Sometimes you just know in the first meeting… For all the deep relationship-building with founders, market sizing, competitive analysis, and other diligence work we pride ourselves on doing, sometimes you just know. Primary Venture Partners GP Brad Svrluga shares some insight in working with Latch from the seed-stage.
Hardware
The Year of the SPAC and What it Means for Hardware
A record 219 companies went public through this fundraising vehicle that uses a reverse merger with an existing private business to create a publicly-listed entity. This accounted for more than $73 billion dollars of investment, providing private equity startups a new outlet to raise capital and provide shareholder liquidity.
Parsec Raises $25M to Ensure You Can Connect to Any Computer in the World Remotely
Remote working has become the new normal but for some professions, having access to the powerful computing systems found at the office is difficult to replicate. Parsec is a platform that allows users to remotely access virtual machines and their powerful PCs from any device without any noticeable latency. The company got its start in gaming, where it was popular with gamers that wanted to play on the go, but since the pandemic, the technology is being used by animators, game developers, engineers, or anyone that needs enhanced processing power remotely. AlleyWatch caught up with Cofounder and CEO Benjy Boxer to learn more about the impact the company’s technology has had on working remotely, the company’s expansion plans, and latest round of funding from investors that include Andreessen Horowitz, Makers Fund, Notation Capital, NextView Ventures, and Lerer Hippeau.
Levels Raises $12M for its Biowearable Device that Monitors Glucose in Real Time
Forget about wearing your Apple Watch to track your health. Levels is the biowearable that provides real-time feedback on how your diet and activities directly impact your health. Through continuous glucose monitoring, which has traditionally been reserved for those with diabetes, the company is on a mission to address the rising rates of metabolic dysfunction in the US by monitoring the effects of your food choices. Levels currently has a waitlist of 44,000 people. AlleyWatch caught up with founders Casey Means MD Josh Clemente, Sam Corcos, David Flinner and Andrew Conner to discuss the importance of metabolic health, the company’s plans to expand the team across engineering, operations, and marketing, and recent funding round from investors that include A16z, Marc Randolph, Dick Costolo, Michael Arrington, and Matt Dellavedova.
Ergatta Raises $5M to Fuse Rowing Machines with Competitive Gaming to Improve At-Home Fitness
“Investors don’t like hardware, and rowing can be perceived as a niche interest. We had to respond to concerns like ‘what if Peloton copies your content,’ and manage the difficulty of effectively demo-ing our product given that it’s a large piece of hardware and COVID-19 made transporting the rowers a bigger challenge.” Learn more about how Tom Aulet of Ergatta, a connected fitness startup that offers elegantly designed in-home rowing machines with a gamification element, was able to successfully raise $5M for the company during the pandemic from investors that include Greycroft and Techstars.
Lululemon Acquires Mirror for $500M to Move into Hardware
Lululemon, the Vancouver-based athleisure company, has agreed to acquire NYC-based Mirror, the connect fitness system for $500M in an all-cash transaction.
Mutable Raises $1.5M to Disrupt Edge Computing with its Marketplace
This edge computing solution maximizes underutilized capacity bringing in new revenue for server operators while also delivering a better internet experience. Find out how Mutable does it…
Somatix Raises $4.5M for its Wearables Solution That Saves Lives Through Gesture Detection
1 in 3 senior citizens suffers from a fall each year according to the CDC but software companies like Somatix have built life-saving wearable technology that passively monitors a patient’s wellbeing, allowing healthcare providers to intervene before serious accidents happen. Somatix’s offers its signature SafeBeing™ software solution to elderly care facilities and rehab centers on […]
The PropTech Report: An Open Frontier For Hardware Entrepreneurs
Two constants have guided my professional life: venture capital and real estate. Every year, I eagerly await to see which portfolio will produce greater returns. Today, in the words of the great (fictional) New Yorker George Louis Costanza, “Worlds are colliding!” Enertiv, a New York Angels investment, keeps growing with an impressive client list of property managers and […]
MIRROR Adds Another $34M in Funding From Marquee Investors to Bring Fitness Into your Home
AlleyWatch caught up with CEO and founder Brynn Putnam to learn more about MIRROR’s latest funding, partnerships, and future growth plans to revolutionize in-home fitness workouts and beyond. Who were your investors and how much did you raise? MIRROR has secured $34 million in Series B-1 financing led by Point72 Ventures. Other participants in the round include lululemon […]
littleBits Acquired by Sphero
littleBits Electronics, the open-source library and maker of electronic modules and kits to foster STEM learning, has been acquired by Boulder-based Sphero. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. “When I studied engineering, it was top-down, test-based,” said Ayah Bdeir, founder of littleBits. “I hated it and wanted to quit every semester. Then I […]