In less than three years, Indiana tech companies have raised more than one billion dollars, and our review of 2021’s third quarter shows no letting up of the record pace in capital raises that began late last year.

The sector closed the third quarter of 2021 with more than $159 million in 12 publicly announced capital raises by Indiana tech companies. Two of the raises were $20 million or more and one raise, OnBoard’s $100 million led by JMI Equity, was the second largest single raise by a tech company in the state of Indiana.

“Second” seems to be the theme for the quarter as the $159 million raised represents the second largest quarter since TechPoint began tracking capital raises for Indiana tech companies in 2014. However, it’s only the second largest quarter of the year as Q2 came in at $198 million.

This marks the first time we’ve seen at least $100 million dollars raised in each of the first three quarters of the year. Notably, we have already broken the record of $358 million raised in all of 2019 with three months remaining in the year.

“Indiana tech companies received over $1 billion in capital investments over the past three years and are on track to raise more than half a billion dollars this year alone,” said Mike Langellier, TechPoint president and CEO. “These are investments to fuel future growth, and they signal two important things: new job opportunities and ambition by company executives to build market-leading companies. Both are important indicators for the future of the Indiana economy.”

M&A activity was also strong in software and tech infrastructure throughout the state. We counted 19 transactions that took place in the quarter. Indiana continues to be seen as a global leader in sales and marketing technology companies, products, services and talent since the acquisition of ExactTarget by Salesforce in 2013 for $2.5 billion.

San Diego’s Seismic, a sales enablement company valued at more than $3 billion, acquired Lessonly for an undisclosed amount in August after raising $170 million in Series G funding.

Shutterstock, a publicly traded company based in New York City and primarily known for providing photos and videos for marketers, formed Shutterstock.AI earlier this year to help creators turn ideas into accomplishments with the use of new technologies like artificial intelligence. In July the newly formed subsidiary acquired three sales and marketing technology companies including Pattern89, a High Alpha Company.

In 2019 Terminus, an account-based engagement marketing platform company, named ExactTarget alum Tim Kopp as CEO. They went on to acquire Indianapolis-based Sigstr that same year and have made Indianapolis one of their headquarters. Then, in September, Terminus acquired Zylotech of Boston, a leading customer data platform used by marketers.

We’ve also noticed the trend of regional broadband and communications companies in Indiana that are acquiring or being acquired by competitors. Shurz Communications in Mishawaka, Surf Broadband of LaPorte, MapleNet ISP of Elkhart, and MetroNet of Evansville were all involved in M&A activities to grow their customer base.

Each quarter TechPoint, the state’s nonprofit tech industry growth accelerator, reports public investments and M&A activity involving Indiana technology companies. Share your funding deals with us via roger@techpoint.org. If you represent one of these Indiana tech companies and it is not yet listed on the TechPoint Tech Directory, please add them today. The listing also enables you to post job openings on the TechPoint Job Board. For additional information and insights on this historic year for Indiana’s tech sector be sure to stay connected to TechPoint Index by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.

To see how the first quarter of 2021 compares to recent years, see TechPoint’s VC reports for 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016.

Continue reading for 2021’s Q3 month-by-month listing of publicly shared investments, grants and acquisitions involving Indiana technology companies:

Month-by-month venture capital results for the 3rd quarter of 2021

JULY

OnBoard, a cloud-based board management solution provider, announced a $100 million strategic growth investment from JMI Equity of Baltimore. It’s the second highest single raise from a tech company in Indiana and the second $100 million plus capital infusion from JMI into Indiana tech companies in the past month.

Elevate Ventures invested at the Pre-Seed level ($20,000) or Seed Level ($80,000) in several technology companies throughout the state as part of the Elevate Nexus Regional Pitch Competitions in July. Companies receiving $20,000 in investments included Adapta Education of South Bend; Cappers Collective of Indianapolis; and Wayzada of Bloomington. Companies receiving $80,000 investments included Digital Trade School and Juke Technologies of South Bend; Escalated Solutions of Carmel; and Atlas Solutions and Deep Word of Bloomington.

A small group of Muncie, Indiana-based tech leaders acquired Boyce Systems, a provider of financial software and forms to over 1,200 municipalities, schools, libraries, and utilities. The acquiring group was led by three former Ontario Systems executives, Jason Harrington, Casey Stanley, and Jay Moorman, who will assume the roles of CEO, President, and Chief Customer Officer, respectively. The deal terms were not disclosed.

Shutterstock, Inc., a publicly traded full-service creative solutions platform based in New York, announced the acquisition of Pattern89, a High Alpha Venture Studios company based in Indianapolis The acquisition included two other AI companies to form a new subsidiary of Shutterstock called Shuttertock, AI. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Selflessly, a Certified B Corp focused on corporate philanthropy and social responsibility, raised a round of funding led by Indiana Spine Ventures with participation from Elevate Ventures, Next Community Impact Fund, and other investors. The new round of funding will allow Selflessly to further grow its team, increase brand awareness, and launch features that enhance employee participation and employer insights. Financial details of the round were not shared.

AUGUST

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has completed the acquisition of Blue Horseshoe, a supply chain management and strategy consulting firm and systems integrator specializing in fulfillment and distribution solutions. Blue Horseshoe helps clients across industries, including food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, retail distribution, and transportation and logistics, define and plan their enterprise strategy, connect and collaborate with business applications, and optimize and execute supply chain operations. Terms of the transaction, which Accenture announced on August 4, were not disclosed.

Passageways, an Indianapolis board management solution provider and the parent company of OnBoard, acquired eSCRIBE Software Ltd., a cloud-based governance and meeting management solution for public sector boards, committees, and councils. eSCRIBE is based in Markham, Ontario, Canada with an office in New York City. It’s the first acquisition of the company since taking on a $100 million investment in July. Details on the financial transaction were not shared.

EduLab Capital Partners, a Boston-based seed-stage venture capital firm focused on learning and workforce technologies, and Allos Ventures of Indianapolis announced a $3.8 million round of seed funding for computer science curriculum platform Codelicious of Indianapolis. Additional investors include Sixty8 Capital, GRE Capital, and Elevate Ventures, all of Indianapolis.

Schurz Communications of Mishawaka has acquired NKTelco of New Knoxville, Ohio. Schurz is a privately held communications company formed in 1872 that owns several other regional broadband operations and has a variety of cloud, digital, and advertising holdings comprising its communications portfolio. NKTelco is the sixth broadband business to join the Schurz portfolio.

Shiftlab, a Carmel-based scalable, performance-based scheduling platform designed for retail organizations was acquired by iQmetrix of Vancouver, Canada. iQmetrix is a provider of telecom retail management software. The two companies have been partners since January of 2020. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.”

SIMBA Chain, a blockchain technology as-a-service company based in South Bend, closed a $25 million Series A funding round led by Valley Capital Partners of San Francisco. The round received additional participation from the Notre Dame Pit Road Fund, Elevate Ventures, Stanford Law School Venture Fund, and other individual investors. SIMBA Chain won the New Tech Product of the Year Mira Award in 2019.

Lessonly, a training, coaching and enablement solution platform was formed in 2012 and then became a part of High Alpha Studios when it was formed in 2015. In August, the Indianapolis company was acquired by Seismic, a leading sales enablement company based in San Diego. In conjunction with this acquisition, Seismic also announced the close of its Series G funding round of $170 million, led by Permira with participation from JMI Equity, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Jackson Square Ventures, Ameriprise, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.

Revelant Technologies, an Indianapolis-based provider of cloud-based API and MuleSoft consulting services, received more than $4 m in funding from Inoca Capital Partners of Park City, Utah. The company intends to use the funds to grow its MuleSoft practice nationwide.

The Juice is the 25th tech company to emerge from High Alpha. Jonathan Gandolf, formerly of Springbuk, is co-founder and CEO. The Indianapolis company collects and consolidates resources from across the internet onto a single platform where users can save, share, and enjoy the content on demand.

BP3 Global, an Austin, Texas-based provider of automation services and solutions, announced its acquisition of Agilify, an intelligent automation solution provider based in Indianapolis.

KAR Global of Carmel agreed to acquire CARWAVE of Escondido, California. CARWAVE is an online dealer-to-dealer marketplace featuring certified mechanical inspections, buyer guarantees and a 24/7, direct offer trading format with semi-weekly live auctions.

Green Filing, a Richmond, Indiana company which offers eFiling of court documents through its web portal and via a network of white-labelled re-sellers, was acquired by the InfoTrack group of companies based in Australia and New Zealand. Financial details of the acquisition were not shared.

Indianapolis-based Word Systems, an audio/video technology company that serves the law enforcement and public safety sector announced the acquisition of Evertel Technologies of Las Vegas. Evertel is a secure and instant communication platform provider focused on law enforcement agencies and first responders. Financial details of the acquisition were not shared.

IBJ Media, the owner and publisher of the Indianapolis Business Journal and The Indiana Lawyer, has acquired Grow INdiana Media Ventures LLC, the parent company of the Inside INdiana Business brand of business news products. Both entities have been leading providers of tech news content in the Indiana tech ecosystem.

SEPTEMBER

Surf Broadband Solutions of LaPorte has acquired MapleNet, Inc., an Internet Service Provider based in Elkhart. This is the company’s first acquisition since the announcement of their investment / acquisition from Bain Capital in June.

myCOI, a certificate of insurance (COI) tracking and management solution, announced it has secured $5 million in debt financing to fuel its continued growth in the COI tracking space. The funding comes from Seattle’s SaaS Capital, a leader in growth debt for B2B SaaS companies.

Premium Audio Company of Indianapolis, a subsidiary of VOXX International of Orlando, has acquired certain assets of the audio/video business of Onkyo Home Entertainment of Japan as part of a joint venture with Sharp Corporation. Indiana residents may know the PAC name as the parent umbrella company that manages Klipsch. The total purchase price is $30.8 million, plus the assumption of certain liabilities and future commission payments to Onkyo on certain product sales. PAC owns approximately 77% of the joint venture, with Sharp owning approximately 23%.

Future Health ESG is a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) that launched in September. The publicly traded company will ultimately merge with or purchase a health tech company. Brad Bostic serves as Chairman and CEO of Future Health ESG. He also serves in the same capacity for hc1, a health tech company located in Indianapolis.

Taylored Systems, an Indianapolis-based technology solutions provider, was acquired by New Lisbon Telephone Company, Inc., a 120-year-old telecommunications and broadband provider based in New Lisbon, Indiana. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Evansville’s MetroNet, the nation’s largest independently owned, 100 percent fiber-optic provider, announced the acquisition of Southwest Michigan-based CTS, a fiber-optic internet company serving Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, and several other Michigan communities.

CareSource and Elevate Ventures announced the first investment from the CareSource Diversity & Social Impact Investment Fund. The investment was made into Storybolt, a startup that offers equity and inclusion training via a platform that connects companies with documentary films to educate employees around topics like implicit bias, racial injustice, mental health, and diversity. The funding is included in the company’s seed round which closed with $1 million and included participation from Elevate Ventures’ Indiana Angel Network Fund, Chicago Early Growth Ventures, Pax Angels, SunStone Management, and other angel investors.

Proven IT, a managed service provider based in Chicagoland, has acquired Think Tank NTG, Inc., an IT security provider based in Merrillville. The company plans to have 75 employees at their Indiana location.

Mandolin has acquired NoonChorus of Chicago, a platform built for musicians to connect with their fans through live streaming. Mandolin is a High Alpha Studios company that helps artists and venues create connections with fans and prosper through the music they produce. Both companies were formed during the pandemic.

Atlas Solutions received a $100,000 Seed investment from Elevate Ventures as part of the second annual Elevate Nexus Statewide Pitch Competition. The Bloomington company provides a grant management platform supporting non-profit organizations.

ProBook Sports of Indianapolis closed on $350,000 in pre-seed funding with participation from lead investor Jim Zarvos, Skypoint Ventures, and other, unspecified angel investors. The round includes a $50,000 investment from the Flywheel Fund of Bloomington that was previously announced. The company’s app is designed to simplify life for organized sports teams, coaches and players.

Intelinair, which moved its headquarters to Indianapolis in August, raised $20 million in Series B funding to continue to scale the company and its flagship crop intelligence platform, AGMRI®. The round was led by the Regulator Group, LLC of St. Louis, Scientia Ventures of New York, Takiff LLC of Chicago, SDMC Ag Inc. of Alberta, Canada, and various ag industry and artificial intelligence industry senior executives.

Humankind became the 26th tech company to launch from High Alpha Studios and the fourth in 2021. The company is based in Santa Monica, California and will function with a remote team. Humankind is described as a platform for retailers that embraces H-Commerce, democratizes the concierge experience for online shoppers, connects people with real product experts, and delights customers across their entire buying journey.

Townee, a Bloomington-based startup, has received $20,000 from the Elevate Ventures Community Ideation Fund. The Townee app allows small businesses and locals to communicate, collaborate, and connect directly. Users can follow local businesses and be the first to hear about deals and receive rewards for referring others. The app also offers deals to college athletes by allowing them to begin profiting from their name, image and likeness through collaborations with local businesses. This ties into a recent policy adopted by the NCAA in July 2021.

Terminus, with headquarters in Indianapolis and Atlanta, has acquired Zylotech of Boston. The company, now known as Terminus CDP, is a customer data platform that collects, tracks, and updates the information on the people within target accounts for greater accuracy in marketing campaigns. Terminus CDP will be led by SaaS veteran Matt Belkin, who joined Terminus through their acquisition of GrowFlare in 2020.