5 Inspiring series a funding success stories: 2022 edition

2022 has been weird. Thankfully, halfway through the year, the moment remains hot for start-ups seeking Series A funding. 

Visionaries continue to start companies and fulfill unique niches in the post-pandemic world. In 2022, startups are redefining the digital realm, transforming the hospitality industry, and impacting countless lives through new offerings and improved processes.

Despite uncertain economic and political conditions, businesses continue to find the Series A funding they need to invest in technology, equipment, and staffing. In this post, we highlight five of the most inspiring examples we’ve seen over the past year.

5 recent series a success stories

• Nate – An AI-powered app that makes buying easy
• Jolt – Workplace training done right
• TinyTap – Gamifying learning for kids
• Bicycle Health – Increasing access to opioid treatment
• xFarm – Helping farmers succeed

Nate – An AI-powered app that makes buying easy

nate’s inspiring story comes courtesy of the ingenious app it has created and the unique niche that it serves. nate is an online marketplace powered by AI. Its hyper-streamlined design allows users to quickly tap and scroll their way through the app, listing items and making purchases as they go.

Because the app is completely integrated with your phone, it is simple and intuitive to make a purchase or share an item. nate allows users to pay with their iPhone wallet or make payments over time, thus making the user experience even smoother.

In essence, the app combines all of the best features of Amazon, Pinterest, and your digital wallet.

The app is tech-heavy, and it wasn’t cheap to design, build, or integrate all of the payment options. That last item was critical: in July 2021, nate raised a $38 million Series A funding round to improve its payment integrations and add some additional social-networking functionality.

The round was led by Renegade Partners. Other participants included new investor Forerunner Ventures, as well as Canaan Partners and Coatue, both of which were already invested in the app.

Jolt – Workplace training done right

Jolt has a truly noble goal: it wants to help people begin careers in tech. Users who arrive at its website are given an aptitude test. That test then leads them to educational resources, classes, and more in an attempt to provide students with the skills necessary to enter the tech world.

The courses are an amalgamation of live classes, videos, online instruction, and more. The app’s highly flexible nature is one of its main appeals, and it seeks to revolutionize the educational space completely. In addition to training, Jolt also helps users write resumes, find jobs, apply for jobs, and learn interviewing techniques.

Jolt is trying to completely refactor higher education, offering more streamlined and flexible courses with more minor general education requirements and the ability to pause classes on demand. In theory, these changes should add value and efficiency to Jolt’s already impressive offerings.

Jolt has acquired $23.3 million in funding over three years, with $14.1 million of that money coming from a recent Series A round. The bulk of that funding came from Balderton Capital, with a partnership from Hillsaven Capital and Octopus Ventures. Jolt will use the money to expand its offices into the United States.

TinyTap – Gamifying learning for kids

If kids are constantly glued to their devices anyway, why not make the time educational? TinyTap gets it and seeks to change the learning paradigm by gamifying it for kids through their electronic devices.

The app contains a simple programming language that allows teachers or others to create engaging educational games for kids. They can then play these games on a phone or tablet.

TinyTap offers learning paths that kids can use, and these pathways essentially act as entire curriculum models that build on each other. As such, a school has the option of teaching teachers to create games and then allowing those creators to sell other games on their marketplace. Kids can find games created by others, and the creators of these games can turn a profit.

The potential here is evident, as is the need for investment capital. The Tel Aviv-based company recently raised $9.1 million in Series A funding. This is in addition to the $5 million it raised in 2018. The most recent round was led by AngelHub, with Radiant Venture Capital, Inimiti, Aleph, and Reinvent VC also participating.

Bicycle Health – Increasing access to opioid treatment

The opioid epidemic continues to accelerate across America and throughout the world, with more than 100,000 people dying of the disorder in 2021.

Many massive challenges remain in getting help for an opioid use disorder, including a lack of access to treatment. But there’s hope. More and more companies have entered the app-based mental health and addiction treatment space, including Bicycle Health.

Bicycle Health helps individuals access medication for addiction treatment. This treatment modality has proven to be highly effective at helping people defeat their opioid addiction. It is covered by insurance and allows someone to take their medication while being supervised by a professional.

An app like this cannot expand or succeed without a massive infusion of capital, and Bicycle Health recently closed a $27 million Series A funding round led by Questa Capital. Also participating were City Light Capital, Emily Melton, and SignalFire, which had been an investor in previous rounds.

Bicycle Health announced it will use the proceeds from its recent round to expand its network of available clinicians and partnerships and invest in the technology that makes its app so useful.

xFarm – Helping farmers succeed

Being a farmer is difficult enough, and being a small farmer can be highly challenging in this economy. Farmers have to balance a variety of legal and regulatory burdens, deal with changing weather conditions, manage data, control advanced sensors, and more.

That’s where xFarm comes in. xFarm is an integrated farming app that features decision support, technological management, and more. It has a slew of different modules (at the moment, 13 functions are free, while 18 require payments) that help farmers manage their entire operations. xFarm allows farmers to make better decisions, incorporate data more efficiently, and track all farm-related activities.

This app obviously has a heavy technological component and needs funding to continue to expand. A recent Series A funding round of $3.28 million will enable xFarm to do just that. This funding was jointly led by United Ventures and TiVenture and helped to fund an expansion into additional countries and better integration of a variety of technical features.

As you no doubt know, raising capital, including Series A funding, can be extremely difficult. If you are looking for help, connect with Forecastr today. We help early-stage startups create financial models that make the fundraising process faster and more successful. Contact us today to learn more.