October ’19 Startup Funding: Mega Harvest

Seventeen startups took in mega-rounds of $100 million or more during October, with a cumulative total of just over $3.2 billion.

Cybersecurity startups continued to be popular with private investors during the month of October, with 15 financing rounds. Twenty automotive and mobility technology firms picked up new investments. Analytics firms, artificial intelligence/machine learning technology, Internet of Things vendors, and semiconductor-related companies also garnered investments.

The biggest winners were in various platforms (nearly 40 firms) and software startups, with more than 20 investments.

Platforms
San Francisco-based Instabase received $105 million in Series B funding, at a post-money valuation of more than $1 billion. Index Ventures led the round and was joined by Spark Capital, Tribe Capital, SC Ventures, Glynn Capital, and return backers Greylock Partners, New Enterprise Associates, and Andreessen Horowitz. The startup provides a social platform for business data and a business applications store. Instabase’s total private funding is $132 million.

Pendo of Raleigh, N.C., raised $100 million in Series E funding led by Sapphire Ventures and joined by General Atlantic, Tiger Global Management, and return backers Battery Ventures, Meritech Capital, FirstMark Capital, Geodesic Capital, and Cross Creek. The startup offers a customer analytics platform. Total venture funding for Pendo is $206 million.

A Chinese startup raised $80 million in Series C1 funding. CassTime offers an automotive aftermarket procurement platform. Sequoia Capital China and Source Code Capital led the round, with participation by Hua Partners, a previous investor. The company has a total of $175.3 million in private funding.

San Mateo, Calif.-based Snaplogic received $72 million in growth financing led by Arrowroot Capital and joined by Golub Capital and existing investors. The startup, which provides an enterprise data integration platform, has $208 million in total private funding.

Software
Grammarly of San Francisco raised $90 million in venture funding led by General Catalyst and Institutional Venture Partners. The supplier of AI-powered writing assistance software is now valued at more than $1 billion, after raising a total of $200 million.

Australia’s Canva received $85 million in venture funding, valuing the company at $3.2 billion, up from $2.5 billion in May. Bond, General Catalyst, Bessemer Venture Partners, Blackbird Ventures, and Sequoia Capital China participated in the new round. The design software vendor’s total private funding is $241.6 million. The company just introduced Canva for Enterprise.

New York-based Unqork raised $80 million in Series B funding led by CapitalG, Alphabet’s growth equity investment fund. BlackRock investment funds also participated in the new funding, along with Goldman Sachs and Summerfield Capital Management. Crunchbase reports the company’s total funding is $107.2 million, while Unqork puts it at more than $110 million. The startup is working on a no-code platform for developing enterprise applications, with customers that include John Hancock, Goldman Sachs, and Liberty Mutual.

Shipwell of Austin, Texas, received $35 million in Series B funding led by Georgian Partners and joined by Aspect Ventures, Fifth Wall, Global Founders Capital, and Box Group. The startup provides freight logistics software. Its total funding is $47 million.

Automotive/Mobility
Bird, the electric scooter company, raised $275 million in Series D funding, with a pre-money valuation of $2.5 billion. CPDQ and Sequoia Capital led the new round. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company has raised a total of $548 million. The Bird 2 e-scooter was introduced earlier this year, priced at $1,299.

Zoox of Foster City, Calif., received $200 million in convertible note funding. That money is expected to be folded into a Series C round, closing by the end of this year or in early 2020. The self-driving technology startup is backed with $955 million in investments.

Buffalo, N.Y.-based ACV Auctions, a wholesale auto auction site, is raising $150 million in Series E funding, valuing the company at more than $1 billion, according to a Delaware stock authorization filing.

Foster City-based Motiv Power Systems, which offers all-electric chassis for medium-duty buses and trucks, received $60 million in Series B funding led by GMAG Holdings and Winnebago Industries. Motiv was founded in 2009 and has raised $125.8 million in total.

Tier Mobility of Berlin, Germany, raised $60 million in Series B funding led by Goodwater Capital and Mubadala Capital. The e-scooter startup provides its products for ride-sharing services. This brings its total private funding to $91 million.

Los Angeles-based Wheels Labs, a micromobility startup, received $50 million in venture funding led by DBL Partners. The company’s total private funding is $87 million. Wheels offers a dock-less rental product that is something of a cross between an electric bicycle and an electric scooter. The company plans to expand beyond its current markets in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, LA, San Diego, and Scottsdale, Ariz.

DeepRoute of Shenzhen, China, raised about $50 million in pre-Series A funding led by Foshun RZ Capital, with participation from GoldenSand Capital, Yunqi Partners, Ventech China, and Green Pine Capital Partners. The startup is developing a Level 4 full-stack self-driving system. It has an office in Fremont, Calif.

Hyundai Mobis invested $50 million in Velodyne Lidar of San Jose, Calif. The companies will work together on pairing Hyundai Mobis’ cognitive software with Velodyne’s LiDAR sensors, with the aim of offering a commercial LiDAR system for Level 3 autonomous driving in 2021.

Cybersecurity
Redwood City, Calif.-based Level Home raised $71 million in corporate funding from Hut 8 Ventures, Lennar Homes, and Walmart. The smart-lock startup came out of stealth mode with its first product, Level Lock: Bolt Edition, which is said to transform any deadbolt lock into a connected, electronic lock. The company was founded in 2016.

MyGate of Bangalore, India, received $56 million in Series B funding with participation by Tencent, Tiger Global, JS Capital, and Prime Venture Partners, bringing its total private funding to $67.5 million. The startup provides security management software for guard-gated properties.

San Francisco-based Corelight raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Insight Partners and Accel. The startup provides a network traffic analysis platform for cybersecurity. Its total private funding is $84.2 million.

IDnow received a $40 million growth investment from Corsair Capital to continue development of its identity verification-as-a-service offering, based upon machine learning technology. Based in Munich, Germany, IDnow was founded in 2014 and plans to open offices in France and the United Kingdom with the new funding.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Aviatrix Systems raised $40 million in Series C funding led by CRV, an existing investor. Formation 8, Ignition Partners, and Liberty Global Investors, other return backers, also participated in the new round. The startup provides advanced networking and security services for multi-cloud enterprises. Its private funding now totals $65.8 million.

Very Good Security of San Francisco provides a data privacy platform. It received $35 million in Series B funding led by Goldman Sachs, with participation by Andreessen Horowitz, Vertex Ventures, and other existing investors. Founded in 2016, VGS previously took in $8.5 million.

Upstream Security raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Alliance Ventures, an automotive alliance constituting Groupe Renault, Mitsubishi Motors, and Nissan Motor. Volvo Group Venture Capital, Hyundai Motors, CRV, Glilot Capital, Maniv Mobility, and Nationwide Ventures also participated in the round. Upstream offers a cloud-based cybersecurity platform for connected vehicles. The company maintains an office in San Mateo, Calif., in addition to its headquarters in Herzliya, Israel, and regional sales offices around the world.

Intel Capital led a Series A funding round of $16 million for Duality Technologies of Newark, N.J. Hearst Ventures and Team8, an existing investor, also participated in the round. Duality provides the SecurePlus platform, which incorporates homomorphic encryption for working securely in data science applications, while enhancing privacy in collaborative work among multiple enterprises. The startup’s total funding is $20 million.

San Mateo, Calif.-based Nexkey received $6 million in Series A funding led by Upfront Ventures and joined by K9 Ventures, Mark IV Capital, and Anand Chandrasekaran, bringing its total private funding to $10.8 million. Founded in 2013, Nexkey is a mobile access control startup.

Semiconductors
Kandou Bus of Lausanne, Switzerland, raised $56 million in Series C funding. Investors included Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Lake Partners, Digital Transformation Fund, Fayerweather Capital Partners, Forestay Capital, Kreos Capital, Raging Capital, Swisscom Ventures, and Walden International. Founded in 2011, the fabless semiconductor company has a private funding total of $96.1 million. Kandou provides connectivity intellectual property.

Paris-based Prophesee, a developer of neuromorphic vision systems, closed on $28 million in new funding led by the European Investment Bank, raising its total private funding to $68 million. Existing investors, including iBionext, 360 Capital Partners, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, and Supernova Invest, also participated in the round. Founded in 2014 and formerly known as Chronocam, the startup aims its Metavision sensors at use in automotive and consumer applications, such as advanced driver-assistance systems, autonomous driving, the IoT, and virtual reality/augmented reality.

Tactile Mobility of Haifa, Israel, announced $9 million in funding from Porsche and Israel’s Union Motors to continue development of its virtual sensing technology for vehicles. This brought its total private funding to $18 million. The startup was established in 2012 and previously was known as MobiWize.

San Francisco-based Umbo Computer Vision received $8 million in post-Series A funding. Translink Capital and Susquehanna International Group co-led the round with participation by Shin-Kong Capital, Shin-Kong Security, and other existing investors. The startup provides AI-powered autonomous vision security systems for businesses. Founded in 2014, Umbo CV has $17.6 million in total private funding and has offices in Taipei, Taiwan, and London, England.

Albuquerque, N.M.-based mPower Technology raised $2.5 million in Series A funding from Sun Mountain Capital in nearby Santa Fe. The solar cell startup aims its technology at aerospace, Internet of Things, and terrestrial system applications. Its photovoltaic solar cells are not based on silicon or gallium arsenide.

Lantha of Austin, Texas, received $2.6 million for development of its chemical sensor devices. GOOSE Society of Texas led the round.

Internet of Things
San Francisco-based Particle raised $40 million in Series C funding, co-led by Qualcomm Ventures and Energy Impact Partners. Existing investors including Root Ventures, Bonfire Ventures, Industry Ventures, Spark Capital, Green D Ventures, Counterpart Ventures, and SOSV also participated. The startup has an IoT device platform. Its total private funding is $75.8 million, per Crunchbase, while TechCrunch puts it at $81 million.

IOTAS of Portland, Ore., received $8.5 million in Series A funding led by Telus Ventures, with participation by Liberty Global and Intel Capital. The startup offers an IoT-as-a-service platform for smart apartments. Its total private funding is estimated at $14.2 million to about $17 million.

Dallas-based Razberi Technologies raised $5.8 million in Series B funding led by LiveOak Venture Partners, joined by Chartline Capital Partners. The startup provides IoT and video surveillance systems. Its total private funding is $9.3 million.

Foundries.io of Cambridge, U.K., received $3.5 million in funding led by Crane Venture Partners, with participation by Backed VC. The startup offers an open IoT platform. With the new funds, Foundries.io will roll out its FoundriesFactory, a self-service subscription for turnkey services to develop, secure, deploy, and maintain edge, embedded, and IoT products, according to the company.

Fulton, Md.-based ReFirm Labs raised $2 million in pre-Series A funding led by DataTribe and New Dominion Angels and including TEDCO and Tysons Angel Investors. Founded in 2017 by former National Security Agency operators, the startup provides its Centrifuge IoT security platform. Its customers include AT&T, Charter Communications, and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. The company’s total private funding is $3.5 million.

Odds and ends
San Francisco-based Databricks raised $400 million in Series F funding led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Late-Stage Venture Fund, joined by Microsoft, Alkeon Capital Management, BlackRock, Coatue Management, Dragoneer Investment Group, Geodesic, Green Bay Ventures, NEA, T. Rowe Price, and Tiger Global. The data analytics SaaS startup is now valued at $6.2 billion. The company has raised a total of $897 million.

Lilium, a German developer of electric flying taxis, has previously raised more than $100 million in private funding, with investors including Tencent, Atomico, Obvious Ventures, LGT, and Freigeist Capital (formerly known as e42). The urban air mobility startup is putting together a Series C funding round of $400 million to $500 million to continue development of the Lilium Jet, TechCrunch reports. Tencent is reportedly participating in this new round.

Pensando Systems of San Jose, Calif., came out of stealth mode with Series C funding of $145 million, bringing its total private funding to $278 million. The startup, founded by veterans of Cisco Systems, offers edge computing technology aimed at data centers. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Hewlett Packard Enterprise led the latest round. Earlier investors include Goldman Sachs and JC2 Ventures. Pensando now has a post-money valuation of $645 million.

College Park, Md.-based IonQ is a quantum computing startup. It received $55 million in Series B funding led by Samsung Catalyst and Mubadala Capital. Also participating were ACME Capital, Airbus Ventures, Hewlett Packard Pathfinder, Tao Capital Partners, Correlation Ventures, A&E Investment, and return backers Amazon, NEA, GV, and Osage University Partners. The company has raised a total of $77 million.

Datameer of San Francisco raised $40 million in funding led by ST Telemedia. Redpoint Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Nextworld Capital, Citi Ventures, and Top Tier Capital Partners, all existing investors, also participated. The startup provides a big data analytics platform. Its total private funding is $139.8 million.

Portland, Ore.-based ESS received $30 million in Series C funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and SB Energy, part of SoftBank Group. Also investing are Evergy Ventures, PTT Global Chemical), BASF Venture Capital, Cycle Capital Management, Presidio Partners Investment Management, IPM Group, and Pangaea Ventures. ESS stands for energy storage systems.

Fundings over $70M: