The Crunchbase News Briefing: Tues., Sept. 1

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.

Owl Ventures raises $585M for edtech

Owl Ventures, a San Francisco-based VC firm focused on education technology, announced it has closed a pair of funds totaling $585 million.

Owl Ventures IV is a $415 million fund which will be used to invest in edtech startups at Series A and beyond. The firm also launched a $170 million  opportunity fund that will make growth-stage investments in existing portfolio companies.

The fundraising comes as the edtech space remains red-hot in 2020, with roughly $4.1 billion invested in the sector between January and July, per Crunchbase data.

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Funding rounds:

• PicnicHealth picks up $35M for medical research and records: PicnicHealth, the San Francisco-based venture-backed startup that enables patients to access their medical records and contribute to scientific research, announced $35 million in equity financing, including a new $25 million Series B led by Felicis Ventures, and a previously-unannounced $10 million Series A led by Amplify Partners in 2018.
• LunchClub lands $24.2M to make virtual connections: LunchClub, which matches professionals and facilitates virtual meetings, recently raised $24.2 million at a valuation above $100 million in a round led by Coatue and Lightspeed Venture Partners. [Read more: CNBC]
• InCountry gets $18M for SaaS data storage: InCountry, a startup that helps companies comply with local data regulations when adopting SaaS products, raised $18 million in an extension of its Series A round. The latest funding was led Caffeinated Capital and Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala, with participation from new investor Accenture Ventures and previous investors Arbor Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Ridge Ventures, Bloomberg Beta and Team Builder Ventures. [Read more: TechCrunch]
  
• InfoSum raises $15M for data-sharing: InfoSum, a London startup that has built a way for decentralized architecture for organizations to securely share their data with each other, raised $15.1 million in a Series A round led by Upfront Ventures and IA Ventures.
• Cosmose AI lands $15M to analyze shoppers: Cosmose AI, a startup that analyzes mobile location data to predict and influence how people shop offline, announced it has raised $15 million in a Series A investment round that sets a valuation for the company in excess of $100 million. Tiga Investments, OTB Ventures and TDJ Pitango led the financing.
• Acerta Analytics closes $7M for automative intelligence: Canada-based automotive intelligence startup Acerta Analytics said it closed on a $7 million round of Series A funding led by OMERS Ventures, with participation from M12, StandUp Ventures, Radical Ventures, EDC and Techstars.
• Dorian secures $3.25M for interactive fiction: Dorian, a San Francisco-based platform that helps writers turn their fictional stories into interactive visual games, announced it raised $3.25 million in a seed funding led by March Gaming, with participation from VGames, Konvoy Ventures, London Venture Partners, Night Media, Michael Chow and Andover Ventures.
• Chromologics lands $2.3M for natural food colorants: Chromologics, a Danish startup developing natural food colorants, secured $2.3 M in seed financing led by Novo Seeds and supported by Nordic FoodTech VC and Vækstfonden. If you’re into foodtech, check out today’s story on Climax Foods’s seed round.

M&A:

Dialpad acquires Highfive

Dialpad, a cloud-based business communications platform, announced it acquired video conferencing company Highfive. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This is San Francisco-based Dialpad’s second acquisition since acquiring TalkIQ in 2018. The company, founded in 2011, has raised a total of $120 million in venture-backed funding from investors including ICONIQ Capital, Amasia, Andreessen Horowitz and GV, according to Crunchbase data. Redwood City, California-based Highfive was founded in 2012 and has raised $77.4 million in venture-backed funding to date from a group of investors including Dimension Data, Lightspeed Venture Partners and General Catalyst.

In discussing the deal, Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research, said in a written statement that the acquisition “makes perfect sense as businesses will have people working remotely for years to come.”

“Highfive gives Dialpad a cloud-native, open video platform that brings together desktop conferencing with smart meeting room connectivity, as well as video interoperability with other SIP-enabled video platforms,” he added.

Gong acquires Vayo

Revenue intelligence startup Gong announced on Tuesday that it bought Vayo, a company that focuses on data analytics for sales teams. The news of the acquisition comes a couple weeks after Gong raised a $200 million Series D, making it a unicorn with a $2.2 billion valuation.

Illustration: Dom Guzman