Raise Report: Gobble, Bownty, and Clutter Post Strong Series A Rounds
Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech.
Wednesday, October 21: Bownty, local experience deal aggregator, secures €3.4 million
Bownty, which provides users with a list of daily deals across several verticals, locked down €3.4 million in new funding from HOWZAT Partners, SEED Capital, and several other angel investors last week, TechCrunch reported. The Series A capital will anchor the Danish startup’s marketing efforts in the 1,200 cities across Western Europe in which its app is currently available. Bownty skims through over 100 sites to offer its users the cheapest deals on local restaurants, events, and retail shopping spots. The company’s founder has called it “Kayak.com for deals on experiences.”
Thursday, October 22: Clutter raises $9 million Series A to help you move out
Clutter, an on-demand service that lets users book a storage truck on their smartphone to arrive within 48 hours, raised $9 million in Series A funding last week, the Wall Street Journal reported. Sequoia Capital led the round, which will help Clutter scale its service beyond current cities New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, adding an expected seven more to the list. Clutter also returns stored items on demand and differs from many of its on-demand peers in that it employs a staff of movers and drivers as opposed to relying on freelancers.
Monday, October 26: Karhoo collects $250 million to revitalize taxi industry
Karhoo, set to go live in New York, London, and Singapore in January, has raised $250 million in funding, according to Business Insider. Karhoo’s investors include former Sony Music Entertainment CEO Nick Gatfield and Indus Capital Partners hedge fund co-founder David Kowitz. Karhoo has stylized itself as a challenger to Uber, and it’s clear why: It works just like Uber for the taxi industry, giving users the ability to order a taxi on their smartphones in real time. Karhoo will partner with industry giants like New York-based Carmel and Dial 7 and London-based Addison Lee, which are struggling to compete with Uber’s on-demand, freelance labor model.
Monday, October 26: Convoy scores $2.5 million to digitize local trucking services
Convoy, which manages logistics for local trucking delivery services, announced $2.5 million in funding this week from investors that include Bezos Expeditions, Marc Benioff, and Drew Houston, Fortune reported. Convoy helps small trucking businesses connect with shippers by matching shipping requests with local carriers, automating what heretofore has been a largely manual process driven by brokers. Convoy will use the funds to scale its service.
Tuesday, October 27: ArtLifting gets a $1.1 million raise to boost homeless artists
ArtLifting, which brings homeless artists into the on-demand economy by providing an online platform to sell their work, announced $1.1 million in seed funding this week, Forbes reported. Blake Mycoskie, Joanne Wilson, Eric Ries, and Tumml are among the early investors for ArtLifting, which finds talented homeless artists through art teacher networks, sells the artists’ work on the site, and delivers them to the app’s users, taking 45 percent of the transaction along the way. ArtLifting, which currently features the works of 51 artists and sells in eight states or cities, will use the funding to recruit more artists and sell their works in more cities.
Tuesday, October 27: Filld raises $3.25 million to keep your car running
Filld is using on-demand technology to supplant the gas station, and investors at Lightspeed Venture Partners and Javelin Venture Partners are taking note, contributing $3.25 million in seed funding this week, Business Insider reported. Filld, currently available in Silicon Valley only, allows users to pinpoint their location in the app and order an immediate gas delivery on their smartphones. Users pay a $5 service fee for this convenience, which gets added to the local average price of gas. With the round, Filld will expand into the greater San Francisco area and beyond.
Wednesday, October 28: Gobble snatches up big Series A to deliver meals to your door
Another startup has claimed a spot in the food delivery space. Gobble, an on-demand service that delivers kits of ingredients that can be cooked into meals within ten minutes, announced $10.75 million in Series A funding this week, TechCrunch reported. Gobble currently delivers to more than one million subscribers across California. The round, led by Trinity Ventures, will fuel Gobble’s expansion beyond the Golden State.
Joseph Zappa is an editorial assistant at Street Fight.
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