This last year has seen a lot of pandemic disruption and innovation. We continue to be impressed and excited by the startups we are seeing and the founders that are persevering through a demanding time in our history. These companies are doing more, moving faster, and getting funded quickly. We are excited to share with you some exciting updates for our firm, new ventures we have invested in, and updates from our current portfolio.
We’ve moved! After three wonderful years in our office on South Wallace, we have moved into our new space on East Main. As we grow our team, we couldn’t be more thrilled to have this new space. See below for our new address to update your records. We can’t wait to host you.
Since our spring newsletter announcing the closing of Fund 3, we’ve made 5 additional investments. You can learn more about these new investments in Tetra Insights, Trustlab, two Stealth Companies, and Bandwango below. We also highlight DemoFlow’s $2.4m follow-on seed round, as well as Aumni's $50M Series B.
We have two major milestones to share for portfolio companies. Chargeback, a pioneer in real-time dispute management for merchants, signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Sift, a leader in digital trust and safety. Additionally, Aurora announced it is going public via a SPAC merger at a $11B valuation. NFC has a holding in Aurora due to Aurora's 2019 acquisition of Blackmore Sensors which created technology that is state of the art in LIDAR. Aurora’s SPAC-IPO will be a watershed moment in NFC history as our first public company exit.
We are grateful for all of the continued support of our network. We couldn’t do the work we do without your support,
Will, Richard, Les, Latham, Kirsten, and Garrett
BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front):
Investment updates: NFC’s new investments in Bandwango, two Stealth Companies, Trustlab, Tetra Insights.
Portfolio updates: Chargeback acquired by Sift, Aurora goes public, and other exciting milestones..
Career opportunities: Our portfolio companies are hiring, and we are always looking for referrals for great candidates.
Regional and Firm News: Snowflake relocates to Bozeman, and NFC is featured in the podcast world!
Welcome to the NFC Team!
We are excited to announce that Garrett Leach joined us in July as an Analyst. Prior to NFC, Garrett was in the Schwarzman Scholars program. Schwarzman Scholars brings together a cohort of future leaders from around the world to study China and Global Affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Garrett graduated from Tsinghua University in 2021 with a Master’s in Management Science in Global Affairs. Previously, he worked at BlackRock in Princeton, New Jersey. Garrett is a graduate of Montana State University with a B.S. in Business. During his junior year at MSU, he served as Student Body President. Born and raised in Missoula, he can often be found mountain biking, backpacking, and skiing. He is also an avid soccer fan and Chelsea supporter.
Investment Updates
New Investments
While things have been unpredictable and a little crazy for the last 18 months, we have kept our eye on the target and continue to find some amazing opportunities to invest in. Below are a few of the new portfolio names we’ve funded and are excited to announce.
Bandwango (March 2021) - Bandwango DXE is the groundbreaking destination marketing and commerce platform that redefines the relationship between people and places. Read more on TechCrunch.
Stealth Company (May 2021) - We are excited to share details soon.
Trust Lab (May 2021) - Trustlab's mission is a healthy and safe internet, with empowered users and trusted platforms. The company’s platform allows customers to monitor content safety risk, track bad content on customer products, and take immediate action. Get the scoop from Bloomberg.
Stealth Company (July 2021)
Tetra Insights (July 2021) - Boulder-based Tetra Insights, a research operations platform, aims to help businesses align customer experience with strategy and execution. You can read more about the round on Built in Colorado.
New Rounds
Aumni - an investment analytics company delivering the most reliable data and insights for the private capital markets. They announced in late August a $50M Series B funding led by J.P. Morgan with participation from Pelion Venture Partners and NFC, among others. Read more here.
Demoflow - a Denver, CO-based NFC company that provides sales teams with a platform to collaborate in a remote work environment, raised $2.4m in its second seed funding round in March 2021. The round was led by RTP Seed, with Heroic Ventures, FirstMile Ventures, Slack Fund and NFC participating. Read more here.
Our portfolio companies have used these last few months to innovate, grow, and adapt to all the recent changes. As things are now transitioning to the "new" normal, we are looking forward to seeing what they have in store.
EXITS
Chargeback to be acquired by Sift!
In May Sift (the leader in Digital Trust & Safety) announced that they had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Chargeback. Read more about this announcement here.
Aumni launches a NEW Enhanced Model Term Sheet v2.0. Aumni, in partnership with the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), has released the latest version of the Enhanced Model Term Sheet v2.0. This update builds upon the original Enhanced Model Term Sheet launched in July 2020. Version 2.0 is the product of the largest analysis of private venture deal term data conducted to date.
OnX Offroad
OnX Offroad and Jeep brand have launched a program empowering Jeep Wave customers and Jeep brand enthusiasts to get off the pavement and venture off-road more than they ever have before.
Bandwango
Bandwango issued a report on Travel Trends in 2021. They are happy to report that overall, consumer appetite for things-to-do has gone way up from last year to this year.
Everyone Social
Everyone Social is hosting Employee Advocacy week September 20-24. The goal of the event is to help companies build authentic employee advocacy and drive internal engagement with insights, tips, and strategies from leaders in marketing, sales, employer branding, and communications.
Our portfolio companies are still still growing and hiring for over 100 different roles. If you or someone you know would be a great candidate for any of these opportunities, please reach out to us at investment@nextfrontier.com. We want to hear from you!
MeatEater: check out their open roles across accounting, consumer experience, digital marketing, and others
Bonusly: open roles in many departments including customer success, marketing, finance, product development, and sales.
Getro.org, powered by Monday.vc, connects talented employees impacted by COVID to hiring managers in the tech industry. Check out their thousands of job postings here, or contact them to post your company's open positions here.
Next Frontier Capital544 E. Main StreetSuite ABozeman, Montana 59715
And finally, if you know a great company in the Northern Rockies, send them our way! Email us a deck at investment@nextfrontier.com or reach out to us on our website. We would love to hear from you!
Until winter, Will, Richard, Les, Latham, Kirsten, Garrett + the NFC team
