In the seven days leading up to Saturday, April 18, tech startups around the Southeast raised about $4M — and the only part that makes that figure somewhat unclear is because of Charles Barkley. There’s a joke in there somewhere, but now probably isn’t the time.
But it is time for Monday Fund-Day, your weekly roundup of who, if anyone, raised money in the region. And $4M+ may not sound as big as numbers might be before the pandemic, but it’s not like that isn’t good money. It is interesting to note, though, that all of it came from North Carolina, a state showing particular resilience as a center of investment even in the time of coronavirus.
Read below to find out which companies got how much, and why. And as always, if you’ve heard of any recent funding rounds in the South, get in touch with us and we’ll tell everybody for you.
Cheers, and good luck to everyone out there fundraising and investing!
Durham: The Climate Service ($3.82M)
Spring, at least here in Atlanta, is in full bloom, and it’s not lost on us that the environment is probably thrilled to have a break from humanity for at least a few weeks. Wonder what information we might discover from these times, and from climate issues in general? Obviously, the folks at Persei Venture LLC think we’d be so curious that they led an almost $4M Series A round for The Climate Service, a startup that puts a dollar value on damage caused by climate change.
According to the company’s announcement, the size of climate risk analytics startup’s team has tripled in the last six months. It plans to deploy the funding to meet “increased demand,” and “accelerate the company’s plans to expand coverage of hazards, climate scenarios and asset classes in its Climanomics® software platform.”
Charlotte: Cloosiv ($500K)
According to Crunchbase, mobile coffee-ordering app Cloosiv announced a new $500,000 seed round on April 14, bringing its total investment to $2.1 million. Investors named in the round included Yleana Venture Partners LP, Kenji Niwa, I2BF Global Ventures, and Doug Hirsh.
We told you about their $1M seed round back in October, which included investors like Y Combinator founder Paul Graham. It looks like everybody’s waking up and smelling the freshly delivered, shelter-in-place-while-treating-yourself coffee.
Cary: NeuroVice (undisclosed)
It’s always a good news day when you see Charles Barkley’s face on Crunchbase. It turns out, the NBA legend, sports commentator and proud Alabamian is continuing his plan to invest in startups helmed by black women in his home state, and is also expanding his search to include other states in the South. This time, it’s Cary-based medtech startup NeuroVice, which makes a patent-pending medical device intended to prevent tongue injuries during epileptic seizures.
Barkley’s seed investment was not disclosed, but the former 76ers big man told WRAL Techwire in an email that he was proud to invest in founder and CEO Ashlyn Sanders’ company. “Ashlyn’s presentation was one of the most professional and charismatic business plans I’ve ever been presented,” Barkley said. “I wanted to do my part in ensuring her success.”
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