Monzo, one of a number of new digital only or so-called ‘challenger’ banks in the U.K. aiming to re-invent the current account, is closing in on new funding, which could be announced as early as this week. According to multiple sources, U.S.-based Thrive Capital is leading the round. Read More
from TechCrunch
Temasek, Singapore’s state-owned investment firm, has jumped into China’s on-demand cycle war after it backed MoBike. China’s ride-sharing war is last year’s news. The big battle between Uber and Didi Chuxing is essentially over after the latter agreed to buy the former’s China-based business. The new startup drama du jour is in bikes — services that let… Read More
from TechCrunch
Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial has again extended its global reach after it completed its maiden investment in the Philippines. The company, which manages payment service Alipay and Alibaba’s digital banking services and is valued at $60 million, said it made an undisclosed investment in Mynt, a financial venture from Globe Telecom. Mynt’s interests include a micro-payment… Read More
from TechCrunch
Dah Makan has become the first food delivery startup to raise significant capital in Southeast Asia this year, bringing some fire back to what has been a popular niche for local investors. The company has closed a $1.3 million seed funding round from backers that include NFQ Capital, East Ventures, Asia Venture Group and Grupara. A former CEO of Nestlé is among the angel investors to… Read More
from TechCrunch
Magic Leap, the augmented reality startup that has raised $1.4 billion in funding but has yet to release a product, has made an acquisition to expand its work in computer vision and deep learning, and to build out its operations into Europe.
The company has acquired the 3D division of Dacuda, a computer vision startup based out of Zurich. One of Dacuda’s focuses had been… Read More
from TechCrunch
Ford has invested $1 billion in a joint venture with Argo AI, a Pittsburgh-based company with ties to Carnegie Mellon. The goal is to completely outfit Ford vehicles with self-driving technology. Interestingly this isn’t a case of a large company simply hiring talent but the creation of an entirely separate company with an independent equity structure.
Ford is the “majority… Read More
from TechCrunch
Snap is about to embark on its investor roadshow as it prepares to go public at the beginning of March. And a new video gives a glimpse at how they will be trying to persuade Wall Street to buy shares. The video starts off with CEO Evan Spiegel emphasizing their mission as a “camera company.” He compares Snap’s video experience to Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of… Read More
from TechCrunch
MuleSoft is the latest “unicorn” to file for an IPO. The company, which helps businesses with their APIs, has unveiled its financials to the public in an S-1 filing, suggesting that they are targeting a debut as soon as March. In the filing we see that MuleSoft had $187.7 million in revenue last year, up from $110.3 million in 2015 and $57.6 million the year before. Net… Read More
from TechCrunch
Before I make a product-driven case for Snap Inc. achieving a $100B market cap by 2020, I should note that I’ve been a Snapchat bear for much of the company’s existence. That guy at the water cooler scoffing at Evan Spiegel for turning down Facebook’s $3B acquisition offer and complaining that the Snapchat app violates every principle of user-centric design? Guilty. Read More
from TechCrunch
Thailand-based casual game studio Playlab has turned investor after it invested $1 million into Cupcake Entertainment, a Brazil-based game-maker. The deal is a little different to the usual in that it is not an equity investment, instead Playlab and Cupcake have agreed to a profit share deal. Cupcake started producing games in 2014, and its current titles include Letters Of Gold and Words… Read More
from TechCrunch