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 Dadi, Better Mortgages, The Laundress, Billie, and much more…
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Better Mortgage is rebuilding the home mortgage process through its online portal that digitizes every part of the process. This five-year-old company raised $70M in Series C led by American Express Ventures and Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) and including participants such as Kleiner Perkins, Pine Brook Partners, and Goldman Sachs. Founded by Eric Wilson, Viral Shah, and Vishal Garg, Better Mortgage has raised a total of $115M throughout four rounds.
The Laundress, an eco-friendly maker of high-end laundry detergent and cleaning supplies, was acquired by Unilever as Unilever looks to expand its eco-friendly offering. Full coverage: The Laundress Just Sold to Unilever for $100M and Never Raised a Single Dollar of VC Money
Petal, the credit card targeted towards those who have been traditionally underserved by the banking system, has raised $30M in Series B funding from investors that include RiverPark Ventures, Valar Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, Afore Capital, Third Prime, Greyhound Capital, and Story Ventures. Founded by Andrew Endicott, David Ehrich, Jack Arenas, and Jason Gross in 2016, Petal has now raised a total of $46.6M in reported equity funding over four rounds.
We took a look at the 14 largest NYC Startup funding rounds in New York during the month of January 2019.
Feminine body care brand Billie has raised $25M in Series A funding from investors that include Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing Group, Silverton Partners, Female Founders Fund, and Lakehouse Ventures. Founded by Georgina Gooley and Jason Bravman on 2017, Billie has now raised a total of $35M in reported equity funding.
The latest news from venture capital firms in NYC for the second half of January 2019 featuring must know news including news for The Social Entrepreneurs’ Fund, Golden Seed, and Fantail Ventures.
Verbit.ai is the AI transcription solution that generates the most accurate speech-to-text files. Founded by Eric Shellef, Kobi Ben Tzvi, and Tom Livne, Vebit has raised $23M in Series A funding led by Viola Ventures. This round was also joined by Vertex Ventues, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, Vintage Investment Partners, Orsyn Capital, and ClalTech. Verbit.ai has now raised a total of $34M across four rounds.
Here are the latest NYC tech hirings, promotions, appointments for NYC companies covering 1/15/19 to 1/31/19.
Augury is the industrial IoT company founded by Gal Shaul and Saar Yoskovitz. This six-year-old NYC company detects machine malfunctions based upon the sounds the machine makes, and it raised $25M in Series C funding led by Insight Venture Partners. Eclipse Ventures, Munich Re/HSB Ventures, Pritzker Group Venture Capital and Lerer Hippeau also joined the round.
Knotch, the business intelligence platform for digital marketing, has raised $20M in Series B funding from investors that include New Enterprise Associates, StartX (Stanford-StartX Fund), and Xochi Birch. Founded by Anda Gansca and Stephanie Volftsun in 2012, Knotch has now raised a total of $34.3M in reported equity funding over three rounds.
dv01, the data and analytics platform for the lending industry, has raised $15M in Series B funding from investors that include OCA Ventures, Pivot Investment Partners, and Jefferies. Founded in 2014 by Perry Rahbar, dv01 has now raised a total of $28M in reported equity funding over four rounds.
Timescale, the open-source time-series database, has raised $15M in Series A-2 funding from investors that include New Enterprise Associates, Benchmark, Icon Ventures, and Two Sigma Ventures. Founded by Ajay Kulkarni and Michael Freedman in 2015, Timescale has now raised a total of $31.1M in funding over three funding rounds.
Pillo Health, the makers of the smart medication dispenser, has raised $7.5M in funding led by Stanley Black & Decker. Founded in 2015 by James Wyman, Pillo Health has now raised a total of $9M in funding over three funding rounds.
In Inside the Mind of an NYC VC, we spoke with Bryan Rosenblatt, a Principal at Craft Ventures.
Social stock trading app Matador, which was founded as TapX Trading, has raised $6.6M in funding according to a recent SEC filing. The filing indicates that there were eleven participants in the round. Matador was founded by Matt Kennedy and Peter Quinn in 2015 and had previously raised $2M in Seed funding led by Greycroft. Directors listed in the filing are Ian Sigalow of Greycroft and Peter Dartley, Garret Marquis, and Sean Hendelman of T-3 Trading Group.
Staked us, the staking-as-a-service platform for institutional crypto investors using a concept called Proof of Stake (Pos), has raised $4.5M in Seed funding from investors that include Digital Currency Group, Winklevoss capital, Pantera Capital, Fabric Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, GlobalBrain, and Blocktree Capital. Stake us was founded by Tim Ogilvie in 2018.
ETFLogic, the data and analytics platform focused on ETFs, has raised $4M in Seed funding led by ETFS Capital. ETFLogic was founded by Emil Tarazi in 2017 and this is the company’s first reported found of funding.
Dadi, the male fertility testing and sperm storage startup, has launched and raised $2M in Seed funding. Read our exclusive interview with Founder and CEO Tom Smith – Dadi Raises $2M for its At Home Male Fertility Test and Sperm Storage Kit.
TypingDNA recognizes people through its biometric technology, which recognizes people by the way they type. Founded by Adrian Gheara, Cristian Tamas, and Raul Popa in 2016, this NYC startup has raised $1.5M in Seed funding from investors that include Gecad Ventures, Venture Partners, Barclays Accelerator (powered by Techstars), and Mentors Fund. TypingDNA has now raised a total of $1.6M across six rounds.
Gatsby is the fintech app providing the public with commission-free options trading. It raised $500K in a Pre-Seed round from investors that include Barclays, SWS Venture Capital, Radius Bank, and Techstars. Gatsby was founded by Jeff Myers and Ryan Belanger-Saleh.
Blockchain holding company GlobexUS has raised an initial $220K in funding according to a recent SEC filing. The filing indicates that the total offering is for $2M and there were three participants in this initial close. Mark Elenowitz, the CEO and Founder of TriPoint Global Equities is listed as an Executive in the filing. Globex currently offers three solutions: Tokenetics, Custodyware, and KYCWare.