Series A
Augmented reality wearable startup Meta has closed a $23 million Series A funding round. Horizons Ventures, Tim Draper, BOE Optoelectronics and Y-Combinator partners, Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian led the round. Participation also came from the likes of Commodore Partners and Danuha Capital. Meta is producing glasses with a holographic, see through display that allows users to interact with digital objects. “We are humbled by the caliber of investors that have backed us and are helping us turn our dream into a reality. These are the very same people who first put their faith in Tesla and SpaceX and are now placing their confidence in our vision, and we couldn’t be more proud,” said Meron Gribetz, CEO of Meta.
Series B
Media company Mashable has raised $17 million in Series B funding, led by Time Warner Investments. Mashable will use the funds to add over 100 employees and grow areas such as video production. All of its existing investors are participating in the Series B. “When I first started Mashable almost a decade ago, I set out to explore how the Internet would change the world; over the last year, digital media has aggressively accelerated that change and Mashable is at the center of it,” said Pete Cashmore, Founder and CEO of Mashable in a press release. “As consumer consumption habits only continue to change, we are building a company for the long-term that will serve the Mashable community across formats.”
Pet technology startup Whistle has closed a $15 million Series B round of investment, led by Nokia Growth Partners (NGP). New investors Qualcomm, Melo7 Tech Partners and Queensbridge Venture Partners also participated. The company has now raised $25 million to date, and also announced it had acquired Tagg, a pet tracking GPS system. “Whistle’s acquisition of Tagg creates the clear leader in the pet care market with a purpose-built solution to monitor a pet’s location, health and activity level,” said Paul Asel, Managing Partner of NGP in a press release. “As people learn more about themselves with health monitoring devices, it is natural that they would wish to learn more about other members of their family, including their pets. Whistle has assembled a strong team, technology and industry partners to uniquely address this opportunity.”
Series C
Datadog, a SaaS-based monitoring platform for cloud applications, has raised $31 million in a Series C round led by Index Ventures. The company will use the new funds to grow its engineering and sales teams and for product development. RTP Ventures, OpenView Venture Partners, Amplify Partners and other equity holders also participated. “We’ve experienced a significant increase in growth and product demand over the past year,” said Olivier Pomel, co-founder and CEO of Datadog. “Datadog is privileged to be working with steadfast, continuous investors who are as committed as we are to transforming and bringing the legacy IT infrastructure in the cloud age. This investment will allow for further product developments, positioning us to better serve existing and prospective customers.”
Funding
Business Insider has closed a $25 million investment round led by Axel Springer, a German media company. Jeff Bezos, Institutional Venture Partners, RRE Ventures and other previous backers also increased their stake in the company. “This investment will allow us to continue to do what we have done for the past seven years: Invest in high-quality native digital journalism with the goal of becoming the world’s biggest and best source of business news and information,” Henry Blodget, Co-Founder, Editor, and CEO of Business Insider wrote in a note to employees.