Stream Raises $38 Million Series B Led by Felicis Ventures
– Stream, the creator of enterprise-grade activity feed and chat APIs, today announces the close of its $38m Series B funding round, led by Felicis Ventures’ Aydin Senkut with participation from Series A lead investor GGV Capital and 01 Advisors.
– The Series B follows just six months after the company’s $15m Series A round in August 2018, bringing total financing to $53m.
– The accelerated financing rounds signal market uptake of Stream’s innovative technology as chat becomes the dominant medium for day-to-day communications.
– Stream provides APIs which enable product teams to build chat and activity feeds for their applications at scale in a fraction of the time and cost of developing in-house.
Yugabyte Raises $48M in Funding
– Yugabyte is a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based leader in open source distributed SQL databases.
– The company raised $48m in funding.
– The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with additional participation by Greenspring Associates, Dell Technologies Capital, Wipro Ventures and 8VC.
– The new investment will be used to expand R&D, sales and customer functions in the EMEA and APAC markets and further accelerate enterprise adoption of its commercial products.
Another unicorn in Seattle: Enterprise sales startup Highspot raises $200M round at a $2.3B valuation
– Highspot, a sales enablement platform, raised $200m funding.
– The round was led by Insight Venture Partners and joined by new investors Meritech Capital Partners and Salesforce Ventures.
– It brings the company to a valuation of $2.3 billion.
Nuvolo Raises $31M Series C Funding to Accelerate Global Expansion and IWMS Platform Evolution
– Nuvolo is the world’s fastest-growing workplace software company.
– Nuvolo has raised an additional $31m in funding led by global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners.
– The funding will be used to accelerate global expansion and IWMS platform evolution.
Rethink Education to Invest $5mm in Seed Stage, Underrepresented Founders Improving Learning Outcomes and Economic Mobility
– Rethink Education has earmarked $5m from Rethink Education III to invest in underrepresented people of color helping solve some of the toughest challenges from education to workforce development.
– The team has coined this initiative Rethink Equity, acknowledging that venture capital is hardly distributed on a level playing field.
– White men make up approximately 30% of the population yet receive 77% of all venture capital, whereas Latinx founders receive only 2% and African Americans receive only 1%, according to Crunchbase.
– The average household income for Black families in America is $41,000. Many Black and brown founders lack the disposable income individually and among family and friends to bootstrap their companies to the viability needed to warrant VC funding.
Workiz locks in $13M for productivity tools aimed at home services professionals
– Workiz, a field service management platform for small businesses, raised $13m in funding.
– The round was led by New Era Capital Partners and joined by Aleph, Magenta Venture Partners, Maor Investments and TMT Investments.
– The company is based out of San Diego and Israel.
– It has some 100,000 service professionals using the platform.
Otter.ai Raises $50 Million Series B Led by Spectrum Equity to Address Over a Billion Users of Online Meetings and Demand for Otter’s Productivity and Collaboration App
– Otter.ai announced that it has raised $50m in a Series B led by Spectrum Equity, with continued participation from Horizons Ventures, Draper Associates, GGV Capital, Draper Dragon Fund, and others to capture unprecedented demand for its online meeting productivity tools.
– John Connolly, Managing Director of Spectrum Equity, will join Otter.ai’s Board of Directors.
– Otter.ai’s AI-powered collaborative note-taking and productivity app work seamlessly with video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Google Meet and with phone calls and other voice communications.
– The round includes a $10m convertible note.
Terminus Secures $90M Series C Led By Great Hill Partners
– Terminus, the leading account-based marketing platform, announced today it raised a $90m Series C from Boston-based Great Hill Partners with participation from existing investors Atlanta Ventures, Edison Partners, and Hallett Capital to accelerate data products innovation, hiring and market expansion.
– With the investment, Great Hill Partners’ Derek Schoettle and Chris Gaffney will join Terminus’ Board of Directors. Schoettle brings decades of data innovation experience from his time as chief executive of ZoomInfo (acquired by DiscoverOrg in 2019) and chief business officer of IBM’s Watson & Cloud platform. Gaffney, who co-founded Great Hill Partners in 1988, brings extensive software and media experience, having served on more than 45 boards and participated in over 100 acquisitions.
Startek Announces $185 Million Debt Refinancing
– Startek has successfully completed a debt refinancing with a newly secured $185m senior debt facility, comprising a $165m term loan and a $20m revolving credit facility.
– Borrowings under the new senior debt will bear a tiered interest rate, which is based on the Company’s consolidated net leverage ratio and is initially set at LIBOR plus 450 basis points.
– The term loan will have a moratorium on principal repayment for 21 months and will amortize quarterly thereafter, beginning November 2022.
– The loan is subject to certain standardized financial covenants.
– ING Bank N.V. and DBS Bank Ltd. served as underwriters for the new senior debt facility and were the lead lenders of the previous senior debt facility, which is now repaid in full.
Hubilo raises $23.5 million to power virtual events with real-time data and analytics
– Hubilo, a platform that helps businesses of all sizes host virtual and hybrid events and gain access to real-time data and analytics, has raised $23.5 million in a series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
– The round saw participation from the U.K.’s Balderton Capital and Microsoft chair John W. Thompson, among other angel investors.
– The investment comes as people around the world prepare for a semblance of normality after a year of pandemic-induced social distancing.
– But while physical events will likely return in some form in the next year, online events are widely expected to stay — either exclusively or as part of a hybrid format.