New ideas in healthtech, payments, aviation and other industries have sprouted along the West Coast. Several Bay Area companies are working to modernize these spaces with their latest funding raises. Catch up on the latest with the Built In SF Weekly Refresh.
Joby Aviation secured $180M. The company is working to build an all-electric passenger aircraft. Joby aims to develop an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft to be used as a commercial taxi service. Its latest stock sale to Baillie Gifford will equip Joby with the funding needed to accelerate its early production. [TechCrunch]
Simpplr raised $70M. Simpplr is an internal social networking platform that lets employees interact over a private web network in activities like polls and content sharing. The company announced a new round of capital from lead investor Sapphire Ventures that it plans to invest in expanding its workforce and fueling product R&D. [TechCrunch]
SF Tech Quote of the Week
“With this new round of funding, we’re well-positioned to extend our industry leadership and growth. By automating [accounts payable] and other financial processes, OpenEnvoy empowers finance teams to focus on more strategic activities that help our clients recognize significant hard dollar returns through improved cash flow and operational efficiencies.” — Matthew Tillman, CEO of OpenEnvoy
OpenEnvoy pulled in $15M. RRE Ventures led the Series A funding round for OpenEnvoy, a developer of an accounts payable automation platform. OpenEnvoy works to help businesses prevent overpayments by using artificial intelligence to digitize and reconcile invoices. The company plans to grow its global footprint with the fresh capital. [PR Newswire]
Elevage Medical Technologies launched. Patient Square Capital, a healthcare investment firm, announced the launch of its newest portfolio company Elevage Medical Technologies. Elevage will work to grow medical device companies through a combination of capital infusions as well as operational and clinical expertise. Patient Square Capital has poured $300 million into the new company. [MedCity News]
In more VC funding news: Greylock Partners and Venrock led a $5 million seed investment in Airspeed, a newly-launched employee culture and connection solution. [Yahoo! Finance]
Generative AI company NinjaTech AI announced a $5 million seed round from SRI International and others to build out what NinjaTech called a next-generational personal assistant. [Yahoo! Finance]
Openlayer leverages machine learning to help teams deal with model failures. The platform raised $4.8 million to expand its team and platform functionality. [Business Wire]
