Pear Commerce Raises $10 Million In Series A Funding Round

Pear Commerce recently announced a $10 million Series A funding round that will help the company transform shoppable media and enhance retail ecommerce strategies.

Pear's enablement platform supplies consumer-packaged goods (CPG) brands with data-driven information that improves the shopping experience for online consumers. The company's technology provides embedded add-to-cart features in digital advertising, product and store locators, cross-retail price comparisons, and dashboards to CPG brands that afford brands selling through retail the ability to evaluate their performance marketing and advertising spend as if it were a direct-to-consumer business.

The Series A investment will accelerate Pear's mission to make everything shoppable and help further unlock direct-to-consumer marketing for CPG brands. The funding will be used to enhance Pear’s product offerings, provide CPG brands with more meaningful insights, and grow their team in sales, engineering, and customer success roles.

Click the link to read the entire article on PR Newswire: Pear Commerce Secures $10M in Series A Funding to Transform Shoppable Media and Enhance Retail Ecommerce Strategies

Private Asset in Diversified Portfolios Seminar

Join us to discuss where private assets fit in diversified portfolios. 

 

Discussion: 

  • Fundamental advantages of holding a mixture of publicly-traded assets and privately-held assets
  • Matching time horizon for portfolio distribution needs with liquidity characteristics of investments
  • How to think about the diverse private asset categories including real estate, private credit, private equity, and venture capital

When: 
Tuesday, December 3rd at 4:00-6:00PM CST.

Where:
Wells Fargo Place
30 E. Seventh Street, Suite 2500
St. Paul, MN 55101
Validated parking, entrance address is 445 Cedar Street, St. Paul, MN 55101

Time:
4:00-4:30 pm Networking
4:30-5:15 pm Panel Discussion
5:15-5:30 pm Q&A Session
5:30-6:00 pm Appetizers & Refreshments

Our Panelist:
Kelsey Deschler, Chief Investment Officer, Carleton College
Toby Dayton, Board Chair, Okabena family office
Mark Henneman, Board Chair, Mairs & Power

 

BetterYou Lands $6 Million Funding Round

BetterYou, a St. Paul-based startup that promotes healthy phone-use habits, announced $6 million in Series A funding for its app.

The financing will enable BetterYou to invest in additional sales, marketing, and software hires, as well as continue to refine the mobile app user experience.

BetterYou utilizes artificial intelligence to track a user’s phone usage patterns and automatically notify them to accomplish goals they want to achieve. The app then automatically tracks progress instead of requiring the user to manually enter data.

Click the link to read the entire article in Twin Cities Business: St. Paul-Based healthy Habits App Lands $6M Raise

Lunr Announces $6 Million Funding Round

Lunr, a Minneapolis-based fintech provider of inventory financing for emerging retail brands, announced a $6 million funding round.

The financing will enable enhancements to Lunr’s integrated retail analytics dashboard, which combines real-time data on inventory costs, sales, retailer demand forecasting, and other key retail performance metrics. This provides brands with insights to fine-tune their retail growth strategies, set optimal funding goals, and maximize financial performance.

This strategic equity financing comes on the heels of Lunr securing a $100 million credit facility from i80 Group, further expanding Lunr’s capacity to serve mission-driven retail brands.

Click the link to read the entire press release: Lunr Secures $6 Million Equity Funding to Advance Data-Driven Retail Financing.

GEM HEALTH Raises Additional Financing

GEM HEALTH, a Minnesota-based digital specialty care clinic, announced it has successfully raised $5 million in a Seed round of financing.

The funding will allow GEM to expand payment options by offering insurance coverage through more local and national health plans, making convenient care affordable to millions.

GEM HEALTH was founded in 2022 and develops innovative specialty care models to remove the complexity and accessibility gaps that cause millions to forego essential care each year. GEM's first product, GEM SLEEP, helps those with obstructive sleep apnea find relief. GEM SLEEP provides a simple guided experience through diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing support, reducing the time to relief from months to weeks. 

Click the link to read the entire press release: GEM HEALTH Raises Additional Financing to Expand GEM SLEEP Virtual Care to Millions of People Suffering from Sleep Conditions.

Creatively Focused Raises $3 Million In Seed Funding Round

Creatively Focused, a Minnesota-based technology company supporting special educators, recently announced it has raised $3 million in a seed round of financing

The seed funding will allow for advancements in the educator-driven technology, automated workflows, and training as Creatively Focused aims to revolutionize special education for both educators and students. It will also allow the company to expand into public, K-12 school districts across all 50 states to add to the more than 1,000 special educators already being supported through axis3, its human-centered SaaS platform.

Click the link to read the entire press release: Creatively Focused Raises $3M to Keep Special Educators From Leaving the Classroom.

Mairs & Power Venture Capital Welcomes Scott Burns as General Partner

SAINT PAUL, Minnesota — August 28, 2023 — Mairs & Power Private Capital Management is pleased to announce that Scott Burns will be joining the firm as General Partner.

Mairs & Power Private Capital Management, dba Mairs & Power Venture Capital, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mairs & Power, Inc., that was launched in 2022. Its mission is to partner with high potential venture-stage companies, particularly in the Software, Business Services, Healthcare, FinTech, EdTech, and other high growth sectors.

"I am thrilled to welcome Scott to the Mairs & Power Venture Capital team,” said John Bergstrom, General Partner. “His expertise as an entrepreneur and investor aligns seamlessly with our strategic vision. His history of successfully building his own companies and moving them through the venture stages makes him an instrumental addition for us.”

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