Texas-based Ironspring Ventures raises $100 million to back startups in the construction, transportation, energy and manufacturing sectors
Texas-based venture capital firm Ironspring Ventures has just raised $100 million for its second fund dedicated to industrial startups. Its investors are industry players who can not only advise the startups in the portfolio, but also become potential customers or even buyers.
Founded in 2020, Ironspring Ventures focuses its investments on four key areas: construction, manufacturing, green energy, and transportation and logistics. Its goal is to fill a huge gap in the venture capital market, specializing in these industrial markets that represent more than half of the US GDP, but which remain underfunded when it comes to innovation.
With this second fund, Ironspring plans to invest in around 20 startups, at a rate of four to five companies a year. The average investment amount will be larger than for the first fund, ranging from $2 million to $4 million per deal, to reflect the increase in amounts raised by startups during seed rounds.
It’s interesting to note that there is a significant increase from the firm’s debut fund of $61 million that closed in 2021. Ironspring has already invested in 16 startups via its debut fund, including Handle (a financial flow management platform for the construction sector) and Icon (3D-printed homes).
British startup Zeti raises $5 million with its innovative transport decarbonization financing model
Zeti, a London-based fintech startup that aims to encourage zero- or low-emission transport adoption, has just announced a Series A fundraising round of £5 million (approximately €5.8 million) from HYCAP Group, a British net-zero energy transition investor. In the past, Zeti had already won over other investors specializing in transport and decarbonization, including Powerhouse and Toyota Ventures.
In the space of a few years, Zeti has developed its Zeti Hub digital platform which offers companies a Transport as a Service (TaaS) solution combined with financing options. This is based on a pay-as-you-go model, as well as real-time sustainability reporting on the impact of its fleets. There are already 4,500 vehicles integrated on its platform.
By integrating HYCAP’s portfolio, Zeti joins other mobility sector startups, such as Wrightbus, which manufactures electric-powered and hydrogen fuel cell buses; Ryze, which specializes in the transportation and distribution of renewable energy; Hygen, a hydrogen production solution; Liquid Wind, a company that develops green fuels, and Yamna, a platform specializing in green hydrogen.
Australian construction site safety management startup 1Breadcrumb raises $4 million
Australian startup 1Breadcrumb has just raised $4 million to expand internationally.
The Melbourne-based company was founded in 2020 to help with project reporting necessary for keeping construction sites open during the Covid pandemic. Since then, 1Breadcrump has gradually expanded its value proposition to digitize the various paper-based workflows used on construction sites and improve communication between the different users. It is currently used by more than 25,000 subcontractors and 300,000 site workers in Australia and the UK.
Positioned on the market to improve on-site safety and productivity, 1Bbreadcrump markets its project and workflow management software platform to various players in the construction sector, but it now intends expand its offer to other sectors too.
This fundraising round led by the Australian venture capital fund Five V Capital, will enable the startup to strengthen its presence in the Australian and UK markets, while it prepares to expand internationally to the US.
There’s more…
US-based SaaS construction platform Clearstory raises $16 million – Read more on World Construction Network
Swedish startup MobilityXlab announces the four carbon-free mobility startups joining its Batch 13 – Read more on MobilityXLab’s website
British-based ClimateX raises $18 million to help banks assess the impact of climate change on the buildings and infrastructure they finance – Read more on Sifted
