Tech Between The Coasts 026 | Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Happy Halloween, “don’t go chasin’ waterfalls,” the importance of manufacturing in D2C startups, a Utahan unicorn, Rise of the Rest v2
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TL;DR
What We’re Thinking: Happy Halloween!
What We’re Reading: RIP to a VC legend, “don’t go chasin’ waterfalls,” the importance of manufacturing in D2C startups
Deals & More: a Utahan unicorn, trust me — I’m an expert, a tale of two apprenticeships, Rise of the Rest v2
What We’re Thinking
First and foremost, Happy (almost) Halloween!
Secondly, no column this week. I was out sick for the better part of a week after my cold from last week’s issue turned into more than just a cold, so I’m desperately trying not to drown in my inbox! I’ll be back (and healthy) next Wednesday, coming to you from chilly Madison, WI, where I’ll be taking part in the annual Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium.
What We’re Reading
RIP to Don Valentine, founder of Sequoia Capital and one of the forefathers of venture capital.
Here’s a basic but helpful post that explains just how preferences, carveouts, and other dynamics in the “waterfall” can leave employees’ stock options worthless — even in a “good” outcome — and recommends founders be transparent with their employees about the way this works from the get-go.
Glossy has a great piece on how important manufacturing connections are for the success of growing D2C companies — be it through investors, advisors, or experience. It’s something that seems obvious in retrospect, but that can sometimes play second fiddle to pretty websites or great product design.
Deals
Lehi, UT-based Weave — a patient communications platform for the dental and optometry markets — raised $70M at a reported $970M post-money valuation, led by Tiger Global Management; other investors included Catalyst Investors, Bessemer Venture Partners, Crosslink Capital, Pelion Venture Partners and LeadEdge Capital.
Minneapolis-based Total Expert — a marketing, compliance, and customer engagement platform targeted primarily at the mortgage industry — raised $52M led by Georgian Partners; other investors includedEmergence and Rally Ventures.
Austin-based Shipwell — a shipping and logistics platform — raised $35M led by Georgian Partners.
St. Louis-based PierianDx — a “next generation” clinical genomics informatics startup — raised $27M co-led by ATW Partners and SJF Ventures; other investors included Health Catalyst Capital, Inova Health Systems, RTI International, and ARUP Labs.
Chicago-based AVIA — a consulting and strategy startup building technologies for large healthcare systems — raised $22M led by First Trust Capital Partners.
Denver-based 1906 — a cannabis startup heavily using plant-based medicine in its products — raised $18M led by Navy Capital.
Albuquerque, NM-based Twistle — an omnichannel patient engagement platform — raised $16M co-led by Health Enterprise Partners and MemorialCare Innovation Fund.
Boulder-based Techtonic — an outsourced, apprenticeship-based custom software development provider — raised $6M led by Camden Partners; other investors included University Ventures and Zoma Capital.
St. Louis-based Ryvit — a construction technology integration marketplace — raised $3.5M co-led by Dreampact Ventures and Hermann Companies; other investors included Serra Ventures, Dragon Capital, and St. Louis Arch Angels.
Albuquerque, NM-based mPower Technology — a startup developing new solar cells targeted for aerospace applications — raised $2.5M led by Sun Mountain Capital.
Scottsdale, AZ-based Aspireship — a technology training and career matching platform — raised $1.4M led by Story Ventures; other investors included TDF Ventures, Mana Ventures, Upfront Ventures Community Fund, Supernode Ventures, and Capital Factory.
Funds
Washington, DC-based Revolution — a VC / PE investor — has closed its second Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, which invests in early stage startups outside of Silicon Valley, at $150M.
St. Louis-based Dreampact Ventures — an early stage VC fund helmed by former A-B Inbev executives — publicly confirmed their the existence of their fund, which has been quietly deploying capital since early last year.
Exits & Acquisitions
Boulder-based Alpin — an identity-as-a-service startup — was acquired by managed Office 365 solutions provider CoreView.
Chicago-based Health Navigator — an online platform for real-time patient triage — was acquired by Amazon, reportedly to be folded into their Amazon Care platform.
Chicago-based Sprout Social — a social media management platform — filed to raise a $100M IPO.
Events
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.
