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Israeli cyber cecurity Startup Forescout raises $76 M in funding

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Forescout, which is a Israel based network security startup that helps companies keep track of all the devices on their networks, announced that it raised $76 million in its latest investment round yesterday.

ForeScout’s solutions help corporate IT departments find devices on their networks that they are unaware of. For example, if a visitor to the company office plugs in his laptop to a port in a conference room,it can be detected. Likewise if a hacker is trying to gain access to a networked printer, the breach will be detected.

The new round of funding brings the company’s total valuation to more than $1 billion, tripling its valuation in just 18 months.

forescoutFor companies which deploy large number of IOT devices, the solutions from ForeScout are increasingly important. For many large enterprises that number of devices — which includes employees’ personal mobile devices ,PCs, virtual machines used for testing new applications, and now IoT devices — can easily run into the millions, making it hard for network administrators to keep tabs on everything happening on their company’s network. According to ForeScout when the company first runs its software with a client, it typically finds 20-30% more devices on the network than the client’s IT team expected.

With recent news of cyber attacks on the networks of major financial companies, Network security companies are cashing in the opportunity. Forescout is well-positioned to exploit the market for solutions that help secure IoT devices, a market that we expect will grow quickly in the coming years.

The company said additional capital will be used to expand global field operations, build a support organization and increase research and development efforts in the Internet of Things security market.

Funding

StayNow Secures $2.2M in funding to Empower Independent Hotel Owners

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staynow funding

Minneapolis, MN – October 30, 2024– StayNow, a platform focused on supporting independent hotel owners, announced today that it has raised $2.2 million in seed funding. The round was led by Fountane, Minnesota based venture studio, with participation from UXReactor and Founders Romal Jayswal and Siddharth Raj. This funding represents a significant step in helping family-run hotels navigate the challenges of a rapidly changing industry.

StayNow, founded by Saawan Patel, Siddharth Raj and Romal Jayswal stems from Patel’s personal experience growing up around motels operated by his family. Independent hotel owners often face pressure from larger corporate brands and the rising costs of maintaining their businesses. StayNow’s mission is to provide these owners with a platform designed to ease operational challenges without the burdens of excessive fees or restrictive terms.

 Talking with Times of Startups, Saawan said “Independent hotel owners have long been underserved by existing technologies, which often cater to large corporations or come with prohibitive costs. Our mission at StayNow is to bridge that gap by providing innovative, cost-effective solutions that allow these businesses to modernize and thrive in an increasingly competitive market while also providing an incredible experience for travelers. ”

“We’re deeply grateful to UXReactor, Fountane, early investors, and the entire StayNow team for their dedication. Partnering with Fountane has been instrumental in helping us scale StayNow’s platform with the speed and precision needed to address the unique challenges faced by independent hotels. Their expertise in building and scaling tech ventures gives us the strategic advantage to accelerate our vision and make a lasting impact in the industry.” he added.

The new funding will be used to continue refining the platform and increase marketing efforts, including collaborations with influencers and paid advertising campaigns. StayNow also plans to market directly within participating hotels, engaging with both owners and travelers.

StayNow’s partnership with UXReactor and Fountane ensures the platform is built on a foundation of scalable technology, designed to accommodate long-term growth while providing the tools needed for independent hotels to remain competitive.

About StayNow
StayNow is dedicated to providing independent hotel owners with the tools they need to compete in today’s market. The platform offers a user-friendly experience that helps streamline operations, reduce costs, and ensure that family-run hotels can continue to offer authentic, locally-driven travel experiences.

For more information about StayNow, visit StayNow.com.

About Fountane

Fountane is a dual-powered venture studio and product lab. Founded in 2017, Fountane is a global technology delivery partner and a venture studio headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with a global office in Hyderabad, India. Fountane accelerates digital transformation with cutting-edge software and AI solutions that help the earliest-stage startups and the largest corporate IT organization go further faster. Fountane’s venture studio arm fuels innovation by partnering with visionaries and corporate joint ventures, investing in high-potential opportunities with market distribution advantages. Both of these strategies together equip Fountane to not just build software, but build the businesses of the future.

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Marketplace for Sustainable Products, Brown Living Secures Funding from Strategic Investors to Drive India’s Sustainable Living Revolution

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Brown Living funding

Brown Living, India’s leading platform for promoting sustainable and plastic-free living, has raised a round of pre-seed funding to supercharge its growth and make sustainable living the default choice for millions of Indian consumers. The round was led by Blink Digital, along with investments from Sanjay Nayar, Founder and Chairman of Sorin Investments, and investor Bharat Iyer.

The fresh capital injection is set to accelerate Brown Living’s mission to make sustainable living a mainstream choice for Indian consumers. The funds will also fuel the platform’s growth in supporting India’s artisan and SME sectors, playing a crucial role in the fight against plastic pollution and chemically laden products.

Since its inception in 2019, Brown Living has also onboarded Bollywood producer and environmentalist Pragya Kapoor as a partner & investor, whose investment value has grown more than 350%. The brand has also seen a phenomenal YOY growth of 500% since its first round of funding in June 2021.

With 650 sellers and 1800+ artisans at present, the new round of investment will enable the platform to scale and provide market access to many more artisans and suppliers. As an ecosystem that brings them together in the sustainable living value chain, Brown Living is creating a measurable impact by tracking sustainability metrics, ensuring transparency, and building trust in the marketplace for artisans, suppliers, consumers and investors.

Chaitsi Ahuja, Founder & CEO of Brown Living, shared her excitement: “This funding will enable us to scale our efforts to reach our next million customers and expand our Artisan-to-Consumer (A2C) model. Our platform empowers consumers to choose eco-friendly products while supporting small businesses and we’re excited to deepen our partnerships with artisan communities and help them go digital and make sustainable living mainstream.”

Brown Living is now building on its unique A2C model that connects artisans directly with eco-conscious consumers, offering transparent and fair pricing. The platform’s tech-driven infrastructure ensures scalability without compromising values, giving small businesses a stage to thrive while championing sustainability.

Dooj Ramchandani, Co-founder of Blink Digital and lead investor in the funding round, highlighted the potential of Brown Living’s unique model: “What sets Brown Living apart in the startup and D2C space is their deep-rooted connection with India’s artisans and SMEs. They’ve created a direct line between these creators and the conscious consumer, delivering authenticity and transparency. Their unique A2C (Artisan-to-Consumer) model will allow Brown Living to directly engage with consumers while giving artisans access to fair pricing and a global stage for their eco-friendly, sustainable products. This will build trust and exponentially accelerate the market for sustainable living.”

Sanjay Nayar, key investor and Founder of Sorin Investments, added, “Brown Living’s platform has the potential to scale impact across India. Their mission-driven approach, combined with strong tech infrastructure, positions them to lead the shift toward sustainable living at a national level.”

According to a recent Bain & Co. study, over 67% of Indian consumers are willing to pay a premium for locally made, eco-friendly products. With the sustainable goods market expected to exceed $50 billion by 2030, Brown Living is set to be at the forefront of this movement.

Investor Pragya Kapoor, an environmental advocate, remarked, “I’m thrilled to see Brown Living grow and bring more conscious consumers into the fold. It is no longer just a marketplace; it is surging forward to building an ecosystem that brings together all stakeholders in the sustainable living value chain.  This round of funding will help them provide artisans and SMEs with the tools they need to scale and bring sustainable products to the masses.”

Brown Living has also benefited from accelerator programs such as Google For Startups Accelerator India Women Founders Program, the Stanford Seed Spark Program and AWE Tech Spark supported by The U.S. Consulate General Mumbai, which have helped the company build a robust technical stack to support its growth and expand its reach.

L to RZashank Bhatia – Director of Growth at Brown Living, Varun Ahuja – Chief of Finance at Brown Living, Dooj Ramchandani, a lead investor at Brown Living and Co-founder at Blink Digital, Chaitsi Ahuja – Founder & CEO at Brown Living, Sanjay Nayar, Investor at Brown Living and Founding Partner at Sorin Investments, Bharat Iyer, Investor at Brown Living, Jayesh Dattani – Investment Team at Sanjay Nayar’s Family Office, Pragya Kapoor – Investor at Brown Living, Vedika Kshatriya – Analyst at Brown Living

About Brown Living:

Brown Living is India’s largest marketplace for sustainable and plastic-free products, offering a curated selection of eco-friendly goods across fashion, home decor, lifestyle, and more. Committed to reducing plastic waste, Brown Living ensures biodegradable packaging, carbon-neutral deliveries, and a marketplace that empowers both artisans and consumers to make more mindful choices. Their vision is to make environmentally sustainable products easily accessible and affordable to the consumers of today. They have set an ambitious mission to plant & maintain a million trees by 2027 and to support 100,000 artisans by enabling them and digitising them through the A2C platform.

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Paren Secures $3M in Seed Funding alongside Acquisition of EVAdoption LLC to Power Unified Electric Mobility

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Paren, an EV data platform startup, raises capital from Base10 Partners

Paren Inc., a software platform powering electric mobility with unified data insights, today announced that it has raised $3M in its first round of financing. The round was led by Base10 Partners. Founders Network Fund and Luc Vincent (founder, Google Street View and Lyft 5) also participated in the round. Paren will use the capital to scale its current data platform and build new services on top of it.


Paren Inc

Paren was founded in 2023 with the goal of accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles by enabling a seamless driving experience. The company, after acquiring EVSession, LLC in March 2024 and experiencing accelerated growth, recently completed an additional acquisition of EVAdoption LLC, an EV infrastructure data and analysis firm. Loren McDonald, EVAdoption’s founder and a trusted industry expert joins the executive team as Chief Evangelist.

Paren estimates that 100 million public fast charging sessions will occur in the U.S. in 2024 and expects over 1 billion charging sessions by 2030 at which time a projected 7.5% of vehicles in operation will be battery powered. Access to rich data sets, including EV charging station reliability, is key to realizing this expansion. As a neutral platform, Paren synthesizes fragmented data across the ecosystem into a unified model, addressing the limitations of closed-loop systems, and enabling more powerful applications to be built on top of its dataset. Paren’s reliability analysis has been validated by a recent charger health study (source).

“We are thrilled to have the support of Base10 and our other investors as we address the foundational aspects of the EV charging infrastructure with unified data insights”, said Florent Breton, CEO and Co-Founder of Paren. “With the continued momentum at Paren alongside the acquisition of EVAdoption, we welcome Loren as one of the most well-regarded experts in the industry.”.

“Based on our lengthy EV driving experience, we know that charging on the public network requires seamless access to availability, reliability, pricing, amenities, and safety data,” noted Bill Ferro, CTO and Co-Founder of Paren. “Our solutions are designed to empower automakers, map makers, fleet operators, and other enterprise customers to elevate the driver experience. Combining with EVAdoption’s data will broaden our platform and allow for more robust product offerings.”

This investment will allow Paren to grow its team, expand data sets, and scale its platform to meet the demand of enterprise partners. Notably, Paren is expanding its API access to reliability, plus augmenting its data sets around amenities, pricing, and safety to be seamlessly available to drivers using the national EV infrastructure.

“Paren’s data offers unique insights into the EV charging industry that continue to unlock key business opportunities for us,” said Brandon Stritch, CEO of StritchCo, a Charge Point Operator based in Florida and Paren Customer. “We look forward to benefiting from their expanded data sets and services to help us drive future revenue growth.”

“Charging anxiety is one of the biggest blockers to EV adoption, and much of that is the result of charger reliability. This is a huge problem today that is only getting more acute as EV adoption and production goals uptick,” noted Rexhi Dollaku, General Partner at Base10 Partners. “The team at Paren has deep industry expertise, familiarity with this point, and understanding/collaboration with the key market stakeholders. Paren has created a platform that we believe is uniquely positioned to solve the charger anxiety crisis.”

 

About Paren
Founded by Florent Breton (CEO) and Bill Ferro (CTO), Paren Inc is based out of San Francisco, Ca. Acting as a neutral platform, Paren aggregates, enriches, and serves the most comprehensive data on the essential aspects of EV charging. Its data is accessible via an online application or API Gateway.

About Base10 Partners
Founded by Adeyemi Ajao and TJ Nahigian, Base10 is a San Francisco-based venture capital fund investing in founders who believe purpose is key to profits and in companies that are automating sectors of the Real Economy.


Paren Data For California

 

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