As the first month of 2020 comes to a close, we see that many Founder Institute portfolio companies have started the new decade off strong—and some startups with incredible results.
From SaaS workflow automation solutions to fashion AI technologies: in January 2020 FI companies together raised more USD $20M in seed and Series A funding rounds!
Here are some of the most recent funding highlights:
Unito
Unito (FI Montreal) has raised $10.5M Series A in a January 2020 funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.
Unito is a pioneering workflow automation tool designed for interdisciplinary teams to synchronize work across disparate SaaS apps. The easily deployable no-code solution unites previous management silos into two-way automated workflow exchanges for projects, tasks, and converstations, including across industry-leading apps and tools like Asana, Trello, Github, HubSpot, Wrike, Jira, and more.
The company is now expanding to other SaaS categories to become the “universal translator” for disparate tools at work, is growing quickly, and is actively hiring.
Lily AI
Lily AI (FI Silicon Valley) has raised USD $12M in a January 2020 Series A led by Canaan Partners, and including prior investors NEA, Unshackled, and Fernbrook Capital.
Lily is fashion and ecommerce recommentation technology for enterprise online retailers, driving results through empathy in helping shoppers to look and feel their best.
The company last raised its $2M seed round in 2017 led by New Enterprise Associates.
Beonprice
Beonprice (FI Madrid) has closed a €2M Series A in an early January round led by Adara Ventures.
Beonprice is AI-driven revenue optimization tech for hospitality and services industries, giving businesses revenue management insights, training, and algorithms for dynamic rate setting, enabling hoteliers to improve key metrics like RevPAR (revenue per available room) and occupancy rate.
According to the tech.eu funding report, the Beonprice "currently serves over 2,000 properties in more than 30 countries, including international hotel brands such as Paradores, Catalonia, Hotelatelier, Iberostar, RIU, HM Resorts, Park Royal, Dreamplace, Hospes and Grupo Velas."
Easy Aerial
Easy Aerial (FI New York) is receiving $1M in funding from the BIRD Foundation to collaborate with Israel-based company BWR on a project that allow one operator to simultaneously operate multiple drones with several different tasks from an advanced command center.
Brooklyn-based Easy Aerial Inc. is a leading provider of aerial UAV security services, designing and manufacturing automated drone and ground control systems for takeoff, landing, and charging of drones without the need for a human operator.
The BIRD Foundation, a binational research and industrial development fund that promotes cooperation between US and Israeli companies, approved a $1 million investment for the joint project between BWR Israel and Easy Aerial USA to develop a multi-mission command and control system for unmanned aerial vehicles used in national security operations. The project was selected by the US Department of Homeland Security and Israel’s Internal Security Ministry, as part of the BIRD HLS program.
Graduates of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $1.75BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.
See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey.
