Year: 2018
Sandalphon follows-on in Jiobit’s $6.5m funding round alongside Netgear
FINANCING FROM NETGEAR, TECHSTARS VENTURES, AND MIDWEST FIRMS TO BACK MARKET EXPANSION
November, 19 2018 (Chicago, IL) – Jiobit, a Chicago-based provider of wireless location-based technologies, today announced it has closed a $6.5M investment round from leading technology veterans alongside a strategic investment from California-based NETGEAR, a worldwide leader in home networking. Jiobit will be leveraging the new capital to accelerate the growth of sales and marketing, R&D efforts, as well as expanding their IP portfolio. Founded by ex-Motorola executives John Renaldi and Roger Ady in 2015, Jiobit has raised a total of $11M to date.
Other notable participants in this round include MATH Venture Partners, Techstars Ventures, Wakestream Ventures, Sandalphon Capital and Uber Executive, Lior Ron.
“Connecting families with the most advanced technology is at the core of NETGEAR’s mission, and Jiobit is working to provide just that. Jiobit’s objective to offer peace of mind through location tracking technology is exactly the kind of mission we want to be a part of,” said David Henry, NETGEAR’s SVP of Connected Home Products.
The hardware-enabled SaaS company began shipping their first product in December of 2017. Jiobit now plans to expand marketing efforts, distribution channels, hiring, R&D, and product portfolio, in 2019. Jiobit is an excellent example of a Midwest company that has developed their own patented core technology that has consumer and enterprise applications. In 2017 Chicago tech companies raised more than $1.7B in funding and Jiobit’s successful raise continues this trend of funding for Chicago-based startups.
“The technology scene in Chicago continues to explode and is positioned to be an international hub for innovation due to its talent and infrastructure,” said Troy Henikoff, Managing Director of MATH Venture Partners. “As a member of this community, I’m committed to supporting great entrepreneurs and disruptive technologies here. I believe Jiobit has both.”
“Only one year after our first shipment, this investment from our strategic partners provides Jiobit the opportunity to expand our product line into several new consumer markets including petcare and families with children who have special needs, bringing peace of mind to millions,” said John Renaldi, Jiobit Founder and CEO. “Both Jiobit and our recent investors are at the forefront of increasing connected technology for families, and we are excited to see what we can make possible through our latest funding.”
For more information on Jiobit visit https://www.jiobit.com/.
ABOUT JIOBIT:
Jiobit is the first of its kind patented location tracking platform, enabling the longest lasting and smallest real-time location products with best-in-class security. Jiobit is waterproof, durable, discreet, and provides accurate real-time tracking at any distance. Featuring a host of encryption and security technologies, Jiobit is trusted by federal government customers, law enforcement professionals, and thousands of pet owners and families, with usage in every populated continent in the world.
Jiobit’s first product, the smallest and longest lasting real-time location tracker for kids, was inspired after Founder and CEO, John Renaldi lost track of his then 6-year-old son at Maggie Daley Park in Chicago. Jiobit started shipping this year, and it is now being used by thousands of families across all 50 states. Jiobit’s solution for families is only the beginning of where the team will take this patented location tracking technology.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Hannay May
hannah@hercreativemedia.com
Sandalphon follows-on in The Minte’s $2.25m Seed II round
The Minte Closes $2.25M Seed Series II Funding Round, Brings Intelligent Tech to Luxury Housekeeping
- Hotel-style housekeeping company partners with luxury apartments, condos
- New funding round led by Dundee Venture Capital; brings total funding to date to $4.7 million
- 25,000 units served in Chicago, Washington D.C., with 12 new properties launching each month
CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Minte, the company bringing hotel-style housekeeping to luxury residences at the push of a button, has closed a $2.25 million seed funding round led by Dundee Venture Capital.
Additional investors in the current round includes MATH Venture Partners, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Firebrand Ventures, Blue Note Ventures and multiple prominent angel investors. The round brings total funding to-date to $4.7 million.
Returning investors, in addition to Dundee, includes Sandalphon Capital, Network Ventures and M25 Group. The company will use the funding to further develop its one-button request technology, smart home integrations and mobile apps. The Minte also plans to expand into new geographical and residential markets, with over 30,000 units planned by the end of 2018.
“The Minte represents how an operationally intensive service business can be reintroduced to the consumer with technology and convenience in mind,” said Jonathan McCulloch, Partner at Dundee Venture Capital. “Bucking the trend of part-time workers and scheduling limitations, The Minte provides real-time ordering with its full-time employees, all of whom receive benefits. This transcends both technological and labor norms to establish a new house cleaning model. Run by a skilled team and with a growing network of partnerships, The Minte is already the leader in its class.”
Frictionless housekeeping for luxury residences
The Minte makes weekly, bi-weekly and even daily housekeeping affordable and frictionless. Housekeepers hail from venerable hotels including the Waldorf Astoria, the Conrad and Sofitel. Cashless payments, eco-friendly products and automated ordering give condo-, apartment-, corporate-housing and other full-time residents the clean polish of a hotel with the peace-of-mind of their own home.
“The Minte is about affordably maintaining the cleanliness of your home, which frees up time and relieves stress,” said The Minte CEO Kathleen Wilson. “Dundee and other venture partners have been incredibly supportive. Their guidance will be invaluable as we rapidly, sustainably scale and expand our services to residences around America.”
The Minte’s current housing partners include Greystar, Bozzuto, Golub, Lincoln Property Company, Waterton and RMK, among others. The company will continue to refine its successful core service while growing into a trusted staple in the multifamily landscape.
“As technology becomes pervasive across industries impacting everyday consumer activity, The Minte has recognized a significant market opportunity for affordable hotel-style housekeeping that it can capture beginning in metropolitan cities across the United States,” said J.D. Vance, Managing Partner of Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. “The Minte is another example of a great consumer technology company scaling outside of Silicon Valley and benefiting from its location between the coasts.”
About The Minte
The Minte is a Chicago-headquartered startup aiming to disrupt the status quo of housekeeping. Backed by Dundee Venture Capital, MATH Venture Partners, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Firebrand Ventures, Blue Note Ventures, Sandalphon Capital, Network Ventures and M25 Group, The Minte is partnered with a number of housing partners as it expands into condos, apartments and corporate housing in the United States and internationally. For more information please visit us at http://TheMinte.com and follow our page on Facebook.
Contacts
Treble
Ethan Parker, 512-960-8222
founder@treblepr.com
Sandalphon invests in St Louis-based Balto Software’s $1.2m Seed round
https://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/david-nicklaus/balto-software-raises-million-and-is-aggressively-hiring/article_3a3fd1fe-042a-5485-ad9d-7b7a20bbcc45.html
Sandalphon follows-on in LogicGate’s $7.5m Series A led by Jump Capital and High Alpha
LogicGate Raises $7.5 Million to Accelerate Risk and Compliance Automation
Chicago, Illinois, July 24, 2018 – LogicGate, a workflow automation software platform for governance, risk, and compliance, has raised $7.5 million in a Series A round led by Jump Capital, with participation from High Alpha and existing investors.
LogicGate’s Board of Directors will now include Michael McMahon, Managing Partner of Jump Capital; Mike Fitzgerald, Co-Founder and Partner of High Alpha; Matt Kunkel, CEO of LogicGate; and Jon Siegler, COO of LogicGate. Scott Dorsey, Managing Partner of High Alpha, will serve as an advisor to the company.
With this investment, LogicGate’s total funding reaches $9.4 million since its launch in 2015 by co-founders Matt Kunkel, Jon Siegler, and Dan Campbell. The additional capital will be used to bolster the LogicGate team, adding 50 new positions to their Chicago office by 2019 across several functional areas: Engineering, Product, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success.
“Our partnership with Jump Capital and High Alpha represents an important next step in LogicGate’s journey,” said Matt Kunkel, LogicGate’s CEO. “While we are thrilled with our growth over the past 18 months and expect to continue this growth, we are most proud of the new and innovative ways our platform is empowering professionals in the risk and compliance space. We’re providing our customers with transparency to reduce risk, eliminate compliance violations, and improve operational effectiveness. This capital will help us expand our team into new markets and, more importantly, allows us to continue to invest in the LogicGate platform to give professionals in the risk and compliance community a world-class solution.”
LogicGate’s software-as-a-service platform was built with ease of use in mind for the business process owner – enabling businesses to quickly operationalize and automate their complex and manual risk and compliance programs by using pre-built process templates for things like enterprise risk management, controls testing, and third-party risk assessments. The platform can be configured with a simple drag-and-drop interface, without a single line of code, achieving very quick implementation times and eliminating the large services costs that come with legacy GRC platforms.
“With a rapidly changing regulatory landscape, the need for GRC workflow automation will only continue to grow. We view LogicGate’s highly configurable and scalable platform as perfectly positioned to solve the automation challenge for enterprises of all sizes across a broad range of governance, risk, and compliance use cases,” said Jump Capital Managing Partner, Michael McMahon.
“LogicGate is bringing an innovative, subscription software solution to the legacy GRC industry, helping some of the world’s largest companies become self-sufficient in how they manage and run their risk and compliance operations,” said High Alpha Co-Founder and Partner, Mike Fitzgerald. “We’re thrilled to be investing in Matt and the LogicGate team. They have highly relevant experience addressing these needs for large corporations and are well positioned to build a category leading software platform in the GRC market.”
About LogicGate:
Headquartered in Chicago, LogicGate is a leading workflow automation software platform enabling organizations to automate and centralize risk and compliance programs. As an agile and highly configurable platform, LogicGate empowers organizations to transform mission-critical risk and compliance activities without the support of consultants or corporate IT. For more information, visit logicgate.com and follow on Twitter at @LogicGateApp.
About Jump Capital:
Jump Capital is an expansion and growth stage investment firm focused on opportunities in data-driven, enterprise software companies across a breadth of industries. With offices in Chicago and New York, Jump leverages its deep technical expertise and institutional-level operating resources to impact the success of its portfolio companies. For more information, visit http://www.jumpcap.comand follow on Twitter at @jumpcapital.
Sandalphon invests in Regroup’s $5.5m growth round
Regroup Closes Growth Round, Adds CFO
CHICAGO – June 26, 2018 – PRLog — Regroup, a leading virtual behavioral healthcare organization, recently closed a $5.5 million growth round of funding. Frist Cressey Ventures, Further Fund, HBS Angels of Chicago, HLM Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels, CA Ventures, and OSF Ventures, all among the group of Series A major investors, contributed to the round. “Our investors are investing in us, our mission and the great progress we’ve made in these last months. Their support allows us to make a meaningful difference in the lives of thousands of patients across the country who otherwise may not be able to access these badly needed behavioral health services,” said David Cohn, Founder and CEO of Regroup.
Regroup will welcome two additional board members, Chris Booker of Frist Cressey Ventures and Vin Fabiani of HLM Venture Partners.”The combination of technology and an extensive network of quality behavioral health providers is key to addressing one of our nation’s biggest healthcare challenges. We are happy to partner with Regroup as it furthers its mission to expand access to behavioral health services,” commented Chris Booker, partner at Frist Cressey Ventures.
This recent round of funding will be used to further invest in Regroup’s sales, clinical teams, and operations. Regroup recently added a CFO to its senior management team. Kim Hill, CPA, brings a diverse background in senior finance and operations in startups, mid-size and Fortune 100 companies.
“I am thrilled to join David and the other seasoned members of the Regroup leadership team as we enter this next phase of growth, transforming behavioral health service delivery,” said Hill.
ABOUT REGROUP
Regroup provides integrated telepsychiatry services to health care entities and their patients across the United States. With its nationwide network of behavioral health clinicians, proven process, and virtual care platform, Regroup provides services to over 100 care sites across settings including primary care, outpatient behavioral health, tribal communities, and corrections. For more information, visit regrouptelehealth.com.
Contact
Emily Kohler
***@regrouptelehealth.com
Sandalphon follows-on in Kin Insurance’s $13m Series A led by August Capital
Kin Insurance Raises $13M in Financing, Welcomes New Board Member
With its latest round of funding and new board member Caribou Honig, online home insurance startup Kin Insurance moves to service national markets.
CHICAGO (PRWEB) JUNE 11, 2018
Kin Home Insurance, an insurtech startup that’s simplifying and transforming home insurance, closed $13 million in funding so it can help protect homeowners nationwide. Kin also welcomed Caribou Honig, chairman and cofounder of the InsureTech Connect conference and a founding partner of the boutique venture capital firm QED Investors, to its board.
Since its official launch in 2017, Kin has provided home insurance in Florida and Texas, but plans to make its offerings available nationally by the year’s end. Its latest round of financing, backed by the Silicon Valley VC firm August Capital, will help the company launch new products over the next two quarters. Previously, Kin raised $4 million from leading venture capitalists and angel investors, among them Commerce Ventures, Omidyar Network, 500 Startups, Chicago Ventures, and Portag3 Ventures.
Seasoned insurtech veteran Honig brings years of insurance and data-driven marketing experience to this next stage of growth for the company. His expertise will help guide key decisions as Kin expands its reach.
“The insurance industry is long overdue for change,” Honig said. “It’s exciting to work with a company that can see beyond the status quo. Instead of slightly improving the product, Kin aims to reinvent home insurance.”
Historically, buying home insurance meant long applications, complex policies, limited offerings, and time lost on the phone with a local broker. Kin created an all-online process that prioritizes simplicity, affordability, and convenience. Homeowners can get a quote in seconds with just their address, and Kin can insure homes in riskier regions that are often overlooked by big insurance companies.
“Owning a home is challenging enough. We think insuring it should be easy,” Kin CEO Sean Harper said. “Some home insurance applications are so complicated you’d have to be a home inspector to accurately fill them out. So we rely on data to tell us what we need to know about the home. It saves the homeowner legwork and lets us offer the right coverage at a good price. That’s the kind of change we want to bring to the national level.”
Sandalphon invests in portco HappyCo’s Series A Extension led by pre-IPO investors Alium Capital
HappyCo Completes Series A Funding Round
Alium and Tempus Provide Lead Funding on Final Tranche of Series A Institutional Round for Real Estate Technology Company
“HappyCo is a modern Australian success story, and we see a very bright future ahead because of its industry-leading technology and proven track record of execution,” says Alium Partner Rajeev Gupta. “We focus our investments in Australia-based companies that will build highly-scalable and globally-dominant businesses, and HappyCo has that perfect recipe.”
With this round, HappyCo will invest in R&D operations in Australia and the U.S. and build out the support team to sustain its growing Asia-Pacific customer base. This round demonstrates HappyCo’s increasing market share as a leading technology provider to Australia’s real estate and financial sectors. Chris Rolls, Managing Director of PieLab, says, “We’re delighted to be involved with such a high-growth business that is playing a critical part in the technology ecosystem of the global real estate management market. HappyCo’s platform is deeply integrated into the operations of companies who manage billions of dollars of property globally.”
Alister Coleman, Managing Partner of Sydney-based venture capital firm Tempus Partners, believes HappyCo is a key player in disrupting one of the world’s most valuable industries. “Jindou and the HappyCo team have built a world-class platform that is transforming the way property and site inspections are conducted across the corporate-managed real estate industry — a market with over 7 trillion dollars of assets that is in the middle of migrating to the cloud. We are thrilled to back a laser-focused team that has achieved international success and a global customer base, yet retained its engineering talent and roots in Adelaide.”
ABOUT HAPPYCO
HappyCo (happy.co) is a San Francisco-based software company that builds mobile and cloud solutions to enable real-time property operations. Its Happy Inspector product is used by thousands of companies and has captured more than 100 million items inspected. The company was founded in 2011 and is privately held.
Contacts
VerbFactory for HappyCo
Richard Berman, 415-359-4906
richard@verbfactory.com