Last Week in Boston Tech Deals
Clout as a Moat?
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Hey! Thanks for tuning in to Tech Deals. If you’re new here, I’m Nick Stuart and I write about tech fundraising deals, primarily in Boston.
Clout as a Moat
Last week, Bloomberg reported that the two musicians behind pop music sensation The Chainsmokers are raising a $50M fund called Mantis. Yes, the guys behind hits like “Closer,” which captivated the heart of every 16-year-old girl in the universe, apparently have a venture investing record as well.
The idea of celebrity investing has always fascinated me. Normal angels and VCs are constantly working to prove they have a tangible competitive advantage that makes founders choosing them more likely to succeed. In a world where capital is a commodity, providing connections, domain expertise, and strong distribution to startups is usually the best way to win deals. Some celebrities have it way better; all they have to do is be really cool. Not implying that’s the case for The Chainsmokers. They seem to already have a track record. Plus, sometimes fans can truly prove to be a competitive advantage.
Last week Forbes reported that the hyped social audio app Clubhouse had raised $12M at a $100M valuation with only 5k beta users. The deal was aggressively fought between Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark. What was the final call for founder Paul Davison? Apparently part of it involved Marc Andreessen calling in a personal favor to have comedian Kevin Hart make an appearance on the app. Sometimes clout provides more leverage than money can buy. If you’re raising a new fund soon, maybe get Charli D’amelio as a partner?
Here are some other impressive celebrity investments
Stuff I’m Reading:
VC Financing Deals:
Hardworkers 👷
A Cambridge-based social media app for blue-collar workers has graduated from the LA-based Yellow Accelerator and raised $150K, per Pitchbook. Hardworkers is an app where users post content about their trade work to build their professional brand and browse job-related content. It’s co-founded by MIT Research Associate Andrey Biryuchinskiy.
It’s an interesting concept, given that trade-related topics often feel out of place on Linkedin. Founder Collective's Joseph Flaherty shares some great ideas about the proliferation of trade-related content on social media. For example, an industry with only 400K US workers is able to attract 730K+ followers to just one Instagram account.
There’s clearly an appetite for people to consume content around good trade work on existing social media sites, but is there a need for trade workers to be better connected on a separate platform? Will someone that needs welding work take the time to sign up for Hardworkers to find a good provider? If that’s the long-term vision they hope to achieve, they’ll have to go up against Angie’s List rather than Facebook/Linkedin. If they’re serving ads to monetize, will they be able to convert more customers for Home Depot than Facebook Ads can?
Hemista 🇮🇳
Per a Crunchbase update, Boston-based robo-advisor startup Hemista has raised a $300K pre-seed round, bringing its total raised to $400K. The company has developed an automated investing and financial planning platform specifically for NRIs.
NRIs are Indian citizens or foreign nationals of Indian origin that live outside of India. NRIs can open trading accounts in both Indian financial markets and their current place of residence. According to Hemista, the current process for doing so involves opening separate bank accounts, transferring money to Indian exchanges, and being taxed on your US and India investments separately. With Hemista, the tax implication only applies to the US.
The product generates customized portfolios for users with exposure to securities in the Indian and US financial markets. The algorithm also takes into account outcomes that NRIs may favor, like possibly retiring in India. According to recent postings on Angel List, they’re currently seeking to grow the team by adding a CMO and a CTO.
Horsepower Technologies 🏇
Lowell-based equine rehabilitation company Horsepower Technologies has raised $1.35M from Stage 1 Ventures and Wasabi Ventures (which has a stables arm). The nine-year-old company specializes in customized orthotic devices to prevent horse lameness. The devices treat soft tissue injuries in the lower limbs of horses in the early phases of healing. Previous investors include Alumni Ventures Group, Castor Ventures, and MassVentures and they have now raised over $10M in capital.
Canvas🖌️
Visual illustration software company Canvas GFX has raised $2.33M, following its $1.5M Series A last fall from Frontier Capital, Mendoza Ventures, and Wisdom LLP. Canvas is like Figma, but for highly-detailed visual assets like airplane engines instead of iPhone apps. They develop a suite of SaaS products for sharing complex design information in a collaborative way across an entire product lifecycle. Making the technical design process easy to manipulate can shorten product development times so their customers in aerospace, defense, and manufacturing can ship products quicker.
Verana Networks
Weston-based Verana Networks is raising $10.1M. Founded by Vedat Eyuboglu and Amit Jain, the company is “building an innovative 5G radio access network solution for major wireless service providers.” Tough to find much else so far.
RxSense
Boston-based RxSense has raised an undisclosed amount from PE firm Parthenon Capital and $300M+ in debt from Antares Capital and Madison Capital. The company has developed a backend benefit pricing service for pharmacies, health systems, brokers, and employers.
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