Lola, a startup that connects travelers with live travel agents, has raised $15 million in Series B funding. The Boston-based startup was founded by Paul English, who previously co-founded and served as CTO at Kayak. In contrast to many other assistant services that hype their automation and technology, Lola proudly highlights the fact that its iPhone app uses human travel agents —… Read More
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Amazon’s AWS cloud services division quietly acquired cyber security firm harvest.ai last year, TechCrunch has learned. Read More
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Atlassian today announced that it has acquired project management service Trello for $425 million. The vast majority of the transaction is in cash ($360 million), with the remainder being paid out in restricted shares and options. The acquisition is expected to close before March 31, 2017. This marks Atlassian’s 18th acquisition and, as Atlassian president Jay Simmons noted when I… Read More
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British online fashion retailer boohoo.com is a step closer to acquiring the brand and customer database of US fashion retailer Nasty Gal, which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection back in November. Read More
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MyTomorrows, the Netherlands-headquartered startup that has built a platform to help physicians and patients access drugs that are still in development, has raised €10 million in further funding. Leading the round is EQT Ventures, and Octopus Ventures, with participation from existing backers Balderton Capital, and Sofinnova Partners. Read More
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Newly-minted classifieds startup Carousell is officially on the prowl to eat up struggling startups in Southeast Asia. The Singapore-based company closed a $35 million Series B in August, and this week it acquired Malaysia-based rival Duriana in an undisclosed transaction that represents its third piecemeal M&A deal since that fundraising. Read More
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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
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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
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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
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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
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