Money Moves: With a $10M raise, NoMa’s Full Measure Education has huge plans for expansion

Money Moves is a column where we chart the funding raises of tech companies across the region. Have a tip? Email us at dc@technical.ly.

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There’s been many a money news alert in the DMV over the past few weeks, and we can hardly catch our breath. Already this month, which is not even two weeks old, remote-with-D.C.-roots Prefect completed its second funding round of 2021, downtown D.C.’s Morning Consult achieved unicorn status and Rockville’s Xometry filed to go public.

And that’s only the beginning. From SPAC deals to edtech and more public offerings, the district has seen a lot of cashflow as of late. Here are the latest funding deals local tech companies closed this month:

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NoMa’s edtech company Full Measure Education just completed a $10 million raise led by Fulcrum Equity Partners, the company announced Friday. The funding will primarily be used for hiring, expanding its HQ and growing its product, which uses software to help students navigate college from their phones using social media, messaging and other forms of communication.

Full Measure CEO Greg Davies, who was one of the original employees at BlackBoard, told Technical.ly that the company currently does a lot of work in admissions, but saw a huge amount of demand for additional services over the last year. He said the raise will allow the company to expand its offerings into student services, financial aide, alumni services and events like moving days and graduation.

“What we saw was more demand from our partner institutions for more of what we do, so given our size we weren’t able to meet that demand in terms of expanding,” Davies said. Now, the new funding will help the company meet that demand.

Despite the move to remote learning, Full Measure has seen strong growth as of late which Davies said led to the raise. The company was founded in 2013 and now serves about 450 schools, but the majority were brought on over the past year and a half. The raise will allow the company to grow its team, doubling from 40 to 80 people this year and then growing again to 100 in 2022. It also plans to double the size of its office by adding a second floor, a project that’s expected to be completed around Labor Day. (Check out its current open roles.)

“Our software has become a much more critical component of successful administrative services over the last 18 months,” said Davies. “With that comes the need to grow the team, and our investment in our people, so this fundraise was really about meeting the demand that’s clearly in the market for what our software is capable of doing.”

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McLean, Virginia’s NextNav announced last week that it would be merging with Spartacus Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The geolocation company will go public through the deal, which values the company at $1.2 billion.

NextNav is set to make $408 million in deal proceeds, with $203 million in cash from Spartacus and $205 million from a private PIPE round from investors including Koch Strategic Platforms, Fortress Investment Group, Ophir Asset Management Woody Creek Capital Management and Quantlab Disruptive Technologies, Iridian Asset Management LLC, and Sponsor of Spartacus Acquisition Corporation.

The combined company will be renamed NextNav Inc., trading under the ticket NN, and will continue to be led by cofounder and CEO Ganesh Pattabiraman.

“This transaction allows us to build on that success and enables the next generation of location and timing services — more precise, available and resilient and that will power the next generation of applications and services in mobile apps, autonomous vehicles, public safety and critical infrastructure globally,” Pattabiraman said in a statement.

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Data and advanced analytics company BigBear.ai, based in Columbia, Maryland, plans to go public following a merge with Palo Alto, California’s GigCapital4, a SPAC already traded on the NASDAQ exchange. When the deal closes in the third quarter of this year the combined company, also named BigBear.ai, is expected to be valued at $1.57 billion.

“[We] see a ripe opportunity in the growing commercial market, as companies dedicate their budget to technology that allows them to harness the power of AI and ML for predictive analytics and forecasting capabilities to manage risk and capitalize on opportunities,” said CEO Dr. Reggie Brothers in a statement.

Following the merger, the company plans to expand further and develop additional technologies. An investor presentation said that the company is expecting $277 million in revenue for 2022, a growth rate of 63%.

“As a public company, BigBear.ai will have a stronger capital structure to invest in additional technology development, expand commercial R&D and business development teams, and accelerate growth both organically and through acquisitions,” said Dr. Raluca Dinu, CEO of GigCapital4.

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Reston’s Science Applications International Corp (SAIC) acquired Arlington federal healthtech company Halfaker and Associates for $250 million in cash and debt. The deal is scheduled to close in the second quarter of 2022.

Nazzic Keene, CEO of SAIC, said the deal with boost the company’s profitable growth, brings on new diverse talent and connects SAIC with health IT players for the U.S. Department of Defense and federal government.

“Halfaker is a strong cultural fit with mission-focused talent, and enhances our ability to support our customers’ digital transformation needs and positions SAIC to be an innovative technology solutions provider into the future,” Keene said in a statement.

“This acquisition enables our delivery teams to maintain our customer-centric focus while exponentially increasing our ability to provide the technical depth and top technical talent needed to meet the government’s most pressing challenges,” agreed Dawn Halfaker, CEO and president of Halfaker and Associates.

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Here are some other DMV deals that closed this month:

• Fairfax’s Dewberry acquired Edmond’s Engineering. The professional services firm acquired the Alabama company, which has five locations and over 75 employees, for an undisclosed amount.
• D.C.-based online school Nexford University, which focuses on workforce education, raised $10.8 million in pre-Series A funding. VC Global Ventures led the round, bringing Nexford’s total funding to date to $15.3 million.
• Center for Innovation Technology’s (CIT) GAP Funds invested an undisclosed amount in Ashburn’s Capango. The startup developed a mobile app to connect workers with restaurant and retail positions.
• Centreville’s Parson Corporation acquired Herndon’s BlackHorse Solutions in a deal valued at $203 million.
• Catch of the day: Starkist Tuna is investing $3.6 million to relocate its headquarters from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Reston.