This is a monthly column that runs down five interesting startup funding deals every month that may have flown under the radar. Check out our January entry here.
February may be the shortest month of the year, but that doesn’t mean it was short on interesting rounds.
Startups ranging from space mining to those that help connect pickleball enthusiasts all raised some cash this month. Let’s dive in.
Game on
While the pandemic led to a boom in many things — think restaurant delivery and remote work — many of those trends have since subsided.
That’s not the case with pickleball. The sport gained a new level of popularity during the pandemic and has yet to die down.
This month, Pickleheads — a site where players can find courts, organize games and connect with other players — locked up a $2.5 million seed led by Atlanta-based Overline.
In its two-and-a-half years of existence, nearly 9 million players visited the site — which has 347,000 registered users — to find courts and organize games.
The company plans to use the new cash infusion to add features to the site, including a way for users to collect payments for running events or for court fees.
It’s coming up all aces for pickleball players.
Disinfecting doctors’ office
Everyone has heard horror stories concerning infections in healthcare settings. Such stories are unfortunately not surprising when one considers what goes on in hospitals and doctor offices.
France-based startup Germitec raised $30 million this month, led by investment group Eurazeo, to make those stories a little less common. The medtech company specializes in what it calls “UV-C high-level disinfection solutions.”
Its flagship product line offers healthcare facilities effective and chemical-free solutions to prevent healthcare-associated Infections in fertility, gynecology, cardiology and speciality health settings.
The company’s UV-C technology is currently available in 40 countries, with 2.2 million patients protected across the world every year. The new funding will allow the company to accelerate its development in the U.S. market and continue advancing UV-C infection prevention technologies.
Sounds like a good way to keep healthcare facilities healthy.
Mining space
If you read this column regularly, you know the easiest way to get on it is by being in space tech. Because let’s face it, space is cool.
This month, Denver-based Karman+ makes the list, as the asteroid mining startup raised a $20 million seed round led by Hummingbird Ventures and Plural Platform.
Karman+’s take on space mining is interesting. The company aims to mine water from asteroids and return it to Earth’s orbit. This water would then be used to refuel space tugs that utilize hydrogen and oxygen propulsion. It also has future plans to extract rare metals from the rocks.
None of this is in the near term, as the startup does not expect its first launch until 2027. And of course, Karman+ is not the only startup looking to take on space mining. Just last year, Huntington Beach, California-based AstroForge made this exact same list.
Of course, all of that doesn’t make mining asteroids any less interesting.
AI help for taxes
With tax season in full swing, accountants and tax firms no doubt could use all the help they can get.
Well, don’t worry, artificial intelligence is on the way to help.
That’s right. AI is everywhere, including in your taxes. San Francisco-based TaxGPT raised $4.6 million in funding from the likes of Rebel Fund and Y Combinator.
The startup has created an AI tax co-pilot for accounting and tax firms, answering complex tax questions, and generating tax memos and replies to client emails and IRS tax notices in seconds.
The company’s husband-wife founding team created the AI co-pilot after enduring something very familiar to many people — searching endlessly online for what should be easy-to-answer tax questions.
More than 10,000 CPAs, tax lawyers and enrolled agents already are using the co-pilot. With tax season here, expect even more adoption.
More limber lumber?
Supply chain management has come into focus as headlines swirl about global trade and tariffs.
Cambium Carbon — which just raised an $18.5 million Series A this month led by VoLo Earth Ventures — is one of many startups with an eye on that space, but is focused on the wood industry.
The focus makes the Baltimore-based startup somewhat unique. Its AI-driven tools help trucking companies, sawmill operators and tree care service companies streamline workflows and localize production as demand grows for locally sourced and low-carbon building materials.
However, that’s not all the startup does. It also transforms salvaged wood into cross-laminated, engineered proprietary wood called Carbon Smart Wood.
Cambiou’s sustainable building materials have proven popular, as customers include Amazon, Equinox Fitness and Patagonia just to name a few.
As concerns arise about the supply chain, Cambium is helping companies go against the grain.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the
Crunchbase Daily.
