Private Equity
Ikove Venture Partners, a Midwest venture development company, has launched a $10 million startup nursery fund. The fund will be used to launch 10 to 15 early-stage tech companies.
3 min read · 13 December 2018
Los Angeles-based Vyng, a mobile conversation startup, has raised $4 million in Series A funding. Omidyar Network India and March Capital Partners led the round with participation from Alpha Edison and the Entrepreneur Fund.
1 min read · 13 December 2018
Salt Lake City, Utah-based Venafi, a provider of machine identity protection, has launched a $12.5 million machine identity protection development fund. The fund will back machine identity developers. Venafi's backers include TCV, Foundation Capital, Intel Capital, QuestMark Partners, Mercato Partners and NextEquity.
4 min read · 13 December 2018
Huntington, New York-based ROAR Organic, a vegan, low-calorie, low-sugar, electrolyte-infused beverage brand, has raised $5.6 million in funding. AccelFoods led the round.
1 min read · 13 December 2018
London-based Luminous Ventures, a White Cloud Capital spin-out, has launched a $30 million fund. The fund will invest in early-stage European tech companies.
2 min read · 13 December 2018
Pleasanton, California-based AEye Inc, a developer of advanced vision hardware, software and algorithms for self-driving vehicles, has named Blair LaCorte as president. He is the former global president of Production Resource Group. AEye's backers include Taiwania Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Intel Capital, Airbus Ventures and Tychee Partners.
3 min read · 13 December 2018
Chorus.ai, a U.S.-Israeli provider of analytics for sales teams, has raised US$33 million in a Series B funding round led by Canadian growth equity firm Georgian Partners, Reuters reported. Returning investors Redpoint Ventures and Emergence Capital also participated in the round, bringing the total raised to date to US$55 million. Georgian Managing Partner Simon Chong will join the board. The funds raised will be used to accelerate customer acquisition and continue product innovation. Chorus.ai CEO Roy Raanani said his company’s technology provides visibility into video conferencing platforms and phone calls to understand how top performers sell and coach the rest of the team.
1 min read · 13 December 2018
Yuri Navarro, CEO and executive director of the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO), is leaving his role in early 2019. Navarro, who joined NACO in 2012, will pursue a new career in the innovation ecosystem. Under Navarro's leadership, NACO said it grew and diversified membership, became a more Canada-wide organization, and added to angel education and best practice programs. Today, NACO represents more than 40 networks consisting of over 3,000 angel investors. NACO said its board has assembled a task force to search for a new CEO.
3 min read · 12 December 2018
Arctic Wolf Networks has acquired RootSecure Corp, a Kitchener, Ontario-based advanced cybersecurity risk assessment startup. No financial terms were released. Founded last year and led by CEO James Mignacca, RootSecure quantifies cyber and data risk, providing information technology and security teams with real-time, actionable insight. Sunnyvale, California's Arctic Wolf said the acquisition enhances its security-operations-center-as-a-service offerings. Earlier this year, Arctic Wolf raised US$45 million in Series C financing led by Future Fund.
3 min read · 12 December 2018
Black Diamond Therapeutics, a Stony Brook, New York-based cancer precision medicine platform, has emerged from stealth with a $20 million Series A financing. The round was backed by life sciences venture capital firm Versant Ventures. The company will use a share of the proceeds to set up operations in Toronto, giving it access to the city’s pool of computing talent. Black Diamond, the first startup launched out of Versant’s Swiss discovery engine, is developing precision medicines directed against allosteric mutant oncogenes.
4 min read · 12 December 2018
