10 Cool Tech Companies That Raised Funding In August 2022

Companies reporting new rounds of funding in August included developers of next-generation technology in secure browsers, cloud and data center processors, industrial IoT security, cloud infrastructure optimization, data analytics and data integration.

Follow The Money

With the ongoing economic uncertainty, the amount of venture capital flowing to IT startups continues to slow. Fewer companies are reporting new funding rounds. And funding rounds are smaller: Rounds of $50 million and even $100 million or more, a fairly common occurrence in early 2022, are now a rarity.

Nevertheless, a number of IT startups reported raising additional venture capital in August and two, secure browser developer Talon Cyber Security and next-generation cloud/data center microprocessor designer Pliops, managed to hit the nine-figure threshold.

While companies developing leading-edge technology in cybersecurity and big data have accounted for a disproportionate share of venture funding wins in recent years, our August roundup includes a more varied list of startups who pulled in new financing.

In addition to Talon Cyber Security and Pliops, AI tech developer Aisera reported an impressive funding round as did industrial IoT security developer TXOne Networks.

The August list includes a number of companies that reported smaller, early-stage funding rounds including real-time data analytics startup StarTree, concept and usability testing software company Sprig, and cyber risk quantification tech developer Axio. Software code observability platform provider Rookout raised funding in August as did cloud infrastructure optimization technology startup Sync Computing, and data integration/data streaming platform developer Equalum.

Here’s a look at 10 companies that raised funding in August 2022.

Talon Cyber Security

Headquarters: Tel Aviv, Israel

CEO: Ofer Ben-Noon

Funding: $100 million in a Series A funding round.

Investors: The round was led by Evolution Equity Partners with participation from Ballistic Ventures, CrowdStrike’s Falcon Fund, Merlin Ventures, SYN Ventures and previous investors CrowdStrike CEO and founder George Kurtz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sorenson Ventures and Team8.

What company does: Talon develops a secure enterprise browser.

CEO Quote: “We have built the team and technology to redefine and power security for the future of work – a future where security is delivered naturally through the enterprise’s most heavily-used application: the browser. The world and the applications the largest organizations rely on are moving to the web, creating an extensive need for a vehicle that can provide secure access without changing the way work is conducted. This new funding will allow us to continue to show why that vehicle is Talon’s secure enterprise browser.”

Pliops

Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.

CEO: Uri Beitler

Funding: The $100 million Series D funding round brought Pliops’ total funding to more than $200 million since its 2017 founding.

Investors: The round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies with participation from SK hynix, Lip-Bu Tan (chairman of Walden International) and State of Mind Ventures Momentum, in addition to participation from previous investors.

What company does: Pliops develops data processors for cloud and enterprise data centers. The company’s Extreme Data Processor radically simplifies the way data is processed and flash storage is managed.

CEO Quote: “The ability to monetize data faster and get much more while paying much less is the core priority of every organization, especially in times of market volatility. Our transformative product offers this exact unique capability, making it imminent that Pliops XDP will be the cornerstone of every modern data center. With the trust of our existing customers and partners, and our commitment to align company resources with the current economic climate, this funding round will accelerate our market adoption and help move us closer to becoming the market leader.”

Aisera

Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.

CEO: Muddu Sudhakar

Funding: $90 million in a Series D funding round.

Investors: The round was led by the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and by Thoma Bravo. Also participating were true Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Icon Ventures, World Innovation Lab, Zoom Ventures, Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, Maynard Webb (Webb Investment Network), Ram Shriram (Sherpalo Ventures) and Silicon Valley Bank.

What company does: Aisera develops an AI-driven service experience platform that automates operations and support for IT, sales and customer service.

CEO Quote: “AI has become necessary to support employees in today’s highly inflationary, work-from-anywhere environment and customers who expect to get the help they need expeditiously. Advances in conversational AI deliver better experiences than traditional support solutions like legacy ITSM and customer support providers. With the injection of growth capital from Goldman Sachs and Thoma Bravo, Aisera will be the invisible hand of innovation that enables all users – across all lines of business and industries – to get the support experiences they’ve come to expect without human latency, error, or disruption.

TXOne Networks

Headquarters: Irving, Texas and Taipei, Taiwan

CEO: Terence Liu

Funding: $70 million in a Series B funding round.

Investors: The round was led by TGVest Capital ($20 million), with participation from KAiA Capital, CDIB Capital Group, CDIB-Innolux L.P., MediaTek, Ta Ya Electric Wire & Cable, Ta Ya Venture Capital, Simplo Technology Group, CHT Security Corporation and Ash Tower Limited, as well as Steven Pan (Silks Hotel Group chairman) and Chun-I Wu (TAYIH Group chairman). Lead investors in TXOne Networks’ Series A funding round: JAFCO Asia and Jade Stone Jinghua Limited Partnership Fund, increased their investment in the Series B round.

What company does: TXOne Networks develops industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) security technology that ensures the reliability and safety of industrial control systems and operational technology environments through OT zero trust methodology.

CEO Quote: “With cyberattacks on the rise, the zero trust era has arrived for OT networks. TXOne Networks’ highly adaptable, OT-native cybersecurity solutions for ICS are proving uniquely up to the task of helping enterprises safeguard operations from known and unknown threats, comply with regulatory requirements and improve core competitiveness.”

StarTree

Headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.

CEO: Kishore Gopalakrishna

Funding: The $47 million Series B funding round brings the company’s total funding to $75 million.

Investors: The round was led by Series A investor GGV Capital with additional investment from new investor Sapphire Ventures and existing investors Bain Capital Ventures and CRV.

What company does: StarTree develops a cloud-based, real-time data analytics platform based on Apache Pinot, an open-source, real-time distributed OLAP datastore.

CEO Quote: “We’re frankly amazed and humbled by how the community has embraced Apache Pinot and StarTree. Such explosive growth within a short time period proves the need for the delivery of real-time analytics with low latency at scale. With the new technology and services we’re building on top of Apache Pinot, we’re opening the door for any company to extract intelligence that enables their customers, partners and employees to take action based on the freshest data and insights.”

Sprig

Headquarters: San Francisco

CEO: Ryan Glasgow

Funding: The $30 million raised in a continuation of the company’s Series B funding brought the company’s total financing to $88 million, according to the Crunchbase website.

Investors: The funding came from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, First Round Capital and Elad Gil, along with new investors including Figma Ventures.

What company does: Sprig’s concept and usability testing software helps businesses test ideas, concepts, designs and prototypes before building a product.

CEO Quote: “Companies need to build and ship new products and features in order to grow. But product development is a risky investment when 42 percent of new proucts fail due to ‘no market need.’ In today’s macroeconomic environment, it’s critical that research, product, and design work efficiently together to get product and feature releases right the first time.”

Axio

Headquarters: New York

CEO: Scott Kannry

Funding: The $23 million Series B funding round brought Axio’s total funding to $30 million.

Investors: The round was led by global cybersecurity services provider ISTARI with participation from existing investors including Distributed Ventures, IA Capital Group and Bob Dudley, Axio chairman and former CEO of BP.

What company does: Axio develops software-as-a-service cyber risk quantification solutions.

CEO Quote: “We are ecstatic about securing this Series B investment round that now gives us the means to meet the growing global demand for cyber risk quantification. The attack landscape has demonstrated that old, faith-based strategies that simply layer on controls without a clear understanding of what to prioritize have done little to reduce susceptibility.”

Rookout

Headquarters: Tel Aviv, Israel

CEO: Shahar Fogel

Funding: $16 million in a Series B funding round.

Investors: The round was led by Fort Ross Ventures with participation from existing investors TLV Partners, Emerge and Cisco Investments, as well as new investors LIAN Group, Mighty Capital, and Binder & Partners.

What company does: Rookout provides a developer-first observability platform that collects data from live code, helping engineers find the data they need to understand and advance their software.

CEO Quote: “Rookout’s mission is to get to the heart of what developers actually care about. Every engineering organization today is seeking to optimize velocity. Our solution offers code-level data extraction from any type of cloud-native environment. This funding round will further accelerate our product development towards our vision of developer-first observability.”

Sync Computing

Headquarters: Boston

CEO: Jeff Chou

Funding: $15.5 million in a Series A funding round.

Investors: The round was led by Costanoa Ventures with participation from existing investors The Engine, Moore Strategic Ventures and National Grid Partners. Also participating are individual “angel” investors Satyen Sangani (Alation co-founder and CEO), Ron Avnur (formerly with Google, MongoDB and Dremio), and Rebecca Li (formerly with Databricks).

What company does: Sync Computing develops cloud infrastructure optimization technology that automatically orchestrates and provisions cloud infrastructure to achieve cost and runtime goals.

CEO Quote: “Amid fears of an impending economic recession, now more than ever, cloud computing costs are under the microscope. Companies are in urgent need to curb cloud spend and quickly increase their efficiency without hiring new people or driving the burden upon their team. Sync empowers data-driven companies to do more on the cloud with less.”

Equalum

Headquarters: Sunnyvale, Calif.

CEO: Guy Eilon

Funding: The $14 million Series C funding round brings Equalum’s total financing to $39 million.

Investors: Investors included Planven, United Ventures, Innovation Endeavours, Saints Capital and SpringTide Ventures.

What company does: Equalum develops a data integration and streaming platform for collecting, transforming, manipulating and synchronizing data.

CEO Quote: “The success of an organization can more often be measured by its ability to quickly access, move and process business-critical data for a wide range of important applications. With the mission of taking data integration to the next level, this round extends our reach to a greater number of enterprises seeking a more performant, efficient solution.”