The early cancer screening startup Grail plans to raise more than $1 billion in Series B financing, possibly up to $1.8 billion. While the company doesn’t want to name investor names, only mentioning in a release the funding will come “primarily from undisclosed private and strategic investors,” Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google Ventures,… Read More
from TechCrunch
In a blog post, Google announced the acquisition of Limes Audio, a Swedish company that focuses on improving the quality of voice calls. The 10-year-old company, headquartered in Umeå, Sweden, also has offices in Stockholm and Palo Alto. The acquisition isn’t Google’s first time shopping around in the Swedish startup community. In 2007, Google acquired Swedish communications… Read More
from TechCrunch
Things are looking up for biotech and health device startups wanting to cash in on VC dollars or go public this year. According to Silicon Valley Bank’s latest report on healthcare investments and exits, a conservative 2016 has set 2017 up for a hearty boom.
Though biopharma M&A activity declined slightly last year and IPOs declined more than 30 percent, according to the report… Read More
from TechCrunch
There’s much talk of Didi Chuxing’s desire to expand overseas now that it has agreed to gobble up Uber’s China business, and it just took a big step to extending its international reach via a maiden deal in South America. Read More
from TechCrunch
Taboola, the startup that works with hundreds of online publishers to run carousels of recommended content and ads from their own and other publishers’ sites to grow engagement and revenues, has made another acquisition to grow the services it offers to its customers beyond the bottom of the page. Taboola has acquired Commerce Sciences, which had built a… Read More
from TechCrunch
Today, Apple confirmed plans to invest in SoftBank’s massive $100 billion Vision Fund, the international tech fund that the telecom giant announced last October. In a statement to TechCrunch, Apple verified its involvement in the fund, a rumor first reported by The Wall Street Journal in mid December: “Apple is planning to invest $1 billion in SoftBank’s Vision Fund.… Read More
from TechCrunch
Freskdesk announced today that it has acquired Banglaore-based startup Pipemonk for an undisclosed amount. Pipemonk helps companies move data between cloud platforms, which should come in handy for Freshdesk and its partners. Pipemonk, which was born as ZapStitch, had raised just over 2 million since it launched in 2014, with its primary funding round coming in May, 2015, when it landed $2… Read More
from TechCrunch
Bicycle sharing services are primed to be a major focus for China’s startup scene this year. Now today, only the fourth day of 2017, comes the first mega-round for the space after Mobike announced its $215 million Series D funding. Read More
from TechCrunch
Platforms like Musical.ly and Vine have helped find the next-generation of internet stars, and Chinese internet giant is aiming to ride that digital media wave to help grow its presence in Southeast Asia. Read More
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BitPagos, a bitcoin and digital payments startup that was a Battlefield finalist at TechCrunch Disrupt New York 2016, has raised $1.9 million Series A funding round to expand its services in its native South America. Read More
from TechCrunch