You can insert whatever comment you want pointing out the difficulty of raising capital during a global pandemic, but this week, the coronavirus didn’t stop five companies from raising money. Yes, PR for Startups, especially those raising capital, is still such a critical resource as these companies demonstrate below.
Josh.ai Raises $11M for Its Privacy-First Smart Assistant
“Josh.ai plans to use this new funding to build upon its hardware and software, and grow its distribution network. It also plans to hire more people for its team, which currently consists of about 30 employees”
Smart contact lens startup Mojo Vision raises $51M
“The unveiling of the details of our product development earlier this year has generated increased excitement and momentum around the potential of Mojo Lens,” Mojo CEO and co-founder Drew Perkins said in a statement. “This new round of funding brings more support and capital from strategic investors and companies to help us continue our breakthrough technology development. It gets us closer to bringing the benefits of Mojo Lens to people with vision impairments, to enterprises and eventually, consumers.”
Austin-Based Ontic Secures $12M Series A To Help Companies Stay Safe From Threats
“Victoria Treyger, general partner and managing director at Felicis Ventures, said her firm was impressed with Ontic’s ability to attract such a high caliber of customers within 18 months of product launch–and with just $4.6 million in seed funding.”
“It’s rare as an investor to find a company that, within 18 months, has dozens of Fortune 1000 customers,” Treyger told Crunchbase News. “It’s a very strong statement of their product market fit and market opportunity.”
Customer Success Platform Catalyst Raises $25M to Expand Team
“We went from zero to $200 million almost without a sales team,” Chiu recalls. “My team built an internal tool to solve a problem. And we did solve it by supporting a fast-growing company with significant revenue and a significant customer base.”
Fast-forward to today, and the brothers have continued to grow Catalyst exponentially. Since the close of its last round, the company has seen its annual recurring revenue increase by 380 percent, according to Chiu.
Utah-based seed fund Kickstart closes fifth fund worth $110M
“Founded in 2008, when Utah was far from known as a technology hub—let alone a printing press for billion-dollar startups—the firm has invested in over 100 companies and has seen 20 exits, Kickstart told TechCrunch in an interview.”
Kickstart’s funds have grown as its local tech scene expanded. From just a few million in Fund I back in 2008 to a $26 million Fund II, the firm has added capital with each raise. Its third fund clocked in at $39 million bested by its Fund IV tally of $74 million. Now flush with $110 million, you might think that the firm is prepped to shake up its strategy.
Why is this good?
Yes, even with the coronavirus impacting capital markets, private equity groups, equity crowdfunding, HNWIs, angel investors and the rest – there was positive media coverage for these startups who successfully raised capital. Kudos!
If you want to discuss PR for startups with FischTank about it, we’d welcome the opportunity to do so. Please email us at [email protected]
