August was a surprisingly slow month for venture capital deals nationwide, but especially in the D.C. tech scene. Last month, only three tech companies raised funding from investors. These rounds totaled a collective $59.5 million. That’s a big drop from July, during which the top five funding rounds brought in $260 million. Since there were less funding rounds than usual last month, we’ve also included some of the most notable grants given out to D.C. tech companies. Read on to learn which companies bagged capital and what they plan to do with it.
#3. $14.5 million, August 10
Eat the Change raised $14.5 million in a funding round led by Collaborative Fund with participation from S2G Ventures. Executives from the respective investment firms Craig Shapiro and Walter Robb joined Eat the Change’s board of directors as part of the funding round. The new capital will go toward bringing the company’s new tea brand Just Ice Tea to market. Eat the Change is a healthy snack company founded by Honest Tea founder Seth Goldman.
#2. $20 million, August 2
RegScale closed a $20 million Series A funding round at the beginning of August. The investment was led by SYN Ventures and will be used to drive sales and marketing initiatives and accelerate product development. RegScale is a compliance automation platform for heavily regulated industries like govtech, financial institutions, energy and utilities.
#1. $25 million, August 2
Cybrary announced a $25 million Series C funding round last month. The funding round, co-led by BuildGroup and Gula Tech Adventures, will be used to bolster its educational offerings. Cybrary is an educational and upskilling platform for cybersecurity and IT. The company’s mission is to create more cybersecurity professionals to handle the rising complexity of today’s digital threats.
Other Notable Grants
August was a slow month for venture capital raises in the D.C. tech scene, but that’s not the only place companies get funding. Government contracts and grants are also a lucrative source of capital for many D.C.-area tech startups.
$40 million, August 23
X-energy received a $40 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy. The money will fund the continued development of a high-temperature gas reactor, which plan to be operational by 2028. X-energy is one of two U.S. companies working on advance nuclear demonstration projects supported by funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
$1.93 million, August 29
The National Institutes of Dental and Craniofacial Research awarded PediaMetrix a $1.93 million Fast-Track Small Business award. The money will be used to further develop the company’s SoftSpot technology which uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to provide comprehensive evaluations of cranial shape abnormalities in infants.
