With so much going on in the city’s thriving ecosystem, it is easy to miss some of the happenings in the space. We keep you abreast of a few of things that you may have missed in NYC Tech News for the week ending 1/26 including the NYC startup fundings, NYC startup exits, and NYC Tech events including news for Andela, Electric, Kustomer, Lively, and much more…
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Andela, the platform that provides distributed engineering talent in Africa, has raised $100M in Series E funding from investors that include Generation Investment Management, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV, Spark Capital, and CRE Venture Capital. Founded in 2014 by Brice Steven Nkengsa, Christina Sass, Ian Carnevale, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Jeremy Johnson, and Nadayar Enegesi, Andela has now raised a total of $181M in funding over six rounds.
Kustomer, the enterprise-focused customer management platform, has raised $35M in Series C funding from investors that include Battery Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Canaan Partners, Boldstart Ventures, Social Leverage, and Cisco Investments. Founded by Brad Birnbaum and Jeremy Suriel in 2015, Kustomer has now raised a total of $73.5M in funding over four funding rounds.
We took an updated look at how women are faring in the NYC market when it comes to funding over the last eight months and there is significant progress. Read the full report – The Truth Behind Women and Funding in NYC: 2019 Edition
The all-in-one IT solution Electric AI raised $25M in Series B funding led by GGV Capital and including participation from Bessemer Venture Partners. This four-year-old startup was founded by Ryan Denehy and it has raised a total of $37.3M throughout four rounds.
Symbiont, the smart contracts platform for institutional applications of the blockchain, has raised $21.5M in funding from investors that include Citi Ventures, Raptor Group, Galaxy Digital LP, and Nasdaq Ventures. Founded by Adam Krellenstein, Evan Wagner, Mark Smith, and Robby Dermody in 2013, Symbiont has now raised a total of $36.9M in funding over three funding rounds.
Future Hamburg Award Deadline 1/31 – Expand your Startup to Europe
This new startup award provides fast track to one of Europe’s most dynamic regions
The Future Hamburg Award for provides startup teams with immediate access to one of the most vibrant startup ecosystems in Europe. Innovative entrepreneurs can apply at www.future.hamburg/award/ until January 31, 2019. Hamburg (Germany) offers the perfect breeding ground for international businesses. Recently Hamburg’s startup scene was invigorated in 2018 with venture capital to the tune of €548 million. The award is aimed at innovative startup businesses from around the globe.
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Lively, the company behind the modern, invisible hearing aid, has raised $16M in Series A funding from investors that include Tiger Management Corporation and Declaration Capital. This is the first reported found of funding for Lively, which was founded in the fall of 2018.
Programmatic ad buying platform Beeswax has closed $15M in Series B funding from investors that include RRE, Foundry, Amasia, and You & Mr. Jones. Founded in 2014 by adtech veterans Ari Paparo, Ram Kumar Rengaswamy, and Shamim Samadi, Beeswax has now raised a total of $28.3M in funding over three rounds. Read the full story about Beeswax’ Series B funding in an interview with CEO and Founder Ari Paparo
Incysus Therapeutics the biotechnology company creating treatments for cancer raised $10M in Series A funding from the private equity firm Bios Partners. Incysus was founded by William Ho, and it has raised a total funding amount of $14.8M across two rounds since May 22, 2018.
Commercial real estate data analytics platform CrediFi has raised an additional $6M in funding from investors that include Battery Ventures, Viola Ventures, Maverick Ventures Israel, Mitsui Fudosan, and Liberty Technology Venture Capital. Founded by Ely Razin in 2014, CrediFi has now raised a total of $29M in funding over four funding rounds.
Corporate training platform Hone has raised $3.6M in Seed funding from investors that include Cowboy Ventures, Harrison Metal, Slack Fund, Reach Capital, Rethink Education, Day One Ventures, Entangled Ventures, David Rogier, Rachel Carlson, Pete Kazanjy, and Jeff Fernandez. Hone was founded by Jeremy Hamel, Savina Perez, and Tom Griffiths in the spring of 2018.
RealBlocks is the Ethereum- powered real estate platform that enables anyone to directly invest, raise capital, and liquidate real estate investments, and it raised $3.1M in Seed funding led by Science, Inc and including participation from Morgan Creek Digital, Zelkova Ventures, Ulu Ventures, and Cross Culture Ventures. Realblocks was founded by Perrin Quarshie.
According to a recent SEC filing, PivotalPath, a platform that helps financial service professionals conduct diligence on hedge fund investments, has raised $2.7M in funding. The total offering is for $4.6M and there have been eighteen participants in this first close. The filing lists Jonathan Caplis as a Director and Executive along with John Stanfill, Louis Thalheimer, Sandra Wijnberg, and John L. Youngblood listed as Directors.
According to a recent SEC filing, Tifin Group, has raised $2M in funding. The filing indicates that the total offering is for $4M and that there were eight participants in this close. Listed in the filing is Vinay Nair as a Director and Executive. Nair is the founder and chairman of 55ip, a company that assists wealth managers and financial advisors design tax-managed allocation strategies.
College financial aid planning app Edquity has raised $500K in funding led by Lumina Impact Ventures. This the first round of funding for Edquity, which was founded by David Helene in 2016.
Media company Odyssey has raised $225K in the first close of a SAFE note according to a recent SEC filing. The total filing is for $7.5M and there was one participant in the close. Odyssey faced some growing pains in 2017 when its CEO was removed and the editorial staff was let go. The company for a short period of time was one of the fastest growing media companies with over 30M monthly users and had previously raised $31M in equity funding. Investors in previous rounds include Wakestream Ventures, Michael Lazerow, and Jason Epstein. The company was founded in 2009 by Adrian France and B. Evan Burns.
