The fourth quarter of 2018 turned out to be a busy one for both venture capital investments and acquisitions in Indiana. Over $59 million in funding was publicly announced, with $34.8 million going to Scale Computing of Indianapolis in one of the largest capital raises for a tech company in Indiana in recent years. In addition, six Indiana tech or tech-enabled companies were involved in major acquisitions.

For the year, there were 26 publicly announced venture capital raises for nearly $135 million. In addition there were 21 noted acquisitions involving Indiana tech or tech-enabled companies. The year started big and ended big. In January Springbuk and Zylo announced raises for $20 million and $9 million respectively. In December Scale Computing announced a $34.8 million Series F raise and MetaCX emerged from stealth mode with a $14 million raise.

For more details, review our 2018 VC reports from Q1, Q2 and Q3.

Below is a list of public investments and acquisitions involving Indiana technology companies that occurred in the fourth quarter of 2018.

October

October proved to be one of the busiest months for tech investments and acquisitions in Indiana. Indianapolis-based Torchlite made big news by raising $3 million in funding that included Scott McCorkle, formerly of ExactTarget, and Salesforce Ventures. Torchlite provides specialized marketing to their customers via their on-demand digital experts.

Motivating Systems of Evansville, a SaaS platform used to by companies and organizations to motivate people with positive reinforcement, raised $1 million through Elevate Ventures and other investors.

Adranos, Inc., a rocket fuel technology company in West Lafayette, secured $800,000 from Archibald Cox, Jr., former chairman of Barclays Americas and member of the Executive Committee of Barclays Capital, and Utah’s USTAR TAP program. The technology utilized by Adranos is licensed through the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization.

Ultimate Automation of Fishers acquired Electronic Evolutions, Inc. of Carmel. The combined teams are now known as Ultimate Technologies Group, Inc.

ANGI Homeservices, the parent company of Indianapolis-based Angie’s List,  acquired Handy Technologies of New York City for an undisclosed amount. The acquired company offers comparable services to Angie’s List.

PERQ pulled in $5 million in a growth capital raise led by Elevate Ventures that also included investments from Collina Ventures and angel investors.

ZIO, Inc., a retail marketing technology company in Indianapolis, received $400,000 from two separate Indiana University-based funds—Innovate Indiana Fund and the IU Philanthropic Venture Fund.

By far the largest venture capital raise of the year was that of Scale Computing, located in the Union 525 Building in downtown Indianapolis. The company that pioneered hyperconvergence storage for the IT industry raised $34.8 million through corporate investors and venture capital firms.

November

While there were no publicly announced venture capital investments in November, there was a hundred-million dollar international acquisition involving a Carmel-based tech-enabled company. KAR Auction Services announced their purchase of CarsOnTheWeb of Belgium for “at least $103 million.”

December

One of the larger fundraises this year was accomplished by MetaCX, a software company led by former Salesforce marketing cloud chief Scott McCorkle. While in stealth mode, the startup raised $14 million in pre-launch funding from VC firm Upfront Ventures.

Allied Payment Network of Ft. Wayne secured a multi-million dollar raise led by Plymouth Growth Partners of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Three major Indianapolis area tech company acquisitions occurred within a two-week period in December–all before the holidays. One Click Ventures, a tech-enabled eyewear e-tailer in Greenwood, announced that it had been acquired by FGX International. One day later, Northwest Indy-based MOBI, a mobility management platform for enterprise customers, was acquired by Tangoe, Inc. of New Jersey. Tech services company Lightbound was the target of an acquisition in the following days by Dallas-based DataBank, Ltd. Financial details were not disclosed for any of these transactions.

How does 2018 stack up to last year? Read the 2017 VC report here.

Each quarter we report public investments in Indiana technology companies. Interested in sharing your funding deals? Email roger@techpoint.org.