My personal favorite this morning, though, is the Washington Technology Industry Association. They’ve wrangled $3.5 million in grant funding to help bring people into the tech ecosystem across Washington state: always good to see the government helping out where they can. If you want our roundup delivered directly to your inbox sign up here!

Funding

Fundbox Brings in $40 Million

Fundbox, a cash flow optimization tool for small businesses, announced that they have raised an additional $50 million in equity funding led by new investor Spark Capital Growth with participation from Bezos Expeditions, Sound Ventures, Entrée Capital, and existing investors: Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, Shlomo Kramer, and Blumberg Capital.  The additional financing will enable Fundbox to accelerate their growth while continuing to invest in product development and innovation.

Washington Technology Industry Association Gets $3.5 Million

The Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) is launching a program to train and place 600 technology apprentices into the state’s tech companies over the next five years. What’s more, the US Department of Labor announced today that they’ll be granting $3.5 million to the program. According to CEO of the WTIA, Michael Schutzler, at least half of the apprentices will be women, veterans, or underrepresented minorities.  

Harmonix Music Systems Secures $15 Million

  Harmonix disclosed that they’ve received $15 million in equity funding from 14 undisclosed investors around the same time they partnered with Fig to launch a new video game, according to Polygon. Boston Business Journal reports that the game studio relocated from Cambridge to Boston this summer, about a year after issuing a round of layoffs and appointing a new CEO, Steve Janiak.

MIT Gets $25 Million

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced that they’ve received $25 million from Toyota with the specific directive to launch a smart car research project: the Toyota-CSAIL Joint Research Center at MIT. The entirety of the $25 million will be spread out over the course of the next five years. Image Credit: Wikipedia