HomeAdvisor finds new digs in Chicago
Home services marketplace HomeAdvisor announced the opening of a sales office in Chicago split across two WeWork locations in River North. The company will fill the office with new hires through its sales leadership program, which gives work opportunities to recent college grads with interests in sales, leadership and management development. [Press release]
Energize Ventures raises $150 million venture fund
Energize Ventures, a Chicago-based pre-growth stage venture fund led by Amy Francetic, announced the successful raise of $150 million, which it plans to invest in companies in the energy and industrial sectors, according to Crain’s. The fund’s current portfolio includes DroneDeploy, Nozomi Networks, Volta Charging, Spark Cognition and Aquilon Energy. The fund plans to lead later-stage rounds with investments of between $3 million and $5 million. [Crain’s]
Grubhub acquires Tapingo for $150 million
Grubhub has been hungry lately. Only one week after completing an acquisition of LevelUp for $390 million, the food delivery service announced the purchase of the Tel Aviv-based Tapingo, a startup similar in nature to Grubhub but with an emphasis on college campus dining. Grubhub hopes Tapingo, which serves over 150 campuses, will give it a greater presence among students. [Press release]
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Instana gets $30M Series C to scale APM products
Instana, a provider of automatic application performance monitoring for large enterprise brands like Audi and Edmunds.com, raised a $30M Series C it will use to scale its product offerings and delivery across global markets. The investment was led by Meritech Capital with help from existing investor Accel, and brings the company’s total funding raised to $57 million. [Press release]
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Cars.com wants you to swipe right for your dream car
According to the Chicago Tribune, Alex Vetter, CEO of the online car marketplace Cars.com, is spearheading the launch of a new service which lets users search for cars using Tinder’s famous swiping method. The initiative will be powered by AI that presents cars to users based on specifications they choose. Users can then swipe right on vehicles they’re interested in to get more information. [Chicago Tribune]
Reverb.com donates $20K to help girls rock out
Musical equipment marketplace Reverb.com raised $20,000 for the Girls Rock Camp Alliance, an international network of organizations dedicated to helping girls overcome oppression and explore their musical interests. Funds were raised through the company’s Girls Rock Reverb Charity Auction, which sold items from artists including Lady Gaga, Dolly Parton and Hayley Williams. The company hopes to donate $500,000 to charity by the end of the year. [Press release]
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Shipping order fulfillment company ShipBob appointed Paul Rosen as its chief revenue officer. Rosen was previously chief operations officer at CoverWallet and chief sales officer at OnDeck Capital, where he grew the sales team from 15 to 200 before helping the company go public with a valuation of more than $1 billion. He brings 20 years of sales and operations experience to his new position, where he will scale the sales, business development and customer success teams. [Press release]
ShipBob announced a second new hire: Chief Marketing Officer Casey Armstrong. Armstrong has a decade of marketing experience and was most recently vice president of marketing at BigCommerce, where he created several new business functions. Armstrong will manage ShipBob’s inbound sales reps and marketing and partnership teams. [Press release]
Virtual insurance claim provider Snapsheet announced Jamie Yoder as its new president. Formerly the president of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Yoder has 30 years of experience in insurance and financial services advising. Yoder will lead the company’s market activities across its business verticals. [Press release]
