Money Moves: OxiWear is raising a $1M+ bridge round

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.

Wearable brand OxiWear has plans for a $1 million+ bridge round

OxiWear, the Arlington, Virginia-based startup that developed a wearable vital monitoring and emergency alert device, is making strong moves in its latest bridge round.

The company opened the round in April with the intention of raising $1 million. So far, founder Shavini Fernando told Technical.ly, 85% is already committed. She’s also seeing so much continued interest from investors that she’s keeping the round, which was supposed to close at the end of May, open until the end of June, with expectations to oversubscribe. She’s predicting about $1.5 million when it closes next month.

The funds, she said, will be used for manufacturing the 5,000 devices the company plans to launch for pre-order (opening next week). So far, the company has been completing tons of testing and, once the devices are completed, will be submitting for FDA approval of the device.

Fernando said that the positivity she’s seen for OxiWear has been encouraging as the startup gears up for pre-orders and other goals this year. In November, the company raised a $1.25 million seed round led by Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation.

“It’s just so weird how the coin flips — last round, I had to pitch for 1.5 years to close that round,” Fernando said. “This round, we opened the first week of April and already we are oversubscribing.”

Parsons acquired Reston’s Xator for $400 million

Centreville, Virginia’s Parsons Corporation just inked a huge deal.

The national security and govtech provider agreed to acquire Reston, Virginia’s Xator Corporation for $400 million. Xator is a provider of solutions in critical infrastructure, enterprise tech, cybersecurity and national security for the US government.

According to Parsons, the deal will boost the company’s presence in US Special Operations Command and the intelligence community, as well as the Department of State. It’s the latest deal for Parsons, which has been acquiring companies since 1944.

TEDCO nabs up to $50 million from the state

TEDCO, Maryland’s state-created funding arm for tech companies, is getting a pretty large check from Governor Larry Hogan.

The agency announced that it would receive up to $50 million from the governor’s small business relief plan, which was recently approved by the US Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative. TEDCO will be putting the funding toward four of its programs for tech-based founders and startups in Maryland: the Venture Equity Fund, the Venture Capital Limited Partnership Equity program, the Seeds Funds Equity program and the Social Impact Funds. The first three support VC funding for startups while the latter is geared toward underserved founders and communities.

“We want to express our thanks to our colleagues at DHCD for their leadership on getting us to this point,” said TEDCO CEO Troy LeMaile-Stovall in a statement. “And this point is about investing in individuals and communities that are underrepresented in our innovation ecosystem, while also creating additional funds for TEDCO to invest in firms that will start and scale in Maryland – generating a more equitable future.”

Here’s who else is making money moves:

• Socially Determined, a DC-based analytics firm, raised $22.7 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Last year, the company launched a Digital Landscape metric to measure digital equity in communities.
• Leesburg, Virginia-based Gigasheet, a data analytics company for spreadsheets, closed a $7 million Series A round from Accomplice, Argon, Founder Collective and REV. Dmitri Alperovitch, cofounder of Crowdstrike, and Rich Miner, cofounder of Android, also took part in the round.
• Annapolis, Maryland cyber firm XONA raised a $7.2 million Series A led by DataTribe Opportunities and with additional participation from TFX Capital, among others.
• Constituent service software company Indigov, which is based in DC, raised $25 million in a Series B. Tusk Venture Partners, 8VC, Wicklow Capital, Align Ventures and Valor Equity Partners all participated in the round, which brings the startup’s total to $38.3 million.
• Arlington Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Chevy Chase, Maryland, announced an intention to raise $3.5 billion for a brand-new fund. If successful, it would be the company’s largest fund to date.
• DC VC firm Paladin Capital Group, which focuses on cybersecurity investments, raised $372 million for its Cyber Fund II. According to Paladin, it had initially set out to raise $250 million for the fund.
• Mühlbauer, the US subsidiary of German automation tech company Mühlbauer Group, is investing $9 million to boost its operations in Newport News, Virginia. The company plans to upgrade its Virginia facility and plans to add 34 new jobs.
• SCOUT, an Alexandria-based autonomous space tech company, was awarded a NASA SBIR award to boost its navigation and autonomous technology. According to Scout, the award will boost resiliency advancements for a number of NASA applications.