Unicorn Sighting!!!
Let’s all officially welcome Pendo to the Unicorn Club! The Triangle’s reigning most-rocket-ship-esque startup announced today that it closed a $100 million funding round led by Silicon Valley’s Sapphire Ventures that values the company at $1 bill-yun dollars. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s now $206M in total funding after last September’s $50M haul. Pendo makes tools to help its customers create software that’s intuitive and easy to use, thus “modernizing the user interface.” And clearly CEO Todd Olson and team are very good at it. In the last 18 months, the company has grown from 174 to 400 employees and expects to hit 1,000 workers worldwide by 2023, much of that at its being-built new HQ at 301 Hillsborough St in downtown Raleigh.
While this is big news for Pendo, obviously, it’s also good for the Triangle’s startup ecosystem as a whole. There are the direct effects, like on the portfolio of early investor IDEA Fund Partners. Then there are the indirect effects, such as the spotlight it shines on the region for out-of-state investors and job-seekers. (Here's more from TechWire and TBJ.)
Momentum Builds
Since Pendo’s going to need a lot of developers over the next few years, it’s a good thing that Durham’s Momentum Learning is rising to meet that demand. The coding school for career-changers has been in the news lately for its $2.75M Series A funding from Durham’s Clarkston Consulting, which will help Momentum expand into training employees for corporate clients. That makes this a great time for us to dive deep with Co-Founder and CEO Jessica Mitsch and her current students in Cohort 6 to learn what sets Momentum apart. See our full feature story here.
Angels Are Real
You can’t have a healthy startup ecosystem without angel investors, which is one area that the Triangle has been doing increasingly well at over the past few years. One of the OGs in this expansion of early funding options is RTP Capital, an angel network formed in 2010 in the wake of the Great Recession that has since invested nearly $6M in 30 startups. Today, RTP Capital Co-Founder and President Mark Friedman dishes to GrepBeat on the group’s history, as well as its ongoing collaboration with other Triangle angel networks. Read our full story here.
Controll-ing Interest
Back in April, we profiled Chapel Hill’s SAM Controllers, which makes advanced controllers for air compressors, water pumps, conveyors and other industrial machines. Now, Co-Founder Chris Doerfler has a few updates. First, the company’s controllers have been accepted into a Department of Energy-funded technology commercialization program. If the ongoing test produces positive results when they’re due in November, it will mean key introductions to both potential customers and investors.
Second, the company has been accepted onto the electronics crowdfunding site CrowdSupply.com seeking $13K to help develop what it’s calling the Power H Mini, which is a “Full H Bridge 12A DC Motor Driver.” My crack at translation: it’s a small, efficient solution for a motor that needs to move forward and reverse equally, such as raising/lowering your car windows, moving a drone this way and that, robotic arms, etc.
Never Say Die
Most GrepBeat readers know that just because a startup “exits” via a sale doesn’t mean it ceases to be. That’s can be true even when it’s sold twice, as Appia has been. Appia—founded by Triangle wunderkind Jud Bowman—was bought four years ago by Austin-based (boo!) Digital Turbine, becoming the heart of a Durham-based digital media business for the new parent.
While Bowman went on to launch Sift Media as a spinout of Digital Turbine, “Appia proper” (as TBJ puts it) was sold last year as part of a bigger divestiture to Netherlands-based Creative Clicks Media. Yet Digital Media still has 75 employees in Durham from that original Appia foothold—and is looking to hire 25 more.
Back In The Tank
Raleigh’s Zookies Cookies, which landed a deal during its March appearance on Shark Tank, is returning to the ABC show on the Oct. 27 episode to provide an update. Spoiler: it’s pretty much all good news. But there’s still one big reveal to come: the “punny” name for a new berry flavor of the company’s bake-at-home dog treats. Our suggestion: BarkBerry. You’re welcome.
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