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IBJ Podcast: Is a funding slowdown hitting the local tech sector?
IBJ tech reporter Susan Orr talked with local tech firms and venture funders about the trends and tells host Mason King about their concerns and expectations.
IBJ tech reporter Susan Orr talked with local tech firms and venture funders about the trends and tells host Mason King about their concerns and expectations.
The red-hot tech industry is cooling down, and local industry insiders say they’re preparing for a landscape in which venture funding may be harder for companies to secure.
Decimal’s software platform helps customers automate and outsource accounting tasks like bookkeeping and payroll. The company has added 30 employees since February.
Encamp’s software helps its customers fulfill environmental reporting and compliance issues. The company has attracted $47.2 million in investment since its launch in 2017.
Fishers-based Vibenomics, which provides in-store music, audio advertising and messaging to retail customers, said the funding will help fuel its growth.
Local tech-industry executives say an expansion of an existing investor tax-credit program, plus an increased emphasis on high-school computer education, would go a long way to help support the state’s tech sector.
The funding included 39 Indiana life-science companies raising $433.5 million last year in venture capital, an increase of almost $200 million compared to 2020, according to a report issued by BioCrossroads.
Prodport’s CEO and cofounder is Ohad Hecht of Carmel, who formerly led marketing-tech firm Emarsys until leaving that company last year.
Gootee, who has been the chief investment officer at Indianapolis-based Elevate Ventures since 2014, is a well-known figure in Indiana’s technology, investment and entrepreneurship circles.
MITO Material Solutions Inc. said it will use the investment to expand its Indianapolis operations, including new lab space for developing products and new composite material technologies.
Indiana companies landed $1.4 billion in investments last year–a record amount, and nearly triple the value of investments in 2020, a new Elevate Ventures report says.
Members and supporters of The Startup Ladies, an Indianapolis company that supports female entrepreneurship, sent an open letter to Elevate Ventures detailing their concerns that Elevate marginalizes female founders.
Indianapolis-based Qualifi, which launched in 2019, offers technology that helps customers quickly screen job applicants using automated phone calls.
Indianapolis-based Allos Ventures, which invests in early-stage business-to-business software companies in the Midwest, said it plans to start making investments from Allos IV right away.
The startup, Athian, aims to help farmers and ranchers measure, and eventually monetize, their efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of their cattle operations.
Woven aims to streamline the hiring software engineers, a process that typically requires skills-testing and multiple rounds of interviews.
This is the sixth round of funding Lumavate has announced since its founding in 2015. The company offers a no-code platform that clients can use to create smartphone apps.
Demandwell, which offers search-engine-optimization software, says the investment will help it reach growth goals that include tripling its revenues and headcount over the next year.
Indiana’s life-sciences sector, often hailed as a key driver of the state’s economy, landed a record $433 million in venture funding last year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic that challenged so many other sectors, from restaurants to airlines.
Ironclad, which allows users to negotiate, sign and manage online contracts, established a local presence when it acquired Indianapolis-based PactSafe a year ago.