Category: Venture Capital

The skinny on the benefits of brown fat

As a young man, Olivier Boss’s idea of a good time was to spend a summer day cycling a few hundred miles through the mountains of Switzerland or France. La Marmotte, he says, was an especially fun day: a 108-mile road race with nearly 17,000 feet of climbing.

Fintech company Currencycloud raises A 20 million from Google’s VC arm

Currencycloud, a fintech company that helps businesses make cross border payments, has raised A 20 million from Google’s venture capital arm, GV. GV led the “Series D” round of funding – the fourth injection of money from institutional investors – but Currencycloud also attracted money from existing investors, including Sapphire Ventures, Notion Capital, Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten’s fintech fund, and Anthemis.

Epicrop rakes in $3.2 mln

Lincoln, Nebraska-based Epicrop Technologies Inc , an agricultural biotech company, has raised $3.2 million in Series A funding. The investors were TechAccel, North Forty Ventures, Nelnet, Speedway Properties and Allen & Company .

Telstra invests in SD-WAN vendor

Telstra has established what it has described as a strategic partnership with US SD-WAN company VeloCloud Networks, with the telco’s VC arm, Telstra Ventures, participating in its latest funding round. “We expect SDN will continue to transform enterprise networking around the world and VeloCloud SD-WAN can help companies achieve more agile and responsive networks as well as reduce costs,” Telstra Ventures managing director, Mark Sherman, said in a statement.

Skype cofounder Niklas Zennstrom is using a $1 billion VC fund to back sustainability startups

The next generation of multibillion dollar tech giants will have an environmental element at their core, according to Skype cofounder turned investor Niklas ZennstrA m. ZennstrA m, one of the wealthiest tech figures in Britain and someone who has appeared on The Sunday Times Rich List, said he expects to see an increase in demand for tech companies addressing sustainability issues in the coming years.

Skype cofounder Niklas Zennstrom is using a $1 billion VC fund to back sustainability startups

The next generation of multibillion dollar tech giants will have an environmental element at their core, according to Skype cofounder turned investor Niklas ZennstrA m. ZennstrA m, one of the wealthiest tech figures in Britain and someone who has appeared on The Sunday Times Rich List, said he expects to see an increase in demand for tech companies addressing sustainability issues in the coming years.

VeloCloud Raises $35M to Meet Accelerating Global Demand for Cloud-Delivered SD-WAN

Sanjay Uppal is CEO and Co-founder of VeloCloud, which has closed a $35 million Series D round of funding, led by Hermes Growth Partners, to expand business, capacity and operations as the company accelerates new SD-WAN product development, supports larger customer rollouts, and dramatically increases sales and marketing in theaters worldwide. )–VeloClouda Networks, Inc., the Cloud-Delivered SD-WANa company , today announced that it has closed a $35 million Series D round of funding, led by Hermes Growth Partners.

CCC Begins Next Phase of Innovation with Advent International

CCC Information Services Inc. , a leading Software as a Service provider to the automotive, insurance, and collision repair industries, announced today that it has selected Advent International , a global investment firm with deep experience in the technology sector, as its next equity partner. Advent will purchase equity assets from CCC’s previous owners Leonard Green & Partners and TPG Capital .

Therese Poletti’s Tech Tales: The two views of Snapchat: An app that…

From New York to Silicon Valley to its hometown in Southern California, investors and analysts are sharply divided about Snap Inc. and its potential ahead of a highly anticipated initial public offering. Investors are hoping that the Snapchat parent company’s much hyped IPO , the first from a “unicorn” tech company this year, will revive the moribund market for IPOs.

Demisto Raises $20M to Meet Growing Global Demand

Demisto Raises $20M to Meet Growing Global Demand for Automated Incident Response and Security Orchestration — Along with Series B Funding, ClearSky Managing Director Jay Leek Joins Demisto Board of Directors CUPERTINO, Calif., Feb. 9, 2017 — Demisto, Inc., an innovator in Security Operations technology, today announced that it has closed its $20 million Series B round of funding. As a part of this round, the company also announced the appointment of ClearSky Managing Director Jay Leek to its Board of Directors.

Demisto Raises $20M to Meet Growing Global Demand

Demisto Raises $20M to Meet Growing Global Demand for Automated Incident Response and Security Orchestration — Along with Series B Funding, ClearSky Managing Director Jay Leek Joins Demisto Board of Directors CUPERTINO, Calif., Feb. 9, 2017 — Demisto, Inc., an innovator in Security Operations technology, today announced that it has closed its $20 million Series B round of funding. As a part of this round, the company also announced the appointment of ClearSky Managing Director Jay Leek to its Board of Directors.

Google Ventures, BMW, Lowe’s Invest in Desktop Metal

Desktop Metal, an emerging startup with the mission to bring metal 3D printing to all design and manufacturing teams, announced today it has raised a total of $97 million in equity funding since its founding in October 2015. The announcement comes as the result of the latest Series C investment of $45 million, led by GV , as well as BMW i Ventures and Lowe’s Ventures.

Mission Bio Receives Investment from Life Science Angels

Mission Bio, Inc. announced today that it has secured funding from U.S. top ranked angel investment group Life Science Angels in a seed round to commercialize its high throughput single-cell genomics system. Mission Bio is developing a microfluidic, droplet-based platform to enable critical advances in diseases like cancer, where elucidating heterogeneity in cell populations is essential.

Neurala Announces $14 Million Series A to Bring Deep Learning Neural…

Based on work originally developed for NASA, ‘The Neurala Brain’ enables a new generation of smart products that learn, adapt and interact with their environment in real time. BOSTON-January 18, 2017-Neurala, the software company that has invented The Neurala Brain, a deep learning neural networks platform that is making smart products like toys, cameras and self-driving cars more autonomous, interactive and useful, today announced the closing of a $14 million series A funding round.

#AI news: #Neurala Announces $14 Million Series A to Bring Deep…

January 18, 2017 Neurala, the software company that has invented The Neurala Brain, a deep learning neural networks platform that is making smart products like toys, cameras and self-driving cars more autonomous, interactive and useful, today announced the closing of a $14 million series A funding round. The round was led by Pelion Venture Partners, with participation from Sherpa Capital, Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, 360 Capital Partners, Draper Associates Investments, SK Ventures, and Idinvest Partners through its Electranova Capital II Fund and in partnership with Ecomobility Ventures.

TellusLabs Raises $3.1M Seed Round Led by IA Ventures

TellusLabs, an Earth monitoring and machine learning company, today announced that it raised $3.1 million in seed funding led by IA Ventures and including Hyperplane Venture Capital, Founder Collective, and Project 11 Ventures. Based in Boston, TellusLabs provides answers to time-sensitive economic and environmental questions by assembling decades of satellite imagery and other geospatial data into a dynamic map of the Earth.

Spaces raises additional $6.5 mln

SPACES Inc., the virtual reality and mixed reality company launched in 2016 by VR pioneers from DreamWorks Animation, has raised an additional $6.5 million in funding, led by China-based Songcheng Performances Development Co. Ltd., with additional investment from Comcast Ventures, the venture-capital affiliate of Comcast Corporation, and other leading VC groups.

UK’s Funding Circle, an online marketplace lender, raises $100 mln

Funding Circle, a peer-to-peer lending marketplace used by small- and medium-sized companies, has raised $100 million in an investment round led by venture capital firm Accel. Existing investors including Baillie Gifford, DST Global and Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Rocket Internet, Sands Capital Ventures, Temasek and Union Square Ventures also participated in the round, the company said.

Evotec and Eternygen to Develop Novel Metabolic Disease Therapy

Evotec AG announced today that it will extend its existing relationship with Eternygen GmbH by becoming an investor in addition to being a pre-clinical drug discovery partner. Within a consortium of investors including VC Fonds Technologie Berlin, managed by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, and two renowned family offices, Epidarex and Evotec together will participate in Eternygen’s latest funding round of EUR 8 m .

SBA Launches 2017 InnovateHER Business Challenge for Innovations That Empower Women’s Lives

The U.S. Small Business Administration has announced the launch of the 2017 InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Business Challenge, a nationwide business competition to drive attention and resources to innovative products and services that make our lives easier and longer. Competitors vie for $70,000 in prize money provided to SBA for the InnovateHER competition through a gift from the Sara Blakely Foundation.

SBA Launches 2017 InnovateHER Business Challenge for Innovations That Empower Women’s Lives

The U.S. Small Business Administration has announced the launch of the 2017 InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Business Challenge, a nationwide business competition to drive attention and resources to innovative products and services that make our lives easier and longer. Competitors vie for $70,000 in prize money provided to SBA for the InnovateHER competition through a gift from the Sara Blakely Foundation.

IPrice gains $4m in Series A funding

IPrice Group, a Kuala Lumpur-based price comparison website, has received US$4 million in a Series A round of funding from a group of venture capitalists. The group was led by Asia Venture Group and includes Gobi Partners, DMP, Econa, Starstrike and a few individual investors.