– Dovetail, a software company that enables teams to make better decisions through deep customer understanding, announced that it has raised $5m AUD to further scale the reach of its customer research platform.
– The round was led by Felicis Ventures, with participation from Blackbird Ventures, Grok Ventures and Didier Elzinga, CEO of Culture Amp.
– The company has created a collaborative, easily searchable repository for all of an organization’s customer research to fully inform and expedite product decisions; users can share data-backed insights across the broader business in real time.

– Suzy, a NYC-based market research software platform, closed a $50m Series D funding.
– The round was led by H.I.G. Growth Partners and joined by existing investors Rho Capital Partners, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Foundry Group, Triangle Peak Partners, and North Atlantic Capital.
– The company intends to use the funds to bolster its product offerings, grow its proprietary consumer panel, expand rollout internationally and to new industry verticals, and invest in further accelerating sales and marketing efforts.

– Solidia Technologies has raised $50m in a series B round of funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, with participation from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Prelude Ventures, and PIVA Capital.
– The company is now valued at $1bn.
– Solidia Technologies is a leading developer of low-carbon cement and concrete technologies.
– The company has developed a new cement technology that reduces CO2 emissions in the production of cement and consumes carbon in the production of concrete.
– The new funding will support the continued development and deployment of these leading technologies to accelerate the decarbonization of critical building materials industries.

– Productboard, a startup developing a DevOps orchestration system for enterprises, today announced that it raised $72 million in a series C round.
– The company says that the funds will be put toward expanding its team and customer base while supporting product research and development.
– An estimated 19% to 23% of software development projects fail, with that statistic holding steady for the past couple of decades, according to data compiled by Ask Wonder. Standish Group found that “challenged” projects — i.e., those that fail to meet scope, time, or budget expectations — account for about 52% of software projects. Often, a lack of user involvement, executive support, and clear requirements are to blame for missed benchmarks.

– User Interviews, a CRM for product research teams to get user feedback, has closed on a $10m Series A round.
– The financing was led by Teamworthy Ventures, with participation from Las Olas, Accomplice, FJ Labs, ERA, Trestle Partners and ValueStream.
– The company was created out of failure, in some ways.
– Originally, the User Interviews team started with a project called Mobile Suites, an amenities logistics platform for hotels.
– It was a dud, and the team — Basel Fakhoury, Dennis Meng and Bob Saris — decided to do more user research before determining their next product.
– In trying to collect that research, they stumbled upon a huge problem.
– It often takes companies weeks, if not months, to conduct a study around user research.

– Venus Aerospace closed on a $3m round of seed funding led by Prime Movers Lab, an investor in breakthrough scientific startups.
– The funding will go to the development of reusable and efficient advanced rocket engines and aerodynamic technologies.
– With the new round of funding, Venus Aerospace will build out its Mach 12 hypersonic aircraft designed to travel at the edge of space, allowing passengers to go from Los Angeles to Tokyo in one hour.

– NIL Technology from Copenhagen develops diffractive optical elements and components using high-precision nanoscale features for 3D sensing, consumer electronics, machine vision, autonomous vehicles and VR/AR displays.
– The company raised €26m in funding.
– The round was co-led by Jolt Capital, NGP Capital and Vækstfonden with EIC Fund as a new investor.
– The new investment will be used to accelerate the company’s mass production capabilities and expand its product development efforts.

– HowGood, a SaaS data platform for the food and personal care industries, has raised a $6 million investment round led by Contour Venture Partners.
– FirstMark Capital, Danone Manifesto Ventures, Trailhead Capital and others also participated.