Top startup news for today, Thursday, February 28, 2019

Good morning! Here are some of the top technology startup news stories for today, Thursday, the last day of February.

ClassDojo raises $35 million in Series C funding to accelerate international expansion. ClassDojo, a school communication platform that makes it easy for teachers, parents, and students to share what’s happening at school, has raised $35 million in Series C funding to accelerate international expansion and investment in more education experiences. The round, which brought the total raised by ClassDojo to date to $65m, was co-led by GSV and SignalFire, with participation from prior investors including General Catalyst and Uncork Capital. Founded in 2011 by Liam Don and Sam Chaudhary, the San Francisco, California-based ClassDojo is a school communication platform that teachers, students, and families use every day to build strong relationships and supportive communities. This is done in two ways. One, by sharing what’s being learned in the classroom back home through student portfolios, photos, videos, and messages. And, two, by helping students build social-emotional skills through in-classroom feedback and engaging activities. Today, 95% of pre K-8 schools in the U.S., as well as a further 180 countries, have joined.

Cloud Elements raises $25M in Series C funding. Cloud Elements, a  provider of an API integration platform for software providers, raised $25m in Series C funding to add new capabilities to its platform, while extending its sales, marketing and customer success capabilities in the U.S. and Europe to drive broad market adoption. The round was led by Mercato Partners, with participation from existing investors Access Ventures, American Express Ventures, Grotech Ventures, Harbert Growth Partners, Rally Ventures, and Upslope Ventures. In conjunction with the funding, Josh Christensen, principal investor at Mercato Partners, joined the Cloud Elements board. The latest capital infusion brings total funding raised to date to $46.2 million. Founded in 2012 by Mark Geene, CEO, the a Denver, Colorado-based Cloud Elements is an emerging leader in API integration platforms – allowing hundreds of software companies and large enterprises to innovate faster and integrate their digital ecosystems.

Recruiting startup Bumble is launching a women-first networking tool that lets recruiters exclude men. Tech startup Bumble is launching a women-only filter for its professional networking tool, Bumble Bizz. The idea is to help a traditionally underrepresented workforce connect and build support systems outside the office.
The tool is a sort of extension of Bumble’s core women-first mission. Founded in 2014 Whitney Wolfe Herd, by Bumble is a app to bring dating, friend-finding, and career-building into a single social networking platform. The app works in three modes: dating, friend-finding, and networking. Bringing good people together. Bumble Bizz is used by recruiters or hiring managers to find new talent, so limiting the potential pool could help women compete for jobs in male-dominated industries.

Datical bags $10 million in Series C funding. Datical, an Austin, Texas–based provider of database release automation solutions, raised $10m in Series C funding to sustain growth by expanding its research and development, customer success capabilities, and sales and marketing functions. The round, which brought total funding to $27 to date, was led by new investor River Cities Capital Funds, with participation from existing investors S3 Ventures and Mercury Fund. In conjunction with the funding, Adam Midkiff, vice president at River Cities, joined Datical’s board of directors. Founded in 2012 by Daniel Nelson (CEO), Daniel Nelson, Pete Pickerill, and Robert Reeves, Datical creates database schema automation software for the $22B IT Systems Management market. Datical provides businesses with a platform to shorten the time it takes to bring applications to market by delivering database release automation capabilities to get the most out of Agile, Cloud, DevOps and Continuous Delivery investments while eliminating the security vulnerabilities, errors, data loss and downtime associated with current database deployment methods.

Aerospace startup OneWeb launches its first satellites to take on SpaceX and Boeing in the global internet race. OneWeb, aerospace startup that deploys a micro-satellite constellation to provide global high-speed, low latency broadband access, Wednesday announced the launch of its first six satellites to space. Founded in 2011 by Greg Wyler, its mission is to address the most demanding global connectivity challenges and sudden infrastructure crises. Those affected by hurricanes, earthquakes and refugee situations are often abruptly without infrastructure — OneWeb will bridge these gaps providing instantly deployable connectivity or long-term access solutions. OneWeb is launching the first 5G ready network in space. The company also plans to launch 650 satellites in an interconnected network, called a constellation. OneWeb joins several other companies also racing to launch satellite internet constellations, including Boeing, SpaceX and Telesat.