Start-ups Move Into the Big Leagues

Several new payments startups earned recognition this week for swimming into the big leagues and, highlight this week’s Startup Roundup. One such company, PayStand, said bye-bye to beta to take on magnate PayPal.

ClearStory – March 31, $21 Million

ClearStory Data, a company specializing in data intelligence, has raised $21 million in Series B funding.

DAG Ventures with Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers participated in the round.

ClearStory Data integrates internal and external data, tracks patterns and POS information, and provides a modern interface using in-memory database technology.

The company plans to help companies “discovery of new business opportunities and deeper intelligence around what is and isn’t working”.

 

Crossbar Inc. – March 31, $25 Million

Crossbar Inc., a Resistive RAM technology start-up company announced it has completed a $25 million Series C funding.

A list of investors included Artiman Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Northern Light Venture Capital, the University of Michigan, SAIF Partners, Korea Investment Partners, CBC-Capital and Tao Invest, reported BWW.

“The response to Crossbar’s RRAM technology has been truly overwhelming and we are now actively engaged in discussions with some of the leaders in the electronics and semiconductor markets,” said Crossbar Inc.’s CEO, George Minassian.

 

Bizzby – March 31, $10 Million

Bizzby, the on-demand services marketplace, has raised $10 million in new funding.

Unlike TaskRabbit, Bizzby focuses specifically on professional tradespeople.

Users have access to various cleaners, electricians, handymen, plumbers, and more.

The round’s participant list and the plans for the funding remain unknown.

 

T1Visions – March 31, $3.8 Million

Leader in interactive touchscreen experiences, T1Visions has announced $3.8 million in Series B funding.

“Fidelis Capital of Birmingham, AL, and a private investment group from Mooresville, NC” took part in the round.

“These past few years have been dedicated to testing and refining our interactive solutions with a small group of customers. We’re entering our next stage of growth: expansion. This investment secures our ability to continue to outpace and lead this small, rapidly growing market – which we anticipate being a multibillion dollar market in the next five to ten years,” notes T1Visions President Mike Feldman.

The funding will support R&D and Sales and Marketing to promote new products and build stronger networks.

 

OKCoin – April 1, $10 Million

China’s biggest bitcoin exchange, OKCoin announced that it rose $10 million in Series A funding.

Ceyuan, Madra Capital, VenturesLab, and other investors conducted the round.

“As the regulatory environment in countries and regions such as Singapore, the U.S., and Hong Kong clarifies, it opens up opportunities for us to operate in geographies where we can offer the safety and protection that maximize protection for OKCoin clients,” said VenturesLab‘s China partner, Mark Mai.

The funds will develop the company’s team, R&D and overseas departments.

 

Cabify – April 1, $8 Million

Spain’s on-demand high-end car service Cabify, has closed an $8 million Series A funding round.

Seaya Ventures conducted the round.

“This round is mainly to consolidate our position in the markets where we are, in Spain, Mexico, Peru and Chile, and also to expand our operations to additional markets. We are mainly targeting the Latin American region, so we’ll be opening more markets there,” Cabify co-founder Juan de Antonio told TechCrunch.

 

BTC.SX – April 1, 500 Bitcoins 28, $8.5 Million

BTC.SX, popular bitcoin derivatives trading site closed 500-bitcoin in seed funding.

The funding came as part of Seedcoin’s SF1 series outlined back in December.

“The announcement that New York is accepting applications is very exciting for us. That will bring legitimacy, and a lot more trading volume. That will bring us great exchange products. It’s a win-win situation.” BTC.SX’s founder, Joe Lee said of the industry’s developing trade infrastructure.

 

PayStand – April 2, $1 Million

Digital Payments’ new member PayStand has secured $1 million in seed funding.

“Our goal is to drive adoption of no cost and low cost payment networks and ultimately change the business model of payments from being a fee based one to a flat cost model.” Explained PayStand’s founder and CEO, Jeremy Almond.

The funding moved the company out of beta and into direct competition with PayPal.

PYMNTS.com has more on PayStand’s developments.

 

Jiuxian – April 3, $68.5 Million

Jiuxian, an alcohol drinks e-commerce company in China, announced that it closed $68.5 million in its two most recent Series D and E funding rounds.

Rich Land Capital, Oriental Fortune Capital and Sequoia Capital all participated in both rounds.

The company will “use the proceeds on construction of warehouse centers in China and promotion of its O2O (online-to-offline) platform jiukuaidao.com.” reports China Money Network.

 

Boundary – April 3, $22 Million

Infrastructure monitoring company, Boundary announced it raised $22 million in a Series C funding round.

The participants were Adams Street Partners, Triangle Peak Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Scale Venture Partners.

The funds will go toward product development and sales.

“We expect a higher level of service than we’ve ever expected before,” Boundary’s chief executive, Gary Read.

 

SoFi – April 3, $80 Million

Social Finance, also known as SoFi, in the Peer-to-Peer lending industry, closed $80 million in Series C funding.

Discovery Capital Management, with Peter Thiel, Wicklow Capital and existing investors all participated in the round.

The funds will improve SoFi’s existing student loan refinancing program options and extend its product suite.

 

Sookasa – April 2, unknown

Social Finance, also known s SoFi, in the Peer-to-Peer lending industry, closed $80 million in Series C funding.

Discovery Capital Management, with Peter Thiel, Wicklow Capital and existing investors all participated in the round.

The funds will improve SoFi’s existing student loan refinancing program options and extend its product suite.

 

OpenFin – April 2, $4 Million

OpenFin, secure HTML5 runtime technology provider, has closed $4 million in Series A funding.

Bain Capital Ventures reportedly led the round.

“Major banks, trading platforms and information providers across the industry are migrating their front-end desktop applications from older technologies to HTML5.  OpenFin facilitates the migration through a secure, HTML5-compliant runtime, which has been tailored for financial industry needs.  The technology is already being used by three global banks with several more in active trials.” Explained OpenFin’s CEO, Mazy Dar.

The funds may assist team growth and development.

PYMNTS.com has more on OpenFin’s developments.