Early-stage companies raised impressive rounds in this week’s roundup of funding. Here’s the latest on who raised how much, and from whom.
BuddyBuild raises $1.2 million
Cloud service company Buddybuild, which provides a platform for startups to build, test, deploy, and get feedback on mobile apps, announced that it has raised a $1.2 million round of funding, according to a report from VentureBeat.
Speaking with the publication, founder and CEO Dennis Pilarinos said that its clients rely on services like Buddybuild to streamline the development process, as Buddybuild provides continuous integration, continuous delivery, testing, and deploying for beta testers.
Investors include Amplify Partners, Bloomberg Beta, First Round Capital, Steve Garrity, Mike Vernal, Douglas Purdy, Dave Johnson, and Debbie Landa. Slack cofounder and chief executive Stewart Butterfield is an advisor.
While the Buddybuild service is free, pricing will be announced at the second quarter of this year.
FedDev Ontario invests $4.84 million in not-for-profit Bioenterprise Corporation
FedDev Ontario announced that it has invested $4.84 million in Bioenterprise Corporation, a not-for-profit business accelerator that primarily raises funding from federal-provincial funding initiatives.
With the funding, Bioenterprise Corporation and Innovation Guelph will work on an initiative to provide a total of $3.3 million in seed funding to entrepreneurs. The project, with a total cost of $8.14 million, is expected to help 110 early stage companies.
“We work with hundreds of companies in southern Ontario, all of which focus on bringing agricultural innovations to market,” said Dave Smardon, president and CEO of Bioenterprise Corporation. “The support from FedDev Ontario will help companies to gain access to expert mentorship and support services crucial for long-term growth and sustainable development.”
SourceKnowledge raises $1.5 million from BDC Capital
SourceKnowledge, a Canadian video advertising technology company, has secured $1.5 million in funding from Growth and Transition Capital, a division of BDC Capital.
The funding will be used to scale growth in the company’s performance advertising platform Engage, which was developed for mobile gaming and app publishers, ecommerce brands, and SaaS companies.
“Focused on transforming how data-driven businesses advertise online, our team is generating revenue at an exponential rate, up 133 percent between 2014 and 2015, and we see an even greater opportunity ahead of us as our programmatic video and display products allow advertisers to engage audiences on any device,” said SourceKnowledge president and co-founder Patrick Hopf. “With this funding in place, we’ll soon be making big investments in expanding our team of talented developers and we’ll scale our outreach strategy so we can make an even greater impact on how advertisers engage with their customers.”
RentMoola raises $5 million
RentMoola, a rent payment platform, has raised $5 million in an oversubcribed round following strong support from strategic, accredited, and retail investors.
The round was led by Conservice, LLC and the principals of Wyse Meter Solutions Inc. Patrick Postrehovsky, co-founder and CEO of RentMoola, said that the funding will be use to expand to global markets including Canada, U.S., UK, and Europe. Part of the raise included Canada’s largest equity crowdfunding campaign to date, as it used new online equity crowdfunding platforms.
“The outcome of this Offering is a great result in a challenging investment environment for early stage technology businesses. We believe the strong support from our investors is a reflection of our unique FinTech growth and market opportunity which culminated in a strong year of growth in 2015,” Postrehovsky said. “Our team has been able to deliver sustained monthly growth and traction as a result of their passion, dedication and executional excellence. We look forward to another successful year ahead with even greater growth velocity.”
ChangeIt snags $2.2 million in funding
Waterloo-based ChangeIt, a platform that allows people to automatically round up purchases to be donated to charity, raised $2.2 million in funding. The round was led by MaRS Angels, Golden Triangle Angel Network, and FedDev Ontario.
“We are proud of the work Formulating Change Inc. is doing to take philanthropy into the 21st century and share its ideas with the world,” said Bardish Chagger, Minister of Small Business and Tourism and Member of Parliament for Waterloo. “It is software that will positively impact people’s lives. Supporting our businesses is vital to the economic growth of our country.”
The company, which is also known as Formulating Change Inc., has already secured agreements with financial institutions such as BMO Canada and the Royal Bank of Canada, and the company will use the funding to accelerate Formulating Change’s go-to-market strategy by hiring a sales team to help market ChangeIt’s platform to financial institutions to Canada and the US.