Celebration in St. Louis. Call center automation startup Balto raised $37 million in a series B funding round last week, bringing the company’s total funding to $52 million.

Stripes led the funding, with participation from Cultivation Capital, Atreides Management, RingCentral Ventures, TIA Ventures, OCA Ventures, Stage Venture Partners, Sandalphon Capital, Sierra Ventures, and SaaS Venture Capital.

The funding group Arch Angels has invested over $100 million into St. Louis startups since their inception in 2005 – and a lot of that investment is going into healthtech and agtech. 

St. Louis healthtech startup success stories include:

• Intuitool Devices Inc.,a startup that has developed a tool that helps doctors avoid pain and fatigue during surgeries, won a spot in the Louisville-based health care accelerator XLerateHealth.
• Arch Oncology, an immuno-oncology company, raised $105 million and hired three new C-suite execs to bolster development of its innovative cancer drugs.

Agtech is also booming in St. Louis. Two quick highlights:

• Benson Hill launched a new partnership with farmers to test their crop improvement products in commercial agriculture operations. In May, Benson Hill announced they were going public in a $2 billion SPAC deal with Star Peak Corp II.
• High-tech indoor farming firm AeroFarms will also expand to St. Louis with a 150,000-square-foot indoor vertical farm.

Growth = jobs. St. Louis-based LaunchCode is working to close the skills gap with computer science training programs and apprenticeships. They are also heavily focused on increasing diversity in tech by promoting gender and racial equity in their programs. 

Explore possibilities surrounding the Gateway to the West by checking out our collection of top startups and companies in St. Louis.