MX announces $100 million financing round, Avetta CTO wins Utah Business award, Utahns attitudes towards job are optimistic
Lehi-based fintech company MX announced on June 25, 2019, it has raised $100 million in a financing round with several new Utah-based investors, as well as signed it's 2,000th customer.
Avetta chief technology officer Adam Thier was awarded a CXO of the Year award by Utah Business on June 25, 2019.
Lehi co. announces $100 million financing round
Lehi-based financial technology company MX announced Tuesday it has raised $100 million in Series B financing, a sign that the company is growing and expanding. This financing brings the company’s total equity financing to $175 million.
Battery Ventures, a global, technology-focused investment firm, led the financing round. New investors that also participated include H.I.G. Growth Partners, Point72 Ventures, Sorenson Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners, and Cross Creek Capital. Existing investors who participated include Industry Ventures, Digital Garage, TTV Capital, and Commerce Ventures. The National Bank of Canada and Washington Federal Bank, both customers of MX, also helped the company reach this milestone. Notably, several of the investment firms are also Utah-based.
“MX has been growing rapidly while operating profitably the past two years. The financial industry is at an exciting inflection point and this funding will help fuel our growth exponentially,” Ryan Caldwell, Founder and CEO of MX, said. “The strategic partners we selected give us even deeper market expertise while broadening our reach throughout the financial services industry.”
MX announced it has signed its 2,000th customer, Synovus Financial Corp., as well. According to a press release, banks, credit unions and fintech companies are experiencing growth in digital engagement, an increase in deposits and a 30% increase in Net Promoter Scores when they use MX’s data platform.
“The use of data is essential to every industry, including financial services, and we are thrilled to support MX in its mission to leverage data to help drive better customer experience and deeper engagement for banks, credit unions and fintechs; it leads to financial strength for everyone,” Michael Brown, General Partner, Battery Ventures, and new MX board member said.
Utah Business names ‘CXO of the Year’ winner
Orem-based Avetta, a software company which provides a supply chain risk management platform, announced Tuesday its chief technology officer Adam Thier was named CXO of the Year by Utah Business. CXO refers o any c-suite officer other than a CEO.
The CXO of the Year awards are given to senior executives for “outstanding performance” in their roles, according to a press release. Award winners are selected from small, medium, large, public, private and government agencies and, the press release states, demonstrate strong leadership, visionary innovation and social responsibility to Utah businesses.
“Through Adam’s leadership, we’ve transformed our SaaS solution into the most configurable in the industry-available in 18 languages for our global customers-and we’ve integrated the IT and development staffs after the Browz acquisition,” John Herr, CEO of Avetta, said. “His leadership, experience and vision have been invaluable as we’ve gone through these two significant transitions.”
As CTO, Thier is responsible for software development at Avetta and the company’s IT operations. Under Thier, the company launched Connect Platform, which enables clients to customize their goals, analytics, processes and reports that improve safety and compliance for their supply chain operations, the press release states. The platform enables Avetta’s clients, and contractors and suppliers to connect anytime, anywhere in 18 languages and more than 100 countries.
“Today’s CTO has to be not only a great technologist, but also a great storyteller,” Thier said. “Translating digital into real world business advantage via technology is really, really hard. To get business people what they want is really a process of storytelling — connecting the dots so they understand what the journeys will be, how long it will take, where there will be scary parts, and ultimately what they can expect to get in the end.”
Learn more about the Utah Business CXO of the Year Awards by visiting the Utah Business website.
Job availability boosts attitudes on economy
The Zions Bank Utah Consumer Attitude Index for June found that optimism is rising for Utahns when it comes to job availability. According to this months index, 66% of Utahns believe that jobs are plentiful, the highest point ever recorded since Zions Bank began releasing monthly reports in January 2011. Job optimism is 6% higher than last month and 7% higher than in June of last year.
Along with optimism about the job market, the report found 36% of Utahns believe their household income will increase within the next six months, 6% more than last year. ONly 12% of Utahns believe that fewer jobs will be available in the next six months.
As for housing affordability, while Utahns according to the report feel affordable housing has improved slightly since last year — 27% of Utahns reported spending 40% or more of their monthly income on housing and 19% spend 50% or more, but both of those percentages or down @% from last year — attitudes about available housing and housing prices have remain mostly unchanged.
About 34% of Utahns feel that housing within their area and price range is readily available. Twenty-one percent of Utahns have considered moving into new housing developments in Utah.
“There are many moving parts when it comes to supply meeting demand for housing,” Randy Shumway, chairman and partner of Cicero Group, said. “Utah’s economic boom has brought more high-paying jobs to Utah and raised many Utahns’ incomes and, therefore, the price they’re willing to pay for housing. But supply constraints such as land availability and city development limitations make it difficult to match supply and demand in the near term.”