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For the vast majority of founders out there, raising venture capital dollars is a tough grind these days.
Case-in-point: During the first quarter, Austin-area startups had the lowest deal count the metro area had seen since mid-2020. With just 79 deals and $729 million worth of investments logged by PitchBook, the data shows what founders already know. While VCs are mostly flush with money, it takes an exceptionally compelling pitch and some traction to really get attention.
Yet, in the past few weeks, we've seen about a dozen examples of local startups landing significant funding rounds to help them grow their teams, find customers and iterate on their technologies. That includes a couple robotics companies, along with more traditional sectors such as home services, beverages and clinical diagnostics.
Here's a look at some of Austin's top venture deals in April. If you'd like this kind of news as it emerges, consider signing up for Austin Inno's daily tech and startup newsletter, the Beat.
Pipedream Labs Inc. is working on small tunnels and autonomous robots that would essentially create miniature subway systems beneath stores, as well as networks through entire neighborhoods and downtown areas. The small bots, roughly large enough to carry a grocery store basket, drive through tunnels and pop up in specialized kiosks where customers would pick up their meals or other goods.
The company, founded in 2021, said April 23 that it secured $13 million to expand its underground logistics technologies and select a city where it plans to build a large scale delivery network throughout a downtown area. Keep reading here.
—Brent Wistrom
A relatively new Austin startup called HomePoint that provides routine home maintenance for luxury homes in Central and West Austin has raised a round of seed funding. The startup said April 25 that it raised $2 million, most of which came from HomePoint customers. Among them is serial entrepreneur and investor Brian Cruver, who previously founded AlertMedia and is currently running college athletics startup Scorability. Cruver, the lead investor, is also a HomePoint board member.
HomePoint's subscription service, which starts at $2,160 a year for homes under 3,000 square feet, includes annual home assessments, quarterly maintenance visits, on-demand handymen and project management for more extensive home repair or upgrade work that requires a vetted third-party provider. Keep reading here.
—Brent Wistrom
Givebutter Inc., a remote-first startup whose CEO is based in Austin, said April 22 it raised a $50 million strategic investment led by BVP Forge, a fund managed by San Francisco-based Bessemer Venture Partners. Ardent Venture Partners was also in on the round.
Givebutter operates a platform that helps nonprofits raise money and engage donors on new campaigns. The company, which was founded in 2016 in Washington, D.C., says its customers have raised more than $1 billion through its platform. The startup had previously raised $7 million in seed funding from a variety of investors, including Ardent Venture Partners, in 2022.
—Brent Wistrom
Austin-based startup Outpost, founded in 2021 as Semi-Stow, announced on April 23 that it raised $12.5 million in series A funding. The startup, which aims to help truckers find places to park semitractor-trailer rigs, said the funding will help it acquire more real estate that it will use to offer overnight and long-term parking for truckers. The new investment was led by New York-based GreenPoint Partners, which backed the company on a prior investment round. Read more here.
—Brent Wistrom
Austin-based Wonderbelly has had a strong few months, raising $12 million in a series A funding round, adding a new product and getting space on more retail shelves.
Wonderbelly, an antacid company that uses vegan ingredients that aren't genetically modified, closed on its series A funding during last year's fourth quarter, a round led by Loft Growth Partners with participation from L Catterton, Silas Capital, Jeremy Liew, Andrew Abraham and others. Existing investors such as AF Ventures, Brand Project, The Venture Collective and Elizabeth Street Ventures also contributed.
The company, which legally goes by Ginger Health Co., was founded by brothers Lucas and Noah Kraft in September 2021 and raised $3.4 million in 2022. Its workforce has grown to 15 people. Read more here.
—Sahar Chmais
Austin-based defense tech startup Allen Control Systems said April 18 it raised $12 million in seed funding. The investment was led by Craft Ventures. Forum Ventures and Rally Ventures also got in on the round.
ACS is part of a fast-growing batch of defense tech startups in Austin. It's developing robotic gun systems to attack drones, particularly autonomous military drones that can operate despite radio jamming tactics designed to take down commercial drones. Read more here.
—Brent Wistrom
Fetii Inc., a group ride-sharing platform based in Austin, announced its expansion into San Antonio earlier this month. The expansion marks Fetii's 10th market entry into the United States, company officials said. Its ride-sharing services cover a 40-mile radius around San Antonio, operating 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. CEO Matthew Iommi said the startup dispatched a limited fleet of vans in March to test the market before the April launch announcement.
Fetii has raised north of $5 million since its inception in 2020, including a $500,000 investment from Y Combinator and seed funding from Goldwater Capital, Crunchbase reports. In a funding round that kicked off in March, Fetii raised about $4.5 million from nine investors.
—Zoe Gottlieb
Fetch Package Inc., an Austin-based last-mile delivery service for apartment communities, reported April 10 raising about $18.9 million in new equity funding. That follows a $50 million series C investment, as well as $10 million in new debt funding, in 2021.
Fetch, which moved its HQ from Dallas to Austin in 2018, has now raised over $150 million. The startup is led by founder and CEO Michael Patton. Last year, the company announced new solutions for student housing and expansion plans.
"Our 25 current markets are bigger MSAs, which have a lot of student overlap," Patton stated back in January. "Moving forward, we're striving to grow our student housing vertical and we're assessing our options in a lot of those Power 5 conference cities. Fetch is looking to expand our footprint in 5-10 new collegiate markets for the 2025-26 school year."
—Brent Wistrom
Lucky Bev Co., which sells its Luck F*ck Energy drink, announced an $8 million addition to its seed round. The new funding was led by Austin-based Brand Foundry Ventures. Other investors included Imaginary Ventures and Sugar Capital. The startup raised its initial $4 million seed round last year.
—Brent Wistrom
Hapax is an AI startup that has emerged from Austin-based banker networking company CBANC and is built on 13 years of CBANC's banking regulations and policy documents, as well as hundreds of thousands of recorded conversations between bankers and 10,000-plus hours of videos.
The new startup emerged from stealth April 3 with $2.6 million in pre-seed funding led by Austin-based RHS Investments. As part of the deal, Hank Seale, founder and chairman of Q2 Holdings Inc. and RHS Investments, has become chairman of the Hapax board.
Hapax AI chatbot was primarily developed with banking regulations and compliance in mind. Bankers use it to ask questions about how newly developed rules might apply to their existing policies and practices. Like all AIs, it becomes more powerful and useful as users train it on their own data, with the system evolving according to the different ways in which people are using it.
And, for a pre-seed stage startup, Hapax is already off to the races with 20 small- to mid-sized banks and credit unions piloting it. Among them are Capra Bank and American Bank of Commerce. Read more here.
—Brent Wistrom
Beverage pro Brandon Cason is joining the hard tea market with the launch of Teabird Hard Tea.
Teabird is making a hard tea drink and a half-and-half version with fresh lemon. The products will be released in more than 5,000 retail stores this month across 27 states. The new hard tea drinks will be found in Walmart stores in the South, Southeast, Midwest and Northeast and in other retailers. There will be a roll out to the West Coast later this year, Cason said.
Teabird brought in a non-dilutive $8 million of funds from partners as a line of credit to launch the hard tea. Keep reading here.
—Sahar Chmais
Clinical diagnostic company Vervas Inc. reported April 1 raising about $20.6 million in equity and debt funding. The company's newest product, VeraBIND, uses saliva, blood, urine and stool to detect biomarkers of a variety of diseases, including Alzheimer's, Lyme and Celiac. The company, led by co-founder CEO John Forrest, was started in 2017. It had previously raised $4 million in 2020, according to Crunchbase.
—Brent Wistrom
2023 Since inception: Total capital raised
| Rank | Prior Rank | Company name |
|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Vista Equity Partners |
2 | 2 | Serent Capital |
3 | 3 | Peak Rock Capital |
