We’re excited to share new recognitions for three Next Coast Ventures portfolio companies courtesy of the 11th Annual A-LIST Awards, hosted by the Austin Chamber of Commerce in partnership with SXSW earlier this month at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. Held each year to recognize homegrown companies in various growth stages, the awards highlight noteworthy businesses making strides across a range of sectors and stages, from bootstrapped startups to those who’ve secured Series C funding and beyond.
Next Coast Ventures is proud to count three honorees in our midst: Alert Media and TrustRadius both landed spots as finalists in this year’s awards, while FloorFound took home top honors as the standalone Early Stage Category Winner for its pioneering efforts to solve recommerce for furniture and oversized items.
These honors underscore the ongoing impact each of these companies is making in our Austin ecosystem and in the individual sectors within which they operate.
In May, we were proud to lead FloorFound’s $10.5M Series A alongside LiveOak Ventures to help further Founder and CEO Chris Richter’s mission to simplify oversized returns and resale, from coordination of item pickup and inspection to marketing, sales and revenue recovery.
As reported in TechCrunch, “What makes FloorFound stand out from its competitors is its approach to putting retailers, which often struggle with how to effectively do returns, at the center of recommerce.”
There’s also an environmental impact: working with innovative furniture brands including Burrow, Floyd Home, Joybird, Living Spaces, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams and more, the company has thus far helped keep nearly 500,000 pounds of furniture in circulation and out of landfills.
The A-List Awards recognized emergency communications software provider Alert Media for its fully integrated threat intelligence system and two-way multichannel emergency communication software helping thousands of organizations globally keep their people safe, informed, and connected during any emergency or critical incident.
We led Alert Media’s $8M Series B round in 2017, and participated in their $15M Series C round in 2020. In 2021, Vista Equity Partners made a strategic growth investment in Alert Media to accelerate hiring, product roadmap, and global expansion. This led to the launch of new initiatives within Alert Media that include an inaugural Employee Safety Conference slated for October 2022 and its first-to-market Analyst Access – offering organizations direct, around-the-clock access to a team of expert threat intelligence analysts during emergencies and other critical events.
Also a finalist in this year’s awards, the Austin Chamber notes that TrustRadius stands out for not only helping technology companies activate their customers to create influential customer reviews that both serve to educate and inform the active buyers, but also as a platform that generates powerful social proof that software providers can use in their own sales and marketing channels. In 2019, we proudly led the company’s $15M Series C round, which included continued participation by returning investors the Mayfield Fund and LiveOak Ventures and brought the company’s total equity financing to $25M.
It’s incredible to be on this continued journey with these companies and their teams, and we wish them all congratulations on these recent wins.
Here’s how to connect with them and learn more about their latest news, initiatives and open roles:
- Follow FloorFound on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
- Follow AlertMedia on Twitter and LinkedIn and view their open roles here.
- Follow TrustRadius on Twitter and LinkedIn and view their open roles here.
For more recent awards and honors in the Next Coast Ventures portfolio, keep an eye on the blog and subscribe to our ATXnology newsletter.
