Apple acqui-hired the team from messaging assistant Init.ai to work on Siri
Earlier this week, a small startup called Init.ai announced that it soon would be discontinuing its service — a smart assistant for customer representatives to parse and get better insights from their interactions with users, as well as automate some of the interactions — because the team was (according to a notice on the site) “joining a project that touches the lives of… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/e-77yOxNAYQ/
Bluecore marketing automation platform raises $35 million in Series C
Bluecore, the automated marketing platform for ecommerce brands, has today announced the close of a $35 million Series C round of funding. Norwest Venture Partners led the round, with participation from existing investors including Georgian Partners, FirstMark Capital, and Felicis Ventures. As part of the deal, NVP’s Scott Beechuk will join the board of directors at Bluecore. When… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/8j4UkJJ-rNk/
European on-demand delivery startup Glovo raises €30 million Series B
Late last month, Spanish media got wind that the Barcelona-based on-demand delivery app Glovo had closed Series B funding, but now the company is making the news official. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/CwvI-AOeyjQ/
The new age of ICOs is here, and it’s not based on Ethereum
ICOs are said to be the new way to raise money. We’ve seen companies raising millions by selling tokens. Against the money raised, the tokens they gave were created and sold on the Ethereum blockchain — meaning that all the trade happened on the Ethereum blockchain and the tokens created are tracked on the Ethereum blockchain. But that is changing. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/-UBizQamfWY/
Amazon has acquired 3D body model startup, Body Labs, for $50M-$70M
TechCrunch has learned that Amazon has acquired Body Labs, a company with a stated aim of creating true-to-life 3D body models to support various b2b software applications — such as virtually trying on clothes or photorealistic avatars for gaming. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/VKkmNc7mm7E/
Drug discovery startup Recursion raises $60 million in Series B from Data Collective
Recursion, a drug discovery startup out of Salt Lake City, Utah has announced a $60 million Series B round, led by Data Collective (DCVC). Recursion started out in 2014 on a mission to identify 100 new treatments in 10 years. That’s a lofty goal, considering the discovery for just one drug can traditionally take decades and tens of millions of dollars, with a high rate of failure… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/ScIYroPugzE/
MessageBird, a European cloud comms platform that competes with Twilio, raises $60M Series A
MessageBird, a cloud communications platform that counts publicly listed Twilio as a competitor, has raised a hefty $60 million in Series A funding. The round is being led by Accel in the U.S., with Atomico, the VC firm founded by Skype’s Niklas Zennström, leading in Europe. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/gEDCLJwGEfU/
Frame.io picks up $20 million to be the Slack of video
Frame.io, the collaboration platform for the video industry, has today announced the close of a $20 million Series B funding round led by FirstMark Capital, with participation from existing investors including Accel Partners, SignalFire and Shasta Ventures. Frame.io launched on to the scene back in March of 2015. The company solved a growing problem with a seemingly obvious solution. People… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/NXi81iEmyMI/
Investors place $25M on AtScale to get the big picture of big data
AtScale, a four-year old startup that helps companies get a big-picture view of their big data inside their BI tools, announced a $25 million Series C investment today. The round was led by Atlantic Bridge with participation from new investors Wells Fargo and Industry Ventures along with returning investors Storm Ventures, UMC, Comcast and XSeed Capital. With today’s investment, the… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/_BnKCX-69F8/
LocalGlobe backs augmented and virtual reality content startup Curiscope
Curiscope, a U.K. augmented and virtual reality content startup, has raised a $1 million seed round led by LocalGlobe, the seed VC firm founded by Saul and Robin Klein. Ascension Ventures, Force over Mass, ustwo Adventure, and Richard Fearn also participated. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/bEhyirNJ-6w/
Truphone raises $339M to retire debt and step up in connecting IoT devices
Truphone, a mobile company based out of London that made a name for itself through low-cost international mobile voice and data plans, is taking a very big step forward in a strategy to catapult itself into the future of communications: the company has picked up a massive £255 million ($339 million), funding that it will use to retire its debt and double down on providing data connectivity… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/sUVP2CWGC5k/
ForeScout Technologies has unveiled its IPO filing. This puts the network security company on track for a public debut that could happen as soon as late October. ForeScout helps companies and government agencies monitor the devices connected to their networks and alerts them of potential intrusions. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/YtGKcOGyqew/
Ex-500 Startups partners launch Hustle Fund to level the playing field for founders
Ex-500 Startups partners Elizabeth Yin and Eric Bahn want to focus on potential impact, not on whether or not founders have a degree from Stanford or some Ivy League school. Their goal with Hustle Fund, according to sources, is to level the playing the field for entrepreneurs in an industry where pedigree is not a good proxy for success. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/2L5G9JqLzXI/
Robotics process automation startup Kryon pulls in $12M Series B investment
In an industry that tends to concentrate its startup energy in Silicon Valley, Kryon defies convention. The robotics process automation (RPA) startup has its US headquarters in New Jersey. The location didn’t matter when it came to getting investment capital as the company announced a $12 million Series B today. The round was led by Aquiline Technology Growth (ATG) and Vertex Ventures.… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/ROVYDWTY2fA/
Roku nearly doubles since IPO, up another 13% on day two
Digital streaming business Roku has soared in its public debut. After pricing its IPO Wednesday at $14 per share, Roku finished its first day of trading at $23.50, up nearly 68%. And by the end of Friday, Roku closed at $26.54, or up 90% in less than 48 hours. The company is now valued at about $2.6 billion. So this must be great news for the company, right? Well, sort of. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/92_WJUYqbwY/
Heetch raises $12 million to reboot its ridesharing service
French startup Heetch has been around for quite a few years. Although things were running smoothly, the company had to start over mostly from scratch. In March 2017, a court in Paris ruled that Heetch had been illegally operating a transportation company. The startup is now rising from the ashes and raising $12 million to fund its new service. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/T5qqrz-Bt_k/
Alibaba is leading a $27M investment in open source database startup MariaDB
Alibaba has spent 2017 pushing its cloud computing business and now it is preparing to make its first major investment in a Western startup in the space.
The Chinese e-commerce giant has agreed to lead a €22.9 million ($27 million) investment in MariaDB, the European company behind one of the web’s most popular open source database servers, according to a source with knowledge of… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/rqgzmj4_CRw/
Accela gets acquired by Berkshire Partners as it looks to move govtech services to the cloud
Boston-based private equity shop Berkshire Partners announced this afternoon that it is acquiring Accela — a nearly 20 year old startup that sells regulatory management solutions to government clients. Accela has gone through a troika of CEOs in the last year. Previously acting CEO Mark Jung replaced Maury Blackman last October who had managed the company for about a decade. We… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/cguyhSTGE_w/
Angry Birds-maker Rovio priced IPO, valuing company at $1 billion
Angry Birds-maker Rovio Entertainment priced its IPO at 11.50 euros, at the top of its proposed range. It raises 30 million euros in proceeds.
This values the company a little above $1 billion, just half of the $2 billion the company was previously said to be hoping for. The company previously raised at least $42 million in venture funding from Accel, Atomico, Felicis Ventures and… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/fXLhZhmwhNA/
Roku closes up 68% in stock market debut
Content streaming company Roku saw its shares surge 67.86% on its first day of trading. After pricing its IPO at $14 and then opening the day at $15.78, Roku shares closed at $23.50. This values the company at almost $2.2 billion. While this good news for the new investors and is a favorable sign for the company, this actually isn’t ideal. It means that Roku could have sold its shares for… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/8vOd3KeCkfI/ Source: https://techcrunch.com/
