Austin Weekly Deal Highlights for February 03, 2019

From: “Mason Rathe” <[email protected]>
Sent:Sunday, 03 February 2019 23:34
To: [email protected]
Subject:Austin Weekly Deal Highlights 2-3-19

Austin Weekly Deal Highlights

By Mason Rathe – February 3, 2019

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Oil and gas industry, welcome to the party! The 2019 mega rounds continue as this week we say energy staffing platform RigUp pull in a $60M at a $300M valuation. And wouldn’t you know, Biild wanted to get in on the fun too. The fintech platform for the construction industry reeled in a $60M combination of debt and equity. Happy Super Bowl everyone!

Austin Financing Activity

• RigUp, an on-demand staffing platform for the oil and gas industry, raised $60M at a $300M post-money valuation. Founders Fund led, and was joined by fellow return backers Bedrock Capital and Quantum Energy Partners. RigUp has raised approx. $130M to date.
• Billd, a construction platform that allows suppliers to get paid upfront while giving contractors the flexibility to pay for materials over time, raised a $60M Series A round, which includes debt and equity funding. The new round was led by LL Funds.
• CesiumAstro, a developer of electronic communication systems designed to facilitate communication between satellites, raised $8.5M in new equity funding.
• Hive9, a marketing performance management company, raised $2.3M in new funding led by Trousdale Ventures. Prior investors LiveOak Venture Partners and Silverton Partners also participated in the funding.
• CherryCircle Software, a software company that developed a process & knowledge management tool for the pharmaceutical drug manufacturing process, raised $2.3M in seed funding. Investors include ATX Seed Ventures, PLH Business Ventures, and Hudson Park Capital. The company previously raised approx. $1.3M.
• Novo Dia Group, a developer of electronic benefit transfer payment solutions, received a $2M investment from payments company Square.

Other Regional Deal Activity

• GoCo, a Houston-based HR and benefits platform, raised a $7M Series A led by ATX Seed Ventures, and was joined by UpCurve. The company has raised approx. $13M to date.
• eMDs, a portfolio company of Marlin Equity Partners, acquired Aprima, a Richardson, Texas-based provider of electronic health record, practice management software and revenue cycle management solutions to ambulatory care organizations. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
• Grapevine-based videogame retailer GameStop has abandoned efforts to sell the company

Austin People

• Bazaarvoice, the customer reviews software company, announced Joe Rohrlich is its new CRO. He was previously GM and executive VP of Bazaarvoice’s European and Asia-Pacific businesses. The company was acquired by Marlin Equity Partners for $521M a year ago.
• EverlyWell, a provider of at-home health testing kits, hired Jenifer Dasho as CMO. Dasho formerly led the consumer and creator marketing team at Pinterest. Everlywell last raised $2M of venture funding led by Nextgen Venture Partners in 2017.
• ScaleFactor, a smart finance and accounting platform who announced a $30M Series B last month, hired Robert Gilbreath as its new senior VP of marketing. He previously worked at Austin-based ShipStation as CMO and VP of partnerships.
• Cloud legaltech leader DISCO announced the expansion of its European leadership team with several new hires focused on the company’s growing global client base. The LiveOak portfolio company recently received a fresh $83M, announced last week.
• Snow Software, a Stockholm- and Austin-based intelligence and automations software company, named Vishal Rao as its new CEO, succeeding founder Axel Kling, who will remain on the board of directors. Rao was previously president and COO at Snow. Snow also named Rachel Mooney as chief people and culture officer and James Denena as CFO. Mooney was previously with Vodafone, and Denena was most recently with PROS. The company’s last raise was $120M in 2017 from Ontario Pension Board, Adams Street Partners and Sumeru Equity Partners.
• PE giant Vista Equity Partners promoted three senior vice presidents, Rachel Arnold, Justin Stalder and Justin Cho, and Director of Capital Markets Kevin Sofield, into its partnership ranks

Austin News

• Austin tech raised $400M in January. Yes. $400M.
• San Antonio-based venture capital firm Active Capital raises $21.5 Million VC fund, focused on seed stage investments
• WordPress hosting platform WP Engine has reached $132M in annual recurring revenue and now has more than 90K customers. Last year, the company was acquired by Silver Lake for $250M.
• Austin accelerator Sputnik ATX, announced its third cohort of startups, SaveDay, Vertalo, Tenavox, AdInMo, and Vybe.
• Google has signed a lease for an entire 35-story tower that has started construction just east of the Central Library in downtown Austin
• Trammell Venture Partners is seeking to raise $10 million for its debut fund
• Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd and HEB Chief Digital Officer (and former Favor CEO) Jag Bath were named to the Business Journal’s Influencers list. They were among 100 executives across the nation selected for the list.
• Social news and entertainment platform Buzzfeed is closing its Austin bureau and laying off its team.
• Certain Affinity, an Austin-based independent game developer, announced its expansion plans into Canada. The company is opening its second development office in Toronto.
• As the most lucrative program in college sports, the University of Texas, brought in a record $219.4 million in revenue for the 2017-18 academic year.
• MassChallenge Texas accepting applications for 2019

Upcoming Events

• Feb 5th: Austin Tech Happy Hour
• Feb 7th: The Consumer Healthcare Summit
• Feb 20th: Black in Tech Summit

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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