Even in the middle of a pandemic, Tampa Bay tech startups in 2020 are busy raising money, having raised over $200 million so far this year.
The really big deal was made by St. Pete-based deepwatch, which provides “cloud-first” managed security services to a number of Fortune 500/100/25 companies. Goldman Sachs led this Series B investment for $53 million.
Earlier this year, Telepathy Labs, who are in stealth mode and whose product is some sort of “predictive and adaptive conversational agent”, raised $6.6 million in early stage funding, and St. Pete Catalyst reports that there’s been a $14 million investment in them in Q3.
Immertec, whose product is a Unity-powered VR surgery training platform, raised $12 million in an early-stage Series A.
The IMCS (Integrated Medical Case Solutions) Group, who develop solutions for injury/trauma prevention and work-related injuries, received an $8 million capital infusion.
I’ll admit it — as an old D&D player and fan of Clash of the Titans, I can’t resist a good “Kraken” pun. That’s why I like SiteWit’s new name, Kliken. Their service lets you integrate marketing campaigns in your site, and they raised $6 million in a Series B.
Homee, the home construction/contractor service platform, got a $5 million early-stage investment in July.
SKUx, based in St. Pete, creates one-time-use digital incentives to get customers to spend more at retailers. They raised $4 million in angel funding.
Covercasa’s offering is a platform for searching for and buying home insurance. They raised $1 million in angel funding.
And finally, the blockchain development studio Blockspaces, where a lot of local blockchain-related meetups are held, raised $75,000.
“Okay, so these Tampa Bay tech startups in 2020 got some money. What’s in it for me?”
For starters, all this investment activity helps raise the profile of these Tampa Bay-based tech startups in 2020, which in turn helps put Tampa Bay on the tech map. This helps to push the narrative that “The Other Bay Area” is a great place for techies, entrepreneurs, and nerds in which to live, work, and play.
Also, there’s the matter that this money is meant to grow these companies, which in turn means new job openings. If you’re looking for work in tech, you’ll want to check out these companies’ sites and see what openings they have.