a16z leads investment in Firemaps, a marketplace for home hardening against wildfires
– Firemaps, a startup that makes it easier to harden homes against wildfires, raised $5.5m in funding.
– The round was led by a16z and joined by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Addition’s Lee Fixel.
– The company is led by Jahan Khanna, who co-founded it along with his brother, who has a long-time background in civil engineering, and Rob Moran.
– The trio spent cycles exploring how to work on climate problems, while staying focused on helping people in the here and now.
Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Plug and Play invest in Odiggo’s $2.2M seed round
– Odiggo, an auto tech startup, secured a $2.2m seed round.
– The round was led by Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and Plug and Play Ventures.
– Regional VCs like Seedra Ventures, LoftyInc Capital, and Essa Al-Saleh (CEO of Volta-Tucks) also took part.
Seattle fintech startup Allio raises $5M for robo-advisor investment tool
– Allio, a new Seattle startup building a robo-advisor investment tool for consumers, has raised $5m.
– The round was led by Liberty Partners.
– The company is a graduate of Venture Out and WTIA startup program.
FreshRealm Raises $32M in Funding
– FreshRealm, a Ventura CA-based fresh meals solution company, raised $32M in funding.
– The backers participating in the round were not disclosed.
– The company will use the capital to bolster its facilities, product and infrastructure to accelerate the rollout of national fresh meals destinations in retail grocery.
Nayya Raises $37M in Series B Funding
– Nayya, a NYC-based insurance benefits experience and healthcare management platform, raised $37M in Series B financing.
– The round was co-led by SVB Capital and ICONIQ Growth and brought total funding to just under $50M.
– The company intends to use the funds to grow the size of its team and invest in new features for its core offerings.
Emotive raises $50M to make text marketing more conversational
– Emotive, a text marketing platform, raised $50m in Series B funding.
– The round was led by CRV and joined by Mucker Capital, TenOneTen Ventures and Stripes.
– It brings Emotive to a valuation of $400m.
– The company plans to continue developing the product, to grow its headcount to more than 200 people and to open offices in Atlanta and Boston.
– Eventually, it could also expand beyond texting.
Krisp Raises $9M in Series A Funding
– Krisp is a Berkerey, CA-based AI-powered noise removal app that works with any conferencing, recording and podcasting service.
– The company raised $9m in Series A-1 funding.
– The round was led by RTP Global with participation from existing investor Storm Ventures.
– The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product development and make a number of strategic hires to support product development, sales & marketing.
– Led by Davit Baghdasaryan, CEO, Krisp delivers an AI-powered noise removal app based on Deep Neural Networks (DNN) that enables users to remove background voices, barking dogs, room echoes and anything else that can disturb virtual meetings.
