Austin Weekly Deal Highlights for August 12th, 2018

From: “Mason Rathe” <[email protected]> on behalf of “Mason Rathe” <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, 12 August 2018 23:16
To: [email protected]
Subject:Austin Weekly Deal Highlights 8-12-18

Austin Weekly Deal Highlights

By Mason Rathe – August 12, 2018

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With Tiger in contention, of course I had to wait until after the PGA Championship to send the newsletter. But this is supposed to be focused on tech anyway, so you’re probably more interested in the $59M commitment for Social Solutions. And then look at that, Austin is the number one city at attracting workers.

Austin Financing Activity

• Social Solutions, a software provider for nonprofits to track data, manage cases, and measure outcomes, received a $59M, 5 year commitment from Ballmer Group, which was co-founded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
• Primizie (Piadina), a producer of flavored crispbreads, raised $3.7M in new equity funding. The company previously raised approximately $6M from investors including Boulder Investment Group and Baylor Angel Network.
• Consumer fintech startup Self Lender raised $930k of convertible debt financing from Ozmen Ventures and other undisclosed investors. Self Lender raised a $5M Series A last year.
• Qv21 Technologies, a provider of SaaS-based fleet management and logistics services, raised $575k from undisclosed investors. The company last raised approximately $500k in 2013.
• Patchr, a provider of software design printed circuit boards, raised $100K in equity funding.

Austin M&A Activity

• Q2 Holdings (NYSE:QTWO), a banking software company, announced an agreement to acquire 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.
• Bitfract, an Austin blockchain software startup, has been acquired by ShapeShift.io, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange. No financial details were provided.

Other Relevant Deal Activity

• Business outsourcing service provider TaskUs, which has major operations in both San Antonio and Dallas, raised a $250M investment round from Blackstone Group, valuing the company at $500M.
• Santa Monica based venture capital firm March Capital Partners, who has a presence in Austin, rakes in over $120M for its second fund.
• Dell Technologies Capital is one of the investors in the $25M Series B for cybersecurity auditing and assessment provider RiskRecon.
• Dallas-based Arcade, a sales solution for retailers that gamifies employee goals, raised a $1M Seed Round led by Austin-based ATX Seed Ventures

Austin People

• H-E-B, the largest private employer in Texas, has appointed Mike Georgoff as its chief product officer. Georgoff previously held that title at Main Street Hub, which was acquired earlier this year by GoDaddy for $175M.
• Software holding company BuildGroup has brought on former Alert Logic CEO Gray Hall as part of its new executive program. BuildGroup recently closed on a new $330M fund.
• Lt. Gen. John Murray could be confirmed as early as next week to head up the Army Futures Command, the arm of the military branch that will be based in Austin and dedicated to modernizing the fighting force.
• Tecovas, a designer and retailer of handcrafted Western boots, who raised a seed round from YETI Capital last September, is searching for a Director of Retail for its omnichannel business.

Austin News

• Austin was selected as one of four cities to host IBM’s X-Force Red Labs where security-focused experts will try to exploit vulnerabilities in devices and systems before they are put on the market.
• Austin is No. 1 among U.S. cities attracting the most workers. In July, hiring was up a whopping 14.3%, year-over-year — that’s compared to the nation’s 4.6% increase in hiring.
• AR/VR company Magic Leap, who has an R&D lab in Austin, has released its first augmented reality product, after raising nearly $2.4B since 2012.
• Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin is accelerating innovation and research by creating a Biomedical Data Science Hub to help solve complex research and clinical problems.
• University of Texas is part of the Uber project to create pilot-free sky taxis. The UT Cockrell School of Engineering is teaming up on propeller research with Uber, which plans to put flying taxis in the sky by 2023 — with demos as early as 2020. Uber will pay UT $185K for 18 months of work on the project, which is being led by UT engineering professor Jayant Sirohi.
• Dell to sell 5G division to VMware as it seeks to go public
• With more than 1,000 customers and soon to be debt free, SailPoint shares keep climbing. The VC backed identity management software company IPO’d 9 months ago.
• Yet another skyscraper is under construction at The Domain, and at its Third + Shoal tower under construction downtown, Facebook has indicated it wants to eat up even more space.
• Madison Street Capital, a boutique investment banking firm based in Chicago, IL has announced its plans to expand to Austin

Upcoming Events

• August 15th, MassChallenge Texas Awards
• August 29th, Scale Up Presented by CDW
• September 14th, applications due for DisrupTexas, an undergraduate pitch competition hosted by Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship at UT Austin, with $50k in cash and prizes.
• October 4th, ATX Startup Crawl at Austin Startup Week 2018

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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