The Briefing: Aurora Solar Lands $250M, Zip Buys Twisto, And More

Here’s what you need to know today in startup and venture news, updated by the Crunchbase News staff throughout the day to keep you in the know.

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Aurora Solar lands $250M

Aurora Solar, a startup that uses aerial imagery to assess solar installation projects, reportedly raised $250 million in Series C funding to expand its platform.

Coatue led the financing, with participation from prior backers ICONIQ, Energize Ventures and Fifth Wall. The San Francisco-based company, founded in 2013, offers software for designing solar projects, pitching its tools as a lower cost option compared to other methods.

— Joanna Glasner

M&A

Zip buys Twisto, Spotti: Sydney-based Zip, an online payments technology provider, announced that it is acquiring Prague-based Twisto a provider of buy now, pay later offerings for online consumer purchases, and Spotii, a Dubai-based buy now, pay later upstart.

— Joanna Glasner

Invoca buys AI call tracker DialogTech: Santa Barbara, California-based Invoca acquired Chicago-based DialogTech, an AI-powered call tracking and analytics solution. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Invoca is a conversation intelligence platform, gathering data from call activity. With this acquisition, Invoca now is tracking to exceed $100 million in revenue. The company has more than 2,000 customers and more than 300 employees.

— Chris Metinko

Funding rounds

Fireflies raises $14M for meeting notes: San Francisco-based Fireflies, an AI-enabled tool that records, transcribes and makes searchable meeting notes, reportedly raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Khosla Ventures.

— Joanna Glasner

Fintech and e-commerce

Stavvy banks $40M: Boston-based fintech Stavvy announced more than $40 million in Series A financing led by Morningside Technology Ventures. Stavvy designs platforms to manage security risk and eliminate fragmentation, as well as increase speed, efficiency and transparency in lending and banking. The company intends to deploy the new funds into increasing its team.

Beacons raises $6M: Beacons, a platform for building mobile websites, announced a $6 million seed funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The new capital will enable the San Francisco-based company to accelerate product development and hiring. Beacons works with brands to create personalized websites that promote content to direct followers across multiple social platforms via a single URL.

— Christine Hall

Health care

AcuityMD raises $7M: AcuityMD, a Boston-based platform for commercializing and improving medical devices with data, said it closed on a $7 million financing round led by Benchmark.

Docbot inks $4M: Docbot, an artificial intelligence technology company focused on detecting gastrointestinal disease, raised $4 million in Series A round led by Khosla Ventures. The Irvine, California-based company said the new funding will advance its clinical trials toward seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance.

— Christine Hall

Edtech

Riiid raises $175M for AI in education: South Korea-based Riiid helps students build skills with a personalized AI tutor providing one on one learning. SoftBank Vision Fund led the round and was the sole investor. The company is expanding across the U.S., South America, Asia and the Middle East, partnering with education providers Kaplan, ConnecME, Grupo INICIE and Casa Grande. This funding round brings its total raised to $248 million since its founding in 2014 per Crunchbase data. 

— Gené Teare

Illustration: Dom Guzman