Skip to main content
https://www.highperformancecpmgate.com/rgeesizw1?key=a9d7b2ab045c91688419e8e18a006621

After IPOs and acquisitions, a look at Utah’s biggest venture rounds of 2019

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between.

This morning we’re dialing into some late-stage venture activity in Utah. Why? Because Utah has become a hotbed of startup activity, yielding both IPOs and huge acquisitions. And as Utah isn’t a media hub in the way that San Francisco and New York City are, it’s often a bit undercovered.

So what better place to cast our eye?

Today we’re going to look at the seven largest venture rounds in the state that have been recorded by Crunchbase in 2019 (no post-IPO action, no grants, no secondaries, no debt, no private equity). We’ll quickly explain each company, look at its investor list, and then ask ourselves how soon we think the company might go public.

Ready?

Countdown

Exploring our seven largest rounds, let’s start from the smallest of the cohort and proceed up in dollar-scale (full list here).

HZO’s $40 million Series D

Based in Draper, Utah, HZO’s tech coats electronics with tiny particles so that the elements can’t wreck them. The startup does more than just coat phones, working with industrial equipment, automotive tech, and IoT tooling.

It’s a business that has attracted well over $100 million in capital to date, according to Crunchbase. That sum includes a $20 million Series B led by Iron Gate Capital, a smaller, $15 million Series C led by Iron Gate Capital, and HZO’s latest $40 million investment led by, you guessed it, Iron Gate Capital. Horizons Ventures has also put money into the company, while Cathay Bank lent it $30 million.

Using our patented gut-check-o-meter, we aren’t expecting an S-1 from HZO soon.

Public investors loved SaaS stocks in 2019, and startups should be thankful

Nav’s $45 million Series C

Another Draper, Utah, company raising large sums this year, Nav is a credit information marketplace for smaller companies. Investigating this morning, Nav feels a bit like Credit Karma, but for SMBs looking at taking on additional credit.

The model has attracted lots of external funding, including a 2015-era Series A from Kleiner that tipped the scales at $8.4 million. Nav’s 2017 Series B weighed in at $37.7 million. And, most recently, it picked up a $44.9 million Series C that was co-led by Experian Ventures, Goldman, and Point72 Ventures.

What’s our IPO guess? Given that it raised a Series C this year, we’d expect at least another round — maybe two — before we see SEC filings of interest from Nav.

Weave’s $70 million Series D

Weave’s Series D is notable in that it valued the company within spitting distance of unicorn status. Indeed, the $70 million round brought its valuation up to $0.97 billion according to Crunchbase.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Uber co-founder Garrett Camp steps back from board director role

Uber co-founder Garrett Camp is relinquishing his role as a board director and switching to board observer — where he says he’ll focus on product strategy for the ride hailing giant. Camp made the announcement in a short Medium post in which he writes of his decade at Uber: “I’ve learned a lot, and realized that I’m most helpful when focused on product strategy & design, and this is where I’d like to focus going forward.” “I will continue to work with Dara [Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO] and the product and technology leadership teams to brainstorm new ideas, iterate on plans and designs, and continue to innovate at scale,” he adds. “We have a strong and diverse team in place, and I’m confident everyone will navigate well during these turbulent times.” The Canadian billionaire entrepreneur signs off by saying he’s looking forward to helping Uber “brainstorm the next big idea”. Camp hasn’t been short of ideas over his career in tech. He’s the co-founder of the web 2.0 recommendatio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Drone crash near kids leads Swiss Post and Matternet to suspend autonomous deliveries

A serious crash by a delivery drone in Switzerland have grounded the fleet and put a partnership on ice. Within a stone’s throw of a school, the incident raised grim possibilities for the possibilities of catastrophic failure of payload-bearing autonomous aerial vehicles. The drones were operated by Matternet as part of a partnership with the Swiss Post (i.e. the postal service), which was using the craft to dispatch lab samples from one medical center for priority cases. As far as potential applications of drone delivery, it’s a home run — but twice now the craft have crashed, first with a soft landing and the second time a very hard one. The first incident, in January, was the result of a GPS hardware error; the drone entered a planned failback state and deployed its emergency parachute, falling slowly to the ground. Measures were taken to improve the GPS systems. The second failure in May, however, led to the drone attempting to deploy its parachute again, only to sever the line...
Post a Comment
Read more

How the world’s largest cannabis dispensary avoids social media restrictions

Planet 13 is the world’s largest cannabis dispensary. Located in Las Vegas, blocks off the Strip, the facility is the size of a small Walmart. By design, it’s hard to miss. Planet 13 is upending the dispensary model. It’s big, loud and visitors are encouraged to photograph everything. As part of the cannabis industry, Planet 13 is heavily restricted on the type of content it can publish on Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms. It’s not allowed to post pictures of buds or vapes on some sites. It can’t talk about pricing or product selection on others.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Morgan Celeste SF Blogger (@bayareabeautyblogger) on Jan 25, 2020 at 7:54pm PST Instead, Planet 13 encourages its thousands of visitors to take photos and videos. Starting with the entrance, the facility is full of surprises tailored for the ‘gram. As a business, Planet 13’s social media content is heavily restricted a...
3 comments
Read more