ÌÇÐÄÊÓÆµ

Business Startups Venture

Morning Report: Chicago Firm Raises Millions From St. Louis-Based VC

Morning Report: Forget mega rounds and Silicon Valley Intrigue. Here’s a deal from outside the Bay.

News recently broke that spinning company Peloton has raised a massive $325 million round. That enormous sum of money came from some of the biggest names in venture, like Kleiner Perkins, and super late-stage capital, like Fidelity.

On the other end of the dollar spectrum,  just raised $2 million. Rentalutions, based in Chicago, raised the new capital from , which is based in St. Louis. The Rentalutions round, therefore, is a midwest company raising from a midwest venture shop, which is fun to see.

This is not Rentalutions first fundraising trip for its “do-it-yourself” property management software. According , the firm raised two small seed rounds worth a combined $1 million in 2015. The gap between the company’s seed rounds and this venture event is 20 months, just a mote longer than the traditional 18-month fundraising cadence.

So Rentalutions is right on time. But it did the last cycle with just a flat million. It will be interesting to see what it can do with two more. This little funding event is a good reminder that spinning companies raising nine-figure rounds probably isn’t normal. But software companies raising a few million to keep growing is.

And as a bet Rentalutions may have decent odds. Appfolio, a firm that as “web-based property management software for residential property managers,” went public in 2015. According , Appfolio is worth just a glance under $1 billion.

Perhaps Cultivation Capital hopes that there is more than one unicorn in this particular niche.

From the :

Peloton spins its way to $325M

  • There’s only one way to spin this deal. , the provider of bikes and content that fueled the spinning craze, a massive $325 million series E financing round led by Wellington Management, Fidelity Investments, Kleiner Perkins, and True Ventures. The round topped a big year for five-year-old Peloton, which nearly tripled its annual revenue, grew its subscriber base over three-fold, and was named by Crain’s as New York’s fastest growing company.

Appian prices IPO

  • Eighteen years after launching, is finally going public. The Reston, Va.-based company, which develops tools for building enterprise apps with less coding, priced shares at $12 each, the middle of the expected range. Appian had just over $130 million in sales last year and posted a loss of about $12 million.

Demandbase supplied with $65M

  • , a software platform for marketers, has raised $65 million in a late stage funding round led by Sageview Capital and Silver Lake Waterman. The new financing brings total funding for the ten-year-old, San Francisco-based company to more than $150 million.

Bloomberg bets on future of work

  • Corporate VC Bloomberg Beta has spent the past year managing a fund that invests in the future of work. So far, , that has translated into investments in areas including cybersecurity, online education, and a bit of AI.

Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the Crunchbase Daily.

67.1K Followers

CTA

Discover and act on private market opportunities with predictive company intelligence.

Copy link