Austin Weekly Deal Highlights(10-21-18)

Austin Weekly Deal Highlights

Austin Weekly Deal Highlights for October 22, 2018

From: “Mason Rathe” <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, 22 October 2018 01:52
To: [email protected]
Subject:Austin Weekly Deal Highlights 10-21-18

Austin Weekly Deal Highlights

By Mason Rathe – October 22, 2018

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It’s safe to say there’s plenty of private equity dollars headquartered in Austin. The thing is, I can confidently make that assumption off of Vista Equity Partners 7th fund alone. The PE firm held its first close on the fund at $11.4B, well on its way to the $16B target, which would make it the largest fund ever for an independent firm. Frequently making cameo appearances in this newsletter, Vista has invested in 13 Austin-based companies, most recently acquiring marketing automation platform Spredfast. Also this week, SolarWinds public offering debut, YETI Coolers IPO pricing, and Dell’s public pushback

Austin Fundraising Activity

  • Vista Equity Partners, the Austin-based private equity firm focused on tech companies, held its first close of $11.4B for its seventh fund, with a fund target of $16B.
  • More details on the ICON Technology financing announced a few weeks ago. The construction technology which is developing technology that allows for the 3D printing of entire homes raised a $9M Seed round led by Oakhouse Partners with participation from investors including homebuilder D.R. Horton.
  • BeatBox Beverages, a producer of wine-based cocktails, raised $2.6M in equity and other securities. The company, which received funding on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” had previously raised about $5.7M.
  • Real Savvy, a real estate search, sales, and marketing platform, announced that TIMIA Capital Corporation has put in place a $2.5M revenue financing facility. The company had previously raised approx. $5.5M from investors including Founders Fund arm FF Angel.
  • ClearCam, an Austin medtech company, reported raising $635K in equity funding.

Austin M&A Activity

  • Luminex (NAS: LMNX), a provider of clinical diagnostic services, is acquiring the flow cytometry portfolio of MilliporeSigma, in a deal worth $75M. Luminex went public in 2000 and has a $1.3B market cap.
  • Q2 Holdings (NYSE:QTWO), a banking software company, closed its acquisition of San Mateo-based Cloud Lending, a lending and leasing platform, for an undisclosed amount. Q2 went public in 2014 after raising approximately $40M from investors including Battery Ventures and Adams Street Partners.

Other Relevant Activity

  • Houston-based Apartment Butler, a mobile concierge application for apartment residents, raised a $2M funding round led by Houston-based venture capital group Mercury Fund, with participation from Austin-based Capital Factory.
  • Austin-based Moonshots Capital participated in the $14M Series B for Los Angeles-based ProducePay, which provides fresh produce farmers with financial resources, tech tools and data insights.

Austin People

  • Bazaarvoice, reviews and ratings software company, hired Fritz Hesse as its new CTO. Hesse was previously VP of engineering at Mitek Systems. Bazaarvoice was acquired by Marlin Equity Partners for $521M in February.
  • Tethr, the communications intelligence platform designed to surface insights from voice data, is expanding its board of directors with senior telecom industry leaders, adding Admiral William Owens as a director and Roy Chestnutt and Martha Bejar as strategic advisors. Ownes is the former chairman of CenturyLink. Chestnutt is former chief strategy officer at Verizon Communications, and Bejar is co-founder and CEO of Red Bison Advisory Group. The company has raised over $20M to date.
  • Vertify, an integration platform focused on marketing automation, appointed Matthew Klepac as its new CEO. Klepac was previously VP of marketing and operations at Vertify. Verify founder and CEO Dean Dzurilla will stay on to help with the transition and continue as an advisor.
  • Handsome, an Austin digital design agency, appointed Jeremy Kidd as EVP of business development and client services. He was previously co-founder and CEO of Banjo Digital.
  • Karen B. DeSalvo, a public health and IT expert at the University of Texas, was inducted into the National Academy of Medicine.

Austin News

  • SolarWinds, an Austin IT management software company, valued at $4.8B in IPO and saw its shares rise slightly after debuting on the public market Friday. The company abruptly lowered its estimated IPO range on Thursday to between $15.77 and $16.00 per share, well below its original estimated IPO range of $17.00 to $19.00 per share. The company raised $375M in the IPO.
  • Yeti Coolers seeks to raise approx. $400M in its initial public offering, which would value Yeti at about $1.7B. Most of the proceeds will go to Cortec Group, the PE fund that acquired a controlling stake in Yeti in 2012 for $67M. Cortec would retain its majority stake in Yeti after the IPO.
  • Carl Icahn disclosed an 8.3% stake in a tracking stock for Dell Technologies’ position in VMWare, and said he will actively oppose Dell’s plan to return to the public markets via a $22 billion reverse merger with that tracking stock. Dell announced a December shareholder vote on the deal.
  • For first time, Dell reveals subsidiary gaming company Alienware is a $3 billion business.
  • TXV Partners, founded in Dallas in April, expects to close its $50M VC fund by the end of the year, with a focus on fintech, blockchain, esports, and consumer-based platforms. While the firm expects to invest across the U.S. and even globally, it has particular interest in the local region.
  • Square Root, a data management platform focused on customer experience in retail, was selected by FORTUNE as 2018 Best Small & Medium Workplace. The company has made this list 5 times.
  • Austin airport’s rapid growth ranks No. 2 in nation. A $350 million, nine-gate expansion is in the final stretch of construction, slated for completion in the spring.
  • Austin is a tech hot spot. It wasn’t always this way.
  • John Hollister of Silicon Laboratories and Ryan Wuerch of Dosh were selected to a national list of influential financial executives.
  • SXSW Reveals 600+ Speakers and Sessions for 2019
  • Regus to Open 53,000 SF Coworking Space in Downtown Austin at 501 Congress

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Thank you!
Mason Rathe
Twitter: @mason_rathe

LiveOak Venture Partners

Think you might be a fit for LiveOak, if I missed a deal, or have feedback, you can reach me at [email protected] If your company is recruiting for a senior level position, happy to include a shout-out.

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Austin Weekly Deal Highlights · Austin, Texas · Austin, TEXAS 78731 · USA