Tech Coast Angels: Tourmaline Labs Closes $2MillionFunding Round;
$1.5 Million from Tech Coast Angels
Three of Tech Coast Angels’ chapters unite for large initial raise, citing company’s management team, unique AI technology, and current revenue model
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – October 2, 2018 —Tech Coast Angels (TCA)along with ClearVision Equity Partners(ClearVision)closed a $2 million financing round for Tourmaline Labsin September. ClearVision led the transaction providing $500K, with the additional $1.5 million coming from TCA and TCA’s ACE Fund.
San Diego-based Tourmaline Labs analyzes mobility data, such as speed and other sensor data, to provide smartphone-based solutions for large enterprise fleets via a pure SaaS model, which allows integration and management of third-party vehicles and operators.
Tourmaline Labs plans on using the capital raise to build a robust sales and account management team, as well as ensuring its proprietary technology scales up.
“Our greatest limitation to growth is our sales and support efforts,” said Marc Brungger, CEO of Tourmaline Labs. “The funding will be used to build sales functions and account management teams to manage the opportunities and insights our technology offers to enterprise customers and prospects.”
This deal marks one of the largest initial raises from TCA directly in recent history. Dean Rosenberg and Nickolas Phillips led the financing for TCA and said that they were impressed with the strength of the management team, and the until-now unmet need for using AI technology to integrate third party vehicles into large enterprise fleets.
“The AI technology is proven and the company already had a strong recurring revenue model in place,” said Rosenberg. “In addition to the technology, we were impressed with the management team and the results that they have already achieved. And it is always exciting to see how our investments in exciting local companies continue to enhance the entrepreneurial ecosystem throughout Southern California.”
“Another attractive aspect was the steady growth and traction that Tourmaline Labs was able to show us in the enterprise space,” said Phillips. “They already have an excellent customer base and I was also attracted to this deal because the executive team has a core strength in providing technology solutions in the automotive/telematics space.”
“Automobile technology will change more in the next five years than it has in the past 50 years,” concluded Brungger. “With TCA’s advocacy and support, we now have the capital to help our customers adapt to these changes. And I am particularly excited that we were able to raise this funding locally, completely within Southern California.”
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