News

Accedian and Sfara today announced an integrated solution offering combining Accedian’s assurance and security capabilities and Sfara’s advanced multi-mobility event detection AI to provide an assured, attested and forensically auditable solution for Mobility as a Service providers (MaaS) and their global telecom partners as they introduce C-V2X solutions for autonomous transportation

Nearly a decade ago, Cloudbeds was just an idea that we had while traveling in Brazil trying to book a pousada. It got to a point that on almost every trip we made, we would discover an unbelievable property hidden from the audiences of the world due to the lack of tools available to help connect to travelers like us. As passionate travelers, we wanted to make the guest experience better. As technology experts, we wanted to help hosts and hoteliers build great lodging businesses by making it easier to start, run and grow a property.

Paytient, a provider of financial technology that helps patients avoid medical debt through employer sponsored benefits, announced Trent Haywood, M.D., J.D. will be joining the company as a Strategic Advisor.

St. Louis-based biotechnology company Adarza BioSystems said Tuesday it has raised $25 million in Series D financing as it readies to commercialize its first product. The Series D funding round was co-led by Portland-based 3×5 Partners and Lightchain Capital, the family office of Scottrade founder Rodger Riney. The round also includes follow-on investments from Serra Ventures, Holton Capital Group and BioGenerator. The fresh financing follows Adarza’s $17 million Series C round in 2016 and brings the startup’s total capital raised to $54 million.

St. Louis-based Benchmark Email, which provides sales and marketing software, has expanded with the acquisition of another local firm.

Benchmark Email on Tuesday said it acquired MarketVolt, an email marketing firm. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. “MarketVolt was founded and headquartered in St. Louis. We’re thrilled to join forces with Benchmark, a strong, industry-leading St. Louis company that is creating more tech jobs in our region and strengthening St. Louis’ position as an emerging technology hub,” former MarketVolt CEO Tom Ruwitch said.

Be My Eyes, the mobile app that allows anyone to assist visually impaired people through live video calls, has raised $2.8 million in Series A funding. The investment allows the company to further develop its unique “purpose and profit” business model while keeping the visual support service free and unlimited for all visually impaired users.

The round, led by Cultivation Capital, also welcomed new board members Paul Weber (Cultivation Capital), and Michael Buckley (angel investor and former VP of global communications at Facebook). Be My Eyes has previously been backed by angels and investment funding from the likes of Singularity University, the founders of Zendesk and the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco.

During a tumultuous few weeks for the New Hanover County School District following the arrest of a Roland Grise Middle School teacher and the resignation of Superintendent Dr. Tim Markley, school board members have encouraged parents and community members to turn to their Ethix360 system to file any complaints.

“When we were looking for a system, we wanted one that would be very transparent. We wanted to be able to find the concerns. We wanted parents to be trusting us to take the concerns. So by them triaging at Ethix 360, it’s really helped us be more transparent and let the parents know they can trust us. We hope to earn back their trust very quickly,” said Kristin Jackson, Director of Student Support Services at NHCS.

The Philadelphia Alliance of Capital and Technologies revealed the nominees for this year’s Enterprise Awards, the annual Oscars-esque gala celebrating the top leaders, companies and deals of the region’s venture capital world.

The awards, set for May 12 at the Kimmel Center, are now in their 27th year. The final nominees are picked from a pool of submissions by a panel of 25 judges, top executives in the region’s life sciences, technology and investment industries.

Brainshark, Inc., the industry’s only data-driven sales readiness platform, and TopOPPS, a leading provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-based sales pipeline management and forecast predictability solutions, today announced they have formed a strategic partnership. The partnership – which includes an integration of Brainshark and TopOPPS solutions – will empower sales organizations to deliver “in-the-moment” guidance that improves reps’ skills at key points throughout the sales cycle.

TopOPPS provides rich insight into sales pipeline and forecast metrics, enabling sales leaders to better understand pipeline activity and identify deficiencies before they impact yield. Combining TopOPPS with Brainshark’s best-of-breed solutions for sales training, coaching, content and more, organizations can track individual sales rep activities throughout the entire sales process, and then pinpoint and address skill gaps earlier by prescribing relevant learning content via Brainshark.

St. Louis-based venture capital firm Cultivation Capital has co-led a $4.45 million seed round of funding for ThirdPartyTrust, a Chicago company that developed a vendor risk assessment and management software.