Did you know that VentureFizz originally started out as a blog on Google's Blogger, where I tracked deal activity??? It was called Northeast Venture Capital Funding and M/A Activity (so original). It actually still exists. Click here if you want a trip down memory lane of funding activity from 2006 - 2009.
It's time for us to get back to our roots!
After two years, I feel like we are starting to pull out of this tech correction, so we are going to start publishing a quarterly list of all the tech deals. Our goal is to share some data to help understand the market and see if it is indeed improving. Plus, we are looking to help promote all the activity in the Boston startup community.
Some highlights from the data:
- Databricks is on the hunt, as they acquired two Boston startups in Q1.
- The highest volume of activity was in the pre-seed and seed rounds. Here's to these companies going on to raise their Series A.
- Unicorns - three of the Series D and Beyond companies that shared its valuation were all at $1B+, with Devoted Health at a Decacorn level at $12B+.
- AI (obviously) and healthcare startups were very popular in terms of raising capital.
- Legendary entrepreneur and database innovator, Mike Stonebraker, has a new company called DBOS.
In aggregate, the total amount of funding across all rounds and companies was:
$864.6M
If you are interested in getting the Deals information weekly, you can sign up for our popular Weekly Email Digest which has all the must know information from the Boston tech scene! It's your one email a week to stay plugged in! Sign up here:
Exits
Einblick (visual data computing platform) was acquired by Databricks.
Seed investors: Amplify Partners, Flybridge, Samsung Nnext Ventures, Osage University Partners, Koa Labs, and Dell Technologies Capital.
Kolide (endpoint security platform) was acquired by 1Password.
Investors: OpenView, Matrix
Lilac (AI tool for searching, quantifying, and editing data) was acquired by Databricks.
Investors: Vantage Legacy Capital
Funding
Series D and Beyond (5 Companies)
Aqua Security (cybersecurity company focused on cloud-native services) raised $60M Series E.
Investors: Evolution Equity Partners (Lead), Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and StepStone Group
Valuation: North of $1B
Jobs at Aqua Security
Devoted Health (health insurtech focused on Medicare Advantage) raised $175M Series E.
Investors: The round was led by a lead syndicate composed of The Space Between (TSB), Highbury Holdings, GIC, Stardust Equity, Maverick Ventures, and Fearless Ventures. Also participating in the funding round were Socium Ventures, Emerson Collective, Andreessen Horowitz, The Private Shares Fund and affiliated funds, F-Prime Capital Partners, General Catalyst, and GreatPoint Ventures.
Valuation: $12.87B
Technically, Devoted Health announced this funding on December 29, 2023 - but a lot of the coverage was in Jan.
Digital Onboarding (customer engagement platform for banks and credit unions) raised $58M in funding.
Investor: Volition Capital
Silverfort (Israel / Boston - identity protection) raised $116M Series D.
Investors: Brighton Park Capital led, and was joined by insiders Acrew Capital, Greenfield Partners, Citi Ventures, General Motors Ventures, Maor Investments, Vintage Investment Partners, and Singtel Innov8.
Inari (gene editing startup for seeds) raised $103M in sixth-round funding.
Investors: Hanwha Impact, CPP Investments, Rivas Capital, NGS Super, State of Michigan Retirement System, Flagship Pioneering, and Roka Capital Management.
Valuation: $1.65B
Jobs at Inari
Series C (1 Company)
Overjet (AI technology for dentists) raised $53.2M Series C.
Investors: March Capital (lead), General Catalyst, Insight Partners, E14 Fund, Crosslink Capital, and others.
Series B (3 Companies)
Nabla (ambient AI assistant for practitioners) raised $24M Series B.
Investors: Cathay Innovation (lead), Zebox Ventures.
CodaMetrix (health care billing tech provider) raised $40M Series B.
Investors: Transformation Capital (lead), SignalFire, and Frist Cressey Ventures.
InStride Health (provider of pediatric treatments for anxiety and OCD) raised $30m Series B.
Investors: General Catalyst (lead), .406 Ventures, Valtruis, Mass General Brigham Ventures, and Hopelab Foundation.
Series A (7 Companies)
PredictAP (platform designed to automate aspects of the invoice process for real estate accounting departments) raised $8M Series A.
Investors: RET Ventures (lead), Wise Ventures
Oxford Medical Simulation (VR medical training startup) raised $12.6M Series A.
Investors: Frog Capital (lead), ACF Investors
10Beauty (manicure robot) raised $38M in Series A funding (which includes a $17M extension).
Investors: Shine Capital (lead), Imaginary Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, and Red Sea Ventures
Listen 🎧: Alex Shashou, Co-Founder & CEO of 10Beauty on The VentureFizz Podcast
Metaplane (data observability platform) raised $13.8M Series A.
Investors: Felicis (lead), Khosla Ventures, Flybridge, Y Combinator, Stage 2 Capital, B37, and SNR
Pi Health (platform designed to streamline clinical trial processes for cancer therapies and treatments for other diseases) raised $30M Series A.
Investors: AlleyCorp (lead), Obvious Ventures (lead), Invus Capital and others.
CyberSaint (cyber risk management platform) raised $21M Series A.
Investors: Riverside Acceleration Capital (lead), Sage Hill Investors, Audeo Capital, and BlueIO
Ediphi (estimating software for contractors) raised $12M Series A.
Investor: Norwest Venture Partners
Pre-Seed / Seed (14 Companies)
Via Scientific (enterprise scale multi-omics data processing and analytics) raised a $5M seed.
Investors: G20 Ventures (lead), Innospark Ventures (lead), Melissa J. Moore (former CSO of Moderna), Rob Hickey (former EVP at DataRobot), and Janet Kosloff (Founder and former CEO of InCrowd, Inc.)
XRHealth (developer of VR and AR tools for chronic pain, anxiety, fibromyalgia, and dementia) raised a $6M seed.
Investors: Asabys Partners (led), Nova Prime Fund.
Elemind (AI-enhanced Neurotech Wearable) raised $12M in seed funding.
Investors: Village Global, LDV Partners, Embark Ventures, E14 Fund, and others.
Civic Roundtable (collaboration platform for government employees) raised $5M in seed funding.
Investors: General Catalyst (lead).
SigScalr (unified application observability platform) raised a $1.8M in pre-seed funding.
Investors: Scribble Ventures (lead), WestWave Capital, and Forward Slash Capital
Enkrypt AI (security and compliance services provider for generative AI integration) raised $2.4 million in seed funding.
Investors: Boldcap (lead), Berkeley SkyDeck, Kubera VC, Arka VC, Veredas Partners, Builders Fund, and angel investors
Vysioneer (oncology AI) raised $1.7M in seed funding.
Investors: Chaac Ventures (lead), Roger Ferguson Jr. and others.
FamilyWell (postpartum mental health provider) raised $4.3M in seed funding.
Investors: .406 Ventures (lead), GreyMatter Capital, and Mother Ventures.
BlueBean (business spend management platform) raised $1.3M in funding.
Investors: Tola Capital
TollBit (platform aimed at addressing the shifting economics of web content in the age of AI) raised $7M in funding.
Investors: Sunflower Capital (lead), AIX, Lerer Hippeau, Operator Collective, and Liquid 2 Ventures.
DBOS (database startup) raised $8.5M in seed funding.
Investors: Engine Ventures (lead), Construct Capital, Sinewave, and GutBrain Ventures
Fluent Metal (developer of production-grade liquid metal printing) raised $5.5M in funding.
Investors: E15 (lead), Pillar VC, and angel investors.
Monaire (AI powered HVAC in small buildings) raised $3.5M in seed funding.
Investors: Construct Capital (lead), Workshop Ventures, and others.
Cyvl.ai (transportation data infrastructure startup) raised $6M in a tweaner... between a seed and Series A.
Investors: Companyon Ventures (lead), Argon Ventures, AeroX Ventures, Alumni Ventures, MassVentures, Launch Capital, and RiverPark Ventures.