Tech Between The Coasts 024 | Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Walking the walk, entrepreneurship gap, Silicon Valley apologists, Uber for oil, toys in Idaho, as “remote” as it gets, Fitt in Pitt(sburgh)
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TL;DR
What We’re Thinking: walking the walk
What We’re Reading: entrepreneurship gap, Silicon Valley apologists, robots building houses
Deals & More: Uber for oil, “go fetch!”, toys in Idaho, as “remote” as it gets, Fitt in Pitt(sburgh)
What We’re Thinking
Greetings from Atlanta, where I’m attending the 2019 Venture Atlanta Conference. No full column in this issue because I’m giving my full attention to the founders and investors from the Southeast and beyond. But I did want to share an interesting anecdote from a panel today (I’ll keep the participants anonymous) that brought together a group of early stage coastal investors who are spending more time in #BetweenTheCoasts markets like Atlanta.
After answering a few thoughtful questions about the dynamics of investing in so-called “secondary” markets, one of the panelists flipped the script on the moderator — who manages their company’s LP commitments to venture funds — asking them about their historical lack of commitments in funds outside of the Valley, New York, and Boston. Their response (along the lines of “It’s really difficult for a venture firm to build a fund of scale when big outcomes are distributed across many markets, rather than tightly concentrated”) was a bit condescending and not particularly compelling, especially since we and the other #BetweenTheCoasts investors in the room, like the coastal investors on the panel, have no problem spending time on the ground in the dynamic ecosystems sprinkled throughout the middle of the country. However, it was a nice to see a group of coastal investors “stick up” for VCs building funds #BetweenTheCoasts.
It was a revealing moment that demonstrated how VCs outside of the traditional venture hubs face a lot of the same problems founders do. If LPs are going to “talk the talk” when it comes to the opportunity for great companies to be built here, they should obviously “walk the walk” when it comes to committing capital to the funds here that will, in turn, invest in those very companies.
What We’re Reading
Steve Case, of IBM and Revolution / Rise of the Rest fame, writes at Fortune on the need for the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates to thoughtfully engage on the geographic “entrepreneurship gap.”
This defense of Elizabeth Holmes and the fraud at Theranos is pretty shockingly out of touch. It’s a perspective that’s so stereotypically “Silicon Valley” it hurts.
An Australian company has built a robot that can build an entire 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house in 3 days. They’re not in the field yet, but it’s not hard to imagine how this could dramatically change the future of housing development and revitalization in growing #BetweenTheCoasts cities.
Deals
Austin-based RigUp — a marketplace for contract workers in the energy sector — raised $300M at a $1.9B valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz; other investors included Founders Fund, Bedrock Capital, Quantum Energy Partners, Baillie Gifford, and Brookfield Growth Partners.
Denver-based Havenly — a home interior decorating design consultancy and marketplace — raised $32M from investors including Foundry Group, Lerer Hippeau, Kickstart Ventures, and Gingerbread Capital.
Madison, WI-based Fetch Rewards — a mobile discount and rewards app — raised $25M from investors including Greycroft and E.ventures.
Denver-based Flowhub — a cannabis retail dispensary management platform — raised $23M from investors including e.ventures, Evolv Ventures, and Poseidon.
Chicago-based Thimble (formerly Verifly) — a short-term insurance provider for freelancers and SMBs — raised $22M led by IAC; other investors included Slow Ventures, AXA Venture Partners, and Open Ocean.
Santa Fe, NM-based Descartes Labs — a geospatial imagery analytics startup — raised $20M led by Union Grove Venture Partners; other investors included Ajax Strategies, Crosslink Capital, and March Capital Partners.
Boise, ID-based Lovevery — a D2C maker of educational children’s toys — raised $20M led by Maveron; other investors included GV, Reach Capital, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Collaborative Fund.
Indianapolis-based Emplify — a mobile-centric employee engagement platform — raised $15M led by Edison Partners; other investors included Allos Ventures, Cultivation Capital, and 4G Ventures managing director Bill Godfrey.
Atlanta-based Florence — a clinical trials management platform– raised $7.1M led by Fulcrum Equity Partners; other investors included Atrium Health and Bee Partners.
Chicago-based Remote Year — a work-travel platform for professionals who want to work remotely abroad for months at a time — raised $5M led by Lightbank; other investors included Highland Capital Partners.
Pittsburgh-based Fitt — a location-specific healthy living recommendation platform — raised an undisclosed amount led by Mountain State Capital; other investors included Riverfront Ventures, MINDBODY, and TNC Ventures.
Funds
Austin-based Trust Ventures — a venture firm focused on technologies that “will greatly improve society but face significant public policy barriers that stifle growth” — held a first close on $70M for its second fund, which is targeted at $100M.
Exits & Acquisitions
Kansas City-based C2FO — a working capital marketplace — acquired Priority Vendor, “India’s largest early-payment platform.”
Salt Lake City-based HireVue –an AI-powered talent assessment platform — was majority-acquired by The Carlyle Group.
Austin-based SpaceCraft — a cloud-based website creation platform — was acquired by Madwire, a Colorado-based developer of management, analytics, and marketing software for SMBs.
Winston-Salem, NC-based Creative Snacks — a maker of trail mixes and other snacks — was acquired by KIND Healthy Snacks.
Events
The 12th annual Venture Atlanta conference, which brings together tech companies and investors from the Southeast and beyond, will be held in Atlanta from October 16–17.
The 2019 Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit will be held in Bentonville, AR from October 20–23.
This year’s Startup Connection, which facilitates informal interactions among early stage startups, investors, and other members of the innovation community in the St. Louis region and beyond, will be held in St. Louis on November 6. The event, in its 11th year, is the anchor event of the inaugural STL Startup Week, which runs November 1–9.
The 2019 Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium, which brings together investors and early stage companies from Wisconsin and the surrounding areas, will be held November 5–7 in Madison, WI.
The first-ever 2019 Flyover Fintech conference — “a conference bringing innovators, financial services leaders and policymakers to the center of everything fintech” — will be held in Lincoln, NE from November 11–12.
FreightWaves Live, a conference bringing together freight logistics and supply chain experts, investors, startups, and legacy players, will be held in Chicago from November 12–13.
The OnRamp Manufacturing Conference, which “brings together the manufacturing industry’s leading corporations, investors and startups,” will be held in Indianapolis on November 14.
