workout schedule and fantasize about classic cars.
Alison Burnham, Chief Data & Analytics Officer
- Alison is a career data scientist with more than 20 years of experience spanning large companies, agencies, and start-ups. Prior to joining RepairSmith, Alison served as a data science consultant for a variety of retail and technology clients and was the Chief Data Scientist for Emotely, a social network startup.
- Previously Alison spent seven years as the CIO of ScoreBig, an opaque ticketing marketplace startup, running pricing and analytics. Before that, she worked for several marketing agencies specializing in customer analytics and marketing ROI.
- Alison holds a PhD in Mathematics from McMaster University and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Statistics from the University of Waterloo. She is an active organizer and speaker at seminars and conferences on the topic of Applied Analytics.
Jim Winett, Chief Financial Officer
- Jim is a hands-on operational and financial executive with over thirty years of management, start-up, investing and consulting experience.
- In the automotive aftermarket industry, Jim has worked on many strategic planning, change management, acquisitions, and acquisition integration projects over the last 25 years in the US and internationally. Also, Jim has managed several successful boutique consulting firms with clients ranging from early-stage start-ups to large turnarounds of US and overseas manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and service corporations.
- Alongside the consulting, Mr. Winett has taken fractional management positions and has founded, acquired, and operated companies in a variety of industries, including Internet Fulfillment, Professional Athletic Anti-Doping Monitoring Services, Consulting, Healthcare, Sports and Fitness and Consumer Products industries.
- Jim is a co-Founder of Size Advisory Group, the Managing Director of DPAA Group, Inc., the Co-Founder of The Early X Foundation, and participates on several Boards of Directors and management teams.
- As if that weren’t enough, Jim is always game for a fitness challenge, whether it is triathlons, obstacle course races, runs of any distance, surfing or HIIT boot camps.
THE START-UP SOCIETY ASSESSMENT
- RepairSmith takes the hassle out of car repairs. Rather than searching for an honest and cost-effective repair shop and having to drop the car off, RepairSmith allows you to search for a certified mechanic based on multiple user reviews.
- The mechanic will show up to your home and repair your car in your driveway. The whole car repair process can be done from your mobile, eliminating stress, minimizing time, and providing excellent service.
GO DEEPER
RepairSmith raises $42M Series B to bring auto repair to customers’ doorsteps
RepairSmith Expands its At-Home Service in the Southwest, Now Available in Texas
RepairSmith expands mobile auto repair services to Portland
Tapcart
HQ: Santa Monica
Founded: 2017
Total Employees: 101 (on LinkedIn)
ABOUT THE COMPANY
- In April 2017, Tapcart was launched by mobile veterans Eric Netsch and Sina Mobasser with the intention to solve mobile commerce for all. The goal was to bring mobile apps to the masses and create a platform that enabled a brand to design, launch and manage an app with no coding or development work required.
- The Tapcart team continues to be inspired by the future of mobile with the mission to make mobile shopping easy, fun, and attainable for every brand. With over 7,000 Shopify stores including Fashion Nova, Urban Planet, and Chubbies, Tapcart has helped their Shopify partners amass over $2 billion in sales via apps.
- Tapcarts’s features include the ability to design a brand’s app with a drag-and-drop app builder, engage shoppers with interactive push notifications, using real-time communication to generate a steady stream of sales, as well as bring along a brand’s favorite technology by connecting their existing plugins and amplify your mobile app with a full suite of curated integrations.
- On June 28, 2021, Tapcart announced it had raised Series B funding of $50 million. The round was led by Left Lane Capital with participation from Shopify, SignalFire, Greycroft, Act One Ventures and Amplify LA.
MEET THE TEAM
Eric Netsch, Co-Founder & CEO
- Eric co-founded VOGO App in January 2012 and worked for the company for nearly two years. VOGO App allows users to discover events, locations and friends nearby.
- Subsequently, Eric became the lead developer at DTE Media, a full-service creative agency specializing in brand strategy, development, and marketing consulting.
- After his time at DTE, Eric founded Mobile First, a dynamic team of designers, engineers, and creatives. World-class brands & agencies work with them to create digital experiences that drive engagement.
- After four years at Mobile, Eric founded Tapcart, the ultimate mobile commerce platform which allowed customers to launch world-class shopping apps that drive insane retention and conversion.
Sina Mobasser, Co-Founder & COO
- Sina began his professional career by founding POP! Gaming in 2008, which he ran for a little over a year.
- Subsequently, Sina became the Laboratory IT Manager in the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, for nearly five years.
- His next role as Co-Founder & COO at TestMax, a startup that developed the first test prep courses on iOS (BarMax & LSATMax — both featured by Apple), received press in many publications, offered industry-leading student results, and had the highest App Store rating of any test prep app.
- After nearly four years at TestMax and a short stint at a recruitment consulting firm, Limitless Consulting, Sina’s role was Digital Strategist at Unknown Lab, where he oversaw a team of developers and designers to deliver web, mobile and design projects; managed development, marketing and branding projects, and created and managed multiple lead generation campaigns.
THE START-UP SOCIETY ASSESSMENT
- Recently acquiring $50 million in funding from Shopify and top-class VCs, fast-expanding Tapcart recently partnered with marketing measurement platform AppsFlyer to help Shopify stores drive mobile app downloads. By enabling e-commerce merchants to launch and manage mobile apps for their brands, Tapcart helps ecommerce brands launch beautifully designed mobile apps at a fraction of the price and within a fraction of the time.
GO DEEPER
Tapcart, a ‘Shopify for mobile apps,’ raises a $50 million Series B
Thank you for reading this article! Feel free to leave a comment, clap, and follow. Stay tuned for next week’s write-up, posted every Monday at 5 AM ET.
Authored by Arteen Zahiri, Rumeer Keshwani, Thane Wharton, Hooman Dadkho, and Julian Ramcharan
