As the COVID-19 pandemic continues its march through now each quarter of 2020, investment in Indiana tech companies for Q3 has dipped below the solid rebound of Q2 by close to $4 million. It is worth noting that the activity in September was significantly higher than (nearly double) that of August or July, so there is potentially a trend in the right direction to continue observing.

Based on publicly announced deals, Indiana tech company investments and M&A activity were both relatively flat compared to the first two quarters. A total of 16 capital raises for Indiana tech companies were publicly announced, with two of the deals not including financial details. A little over $28.3 million was recorded, down from $32 million in the second quarter and significantly down from over $76.5 million recorded in Q3 2019. Nine companies were involved in mergers and acquisitions.

Below is a list of publicly shared investments and acquisitions involving Indiana technology companies that occurred in the third quarter of 2020.

JULY

Blueprint Stats, a sports tech company based in Bloomington, received $20,000 from Elevate Ventures in July. Blueprint Stats uses human analysis and machine learning of videos to help high school sports teams improve their game.

Schneider Geospatial of Lawrence announced the acquisition of the Elevate product and the local-government consulting practice from 39 Degrees North of Bloomington. The popular Elevate web portal and supporting GIS services will become part of Schneider Geospatial’s growing suite of solutions that includes Beacon, qPublic.net, GeoPermits, IDAM, Agland, Draincalc, and Geogear.

SpeechVive completed a syndicated funding round of $1.5 million in July with participation from Elevate Ventures,  Purdue Foundry Investment Fund, Southwest Angel Network of Austin, Texas, Racine Medical Angels of Racine, Wisconsin, SideCar Angels of Boston and the SpeechVive management team. The SpeechVive device is used by Parkinson’s patients to help them adjust their speaking volume.

Conversight.ai also raised $1.5 million in a seed round led by Elevate Ventures, with participation from Colorado-based TechStars, Bread & Butter Ventures and Atland Ventures in Minneapolis, Tennessee-based The Angel Roundtable, and Carmel-based Charmides Capital. The company’s analytics-driven, voice-enabled AI companion is used to run businesses more efficiently by making sense of the data generated by multiple platforms and systems.

Docket, a High Alpha Studio company and software-as-a-service (SaaS) productivity platform for managing effective meetings, secured $1.25 million in funding from new investors Sequoia Capital, Emergence Capital, Horizons Ventures and Maven Ventures with participation from existing investor High Alpha Capital. The funding followed the Indianapolis company’s first-place finish in Zoom’s Marketplace App competition in May.

Market Wagon of Indianapolis closed on a $1 million seed round with participation from Tapas Capital of Bellevue, Washington, Village Global of San Francisco and Chicago-based New Stack Ventures. Started in Indianapolis in 2016, Market Wagon operates local food delivery hubs across the Midwest using cutting-edge shopping and supply chain technology, proprietary fulfillment processes, and innovative logistics approaches.

While Jobvite still calls the Bay Area it’s home, much of the company’s news these days is coming from Indianapolis since the company acquired Canvas in early 2019 and named Aman Brar CEO. The provider of talent recruitment software platforms made multiple acquisitions in the third quarter. In July the company announced the acquisition of Predictive Partner, a data science firm based in Carmel. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Brookfield Group was also involved in an acquisition with it’s purchase of ConsortHR, a Carmel-based tech-enabled company that focuses on providing managed HR support. The Brookfield Group, also based in Carmel, is a full-service managed technology company dedicated to providing innovative solutions and support to businesses.

AUGUST

Indianapolis based ClusterTruck continues to grow and expand its delivery-only restaurant business around the country. In August, CEO Chris Baggot spoke to TechPoint and confirmed a $2 million raise to aid in this growth. The source of the raise was not disclosed.

The Bee Corp of Indianapolis announced additional funding of $750,000 from Elevate Ventures and THRIVE in California. This follows the $250,000 investment in April from IU Ventures that we reported. The agtech company develops solutions used for commercial pollination.

Resonado closed a $1.1 million bridge round that began in early 2020. Investment groups participating in the round include VisionTech Angels, Queen City Angels, Connetic Ventures, Lofty Ventures, and a number of private investors. The company, which engineers and licenses streamlined speaker technology, was originally based in South Bend and has recently moved to Chicago.

SEPTEMBER

Bloomington-based Stagetime announced $210,000 in funding from IU Angel Network and Flywheel Fund, both of Bloomington. Stagetime is an online network where artists, artistic administrators, and agents can grow as professionals and maintain relationships by engaging with industry connections, showcasing their media, and interacting with colleagues and collaborators.

DMI is based in Maryland with a significant presence in Indiana. In early September the company announced the acquisition of Devgurus, a cloud-native headless commerce solutions provider with offices in Spain and Argentina.

Indianapolis-based The Halo App received backing from Able Fund of Salt Lake City. Financial details of the funding were not disclosed. Able Fund is a 501(c)(3) intended to to help entrepreneurs and investors work together to build durable, valuable businesses. The Halo App allows backers and borrowers to participate in low-interest loans of up to $1000, taking aim at predatory lending practices.

Salesforce announced its intention to acquire Mobify of Vancouver, Canada. The company’s cloud-based e-commerce platform is used by online retailers to create storefronts without the need for hosting, securing, scaling, and monitoring. Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud headquarters is located in Indianapolis.

KAR Global of Carmel acquired BacklotCars of Kansas City for $425 million. The company’s end to end solution provides vehicle inspections, transportation, and inventory finance services for auto dealers, auto finance institutions, and rental car companies. KAR Global’s end-to-end platform serves the remarketing needs of the world’s largest OEMs, dealers, fleet operators, rental companies and financial institutions in automotive marketplaces.

In September Jobvite announced their second acquisition of the quarter with the purchase of Dover, Delaware based Talentegy, a cloud-based talent analytics and engagement platform designed to help HR teams monitor and optimize their candidate and employee experience. Financial details were not disclosed.

Sharpen pulled in the biggest publicly shared raise of the quarter with a $12 million capital growth funding round with participation from Allos Ventures LLC, Cultivation Capital, and Lightchain LLC, the family office of Rodger Riney, founder and former CEO of Scottrade. The cloud-based communications platform software company is located in Indianapolis.

High Alpha Studios of Indianapolis announced the launch of Bolster, an on-demand executive talent marketplace that is based in New York City. The announcement also featured a $6 million seed raise from High Alpha, Union Square Ventures of New York and both SVB and Costanoa Ventures of California.

BCforward, a global information technology consulting and staffing firm headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, acquired tapQA, a Minneapolis-based quality assurance technology firm. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Bloomerang announced a strategic growth investment from JMI Equity of Baltimore. The Lawrence-based company’s product is a cloud-based donor management software tool for nonprofits. This marks JMI Equity’s second transaction involving an Indiana technology as they led a strategic growth investment in Healthx of Indianapolis.

Enhanced Telecommunications Corporation (also known as “ETC”), with several offices in Southeastern Indiana, was recently acquired by Great Plains Communications, the largest privately-owned telecommunications provider in Nebraska.

Lumatic Imagery, an Indianapolis based photography management company, announced a $600,000 raise led by Elevate Ventures with participation from additional angel investors throughout Indiana.

Digital Leader Academy of South Bend raised $20,000 from Elevate Ventures’ Community Ideation Fund. The company’s software is used to inform current high school students on emerging technology, innovation, and leadership in order to prepare them for the digital world.

DRONEDEK, makers of a secured receptacle for autonomous drone deliveries, secured both an angel investor raise and a venture capital raise in September. The two raises totaled $365,000. Other details of the funding were not disclosed.

If you want to see how 2020 compares to recent years you can read wrap-ups from 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016.

Each quarter we report public investments and M&A activity involving Indiana technology companies. Interested in sharing your funding deals? Email roger@techpoint.org. If you represent one of these Indiana tech companies and notice they are not listed on the TechPoint Tech Directory, please take the time to add them today. Your free listing also allows you to list job openings on our Job Board.