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Edge computing is a 鈥渕ovement鈥� to bring the power of the computer closer to where data is created or consumed to 鈥渞ival the experience of the human brain,鈥� explained Packet co-founder Zac Smith.

Equinix has data centers all over the world. With Packet being part of Equinix, it will be able to take its platform and put it all throughout Equinix鈥檚 platform. It will also help more companies take advantage of the hybrid cloud, Smith said.

Packet, while headquartered in New York, has a presence in cities such as Dallas and Palo Alto. Packet鈥檚 140 employees will be joining Equinix.

News of the planned deal was announced earlier this year, and was expected to close in the first quarter of 2020. The acquisition closed on March 3, according to Packet.

Packet raised $9.4 million in a Series A round led by in August 2016 and landed $25 million in a Series B round led by in September 2018. , and have also backed the company.

Packet wasn鈥檛 looking to be acquired, Smith said, but it already had a relationship with Equinix. The acquisition made sense, he said, as both Equinix and Packet are infrastructure providers.

Packet marks Equinix鈥檚 25th acquisition to date, with the company last buying in December 2017.

Editor’s Note: The acquisition price was revised post-publication from $355 million to $335 million and the number of acquisitions changed from 13 to 25, due to updated information provided by the company.

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Boston-based led the round, which included participation from and . The financing brings NorthOne鈥檚 total raised since its 2016 inception to $23.3 million.

NorthOne aims to provide small business owners (such as hairdressers and bakers), freelancers and startups聽 with an easy-to-use banking application. The company says its offering includes multi-language customer service teams, enhanced deposit and payment features for cash-reliant businesses, and 鈥渟eamless鈥� overseas vendor payments, among other things. NorthOne recently moved its headquarters from Toronto, Ontario, to New York.

CEO co-founded the startup with his own upbringing in mind.

鈥淚 grew up in a family of small business owners where everybody would be going through occasional painful cycles of closing books and chasing invoices,鈥� he told 附近上门 News. 鈥淪o that in many ways influenced who we are trying to target.鈥�

NorthOne spent a few years building out the product, conducting research with 100 small business owners across America, undergoing compliance testing and 鈥渇inding the right partners.鈥�

The startup launched its API-enabled, mobile-first banking platform in private beta last June, at which time Bensoussan said, the company already had a waitlist of 100,000 businesses requesting accounts. The startup had accomplished all its 鈥渋n beta goals鈥� by August, so went public on the app store at that time. In November, it released on Google Play. It currently has the 鈥渂are bones鈥� of a desktop product in place. It serves as a SaaS (software as a service) operator, offering monthly subscriptions.

鈥淭he role of a bank is not to just keep money safe and move it around occasionally,鈥� Bensoussan said. 鈥淲e want to go beyond banking and into the back office of companies and take the busy work right off their plates so the owners can have more time to focus on building their business.鈥�

The company鈥檚 strategy is to 鈥渦niquely鈥� address each community, incorporating new products and services based on the differing needs of businesses depending on their markets.

Specific features include branch-free banking; dedicated sub-accounts for things like rent and payroll; mobile check deposits; integrations with software such as Quickbooks and Expensify; and the ability to give your bookkeeper 鈥渞ead access.鈥�

Growth

Since its launch last August, NorthOne has been growing nearly 130 percent month over month and counts 鈥渢housands鈥� of small businesses as customers, according to Bensoussan. The company has grown its staff from about 12 a year ago to nearly 40 today.

鈥淭he kind of businesses we鈥檙e growing with are the kind I used to know growing up. They鈥檙e the core of industry across America, the ones you walk by on the way to work,鈥� he told me. 鈥淭hat really means a lot to me personally.鈥� Many have 20 or fewer employees. Some of the NorthOne鈥檚 largest markets are in the South and the Midwest.

NorthOne also aims to visualize cash flow for its customers so they can 鈥減revent oops moments鈥� such as buying a $10,000 oven when the money may not all be there.

鈥淭he vast majority of failures are due to cash flow mismanagement and illiteracy,鈥澛� Bensoussan said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the problem we鈥檙e attacking by trying to educate in a non-intimidating way and making it super easy to understand the health of a business, and get that information in real time.鈥�

Looking ahead

The company plans to use its new capital to expand its marketing efforts and speed up the growth of its customer acquisition programs. It also wants to hire more product, software engineering and customer service staff.

All of what NorthOne is doing sounded a bit like what an Austin-based SaaS operator, , is working on as well. (I wrote about that company鈥檚 raise last year.) ScaleFactor is focused on building a back office for small- and medium-sized businesses.

So I asked NorthOne how similar (or not) they are.

Its answer: 鈥淪caleFactor can be a great solution for bigger companies that have more complicated expense management needs. For most small businesses, the burden doesn’t come from expense management but from the burden of daily banking. So while Scalefactor’s product is awesome, it isn’t set up to replace their bank account.鈥�

That said, NorthOne is apparently compatible with ScaleFactor鈥檚 software.

Meanwhile, Battery Ventures鈥� Shiran Shalev said his firm has been closely following the rise of challenger banks in Europe.

鈥淚t’s inevitable that similar disruption would hit the U.S. market next鈥損articularly in business banking,鈥� said Shalev, who is joining NorthOne鈥檚 board, in a written statement. 鈥淲e believe NorthOne is well on its way to building a leading challenger bank for SMBs in the U.S., and are excited to partner with management to realize this vision.鈥�

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The storied 37-year-old venture firm announced this morning it has closed two new funds worth a combined $2 billion.

The fund closures represent a 60 percent increase from the $1.25 billion raised almost exactly two years ago. (Over the past decade, its have been raised every two to three years.)

Specifically, the firm is announcing today it has closed on Battery Ventures XIII, a $1.2 billion investment fund, and Battery Ventures XIII Side Fund, a companion vehicle capitalized at $800 million.

According to 附近上门, Battery Ventures has been steadily increasing its fund size over time, raising a total of $5.8 billion since 2010. Battery Ventures XII closed in February 2018, while Battery Ventures XII Side Fund 聽at that time.

I hopped on the phone with , a general partner at Battery Ventures, to find out more details. He emphasized that the side fund is not an opportunity fund. Rather, it invests alongside the main fund in later-stage growth investments and buyouts.

鈥淭he side fund is essentially a co-investment vehicle for later-stage deals and larger checks,鈥� Brown told 附近上门 news. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 cherrypick investments.鈥�

With 49 investment members (including 10 general partners), Battery Ventures is one of the busiest global venture firms out there today. It says its staff operates as 鈥渙ne global team鈥� out of offices in Boston; San Francisco; Menlo Park; New York; London; and Herzliya, Israel, outside Tel Aviv.

Investing approach

Historically, the company鈥檚 primary focus is on investing in B2B software companies. Beyond that, it backs companies in sectors such as enterprise IT (including cloud computing, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity), online marketplaces and industrial technology.

Since its 1983 inception, Battery says as of Sept. 30, 2019, it had invested in 426 companies globally, excluding seed deals, 鈥渞esulting in 61 total IPOs and 167 M&A events.鈥� The firm declined to provide more specifics outside of directing me to its website. But according to 附近上门 data, one of those recent includes chipmaker for $2 billion in December. Also last year, Phoenix-based health care software startup by , and at a valuation of $1.5 billion. Other previous high-profile exits include online home goods retailer going public in 2014 and being by Japan鈥檚 for $1.2 billion in 2018, according to 附近上门.

The firm鈥檚 approach is multistage; backing companies at 鈥渁ll stages of maturity.鈥�

鈥淲e invest in companies in the pre-product, pre-revenue stages all the way through to very large companies,鈥� Brown told me.

Battery also prides itself on diversity, Brown said, in terms of geographies in which it invests, stages and sectors. For example, it likes backing companies outside the coasts here in the U.S., and it鈥檚 also putting money into European startups. Within software, it backs companies 鈥渞anging from applications you and I would use into the infrastructure layer,鈥� Brown added.

鈥淲ithin that software stack, we like industries such as health care IT and fintech,鈥� he said. 鈥淥verall, we think B2B software, where we spend most of our time, has a lot of opportunity ahead of it.鈥�

The details

When it comes to sourcing deals, Battery 鈥渄oes a lot of research internally鈥� and then talks to research analysts and founders, and attends conferences.

鈥淲e have created a holistic approach to what鈥檚 going on in the market so we can make early bets,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o while some of our sourcing is data-driven, at the end of the day that usually results in our getting on the phone or on a plane to talk to entrepreneurs about their businesses, and how we can partner and help them grow.鈥�

LPs are a mixed bag of investors, primarily U.S.-based, according to Brown. They include public and private pension funds, university endowments, financial institutions and fund-to-fund investors. Most LPs in the latest fund have invested in multiple prior ones, Brown said, with 鈥渟ome new ones鈥� participating.

Battery also announced that, in conjunction with the new fund, has been promoted to partner. Smotherman first joined Battery in 2013 and focuses on later-stage investments in the industrial technology sector.

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