Payments startup Plastiq returns to Boston
It’s a happy homecoming story for Plastiq. The payments startup was founded in Boston in 2012, but relocated to San Francisco in 2014. Now, the company is announcing an expansion to Boston — as well as plans to significantly grow its employee base. Plastiq cites Boston’s highly educated pool of talent, as well as its diversity, as key reasons why they’re hoping to recruit top-notch engineering and tech teams here. And grow they will: The startup recently received $27 million in fresh funding to scale its team. [Press Release]
Drizly doubles total VC funding with fresh $34.6M round
Alcohol delivery startup Drizly raised a sterling $34.6 million in fresh funding this week, doubling its total venture capital investment to date. Founded in 2012, Drizly's mobile app allows users to peruse and choose beer, wine or liquor from nearby stores, then have it either delivered or set aside for pick-up. The startup, which hires drivers and partners with liquor retailers, is currently operating in 100 markets around the United States. Are you thirsty yet? [Xconomy]
MachineMetrics reels in $11.3M to make use of manufacturing data
Manufacturing may not be the sexiest tech industry, but it sure does generate a lot of data. To make sense of all that information, local startup MachineMetrics collects data from factory floors and analyzes metrics like equipment performance — and the company just raised $11.3 million to grow its team. The Series A round, which was led by Seattle-based Tola Capital, with participation from local investors like Hyperplane Venture Capital, Hub Angels and Mass Ventures, will be used to hire across sales, product development, marketing and customer service. [Boston Business Journal]
Solo.io to scale sales and marketing with $11M Series A
Cambridge-based Solo.io offers software to help streamline companies’ adoption and operation of cloud technologies so that they don’t have to rewrite their entire codebases — and the startup just raised an $11 million Series A round to meet growing demand. Redpoint Ventures led the Series A round, with participation from seed investor True Ventures. The funding will be used to scale Solo.io’s sales and marketing efforts, while aggressively investing in its open source. [Built In Boston]
Nexthink raises $85M Series C funding to help companies improve their digital experience
Nexthink, a company that offers digital employee experience management software, raised $85 million in funding this week to drive its global sales efforts. Nexthink has offices in both Boston and Switzerland, and currently works with more than 900 enterprise customers, including Adobe, BlackRock, Tiffany & Co. and Western Union. The funding was led by Index Ventures, with participation from Highland Europe, VI Partners, and more. [Press Release]
HubSpot announces $30M venture fund
Marketing and sales company HubSpot is serious about helping early-stage companies grow: The company announced HubSpot Ventures this week, a $30 million venture fund to help startups scale quickly and intelligently. The company also announced a new collaboration with Amazon Web Services. The fund will focus on SaaS companies and will support seed, Series A and Series B rounds, with limited support for Series C rounds. [VentureBeat]
