Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that AlertMedia has closed all of their $4 million series A reported below. A company spokesperson confirmed the funds were still transferring after Monday's SEC filing deadline.
This week, two Austin tech companies have announced closing healthy funding rounds, especially by local standards — and in an investment landscape that’s supposedly strained these days.
Silverton Partners led a $4 million series A equity financing round announced yesterday afternoon that included ATX Seed Ventures and previous investors.
AlertMedia’s emergency communication platform serves tens of thousands of subscribers in more than 80 countries.
“Silverton is very excited to continue our investment in the AlertMedia team,” Silverton partner and AlertMedia board member Morgan Flager said in a statement. “The company has developed a world-class product, which is in high demand across the dozens of industries AlertMedia already serves.”
The three-year-old Austin startup is also the company behind SafeSignal, a tether that connects to the headphone jack of a smartphone and summons emergency support for workers in high-risk situations when removed.
“Our goal is to continue developing amazing products, and deliver those products to enterprise customers who want to keep their people safe, informed and connected,” AlertMedia founder and CEO Brian Cruver (pictured left) said in a statement. “This investment and the ongoing support of our capital partners will help us achieve that goal at a much greater scale and much sooner than originally planned.”
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The round also included previous investors The Entrepreneurs’ Fund (TEF) and Alameda Ventures.
Last year, SparkCognition was named the hottest startup in Austin by SXSW and the Chamber of Commerce for its combination of cognitive AI with a data analytics platform to provide insights and security for consumer and industrial electronics, including nascent Internet of Things (IoT) systems ripe for exploitation.
“We are already well on our way to an AI-powered Industrial IoT Revolution – where cognitive systems will truly augment human capabilities, but at machine speed and big data scale,” SparkCognition Founder and CEO Amir Husain (pictured right) said in a statement. “Our collaboration with CME Ventures and Verizon Ventures further validate the work we are doing at SparkCognition and speak to the industry needs we are addressing within the Industrial IoT and cyber security markets.”
SparkCognition’s cybersecurity product uses natural language processing to analyze unstructured data to anticipate attacks in IoT systems. The service then uses machine learning to recognize patterns and form automated insights to thwart similar attacks in the future.
“With the emergence of connected devices, cyber security becomes extremely important and solutions that can analyze structured and unstructured security data is needed,” said Vijay Doradla, director at Verizon Ventures. “The uniqueness of SparkCognition’s cognitive platform is clear. We look forward to working with this innovative group as their powerful technology propels IoT and cyber security forward.”
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