Investment

  • Weekly Funding Report

    Weekly Funding Report

    The Silicon Prairie had an excellent week as deals appear to be closing before the holiday rush.  St. Louis and Minneapolis had strong weeks.  And we had a big round in Oklahoma.  The Zero Card of Tulsa which provides an interesting software solution to healthcare costs received significant outside funding – including participation from the…

  • Funding Roundup for the Week of Nov. 11

    Funding Roundup for the Week of Nov. 11

    The Silicon Prairie had a strong funding week — more than twenty deals and many large ones.  Oklahoma and Manhattan, Kansas with some noteworthy +1mm raises. Chicago continues to be a leader, but the deals are spread throughout the entire region. Large Rounds (10+ million) Vyriad – $24.38 million – Rochester, MN – Vyriad is…

  • KC-Based Stackify Is Growing Fast, Hiring Too

    KC-Based Stackify Is Growing Fast, Hiring Too

    Stackify has raised another round of capital.  Stackify filed paperwork on November 20, 2019 that they had raised $4.132 million dollars.  In conversations with the company, they revealed that they had actually raised a little more than $6 million in the form of both debt and equity.  The round included $2 million from Cypress Growth…

  • Funding Roundup for the Week of Oct. 28

    Funding Roundup for the Week of Oct. 28

    Two Silicon Prairie companies will be moving to Buffalo in the upcoming weeks, thanks to a program created by 43North.  The program announced seven winning companies last week – including Strayos (St. Louis) and Peanut Butter (Chicago).  As part of the program, both companies must move their CEO and a majority of staff to Buffalo.…

  • Funding Roundup for the Week of Oct. 21

    Funding Roundup for the Week of Oct. 21

    It was a strong week for Minnesota.  Between Total Expert and ShiraTronics, Minnesota based companies brought in more than $85 million in Venture Funding.  There was a little more diversity than in previous weeks with companies in Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin also raising substantial funds.  These fundings are aggregate lists created from Crunchbase, SEC…

  • St. Louis-Based Genomics Company, PierianDx, Raises a Big Series B Round

    St. Louis-Based Genomics Company, PierianDx, Raises a Big Series B Round

    St. Louis continues to have strong biotechnology startup fundings.  The most recent funded company is PierianDx, a clinical genomic informatics company. This week the company announced that it has raised $27 million from ATW Partners and SJF Ventures.  In addition to these funders, other existing investors participated in the round, including Health Catalyst Capital, Inova…

  • Funding Roundup: Week of Oct. 7

    Funding Roundup: Week of Oct. 7

    This was a relatively light week for funding announcements in the Silicon Prairie, but it was dominated by rounds from Chicago, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Large Rounds ($10+ million) The Milwaukee Business Journal reported that Shine Medical Technologies raised $50 million in new financing from Oaktree Capital to continue to commercialize radioisotopes for medical uses. In…

  • Funding Roundup: Week of September 23rd

    Funding Roundup: Week of September 23rd

    In the interest of keeping tabs on fundings on the Silicon Prairie, this week we are providing a simple funding round-up.  For this round-up, we used Form Ds, Pitchbook, and Crunchbase to provide us with a list of companies that received early stage funding, venture capital funding, or grants.  We have provided information regarding the…

  • Research: State Funding Report for the Silicon Prairie

    Research: State Funding Report for the Silicon Prairie

    2018 was a terrific year for the Silicon Prairie regarding venture dollars deployed.  More than $6.1B was deployed in the region.  While the number of companies receiving funds was about 8% lower (approximately 1450 companies were venture backed in the region), the amount of funding was up more than 34.5% from 2017 to 2018.  Thus,…

  • Large Series A Round for Minnesota Based 75F

    Large Series A Round for Minnesota Based 75F

    Last week, Twin Cities based 75F announced that the company had raised more than $18 million in a Series A round of financing led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Oil & Gas Climate Initiative.  Building Ventures, Revolution, and Clean Energy Trust participated in the round. The company was founded in 2012 and has been slowly…