North America

VC-backed Flywheel Building Intelligence recruits Levine as CEO

Flywheel Building Intelligence Inc, a building-management software company, has appointed Mike Levine as CEO. Levine's work background includes serving as president of bibliotheca and CEO of AssetPoint. Flywheel's backers include Braemar Energy Ventures.

HiFiBiO Therapeutics lands $37.5 mln Series B

HiFiBiO Therapeutics, a biotherapeutics company, has raised $37.5 million in Series B funding. Sequoia China and LYFE Capital led the round with participation from VI Ventures, Nest.Bio Ventures, Legend Star Capital and Proxima Ventures.

VC-backed Dialpad acquires TalkIQ

Dialpad has acquired TalkIQ, a provider of real-time speech recognition and natural language processing technologies. No financial terms were disclosed. Dialpad's backers include Amasia, Andreessen Horowitz, Felicis Ventures, GV, Salesforce Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Section 32, Softbank and Work-Bench.

Dashdash snags $8 mln Series A

Berlin and Porto-based Dashdash, a creator of tools that make computation accessible to everyone, has secured $8 million in Series A funding. Accel led the round with participation from other investors that included Cherry Ventures and Atlantic Labs.

ShotTracker scores $10.4 mln in Series A round

Overland Park, Kansas-based ShotTracker, a developer of basketball technology that captures stats and analytics in real-time, announced it has raised a $10.4 million Series A round of funding led by Ward.Ventures. Also participating in the round are former NBA Commissioner David Stern, ex-baseball player Ryan Howard, Greycroft Partners, Elysian Ventures, KC Rise Fund, Irish Angels and SeventySix Capital. The company, founded in 2013, has now raised $21 million in total funding, including an investment by NBA Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

Greylock names Sarah Guo partner

Greylock Partners announced it has named Sarah Guo a general partner of the firm. Guo, who focuses on B2B applications and infrastructure, cyber security, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and healthcare, joined the firm in 2013. She is on the board of three companies as a representative of Greylock, including Obsidian Security. Prior to Greylock, she was at Goldman Sachs, where she invested in growth-stage technology startups and advised pre-IPO tech companies.

Draper Esprit leads funding of call center software provider Aircall

Paris-based Aircall, provider of call center software, has raised $29 million in Series B funding. Draper Esprit led the round, which included participation from Balderton Capital, NextWorld Capital, eFounders, Newfund and other existing investors. The company, founded in 2014, has now raised $40.5 million in total funding.

AI-powered fashion trend spotter Choosy raises $5.4 mln seed round

New York-based Choosy, which uses AI to determine what fashions and styles are trending on social media, announced it has raised $5.4 million in seed funding. New Enterprise Associates led the seed round with participation from Forerunner Ventures, Innovation Global Capital, ERA, XFactor Ventures, Supernode Ventures, angel investor Bryan Rosenblatt and others. The company was co-founded last year by CEO Jessie Zeng, a former investment banker, Mo Zhou and Sharon Qian.

Rael gathers $2.1 mln

Southern California-based Rael, a menstrual care startup, has secured $2.1 million in funding. SoftBank Ventures Korea led the round with participation from other investors that included Thrive Market.

Vesper snaps up $23 mln Series B

Boston-based Vesper, an advanced sensor company, has raised $23 million in Series B funding. American Family Ventures led the round with participation from other investors that included Accomplice, Amazon Alexa Fund, Baidu, Bose Ventures, Hyperplane, Sands Capital, Shure, Synaptics and ZZ Capital.