Not to be outpaced in the connected car market by other tech giants, today the world’s largest smartphone maker, Samsung, announced two major pieces of news to take its automotive strategy up a gear. It has launched the Samsung Automotive Innovation Fund, a $300 million fund to back startups and other interesting bets in the automotive market. And as a first investment out of that… Read More
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Japan’s SoftBank Group, U.S. investment group Dragoneer and Chinese rideshare giant Didi Chuxing are close to finalizing their investment in Uber via a joint venture, sources tell TechCrunch. The tender offer is on track to launch by the end of the month and includes a direct investment in the company, as well as the purchase of shares from employees and early investors. Read More
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Going beyond the bounds of our planet is the future. That explains why Infostellar, a platform that enables antenna sharing to enable better communication for satellites and spacecrafts, exists — and also why it has raised $7.3 million to build out its business. Infostellar, in the most basic terms, is Airbnb for satellite antennas. Read More
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Apttus, the unicorn quote-to-cash vendor built on the Salesforce platform, announced a $55 million round, which is likely its final private investment on the way to an IPO. While CEO Kirk Krappe wouldn’t definitively confirm the company was going public, he did say that today’s round was about gaining the confidence of future investors. “We decided we needed a certain amount… Read More
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While Tampa Bay residents are beginning the process of removing the sandbags from their homes and getting back to the business of daily living in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, the city’s multi-millionaire real estate developer, Jeff Vinik, is busy with plans of his own. Last year, Vinik and Bill Gates’ Cascadia fund jointly acquired a swath of waterfront property in Tampa… Read More
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Heptio, the startup founded by Kubernetes co-founders Craig McLuckie and Joe Beda, today announced that it has raised a $25 million Series B funding round led by Madrona Venture partners. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Accel Partners also joined in this round, which comes less than a year after the company’s $8.5 million Series A round. Read More
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More details about former Sequoia venture partner Yinglan Tan’s new fund have emerged after an SEC filing confirmed that it has raised $25 million for its maiden fund, and it made its first investment. Tan, who was with Sequoia’s Singapore office for five years in a role supporting operations before leaving this summer, is thought to be starting Insignia Venture Partners to focus… Read More
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Zomato, the global restaurant guide and food on-demand service, has made an acquisition to shore up its delivery business on home turf after it completed a deal for Runnr. The acquisition has been rumored since May and is much-anticipated, as Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal himself acknowledged in an announcement. The all-stock deal was previously pegged at $40 million by Indian media, but… Read More
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Switzerland based SaaS startup Sophia Genetics is hoping to give IBM Watson a run for its money in the healthcare diagnostics space. It’s built a big data analytics platform that harnesses clinicians’ medical expertise to enhance genomic diagnostic via AI algorithms — leading, it says, to better and faster diagnoses for patients with diseases such as cancer. Read More
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Indian budget hotel startup OYO pulled in a big $250 million round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund last week, but now it has topped that money up with a $10 million strategic investment from multi-billion dollar hotel management firm China Lodging. Beyond the financial commitment from NASDAQ-listed China Lodging — which was formerly known as Huazhu Hotels and is valued at $6.8… Read More
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