DevOps platform JFrog raises $165 million with valuation ‘way north’ of $1 billionDevOps platform JFrog has raised $165 million in a series D round of funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Battery Ventures, Spark Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Vintage Investment Partners, and Geodesic Capital. [ Venture Beat ] ZipRecruiter raises $156 million in VC funding and here's where AI fitsZipRecruiter raised $156 million in Series B venture funding with plans to expand its machine learning and artificial intelligence infrastructure and grow internationally. Forward Health, the healthcare messaging app, scores $3.9M led by Stride.VCForward Health, the U.K. startup that has built an app to help healthcare professionals communicate in a secure and compliant way, has picked up $3.9 million in seed funding. Leading the round is Stride.VC, the new VC fund from Fred Destin, formerly a Partner at Accel, and Harry Stebbings, producer of the “The Twenty Minute VC” and most recently Entrepreneur-in-Residence at VC
firm Atomico. [ Tech Crunch ] These Young Female Founders Overcame Rejection To Build High-Growth Businesses From ScratchWhether it’s a customized playlist to amp your confidence or practicing power poses in between pitch slides, a panel of female Millennial entrepreneurs at the Women@Forbes kickoff to the Forbes Under30 Summit agreed that audacity is key to not only launching a company, but taking the leap into scaling it into a high-growth business. [ Forbes ] Blume Ventures announces the first close of Fund III, will touch $100 million in few monthsBlume Ventures announced the first close of its third fund on Thursday. In a release, the VC firm said it had already reached half its target corpus of $80 million, and has a commitment from existing investors for another $20 million. The early-stage VC firm aims to achieve its final closure in the next few months. [ Your Story ] Cruise has raised more cash in 2018 than all its VC-backed rivals combinedHonda has announced it's investing $2.75 billion in Cruise Automation to develop self-driving vehicles. With the latest funding, Cruise, which is owned by GM, is valued at $14.6 billion. Together with the $2.25 billion SoftBank committed to Cruise earlier this year, the autonomous car company has secured $5 billion so far in 2018. [ Pitch Book ] Spark Capital Deals, Exits, and Fund Raised data on our platform. The top 14 VC investors in Europe and Israel's autonomous car startupsThe Paris Motor Show, the biennial showcase of industry-leading vehicles, has been a fixture on the auto industry's calendar since its inception in 1898. 120 years on, the festival can expect to welcome more than 1 million attendees and more than 10,000 journalists from all over the world, if 2016's numbers are anything to go by. [ Pitch Book ] Research over 15K+ Venture Capital Investors on our platform. Arlan Hamilton is a rising star in Silicon Valley. She has a soft spot for DurhamArlan Hamilton thinks that something special is happening in Durham — it’s why she keeps coming back to the Bull City. Hamilton, who graces this month’s cover of Fast Company Magazine, is a rising star in the venture capital industry, going from being homeless a few years back to controlling millions of dollars in capital. She was in Durham last week for the annual Black Wall Street Homecoming conference, which brings together black entrepreneurs from across the country to network and learn. [ The Herald Sun ] What Does AirBnB's 'Shares for Hosts' Idea Imply for Blockchain?Last week, AirBnB proposed granting their most valuable hosts shares in the company, much like employees. This requires a change in securities law. It’s a novel idea that has a history, promise and some risks. In 1998, an online travel agency, TravelZoo, tried this. They granted free shares to 700,000 people who signed up to use the service. Administration of these shares proved a headache for the company. [ Tomasz Tunguz ] Pearse Lyons Accelerator attracts top startups as ag-tech venture capital investment surgesOn the heels of two successful previous iterations, the Pearse Lyons Accelerator is now seeking applications for a new cohort of world-class international ag-tech startups to participate in its global mentoring program. [ Lane Report ] |