Austin’s five largest funding rounds pulled in a collective $507 million last month with the majority of funds going to software companies. This is a significant increase from the $245 million raised by Silicon Hills tech startups in June. Read on to see which company raised the most funds in July and how the fresh capital will be spent.
#5. $6 million, July 19
HiddenLayer recently emerged from stealth with $6 million in seed funding. The company also launched its first product intended to detect and prevent cyberattacks that target machine learning systems used by enterprises and their customers. HiddenLayer was co-founded in March by security and machine learning experts Chris “Tito” Sestito, Tanner Burns and James Ballard. The seed funding round was led by cybersecurity firm Ten Eleven Ventures.
#4. $10 million, July 14
Founded in 2014, TurnKey Lender uses AI to automate its business-to-business digital lending software. The SaaS platform is used by 180 clients, including traditional, embedded and alternative lenders. Its latest $10 million round was led by OTB Ventures and includes a mix of equity financing and debt.
#3. $15 million, July 26
Having developed a blockchain protocol that tracks and monetizes a company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts, Topl’s $15 million Series A round will be used to accelerate its growth. The protocol has already been used for more than 30 use cases, including tracking and monetizing conflict-free diamonds. The Austin-based company aims to launch at least 100 applications by next year.
#2. $26 million, July 19
Founded in 2016, Spruce connects residents in apartments, single-family homes and some short-term rentals with on-demand pet care, laundry services and housekeeping from vetted contractors. Following its recently raised Series B, Spruce is looking to nearly double its 100-person team, with an emphasis on sales, product and engineering professionals. The round was led by Sweat Equity Partners.
#1. $450 million, July 25
Austin-based EnergyX’s latest funding round, which comes from Global Emerging Markets, will be used to grow its business operations and further scale commercialization efforts. EnergyX was founded in 2018 and aims to change the way we power our world. The company’s technology is used for lithium extraction, refinement and processing and the production of solid-state lithium batteries.