What companies are finding funding or having a big exit? From startup investments to grants and acquisitions, Dallas Innovates tracks what’s happening in North Texas money every Thursday. Sign up for our e-newsletter to stay in the loop.

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Greenway Technologies reports $118K in equity funding

Arlington-based Greenway Technologies Inc. reported in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it raised $118,000 in equity funding.

Greenway is researching and developing proprietary gas-to-liquids syngas conversion systems and micro-plants, which can be scaled to meet specific gas field production requirements. The company’s patented and propriety technologies have resulted in its first commercial G-Reformer unit—a unique component used to convert natural gas to synthetic gas that once combined with a reactor and catalyst, produces such fuels as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and methanol.

In a previous statement, Greenway noted that G-Reformer units can be deployed to process a variety of natural gas streams including pipeline gas, associated gas, flared gas, vented gas, coal-bed methane, and/or biomass gas.

The liquid fuels created in the process are cleaner than conventionally produced oil-based fuels, according to Greenway.

In 2017, we reported that Greenway Innovative Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Greenway Technologies, conducted a successful gas-to-liquid test at the Conrad Greer Laboratory at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Flight booking app FlyLine reports $500K in pre-seed funds

Dallas-based travel app FlyLine has raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding, the company reported earlier this year.

Founded in January by CEO Adam Ward and CTO Zachary Burau, Flyline is a subscription flight booking engine that works to save members up to 60 percent off of retail flights via exclusive multi-carrier fares, no markup, and an integrated meta search for a one-stop booking experience, according to Crunchbase.

Trend Micro spin-out Cysiv raises $26M in Series A round

Cysiv, an Irving-based enterprise Security Operations Center-as-a-Service company originally incubated within Trend Micro, announced it has closed a $26 million Series A funding round, which will be used to scale business operations and fuel further platform enhancements.

The startup’s service is a cloud-based platform that combines all elements of a proactive, threat-hunting security operations center with a managed security stack for hybrid cloud, network, and endpoint security.

The funding round was led by San Francisco-based ForgePoint Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in cybersecurity companies. Trend Forward Capital, the investment arm of Irving-based Trend Micro, has been actively backing Cysiv and is also participating in this financing round, according to a statement. 

SOC-as-a-Service, which is a specialized managed security service, works to address challenges faced by enterprises currently. Those challenges include sophisticated and evasive threats, a larger attack surface, deficient and inefficient security tools, alert fatigue, rising costs, increasing regulatory requirements, and a cybersecurity skills shortage, according to a statement.

Cysiv says that two complementary and essential service areas comprise SOC-as-a-Service—proactive threat detection and managed security.

Cysiv was launched in 2018 within Trend Micro in a partnership with HITRUST, a data protection standards development and certification organization. Now, Cysiv is an independent company, having spun out of Trend Micro.

iDonate nets $8.7M in funding for digital giving platform

iDonate, the Plano-based provider of digital giving systems, has completed an $8.7 million funding round.

According to a statement, the funding will allow the company to fully integrate iDonate Payments into its core platform to create an SaaS/payments solution supporting new tender types such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet, as well as international payment processing. Founded in 2011, iDonate provides an all-in-one platform designed to connect and engage donors with nonprofits.

The money also will accelerate additional functionality designed to personalize the donor experience and help nonprofits be more efficient as they use digital donations to grow their causes.

This funding round is led by PerformanceEdge Partners, an Arizona-based venture capital firm focused on SaaS growth businesses. The round also included several existing investors, according to a statement.

In 2018, we reported that iDonate raised $10 million in a Series A funding round also led by PerformanceEdge Partners. 

DocSynk gets bridge funding as it works toward Series A round

DocSynk, an Irving-headquartered healthcare AI startup announced it has received bridge funding from Colosseum Group, a Chicago-based private equity firm. The funding will help the startup move toward a Series A round later this year.

Previously, DocSynk raised $1 million in a seed round of funding from Dallas-based Naya Ventures, and has reiterated its continued commitment by participating in the bridge round, according to DocSynk. The amount of the bridge funding, which is a form of interim financing used by companies to solidify their short-term position, was not released.

In January, we featured DocSynk in a report on seven trends that will affect the future of investing opportunities in North Texas. DocSynk is driven by “making healthcare better” through machine learning, and we recognized its tech in the AI sector.

DocSynk’s AI system, which compiles lists of patients who are at risk for chronic illnesses—such as early-onset diabetes or coronary artery disease, along with their probability of being diagnosed within certain time frames—was cited as an important player in the artificial intelligence sector in North Texas.

The startup’s tech creates plans for patients to prevent or delay the symptoms, along with managing business functions of healthcare organizations and enabling customers to handle jobs like rescheduling appointments.

“We have three paying customers and a strong pipeline of household healthcare names that we’re signing up between now and the first quarter of 2020,” said CEO Vaidyanatha Siva, who founded the startup in 2015.

Flight booking app FlyLine reports $500K in pre-seed funds

Dallas-based travel app FlyLine has raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding, the company reported earlier this year.

Founded in January by CEO Adam Ward and CTO Zachary Burau, Flyline is a subscription flight booking engine that works to save members up to 60 percent off of retail flights via exclusive multi-carrier fares, no markup, and an integrated meta search for a one-stop booking experience, according to Crunchbase.

OTHER FUNDING

SEMBA Technologies, a Plano-headquartered B2B digital commerce platform, has received a convertible note for an undisclosed amount. Founded in 2016 by Asia Biswas, SEMBA works to deliver a seamless e-commerce platform that streamlines internal technology, optimizes order capturing, and organizes distribution and fulfillment models. 

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Integrity Marketing acquires Utah-based ad agency

Dallas-based Integrity Marketing Group has completed its acquisition of Salt Lake City-based ThomasArts, an advertising agency specializing in the senior insurance market.

Integrity Marketing is one of the nation’s largest independent distributors of life and health insurance products.

No financial terms of the deal were released.

ThomasArts CEO Dave Thomas, co-president and chief marketing officer Anne Wood, co-president and chief creative officer Troy Thomas, and other key executives will become owners in Integrity, according to a statement. Also, all 200 ThomasArts employees will become immediately eligible to participate in the recently announced, Integrity-wide Employee Ownership Plan.

Varsity Brands’ BSN SPORTS acquires assets from Kollege Town

BSN SPORTS, a Dallas-based direct marketer and distributor of sporting goods to the school and league markets, announced it has acquired strategic assets from Riddell’s Kollege Town division. BSN is a division of Dallas-based Varsity Brands.

The acquired assets include roughly 50 sales representatives, sales management, and customer service professionals, as well as Kollege Town’s fanaKTive graphic capabilities, according to a statement. No financial terms of the deal were released.

“We have admired the Kollege Town team for many years, and share their commitment to providing customers with the broadest array of high-quality products paired with innovative programs that maximize team budgets,” BSN SPORTS President Terry Babilla said in a statement.

The statement noted that the deal adds to BSN SPORTS’ presence in some Midwest markets.

Cushman & Wakefield acquires Dallas multifamily property manager

Cushman & Wakefield has acquired Dallas-based Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC to establish a foothold for C&W across 20 major U.S. multifamily markets.

Chicago-based C&W, one of the largest real estate services companies in DFW, noted that as part of the deal, Hunt Cos. Inc. of El Paso has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its majority interest in Pinnacle to Cushman, reports the Dallas Business Journal.

In a statement, C&W said that Pinnacle manages over 169,000 units across 839 properties for a variety of top multifamily owners including institutional, private and foreign investors; financial institutions; pension funds; private partnerships; sole owners; and government housing groups.

Colorado company acquires Dallas-based Serendebyte

Colorado-based TTEC Holdings Inc. has acquired a majority interest in Dallas-based intelligent automation CX solutions provider Serendebyte.

TTEC is a digital global customer experience tech and services business focused on the design, implementation, and delivery of solutions for many worldwide brands.

According to a statement, Serendebyte helps companies transform their customer and employee experiences by improving sales process automation, customer service, marketing automation, and operations/compliance for large enterprises. 

AZZ to divest its Nuclear Logistics business unit

AZZ Inc, a Fort Worth-based global provider of metal coating services, welding solutions, specialty electrical equipment, and highly engineered services, has agreed to divest its Nuclear Logistics LLC operating business unit to Paragon Energy Solutions.

No terms were released on the deal, which is expected to close by the end of the fourth quarter of AZZ’s fiscal year 2020. 

Upon the close of the deal, it expects to record a one-time, non-cash charge related to the divestiture that would be moderately offset by the realization of deal-related tax benefits to the current fiscal year, according to a statement.

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