In “The Monthly Rundown” series, I dive into a few up-and-coming startups from the past month, filtering by recent funding rounds and significant influxes of new website visitors. Stay tuned for an updated list each month and get a jump on the competition.
Welcome back! While we’re all excited for a new year, I wanted to give you all one last glimpse of 2020: hot companies that raised funding in December.
Despite the many unexpected curveballs 2020 threw at us, December saw one of the highest total funding amounts of any month last year, clocking in at $30.6 billion.
Don’t be fooled by the holiday distractions and the sweet goodbye to 2020 – the companies that raised funding late last year are in a prime position for growth in early 2021 and should be on your radar.
Here are a few of the companies that raised funding in December that I’ve got my eye on.
Enjoy!
1. H1
HQ: New York, NY
Industry: Health Care, Artificial Intelligence, Analytics
Funding: Raised a $58 million Series B on Dec. 17. Lead Investors: IVP, Menlo Ventures
Web traffic: 618% percent monthly visits growth
Why I’m watching: The healthcare sector is booming, and will continue to do so as we navigate a health crisis and immense pressure on technology to fill gaps in the industry. Digital health in particular had a record year in 2020, shattering the previous year’s funding records by the end of Q3. H1 develops a healthcare data analytics platform intended to help companies make smarter scientific decisions. Their recent Series B is going to help them build out the “LinkedIn for healthcare,” and connect healthcare professionals with life science companies.
2. SEBA Bank
HQ: Switzerland
Industry: Cryptocurrency, Financial Services, Blockchain
Funding: Raised a CHF20 million Series B on Dec. 22. (CHF represents the Swiss Franc, which is currently equivalent to 1.13 U.S. dollars.)
Web traffic: 223 percent monthly visits growth
Why I’m watching: SEBA Bank is a Swiss fully licensed Cryptocurrency company that is helping bridge the gap between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies. ICYMI: Bitcoin topped $40,000 per coin (on January 7th, 2021) bringing the crypto industry to a trillion-dollar market cap. Be on the lookout for more crypto companies in the coming months.
3. Jeff
HQ: Valencia, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain
Diversity Spotlight: Woman-Founded Company
Industry: Beauty, CleanTech, Fitness, Mobile Apps
Funding: Raised a €17.4 million Series B on Dec. 2. Lead Investors: All Iron Ventures, Alma Mundi Ventures, FJ Labs
Web traffic: 73 percent monthly visits growth
Why I’m watching: Jeff is a “super app” for comprehensive care and wellbeing services. From getting your clothes washed and dried in 24 hours, to finding a new pilates class to do at home, Jeff is your personal care assistant. Jeff started as a home laundry and dry-cleaning app but has expanded to many more day-to-day services, such as hairdressing and beauty, fitness, and massages, becoming the first international omnichannel ecosystem of day-to-day services. Maybe having a personal assistant isn’t just for company executives after all…
4. Very Good Security
HQ: San Francisco, CA
Industry: Security, Compliance, FinTech
Funding: Raised a $60 million Series C on Dec. 18. Lead Investor: Vertex Ventures
Web traffic: 68 percent monthly visits growth
Why I’m watching: Very Good Security is a fintech & data security enablement platform helping to maximize the value of data without compliance & breach risk. According to Pulse 2.0, “VGS has become a layer on top of cloud services for facilitating the secure exchange of sensitive data.” This Series C funding round is going to support VGS’s accelerating growth after the company doubled its customer base in 2020. Various Fortune 100 companies use VGS’s platform to build features instead of compliance overhead.
5. FLEXE
HQ: Seattle, Washington
Industry: Supply Chain Management, Warehousing, Logistics
Funding: Raised a $70 million Series C on Dec. 1. Lead Investor: T. Rowe Price
Web traffic: 66 percent monthly visits growth
Why I’m watching: According to eMarketer, e-commerce sales are forecasted to have increased by 32.4% in 2020. And by 2040, some predict that 95% of all purchases will be conducted by e-commerce. With this rapid growth of e-commerce and shipping, businesses need access to warehouses and fulfillment centers to meet customers’ growing demands. These businesses can use Flexe’s platform to find and book these spaces, instantly. Their recent Series C funding round will help expand the team and support hiring across all departments.
What did I miss? Send me your thoughts on Twitter @shamu5noonan.
– Shamus
