Tuesday, April 30, 2019
VC Deals Only: A Cloud Guru raises $33 million for cloud platform...
VC Deals Only: A Cloud Guru raises $33 million for cloud platform...: By Kyle Wiggers Austin, Texas-based A Cloud Guru, a self-styled social learning platform for cloud computing technologies, today announced...
A Cloud Guru raises $33 million for cloud platform classes and labs
By Kyle Wiggers
Austin, Texas-based A Cloud Guru, a self-styled social learning platform for cloud computing technologies, today announced that it has raised $33 million in growth equity financing led by Summit Partners, with contributions from AirTree Ventures and Elephant. The fresh capital brings the startup’s total raised to roughly $40 million, according to CrunchBase. CEO and cofounder Sam Kroonenburg says it’ll be used to accelerate hiring, expand A Cloud Guru’s content library with specialized programs, and build features targeting enterprise customers.
“We are humbled by this level of support from our investment partners,” added Kroonenburg. “We are eager to continue building our engineering, content, and go-to-market teams to support our customers and partners. We are now even better positioned to help more businesses and individuals learn to cloud.”
A Cloud Guru was founded in 2015 by Sam Kroonenburg and former Microsoft lead engineer Ryan Kroonenburg (his brother) after Ryan struggled to find affordable, effective learning resources for cloud app development. He recorded A Cloud Guru’s first class in a makeshift studio from his London apartment over the course of six weeks and submitted it to a popular training site, where it went on to attract over 8,000 paying customers.
“It’s amazing to think how far we’ve come since those early days in 2015,” said Ryan Kroonenburg. “With this round of investment, we have additional resources to do even more in support of the A Cloud Guru community.”
A Cloud Guru offers certification courses covering a range of IT domains and cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. It recently launched ACG for Business, a premium learning management and talent development service that counts Dow Jones, Capital One’s DevExchange, Expedia, Women Who Code, and Qualcomm among its clients. And A Cloud Guru claims that to date, more than 850,000 students across 186 countries have taken its classes, labs, and quizzes.
Enterprise workloads continue to move to the cloud at an enormous pace, requiring a new set of IT skills to design, manage and secure applications,” said Summit Partner managing director Tom Jennings, who joined A Cloud Guru’s board of directors as part of the funding round. “ACG’s platform uniquely enables organizations to develop their existing employees’ cloud skills and provide ongoing training to ensure continued aptitude in cloud architecture. And the results are impressive.”
In addition to its Austin, Texas headquarters, A Cloud Guru has offices in Washington, D.C., Melbourne, and London.
News of the company’s funding comes days after another online education platform, Coursera, raked in $103 million at a valuation of $1 billion. Stanford professor and former Google executive Sebastian Thrun’s Udacity, meanwhile, has gone on to raise $160 million in less than eight years, while data science course provider DataCamp has raised over $30 million.
Online education platforms are anticipated to grow from a $4 billion industry today to a hefty $21 billion market by 2023, according to research firm Markets and Markets. Last year alone, about 20 million users signed up for at least one online course, and the number of paying customers increased substantially.
Source. Venture Beat, Kyle Wiggers, April 29, 2019
This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to Canadian VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.
Are you a Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.
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Austin, Texas-based A Cloud Guru, a self-styled social learning platform for cloud computing technologies, today announced that it has raised $33 million in growth equity financing led by Summit Partners, with contributions from AirTree Ventures and Elephant. The fresh capital brings the startup’s total raised to roughly $40 million, according to CrunchBase. CEO and cofounder Sam Kroonenburg says it’ll be used to accelerate hiring, expand A Cloud Guru’s content library with specialized programs, and build features targeting enterprise customers.
“We are humbled by this level of support from our investment partners,” added Kroonenburg. “We are eager to continue building our engineering, content, and go-to-market teams to support our customers and partners. We are now even better positioned to help more businesses and individuals learn to cloud.”
A Cloud Guru was founded in 2015 by Sam Kroonenburg and former Microsoft lead engineer Ryan Kroonenburg (his brother) after Ryan struggled to find affordable, effective learning resources for cloud app development. He recorded A Cloud Guru’s first class in a makeshift studio from his London apartment over the course of six weeks and submitted it to a popular training site, where it went on to attract over 8,000 paying customers.
“It’s amazing to think how far we’ve come since those early days in 2015,” said Ryan Kroonenburg. “With this round of investment, we have additional resources to do even more in support of the A Cloud Guru community.”
A Cloud Guru offers certification courses covering a range of IT domains and cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. It recently launched ACG for Business, a premium learning management and talent development service that counts Dow Jones, Capital One’s DevExchange, Expedia, Women Who Code, and Qualcomm among its clients. And A Cloud Guru claims that to date, more than 850,000 students across 186 countries have taken its classes, labs, and quizzes.
Enterprise workloads continue to move to the cloud at an enormous pace, requiring a new set of IT skills to design, manage and secure applications,” said Summit Partner managing director Tom Jennings, who joined A Cloud Guru’s board of directors as part of the funding round. “ACG’s platform uniquely enables organizations to develop their existing employees’ cloud skills and provide ongoing training to ensure continued aptitude in cloud architecture. And the results are impressive.”
In addition to its Austin, Texas headquarters, A Cloud Guru has offices in Washington, D.C., Melbourne, and London.
News of the company’s funding comes days after another online education platform, Coursera, raked in $103 million at a valuation of $1 billion. Stanford professor and former Google executive Sebastian Thrun’s Udacity, meanwhile, has gone on to raise $160 million in less than eight years, while data science course provider DataCamp has raised over $30 million.
Online education platforms are anticipated to grow from a $4 billion industry today to a hefty $21 billion market by 2023, according to research firm Markets and Markets. Last year alone, about 20 million users signed up for at least one online course, and the number of paying customers increased substantially.
Source. Venture Beat, Kyle Wiggers, April 29, 2019
***
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Monday, April 29, 2019
VC Deals Only: Driveroo Raises $3.1M in Seed Funding
VC Deals Only: Driveroo Raises $3.1M in Seed Funding: Driveroo, a Burlingame, CA – based digital automotive network that enables fleets to conduct specific, AI guided, thorough digital inspectio...
VC Deals Only: Driveroo Raises $3.1M in Seed Funding
VC Deals Only: Driveroo Raises $3.1M in Seed Funding: Driveroo, a Burlingame, CA – based digital automotive network that enables fleets to conduct specific, AI guided, thorough digital inspectio...
Driveroo Raises $3.1M in Seed Funding
Driveroo, a Burlingame, CA – based digital automotive network that enables fleets to conduct specific, AI guided, thorough digital inspections of vehicles, closed a $3.1m seed funding.
The round was led by Zack Rinat, along with other institutional investors, including WS Investments.
In addition to the funding, Rinat will join Driveroo as Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, transitioning from his previous role as a strategic advisor.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate sales, marketing, customer experience.
Led by CEO, Leo Sigal, Driveroo is a digital automotive network that enables fleets to conduct specific, AI guided, thorough digital inspections of vehicles. In case of inspection failure or need for any servicing, the solution optimally directs drivers to a pre-qualified repair shop in the Driveroo on-demand shop network.
The company utilizes mobile technology and machine learning to service, inspect, and maintain vehicles, and to determine the likelihood of specific maintenance issues, based on the type of car and its specific history. With a family of mobile applications powered by proprietary technology (Turbographics™), Driveroo currently serves auto repair shops, auto dealerships, and fleets managers of short-haul delivery services, car/ride sharing services, and other businesses that need to maintain multiple vehicles.
The company currently works with more than 60 auto service shops, and has completed over 8,000 vehicle inspections for technicians and fleet managers.
Source. FinSMEs, Staff, April 24, 2019
Are you a Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.
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The round was led by Zack Rinat, along with other institutional investors, including WS Investments.
In addition to the funding, Rinat will join Driveroo as Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, transitioning from his previous role as a strategic advisor.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate sales, marketing, customer experience.
Led by CEO, Leo Sigal, Driveroo is a digital automotive network that enables fleets to conduct specific, AI guided, thorough digital inspections of vehicles. In case of inspection failure or need for any servicing, the solution optimally directs drivers to a pre-qualified repair shop in the Driveroo on-demand shop network.
The company utilizes mobile technology and machine learning to service, inspect, and maintain vehicles, and to determine the likelihood of specific maintenance issues, based on the type of car and its specific history. With a family of mobile applications powered by proprietary technology (Turbographics™), Driveroo currently serves auto repair shops, auto dealerships, and fleets managers of short-haul delivery services, car/ride sharing services, and other businesses that need to maintain multiple vehicles.
The company currently works with more than 60 auto service shops, and has completed over 8,000 vehicle inspections for technicians and fleet managers.
Source. FinSMEs, Staff, April 24, 2019
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Sunday, April 28, 2019
VC Deals Only: Wheely raises $15 million for its luxury ride shar...
VC Deals Only: Wheely raises $15 million for its luxury ride shar...: By Romain Dillet London-based startup Wheely has raised a $15 million Series B round led by Concentric, with Oleg Tscheltzoff, Misha Sok...
Wheely raises $15 million for its luxury ride sharing app
By Romain Dillet
Are you a Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call!
One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically
design, and then systematically layer each of our communication
platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients.
WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our
client's message to their target audience.
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London-based startup Wheely has raised a $15 million Series B round led by Concentric, with Oleg Tscheltzoff, Misha Sokolov and other investors also participating. The company wants to build an Uber competitor focused on the luxury market.
It’s a bit ironic when you think about it, as Uber started as a luxury company. But everybody knows someone with horrific Uber stories. That’s why Wheely is building a reliable and predictable ride-hailing experience.
The company is currently live in London, Moscow and St. Petersburg — Paris is coming this summer. It works with 3,500 drivers and currently has a run rate of $80 million in gross bookings.
Wheely doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, as the company works with third-party partners and doesn’t employ its drivers. Similarly, the company takes a 20 percent cut on each ride.
But the startup insists on its strict recruitment process. For instance, you can’t become a Wheely driver from day one. The company requires at least three years of previous chauffeur driving experience. You also need to pass multiple tests, including driving tests and etiquette tests. Only one in four UberBlack drivers pass the exam.
There are currently three different classes — a normal one with Mercedes-Benz E-Class cars, a fancy one with Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars and a van category with Mercedes-Benz V-Class vehicles.
Minimum rides cost £12 with the entry-level class, £16 in an S-Class and at least £40 for a van. You then pay more depending on distance traveled and time spent in the vehicle.
And it’s been working well, as Wheely now represents around 11 percent of gross bookings in London. Given that each ride is more expensive than a traditional ride-hailing ride, it makes sense that Wheely already captured a good chunk of the money pie. Now let’s see if the company can find enough cities with affluent people to scale its business.
Source. Techcrunch, Romain Dillet, April 25, 2019,
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Saturday, April 27, 2019
VC Deals Only: Weekend Edition. Hitachi to acquire JR Automation ...
VC Deals Only: Weekend Edition. Hitachi to acquire JR Automation ...: VC Deals Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Sherlock Biosciences said Tuesday that it had raised $31 million in a Series A round, led by North...
Weekend Edition. Hitachi to acquire JR Automation Technologies, LLC ("JR") for $1.425B
VC Deals
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Sherlock Biosciences said Tuesday that it had raised $31 million in a Series A round, led by Northpond Ventures and Baidu Ventures, with additional contributions from the Open Philanthropy Project and other investors. The company was launched last month with $35 million in initial financing, which included a $17.5 million non-dilutive grant and another investment by the Open Philanthropy Project. More
San Diego-based Poseida Therapeutics said Monday that it had closed a $142 million Series C funding round led by drugmaker Novartis, with Aisling Capital Management, Pentwater Capital Management and Perceptive Advisors participating. Malin Corp., Longitude Capital, Vivo Capital, Boxer Capital and other undisclosed institutional investors also contributed. Novartis markets the CAR-T therapy Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. More
Less than a month after rebranding as Canoo, the startup electric vehicle company formerly known as Evelozcity is on the hunt for $200 million in new capital. The startup, which is backed by a clutch of private individuals and family offices hailing from China, Germany and Taiwan, is hoping to line up the new capital from some more recognizable names as it finalizes supply deals with vendors, according to a person with knowledge of the company’s plans. More
Selina has raised $100 million in fresh financing, the Tel Aviv-based blended hospitality startup said Wednesday. Access Industries led the Series C round. Grupo Wiese and existing investors Colony Latam Partners also participated. Selina runs a network of 46 properties in a dozen Latin American countries and Portugal. It offers private and shared accommodation with coworking facilities, cafes, wellness, and local experiences. More
Soma, a Helsinki, Finland-based blockchain-based social marketplace startup, closed a €1.1M bridge funding round. The round included a substantial investment from the Finnish Government as well as private angel investors. The company intends to use the funds to perform market research, acquire users, and iterate on its product. More
Sponsor
This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to Canadian VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.
Acquisitions
Crestview Partners ("Crestview") and Hitachi, Ltd. ("Hitachi") today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Hitachi to acquire JR Automation Technologies, LLC ("JR") for $1.425 billion. JR is a leading provider of intelligent automated manufacturing and distribution technology solutions headquartered in Holland, Michigan. More
Partnerships
The American Medical Association has launched a new project with Sling Health, a national biotechnology incubator, in an effort to integrate physician perspectives into new technology development as early as possible. The two groups debuted the project, called the Clinical Problem Database, on the AMA's Physician Innovation Network, an online forum that connects physicians with digital health companies seeking clinician feedback. More
IPOs
DouYu International Holdings Ltd., a Chinese video-game live-streaming platform, filed for an U.S. IPO as it seeks to win market share among the country’s younger generation who love to splurge on virtual gifts for their favorite streamers. The initial filing came almost a year after its biggest competitor, Huya Inc., listed in the U.S. last May. The duo, which operate like Twitch, are China’s top two video-game live-streaming platforms. Both companies are backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., which plowed more than $1 billion into DouYu and Huya in the past year. More
Beyond Meat, the meat replacement company whose packages of Beyond Burgers line grocery store aisles across America, has priced its initial public offering. The company is looking to raise roughly $200 million in the stock sale for its portfolio of burger, chicken and sausage replacements, selling 8.75 million shares of common stock at an upper limit of $21 per share that would value Beyond Meat at more than $1 billion. More
Joint Ventures
Sony last year announced it would enter Japan’s taxi-hailing space and, good to its word, the electronics giant has kicked off its S.Ride service in Tokyo. The service — which was first noted by CNET — is a joint venture between Sony, its payment services subsidiary and five licensed taxi companies. Because ride-hailing with civilian cars is illegal in Japan, the service will focus on connecting licensed taxis with passengers. More
Hostile Takeovers
A bidding war in the petroleum space broke out Wednesday after Occidental Petroleum made a $38 billion offer for Anadarko Petroleum, topping the $33 billion offer Chevron made earlier this month. Shares of Anadarko, the oil and natural gas exploration and production company, soared 12%. More
Healthcare Tech News
We’re barely into the second quarter of the year but 2019 is already shaping up to be different than the previous year for health tech. At least two companies, Livongo and Dignity Health, have registered for IPOs. Investment in health tech dipped in the first quarter of the year, bucking a trend that has seen more and more capital pumped into the sector. Are these signs that this will be the year of multiple health tech IPOs? More
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Sherlock Biosciences said Tuesday that it had raised $31 million in a Series A round, led by Northpond Ventures and Baidu Ventures, with additional contributions from the Open Philanthropy Project and other investors. The company was launched last month with $35 million in initial financing, which included a $17.5 million non-dilutive grant and another investment by the Open Philanthropy Project. More
San Diego-based Poseida Therapeutics said Monday that it had closed a $142 million Series C funding round led by drugmaker Novartis, with Aisling Capital Management, Pentwater Capital Management and Perceptive Advisors participating. Malin Corp., Longitude Capital, Vivo Capital, Boxer Capital and other undisclosed institutional investors also contributed. Novartis markets the CAR-T therapy Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. More
Less than a month after rebranding as Canoo, the startup electric vehicle company formerly known as Evelozcity is on the hunt for $200 million in new capital. The startup, which is backed by a clutch of private individuals and family offices hailing from China, Germany and Taiwan, is hoping to line up the new capital from some more recognizable names as it finalizes supply deals with vendors, according to a person with knowledge of the company’s plans. More
Selina has raised $100 million in fresh financing, the Tel Aviv-based blended hospitality startup said Wednesday. Access Industries led the Series C round. Grupo Wiese and existing investors Colony Latam Partners also participated. Selina runs a network of 46 properties in a dozen Latin American countries and Portugal. It offers private and shared accommodation with coworking facilities, cafes, wellness, and local experiences. More
Soma, a Helsinki, Finland-based blockchain-based social marketplace startup, closed a €1.1M bridge funding round. The round included a substantial investment from the Finnish Government as well as private angel investors. The company intends to use the funds to perform market research, acquire users, and iterate on its product. More
Sponsor
This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to Canadian VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.
Are you a Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.
Serving Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, and Halifax.
Serving Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, and Halifax.
Acquisitions
Crestview Partners ("Crestview") and Hitachi, Ltd. ("Hitachi") today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Hitachi to acquire JR Automation Technologies, LLC ("JR") for $1.425 billion. JR is a leading provider of intelligent automated manufacturing and distribution technology solutions headquartered in Holland, Michigan. More
Partnerships
The American Medical Association has launched a new project with Sling Health, a national biotechnology incubator, in an effort to integrate physician perspectives into new technology development as early as possible. The two groups debuted the project, called the Clinical Problem Database, on the AMA's Physician Innovation Network, an online forum that connects physicians with digital health companies seeking clinician feedback. More
IPOs
DouYu International Holdings Ltd., a Chinese video-game live-streaming platform, filed for an U.S. IPO as it seeks to win market share among the country’s younger generation who love to splurge on virtual gifts for their favorite streamers. The initial filing came almost a year after its biggest competitor, Huya Inc., listed in the U.S. last May. The duo, which operate like Twitch, are China’s top two video-game live-streaming platforms. Both companies are backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., which plowed more than $1 billion into DouYu and Huya in the past year. More
Beyond Meat, the meat replacement company whose packages of Beyond Burgers line grocery store aisles across America, has priced its initial public offering. The company is looking to raise roughly $200 million in the stock sale for its portfolio of burger, chicken and sausage replacements, selling 8.75 million shares of common stock at an upper limit of $21 per share that would value Beyond Meat at more than $1 billion. More
Joint Ventures
Sony last year announced it would enter Japan’s taxi-hailing space and, good to its word, the electronics giant has kicked off its S.Ride service in Tokyo. The service — which was first noted by CNET — is a joint venture between Sony, its payment services subsidiary and five licensed taxi companies. Because ride-hailing with civilian cars is illegal in Japan, the service will focus on connecting licensed taxis with passengers. More
Hostile Takeovers
A bidding war in the petroleum space broke out Wednesday after Occidental Petroleum made a $38 billion offer for Anadarko Petroleum, topping the $33 billion offer Chevron made earlier this month. Shares of Anadarko, the oil and natural gas exploration and production company, soared 12%. More
Healthcare Tech News
We’re barely into the second quarter of the year but 2019 is already shaping up to be different than the previous year for health tech. At least two companies, Livongo and Dignity Health, have registered for IPOs. Investment in health tech dipped in the first quarter of the year, bucking a trend that has seen more and more capital pumped into the sector. Are these signs that this will be the year of multiple health tech IPOs? More
Friday, April 26, 2019
VC Deals Only: The startup behind that deep-fake David Beckham vi...
VC Deals Only: The startup behind that deep-fake David Beckham vi...: By Mike Butcher The recent global campaign showing Malaria survivors speaking through David Beckham to help raise awareness around th...
The startup behind that deep-fake David Beckham video just raised $3M
By Mike Butcher
The recent global campaign showing Malaria survivors speaking through David Beckham to help raise awareness around the Malaria Must Die initiative spooked a lot of people.
The campaign was a joint collaboration between RG/A, Ridley Scott Associates and the clever video startup Synthesia, for Malaria No More.
And it turns out, there’s a huge commercial imperative over this cool technology.
Video production today is highly unscaleable. It’s a physical process with many cameras, many studios and many actors. Once a marketing, product or entertainment video has been shot, it’s very difficult to quickly and affordably edit the creative or translate into different languages.
As co-founder Victor Riparbelli Rasmussen tells me: “We believe generating semi or fully artificial video is more efficient. This digital creation process is already the industry standard with images through applications like PhotoShop. We’re enabling the same for video.”
Synthesia says it can reduce the need to go on set to produce video content. Rather than shooting a new video, it can edit existing assets to create derivative international and personalized videos.
Rasmussen says: “Our solution allows companies to 10x their video output for a tenth of the costs of conventional production. A simple interview-style video can easily involve many people and extensive production costs across the organization. With our solution, a marketing manager at an advertising agency, a Fortune 1000 company or small business can create a new video from behind her screen and have it delivered back within 48 hours.”
The U.K.-based startup has now raised $3.1 million, with the financing led by LDV Capital, early investor Mark Cuban and new investors MMC Ventures, Seedcamp, Martin Varsavsky’s VAS Ventures, TransferWise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus, Tiny VC and advertising executive Nigel Morris.
“Video production is exponentially increasing but it is extremely challenging to internationalize and easily personalize advertising, marketing and e-learning videos across cultures,” says Evan Nisselson, general partner at LDV Capital. “Synthesia is leveraging computer vision and artificial intelligence to revolutionize video production for brands and creators.”
Synthesia was founded by a team of researchers and entrepreneurs from UCL, Stanford, TUM and Foundry. Notably, Prof. Matthias Niessner, one of the co-founders of the company, is behind some of the most well-recognized research projects in the field Deep Video Portraits and Face2Face.
The London-based startup came out of stealth in November 2018, airing their first public demo with the BBC, showcasing Synthesia technology by enabling newsreader Matthew Amroliwala to speak three different languages.
Their customers already include global brands such as Accenture, McCann Worldgroup, the Dallas Mavericks and Axiata Group.
But what about deep fakes and the potential for disinformation?
Synthesia says it has strong ethical guidelines and aims to ensure that all the content created is consensual and that actors are in control of their likeness.
So this is not software that you can just download from the web and apply to Bernie Sanders’ face.
Rasmussen says the company is actively working with governments and media organizations to create public awareness and develop technological security mechanisms to ensure that society gets to harness the benefits and reduce potential negative effects from synthetic media technologies.
Well, let’s hope so…
Source. Techcrunch, Mike Butcher, April 25, 2019
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Are you a Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.
Serving Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, and Halifax.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
VC Deals Only: LightIntegra Raises USD$5.3M in Series A Funding
VC Deals Only: LightIntegra Raises USD$5.3M in Series A Funding: LightIntegra Technology, a Vancouver, BC-based developer of a 5-minute test for platelet activation status, received $5.3m in Series A fundi...
LightIntegra Raises USD$5.3M in Series A Funding
LightIntegra Technology, a Vancouver, BC-based developer of a 5-minute test for platelet activation status, received $5.3m in Series A funding.
The round was led by Genome BC and Boardwalk Ventures Inc. and includes funding from Tower Beach Capital Ltd., Coleco Investments, and Quimby Investments (VCC) Ltd.
The company intends to use the funds to bring its test to the US market.
Led by William Dubiel, President and CEO, LightIntegra Technology has advanced ThromboLUX, a non-invasive, rapid optical test that assesses platelet activation status, which does not require dilution. As a routine test for platelet concentrates, it identifies which platelet units may be best suited for prophylaxis and which units may be best suited for therapeutic use.
The medical diagnostics company launched from the Canadian Blood Services R&D labs through the efforts of research scientist Dr. Elisabeth Maurer.
Source. FinSMEs, Staff, April 24, 2019
***
This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to Canadian VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.
Are you a Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.
Serving Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, and Halifax.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
VC Deals Only: Sherlock Biosciences raises $31M to apply CRISPR t...
VC Deals Only: Sherlock Biosciences raises $31M to apply CRISPR t...: By Alaric Dearment A startup planning to apply CRISPR technology to diagnostics has raised its first major round of venture capital financ...
Sherlock Biosciences raises $31M to apply CRISPR technology to diagnostics
By Alaric Dearment
A startup planning to apply CRISPR technology to diagnostics has raised its first major round of venture capital financing a month after its founding.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Sherlock Biosciences said Tuesday that it had raised $31 million in a Series A round, led by Northpond Ventures and Baidu Ventures, with additional contributions from the Open Philanthropy Project and other investors. The company was launched last month with $35 million in initial financing, which included a $17.5 million non-dilutive grant and another investment by the Open Philanthropy Project.
The company’s founders are several veterans of the diagnostics industry and gene-editing science, including CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang of The Broad Institute.
Its stated desire is to use the new funding to “disrupt” diagnostics by developing molecular diagnostics that can rapidly deliver accurate and inexpensive results in areas like oncology, infectious diseases, at-home testing, low-resource settings and agriculture.
The company has in-licensed two technology platforms from The Broad and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. From The Broad, it has licensed SHERLOCK, developed by Zhang and others, and from Wyss it has licensed the molecular diagnostics platform INSPECTR.
SHERLOCK – whose name is derived from “specific high-sensitivity enzymatic reporter unlocking” – works by amplifying genetic sequences and programming a CRISPR molecule to detect specific genetic signatures in samples, releasing a signal when those signatures are detected. According to the company, SHERLOCK is able to detect the unique genetic “fingerprints” of almost any DNA or RNA sequence in an organism of pathogen. The INSPECTR acronym is derived from “internal splint-pairing expression cassette translation reaction.” It works through synthetic biology and synthetic gene networks and enables the creation of instrument-free diagnostic devices.
The company’s application of CRISPR to diagnostics is a departure from the more well-known uses of the technology, which have primarily focused on therapeutic gene-editing. In February, a Phase I/II clinical trial of a therapy developed using the technology in beta-thalassemia, run by Boston-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Switzerland’s CRISPR Therapeutics, dosed its first patient. And last week, a Phase I clinical trial at the University of Pennsylvania of a cell therapy sponsored by Mustang Bio dosed its first two patients, one with multiple myeloma and one with a sarcoma.
Source. Medcity News, Alaric Dearment, April 23, 2019
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This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to Canadian VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.
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VC Deals Only: GV-backed KeepTruckin nabs $149M at $1.25B valuati...
VC Deals Only: GV-backed KeepTruckin nabs $149M at $1.25B valuati...: By Kate Clark KeepTruckin, a developer of hardware and software that helps truck drivers manage their vehicles and cargo, has raised $14...
GV-backed KeepTruckin nabs $149M at $1.25B valuation
By Kate Clark
KeepTruckin, a developer of hardware and software that helps truck drivers manage their vehicles and cargo, has raised $149 million in Series D funding. Greenoaks Capital has led the round, with participation from existing backers GV, IVP, Index Ventures and Scale Venture Partners .
The round values the business at $1.25 billion, according to KeepTruckin co-founder and chief executive officer Shoaib Makani.
Since it was founded in 2013, KeepTruckin has accumulated 55,000 unique customers, deploying its software in hundreds of thousands of vehicles. The San Francisco-headquartered company will use the latest investment to double its employee headcount to 2,000 in the next 12 to 18 months.
“Our technology really improves the life of the driver,” Makani told TechCrunch. “These are real people doing work that keeps our economy moving. Trucking is really the foundation of the American economy. More than 70 percent of all freight is moved over the road in a truck. This is how we eat, consume and produce; without it, our economy wouldn’t thrive.”
The Series D financing brings KeepTruckin’s total raised to $228 million, including a $50 million Series C that closed in March 2018.
KeepTruckin’s software is intended to bring the antiquated trucking industry into the digital age. Its platform provides electronic logs and fleet management tools, including GPS tracking and driver performance monitoring for fleet managers and dispatchers to track and communicate with their drivers.
“We are competing against paper and pencil,” Makani explained.
Makani left Khosla Ventures, where he had been an investor in early-stage consumer and enterprise companies since 2011, in 2013 to build KeepTruckin. At the time, the beginnings of a new sector focused on tech-enabled logistics was beginning to emerge. Since then, several companies have launched and scaled with similar focuses.
There’s Convoy in Seattle, for example, which also operates a network of connected-trucks. Uber Freight, the logistics and supply chain management business inside Uber. And Huochebang, a Chinese mobile app dubbed the “Uber-for-Trucks.”
“Trucking is forecasted to be a $1 trillion industry by 2024 and is the backbone of the global economy, yet has been underserved by technology but change is coming and KeepTruckin is at the leading edge,” Greenoaks managing partner Neil Mehta said in a statement. “KeepTruckin is building the technology that trucking companies need to compete in the modern economy. The network that KeepTruckin has built will enable it to change the way freight is moved on our roads.”
Source. Techcrunch, Kate Clark, April 23, 2019
***
This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to Canadian VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.
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Tuesday, April 23, 2019
VC Deals Only: Locus Robotics Raises $26M in Series C Funding
VC Deals Only: Locus Robotics Raises $26M in Series C Funding: Locus Robotics, a Wilmington, Mass.-based market leader in autonomous mobile robots (AMR) for fulfillment warehouses, raised $26M in Series ...
Locus Robotics Raises $26M in Series C Funding
Locus Robotics, a Wilmington, Mass.-based market leader in autonomous mobile robots (AMR) for fulfillment warehouses, raised $26M in Series C funding.
Backers included Zebra Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Zebra Technologies, and Scale Venture Partners.
The company, which has raised more than $66m in total funding since launch, will use the proceeds to scale production of its multi-bot solution for warehouse fulfillment, as well as expand its sales and marketing efforts, both in North America, and internationally.
Led by Rick Faulk, CEO, Locus Robotics provides a multi-robot solution that enables warehouse operators to achieve efficient fulfillment operations while simultaneously managing both labor costs and fluctuating order volume.
Customers include DHL, GEODIS, Port Logistics Group, Verst Logistics, Radial, and others.
In addition to Zebra Ventures’ financial investment, Zebra Technologies is working with Locus to integrate technologies to bring innovative solutions to market. Locus recently added an accessory power port to their autonomous mobile robot, the LocusBot, which features a Zebra printer integrated onto its robotic platform, and showcased a Zebra wireless handheld scanner integrated with Locus’s new putaway functionality.
Source. FinSMEs, Staff, April 22, 2019
This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to Canadian VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.
Backers included Zebra Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Zebra Technologies, and Scale Venture Partners.
The company, which has raised more than $66m in total funding since launch, will use the proceeds to scale production of its multi-bot solution for warehouse fulfillment, as well as expand its sales and marketing efforts, both in North America, and internationally.
Led by Rick Faulk, CEO, Locus Robotics provides a multi-robot solution that enables warehouse operators to achieve efficient fulfillment operations while simultaneously managing both labor costs and fluctuating order volume.
Customers include DHL, GEODIS, Port Logistics Group, Verst Logistics, Radial, and others.
In addition to Zebra Ventures’ financial investment, Zebra Technologies is working with Locus to integrate technologies to bring innovative solutions to market. Locus recently added an accessory power port to their autonomous mobile robot, the LocusBot, which features a Zebra printer integrated onto its robotic platform, and showcased a Zebra wireless handheld scanner integrated with Locus’s new putaway functionality.
Source. FinSMEs, Staff, April 22, 2019
***
This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to Canadian VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.
Are you a Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.
Serving Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, and Halifax.
Serving Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, and Halifax.
Monday, April 22, 2019
VC Deals Only: Starbucks challenger Luckin’s fundraising spree co...
VC Deals Only: Starbucks challenger Luckin’s fundraising spree co...: By Rita Liao Coffee startup Luckin is continuing its fundraising spree as it sets its sights on becoming an alternative to Starbucks in Ch...
Starbucks challenger Luckin’s fundraising spree continues with $150M investment
By Rita Liao
Coffee startup Luckin is continuing its fundraising spree as it sets its sights on becoming an alternative to Starbucks in China.
The year-and-a-half-old company announced on Thursday that it closed a Series B-plus raise totaling $150 million. The fresh proceeds valued Luckin at $2.9 billion post-money, up from $2.2 billion just four months ago.
While many question Luckin’s cash-fueled expansion, Blackrock, which owns a 6.58 percent stake in Starbucks, showed its confidence in the Chinese startup by pumping $125 million into Luckin’s new round through its private equity fund.
With that, the New York-based investment firm has its bet on two contrasting models for China’s coffee consumption. While Starbucks zeroes in on the brick-and-mortar experience, Luckin is a network of last-mile coffee delivery centers, plus places for people to pick up orders and sit down, targeting busy white-collar workers.
In a move that would amp up its battle with Luckin, Starbucks teamed up with Alibaba’s food delivery unit Ele.me last August to put hot and cold drinks in people’s hands.
Luckin did not disclose how it will spend the fresh capital infusion, but the pace at which it’s raising suggests the startup is in dire need of cash. The new round arrived less than a year after it secured a $200 million Series A in July and another $200 million from a Series B in December.
Indeed, Luckin founder Qian Zhiya, a former executive at auto rental firm Car Inc., confessed the company burned through $150 million within just six months from launching. A big chunk of money had gone to shelling out deep discounts for consumers, while the coffee challenger’s offline expansion was just as cash-intensive.
As of late, Luckin has opened 2,000 outlets, consisting of small prep kitchens, pickup stations and cafes in 22 Chinese cities, up from 1,700 locations reached in December. That gives Luckin less than eight months to fulfill its ambition of becoming the “biggest coffee chain in China by the number of outlets run and cups sold.” The goal is to top 4,500 outlets by the end of 2019.
Starbucks, which made its foray into China 20 years ago, has also been aggressively putting up storefronts. It currently runs 3,600 stores across 150 cities in China, up from 3,300 last May.
When it comes to actual people using the service, Starbucks still enjoys a huge lead. The Luckin app that allows one to order and pay had 650,000 unique downloads in March, data from research firm iResearch shows. Starbucks’ app is more than four times its size, with 2.81 million unique downloads from the same period.
Other investors that joined in on Luckin’s latest round include existing backers such as Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Chinese government-controlled China International Capital Corporation, Dazheng Capital and Joy Capital, whose founding partner Liu Erhai sits on Luckin’s board.
Source. Techcrunch, Rita Liao, April 17, 2019
Coffee startup Luckin is continuing its fundraising spree as it sets its sights on becoming an alternative to Starbucks in China.
The year-and-a-half-old company announced on Thursday that it closed a Series B-plus raise totaling $150 million. The fresh proceeds valued Luckin at $2.9 billion post-money, up from $2.2 billion just four months ago.
While many question Luckin’s cash-fueled expansion, Blackrock, which owns a 6.58 percent stake in Starbucks, showed its confidence in the Chinese startup by pumping $125 million into Luckin’s new round through its private equity fund.
With that, the New York-based investment firm has its bet on two contrasting models for China’s coffee consumption. While Starbucks zeroes in on the brick-and-mortar experience, Luckin is a network of last-mile coffee delivery centers, plus places for people to pick up orders and sit down, targeting busy white-collar workers.
In a move that would amp up its battle with Luckin, Starbucks teamed up with Alibaba’s food delivery unit Ele.me last August to put hot and cold drinks in people’s hands.
Luckin did not disclose how it will spend the fresh capital infusion, but the pace at which it’s raising suggests the startup is in dire need of cash. The new round arrived less than a year after it secured a $200 million Series A in July and another $200 million from a Series B in December.
Indeed, Luckin founder Qian Zhiya, a former executive at auto rental firm Car Inc., confessed the company burned through $150 million within just six months from launching. A big chunk of money had gone to shelling out deep discounts for consumers, while the coffee challenger’s offline expansion was just as cash-intensive.
As of late, Luckin has opened 2,000 outlets, consisting of small prep kitchens, pickup stations and cafes in 22 Chinese cities, up from 1,700 locations reached in December. That gives Luckin less than eight months to fulfill its ambition of becoming the “biggest coffee chain in China by the number of outlets run and cups sold.” The goal is to top 4,500 outlets by the end of 2019.
Starbucks, which made its foray into China 20 years ago, has also been aggressively putting up storefronts. It currently runs 3,600 stores across 150 cities in China, up from 3,300 last May.
When it comes to actual people using the service, Starbucks still enjoys a huge lead. The Luckin app that allows one to order and pay had 650,000 unique downloads in March, data from research firm iResearch shows. Starbucks’ app is more than four times its size, with 2.81 million unique downloads from the same period.
Other investors that joined in on Luckin’s latest round include existing backers such as Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Chinese government-controlled China International Capital Corporation, Dazheng Capital and Joy Capital, whose founding partner Liu Erhai sits on Luckin’s board.
Source. Techcrunch, Rita Liao, April 17, 2019
***
This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to Canadian VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.
Are you a Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.
Serving Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, and Halifax.
"We partner with Canadian startups to help them
grow, scale & compete on the international stage"
Serving Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, and Halifax.
"We partner with Canadian startups to help them
grow, scale & compete on the international stage"
Sunday, April 21, 2019
VC Deals Only: Lendified Secures $15M in Funding
VC Deals Only: Lendified Secures $15M in Funding: Lendified Holdings, Inc., a Toronto, Canada-based financial technology company, closed a $15m funding round. Backers included CI Financial...
Lendified Secures $15M in Funding
Lendified Holdings, Inc., a Toronto, Canada-based financial technology company, closed a $15m funding round.
Backers included CI Financial Corp., Windsor Private Capital Limited Partnership, FirePower Capital, Glenn Murphy, the founder of FIS Holdings and former CEO of Gap Inc. and Shoppers Drug Mart.
The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations.
Launched in 2015 and led by Kevin Clark, President, and led by Troy Wright, CEO, Lendified offers online loans to small businesses across Canada and a SaaS credit platform to financial institutions across North America (used by credit unions, community banks, and other financial services companies) featuring tools for managing cash flow, and advanced credit adjudication software to financial service providers across North America.
Through its lending business, the company offers loans up to $150k for terms up to two years.
Its advanced underwriting process is powered by Judi, its credit adjudication platform which enables users to assess, price, and monitor credit risk, and in-turn provide the best possible services to customers.
Source. FinSMEs, Staff, April 18, 2019
This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.
Backers included CI Financial Corp., Windsor Private Capital Limited Partnership, FirePower Capital, Glenn Murphy, the founder of FIS Holdings and former CEO of Gap Inc. and Shoppers Drug Mart.
The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations.
Launched in 2015 and led by Kevin Clark, President, and led by Troy Wright, CEO, Lendified offers online loans to small businesses across Canada and a SaaS credit platform to financial institutions across North America (used by credit unions, community banks, and other financial services companies) featuring tools for managing cash flow, and advanced credit adjudication software to financial service providers across North America.
Through its lending business, the company offers loans up to $150k for terms up to two years.
Its advanced underwriting process is powered by Judi, its credit adjudication platform which enables users to assess, price, and monitor credit risk, and in-turn provide the best possible services to customers.
Source. FinSMEs, Staff, April 18, 2019
***
This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.
Need to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.
Saturday, April 20, 2019
VC Deals Only: Weekend Edition. Hulu valued at $15B. Buys back AT...
VC Deals Only: Weekend Edition. Hulu valued at $15B. Buys back AT...: Issue. April 20, 2019 VC Deals Lyric, a platform for folks who struggle to decide between a hotel and an Airbnb, has today announced the...
Weekend Edition. Hulu valued at $15B. Buys back AT&T's minority stake
Issue. April 20, 2019
VC Deals
Lyric, a platform for folks who struggle to decide between a hotel and an Airbnb, has today announced the close a $160 million financing round (an even combination of debt and equity). Airbnb led the equity financing. More
Amenity Analytics, a New York-based startup developing what it describes as a “text-mining” AI platform for enterprise, today announced that it’s raised $18 million in series B financing led by Starr Companies, with participation from Allstate, Intel Capital, and State of Mind Ventures. It brings the company’s total raised to around $25.6 million. More
ABK Biomedical, Inc., a Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada-based medical device company dedicated to the research, development and commercialization of innovative embolic therapies, raised $30m in Series B funding. The round was co-led by F-Prime Capital and Varian Medical Systems. More
Seattle-based medical device company Bardy Diagnostics today announced a $35.5 million funding round led by River Cities Capital Fund. The company makes the Carnation Ambulatory Monitor (CAM), which is a small, lightweight heart monitor that can detect arrhythmia. More
Buckzy Payments Inc., a Toronto, CA-based fintech company, closed a $1.75m seed funding round. The round was led by Mistral Venture Partners joined by New York based Revel Partners. The company intends to use the funds to scale its real-time global payments network. More
IPOs
Pinterest priced shares of its stock, “PINS,” above its anticipated range on Wednesday evening, CNBC reports. The company will sell 75 million shares of Class A common stock at $19 apiece in an offering that will attract $1.4 billion in new capital for the visual search engine. More
Sponsor
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Need to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.
LiveRamp® (NYSE: RAMP), the identity platform powering exceptional experiences, today announced the acquisition of Faktor to enable streamlined consent management across the open web. This deal represents a big win for the entire ecosystem and reinforces LiveRamp's strategic focus on privacy and data stewardship. More
Stripe, the Silicon Valley company founded by Limerick-born brothers John and Patrick Collison, has acquired Irish start-up Touchtech Payments for an undisclosed sum. Touchtech is a Dublin-based software company that provides advanced strong customer authentication (SCA) technology for financial institutions. More
Buy Backs
Hulu has paid $1.43 billion to buy back AT&T’s minority stake in the streaming video company. The companies announced Monday that the transaction valued Hulu at $15 billion. As a result, AT&T’s 9.5 percent stake in Hulu was worth $1.43 billion. More
New Funds
It’s often said that the dramatic fall of crypto prices last year ushered in a new era for technology-focused startups in the blockchain space, and the same argument can be made for the venture capitalists who fund them. Proof of Capital is the latest fund to emerge after it officially announced a maiden $50 million fund today. More
Exits
Salesforce announced today it’s buying another company built on its platform. This time it’s MapAnything, which, as the name implies, helps companies build location-based workflows, something that could come in handy for sales or service calls. The companies did not reveal the selling price, and Salesforce didn’t have anything to add beyond a brief press release announcing the deal. More
VC Deals
Lyric, a platform for folks who struggle to decide between a hotel and an Airbnb, has today announced the close a $160 million financing round (an even combination of debt and equity). Airbnb led the equity financing. More
Amenity Analytics, a New York-based startup developing what it describes as a “text-mining” AI platform for enterprise, today announced that it’s raised $18 million in series B financing led by Starr Companies, with participation from Allstate, Intel Capital, and State of Mind Ventures. It brings the company’s total raised to around $25.6 million. More
ABK Biomedical, Inc., a Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada-based medical device company dedicated to the research, development and commercialization of innovative embolic therapies, raised $30m in Series B funding. The round was co-led by F-Prime Capital and Varian Medical Systems. More
Seattle-based medical device company Bardy Diagnostics today announced a $35.5 million funding round led by River Cities Capital Fund. The company makes the Carnation Ambulatory Monitor (CAM), which is a small, lightweight heart monitor that can detect arrhythmia. More
Buckzy Payments Inc., a Toronto, CA-based fintech company, closed a $1.75m seed funding round. The round was led by Mistral Venture Partners joined by New York based Revel Partners. The company intends to use the funds to scale its real-time global payments network. More
IPOs
Pinterest priced shares of its stock, “PINS,” above its anticipated range on Wednesday evening, CNBC reports. The company will sell 75 million shares of Class A common stock at $19 apiece in an offering that will attract $1.4 billion in new capital for the visual search engine. More
Sponsor
This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.
Need to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.
Acquisitions
Butterfly, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm specializing in the food sector, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Bolthouse Farms from Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) for $510 million in cash, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. More
Stripe, the Silicon Valley company founded by Limerick-born brothers John and Patrick Collison, has acquired Irish start-up Touchtech Payments for an undisclosed sum. Touchtech is a Dublin-based software company that provides advanced strong customer authentication (SCA) technology for financial institutions. More
Hulu has paid $1.43 billion to buy back AT&T’s minority stake in the streaming video company. The companies announced Monday that the transaction valued Hulu at $15 billion. As a result, AT&T’s 9.5 percent stake in Hulu was worth $1.43 billion. More
It’s often said that the dramatic fall of crypto prices last year ushered in a new era for technology-focused startups in the blockchain space, and the same argument can be made for the venture capitalists who fund them. Proof of Capital is the latest fund to emerge after it officially announced a maiden $50 million fund today. More
Exits
Salesforce announced today it’s buying another company built on its platform. This time it’s MapAnything, which, as the name implies, helps companies build location-based workflows, something that could come in handy for sales or service calls. The companies did not reveal the selling price, and Salesforce didn’t have anything to add beyond a brief press release announcing the deal. More
Tech News
Alexa. Cortana. Google Assistant. Bixby. Siri. Hundreds of millions of people use voice assistants developed by Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, and Apple every day, and that number is growing all the time. More
Events
Events
Startupfest Montreal 2019, July 9 -12. An invent designed for founders, and investors. Network and connect in one of Canada's most beautiful cities. More
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