Startup fundings: Espresso Logic, Jut, Project Frog, Building Robotics, Loop Commerce have raised + $50 million.
Espresso Logic (Santa Clara-based reactive database
backend service ), has raised $1.6 million in a seed funding round led by Inventus
Capital Partners
with participation from angels including Raju Reddy, Lee Nackman, Anurag Jain, and Gokul Rajaram. Espresso Logic's backend as a service connects web
and mobile applications to external databases including MySQL, Oracle Server
and Microsoft SQL Server, seeking to close the gap between database
administrators and developers. The $1.6 million will be
used for product
development and increasing marketing and sales efforts.
Jut (San Francisco-based big data
startup ), has raised $20 million in a Series B round led by Accel Partners with participation from Lightspeed
Venture Partners.
Still in stealth mode, Jut will use the funds to expand its engineering team
and bring the first version of its product to market.
Project Frog (sFounded in
2006, an Francisco-based energy
Efficiency Company), has raised $20 million from CCM US and McNally
Capital. Project
Frog develops building components that arrive at the construction site ready
for assembly, giving architects and builders a fast and cost-effective way to
create energy-efficient buildings. The company is expanding rapidly, already
developing seven times last year's square footage so far this year. Project Frog has raised $50 million in funding to date.
Building (Oakland-based environment control
software startup ), Robotics has raised $1.14 million in seed funding from Claremont Creek Ventures, Google Ventures, Formation 8, Navitas Capital, Red Swan, and others. Building Robotics' main product, Comfy, is software that aims
to provide a comfortable workplace for all employees, delivering instant
streams of warm or cool air to people while also using machine learning to
reduce energy use.
Loop Commerce, (Founded in 2012, Mountain
View-based e-commerce gifting platform) as raised $7 million in Series A
funding from a list of investors including eBay CTO Mark Carges, Don Katz of Audible and Amazon, Magento CEO Roy Rubin, former Toys "R" Us SVP Michael Scharff, Oren Zeev, Chegg CTO Chuck Geiger, and Novel TMT Ventures. Loop Commerce is launched its product that offers a separate
checkout process for gifting on e-commerce sites, sending notifications upon
purchase to gift recipients to ask them for their size, shipping address, and
preferred color. Loop has already raised $8 million in
funding.
Appboy (Founded in 2011, New York-based customer engagement platform ),has closed a $7.6
million Series A round led by Icon Venture Partners with participation from new investors IDG Ventures and Mike Lazerow, and existing investors Blumberg Capital, Accelerator Ventures, Bullpen Capital, and T5 Capital. Appboy helps companies retain users by offering tools that enable a better
understanding of user demographics and engage users through in-app messages,
push notifications, and email. Appboy will use the new funding
to grow sales and marketing teams and look into international expansion.
