Five startups, $63 million in funding: Who has taken home the cash this week?
Five major raises took place in the last seven days or so, ranging from health tech to Web3, all the way to non-alcoholic drinks.
It may have felt like a quieter week for startups in the funding space with less companies announcing raises, but of the handful that did, there was big money being splashed around — a whopping $63 million in fact.
Five major raises took place in the last seven days or so, ranging from health tech to Web3, all the way to non-alcoholic drinks.
Here are the companies raking in their share of the cash.
HealthMatch
Aussie startup HealthMatch closed its Series C round with $10 million in funding, led by the company’s original investor, Folklore Ventures.
HealthMatch is a digital platform that aims to improve access to clinical trials for patients and, alongside the Series C raise, announced it had surpassed 1 million users globally.
That user base is up 10 times from December last year when the startup closed its $18 million Series B round, which followed a $6 million Series A in November of 2019.
Square Peg, which led the Series B round last year, were also among the investors for the Series C round.
Monday Distillery
Non-alcoholic drinks company Monday Distillery closed its equity crowdfunding venture earlier this week, reaching more than $1 million in investment.
The equity crowdfunding campaign has seen 497 new shareholders coming onboard, with the business securing 115 of those investments in the final 24-hour period.
The new funds will allow Monday Distillery to develop and produce new drink varieties; grow online channels and distribution capabilities; and pursue international opportunities.
It was the first crowdfunding campaign Monday Distillery has launched, with founder Samantha Manning saying she “couldn’t be happier” with the result.
“Seeing the public put their hard-earned into our business is a surreal experience,” she said.
Sonder
On Thursday, Sonder — a wellbeing and safety company — closed its Series B funding round with a well-oversubscribed $35 million.
Blackbird Ventures led the round, with participation from new investors including SEEK Investments and SecondQuarter Ventures.
The company will use the fresh funding to invest into product improvements, continue growing its client base, and pursue further growth opportunities within international markets.
Sonder co-founder and chief Craig Cowdrey said in a statement that the funding will support the delivery of Sonder’s platform to more people in need.
Lleaf
Sydney agtech startup Lleaf has raised $3.5 million in a bridging round, with investment led by Danish investment firms ALFA Ventures and 2 Degrees.
Lleaf — an acronym of Luminescent Light Emitting Agricultural Firm — developed a series of patented light which can absorb and emit plastics from plants, helping to improve the quality of both sunlight and artificial light for plants.
Its first product was shipped in February this year and was sold out by June, after industrial chemists and Lleaf co-founders Dr Alexander Soeriyadi and Dr Alexander Falber spent five years developing the patented light.
The University of New South Wales and deep tech hub Cicada Innovations also contributed to the round, and Lleaf is now planning a Series A in October, according to Startup Daily.
Spice AI
Spice AI, a Seattle-based company, was co-founded by Australian Luke Kim alongside Phillip LeBlanc with an aim to create technology that will help developers build data-driven applications for Web3.
It’s now a Blackbird portfolio company, with Blackbird participating in Spice AI’s $13.5 million seed round.
Alongside the Aussie investment, Spice AI also received participation from Madrona, Basic Set Ventures, Alumni Ventures Blockchain Fund, Protocol Labs, IEX fund and other angel investors.
Kim and LeBlanc are Microsoft and GitHub alumni, with GitHub chief executive Thomas Dohmke being one of those angel investors and also joining the Spice AI board.
