Friday Fundings: Via, CyCognito, Life House

On-Demand Vehicle Startup Now Sports a $3.3 Billion Valuation

Via, an on-demand vehicle startup, raised $130 million in venture funding. The round was led by Janus Henderson and includes participation from funds managed by BlackRock, ION Crossover Partners, and Koch Disruptive Technologies. With the new funding, Via has a valuation of $3.3 billion. Via has raised $800 million since its inception in 2012.

Via makes money operating an on-demand shuttle in New York and Washington, DC, and by licensing its software to cities, school districts, and universities. The software licensing arm of its business has driven a lot of its recent growth. While the company has not revealed what the proceeds from the fundraising will be used for, it has made acquisitions in the past with its cash. Earlier in 2021 it spent $100 million to acquire mapping software startup Remix.

Threat Security Platform Brings in $100 Million

CyCognito, a cybersecurity platform, raised $100 million in venture funding in a Series C round led by Westly Group. The company has raised a total of $153 million since launching in 2017. Other investors to participate in the round included Thomvest Ventures, Heritage Group, and Accel, among others.

Using machine learning and natural language understanding, CyCognito has developed a platform that can automatically prioritize, investigate, and respond to security threats. Some of its customers include Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Tesco (TSCDY), and Scientific Games (SGMS). The funding round comes amid fast growth for CyCoginito. In addition to quadrupling revenue in the last 12 months, the company’s customer base has tripled.

Hotel Management Startup Raises $60 Million

Hotel management company Life House raised $60 million in venture funding in a Series C round led by Kayak, iNovia Capital, and Derive Ventures. All three are new investors to Life House.

Life House and Kayak inked a partnership last spring in which Life House is managing Kayak Miami Beach Hotel. Life House announced last month it would be managing two new Kayak properties in Mexico. All told, Life House manages 50 properties for companies including Kayak. Life House plans to use the new funding to continue to develop its cloud platform and to sell its management software to other hotel companies.

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