1.
Snapchat quietly acquired AI Factory, the company behind its new Cameos feature, for $166M
After acquiring Ukraine startup Looksery in 2015 to supercharge animated selfie lenses in Snapchat — arguably changing the filters game for all social video and photo apps — Snap has made another acquisition with roots in the country, co-founded by one of Looksery’s founders, to give a big boost to its video capabilities. The company has acquired AI Factory, a computer vision startup that Snap had worked with to create Snapchat’s new Cameos animated selfie-based video feature, for a price believed to be in the region of $166 million. The news was first reported by a Ukrainian publication, AIN, and while I’m still waiting for a direct reply from Snap about the acquisition, I’ve had the news confirmed by another source close to the deal, and Snap has now also confirmed the news to TechCrunch with no further comment on the financial terms or any other details. [ Tech Crunch ]
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2.
An elegy for cash: the technology we might never replace
Think about the last time you used cash. How much did you spend? What did you buy, and from whom? Was it a one-time thing, or was it something you buy regularly? Was it legal? If you’d rather keep all that to yourself, you’re in luck. The person in the store (or
on the street corner) may remember your face, but as long as you didn’t reveal any identifying information, there is nothing that links you to the transaction. [ MIT Technology Review ]
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3.
One Medical Files For $100M IPO
Healthcare startup One Medical filed its S-1 registration document with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, one of a handful of companies to kick off the year’s initial public offering cycle. The company, which has a membership model for patients to access care virtually or at One Medical Clinics, is aiming to raise $100 million through its IPO, according to the filing. One Medical applied to list its stock on the Nasdaq under the ticker “ONEM,” and J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are acting as the lead underwriters for the IPO. [ Crunchbase ]
4.
A venture firm that invests ‘from Park City to Kansas City’ just closed its third fund
Sometimes, in venture capital, it pays to specialize. The latest indicator is a Kansas City, Mo.-based venture firm that’s focused on seed-stage startups that are based anywhere from “Park City to Kansas City.” According to an SEC filing, it just closed on $16.4 million in capital commitments. It’s the third fund for the outfit, Royal Street Ventures, which was founded several years ago by two Kansas City natives — Laura Brady and Jeffrey Stowell. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
5.
Looking Back At The Largest Venture Rounds Of The Decade
As the decade comes to a close, Crunchbase News – like all media outlets in December – is contractually obligated to publish a list of the biggest moments (we’re kidding, mostly). And since startups and venture capital are our jam, we figured we’d round up the biggest venture deals of the 2010s. Looking back at the past decade brings us to simpler times, when the largest venture funding rounds in the world were only in the nine-digit territory. In 2010, Uber was in its infancy, the term “unicorn” had yet to be coined, and people were still doing business with BlackBerries. [ Crunchbase ]
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6.
Tech’s biggest companies are worth ~$5T as 2019’s epic stock market run wraps
Look, this is the last post I’m writing in 2019 and I’m tired. But I can’t let the year close without taking stock of how well tech stocks did this year. It was bonkers. So let’s mark the year’s conclusion with some notes for our future selves. Yes, we know that the Nasdaq has been setting new records and SaaS had a good year. But we need to dig in and get the numbers out so that we can look back and remember. Let’s cap off this year the way it deserves to be remembered, as a kick-ass trip ’round the sun for your local, public technology company. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
7.
Roundup: Investments To Watch From Our 2019 Seed Series
For the Seed Series 2019 we were fortunate enough to talk to some leaders in the VC world. With our final piece of the series for this year, we put together a list of startups these seed investors told us to watch. Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily To quickly recap, we talked with Accel, #Angels, BBG Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, The Engine, Floodgate, Homebrew, Lerer Hippeau, NFX, UnCork Capital and UpWest. Here is the customized Crunchbase Pro list of Seed Series Companies To Watch organized by last equity funding amount from smallest to largest. [ Crunchbase ]
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8.
Counting down Boston’s biggest venture rounds from 2019
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today, the last day of 2019, we’re taking a second look at Boston. Regular readers of this column will recall that we recently took a peek at Boston’s startup ecosystem, and that we compiled a short countdown of the largest rounds that took place this year in Utah. Today we’re doing the latter with the former. What follows is a
countdown of Boston’s seven largest venture rounds from the year, including details concerning what the company does and who backed it. We’re also taking a shot after each entry at where we think the companies are on the path to going public. [ Tech Crunch ]
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9.
Reid Hoffman: The Necessity Of Venture Capital
LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman recently discussed the necessity of venture capital. Here is what he said. In a recent article, LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman pointed out that it has become fashionable among entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to criticize the industry. However, the alternative to venture capital are much worse. This belief was reinforced while Hoffman was having a conversation with Xapo founder and CEO Wences
Casares during a trip to Patagonia. The first option is the government. But the world’s history of five-year plans and leaps forward suggest that this strategy is seldom successful and is often disastrous. [ pulse2 ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
10.
For Spiffy And Alert Home Robots, Trifo Gets $15M
Roving robot Lucy doesn’t just zoom around your home vacuuming up dirt and bits of last night’s dinner. It also roams around each room to identify any unwanted visitors, with two cameras and built-in surveillance software. And sporting this spiffy and alert robot, startup Trifo has just raised $15 million Series B from investors that include Yidu Cloud, Tsinghua AI Fund and Matrix Partners. This brings the Santa Clara-based startup funding to $26 million, and the
capital will be used for further product development and expansion into European and American markets. [ Crunchbase ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
11.
Why Silicon Valley Fell in Love With an Ancient Philosophy of Austerity
“The one class is born to obey, the other to command.” —Seneca Stoicism begins with a wayward merchant. Legend has it that in 312 B.C. a dye salesman named Zeno was shipwrecked in the Aegean Sea. He washed ashore in Athens, read a book of Socratic dialogues, and found philosophical purpose. His brush with misfortune guided him to the idea of self-control in an uncontrollable world. “Man conquers the world by
conquering himself,” Zeno is said to have said. He developed a following. [ motherjones ]
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12.
Money, Markets & Machines: Venture Capital mit Rainer Maerkle von Holtzbrinck [Episode 6] - Podcast
Den Start-ups in Deutschland geht es blendend: Dass sie ihre Geschäftsaussichten sehr positiv einschätzen, geht aus einer im November 2019 veröffentlichten Umfrage des Bundesverbands Deutsche Startups hervor. Sie haben auch allen Grund dazu. „Für Firmengründer waren die Zeiten nie besser”, sagt Rainer Maerkle, Partner bei der Venture-Capital-Gesellschaft HV Holtzbrinck Ventures. Das gilt für ihn selbst dann, wenn das Wachstum der Weltwirtschaft weiter abflauen sollte. Warum das so ist, in welchen Bereichen deutsche Jungunternehmer besonders innovativ sind und wie sich der Markt für Risikokapital entwickelt, darüber spricht Maerkle in
unserem Podcast. Und er verrät, woran er ein erfolgversprechendes Start-up erkennt.
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13.
NewSpace 2019 Day 2 Panel: Perspectives in Space Investment
The amount of investment in space companies has increased dramatically over the past decade, and many recent analyses point to this trend continuing as more of these companies begin to turn a profit. What used to be solely the realm of angel investors is now becoming mainstream for traditional investors such as large investment firms and government-level funds. In this panel, representatives from a wide range of fund sizes (angel, mega-angel, venture, and family office) will discuss the current state of investments in space and what they want to see from a space company before investing. Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
14.
E1013 Decade Wrap-Up! Garry Tan & Zach Coelius on Trump, Theranos, Streaming, Tesla, Crypto & more
Decade Wrap-Up Roundtable! Garry Tan, Initialized Capital & Zach Coelius, Coelius Capital on the biggest hits & misses of the past decade: Trump, Theranos, Streaming, Mindfulness, Crypto, Tesla, WeWork, Amazon Prime, Vaping & more!
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15.
E1012 Open Office Hours w/Jason! Goal-setting, starting a flywheel, capitalizing on feedback & more!
16.
This startup just raised $7 million, led by Google, to authenticate people based on their typing style
TypingDNA, a four-year-old, 18-person startup that was founded in Bucharest, Romania and more recently moved its headquarters to Brooklyn, New York, has closed on $7 million in Series A funding for something interesting: AI-driven technology that it says can recognize people based on the way they type, both on their laptops and mobile devices. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
17.
Blocks-Building Startup Secures Round To Create 3D+AI Intelligent Holographic Displays
A 3D digital technology brand named Jimu Yida (Easy-To-Build-Blocks) has secured a billion RMB round of financing, according to Chinese media reports. The round is led by the East China Sea Investments, Lian Jin Shu, Ruiding Capital and others. After the financing, the startup will create new generation of Holographic 3D digital product development and the future "digital twin" technology implementation and applications. [ china money network ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
18.
Online mortgage broker Trussle loses founding CEO
Trussle, the online mortgage broker backed by the likes of Goldman Sachs, LocalGlobe, Finch Capital and Seedcamp, has lost its founding CEO. Ishaan Malhi, who co-founded the fintech startup five years ago, has resigned with “immediate effect,” according to a rather brief press release issued by Trussle this morning. The company is now searching for Malhi’s replacement and in the interim says it will be led by Chairman Simon Williams
and others in the senior leadership team. “Williams will be supported by co-founder Jonathan Galore who helped establish Trussle in 2015 and remains closely involved in the business,” reads the press release. [ Tech Crunch ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
19.
Creator of Python Programming Language, Guido van Rossum | Oxford Union
Van Rossum is a Dutch programmer and the author of the programming language Python. Python was first released in 1991 and is now one of the world's most popular coding languages. Van Rossum was the language’s Benevolent Dictator for Life until 2018, and now sits on the Python Steering Council. He has also developed software for Google, and currently works at Dropbox.
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20.
How We Kick-Started Our Venture In 6 Weeks With Y Combinator’s Startup-School
YC’s philosophy helped me and my cofounders rethink the entire concept of what it means to start a business, what a startup actually is, and how to quickly get going. I wanted to share what we’ve learnt thus far, and hopefully encourage you to take your idea from whiteboard to traction in no time. [ Medium ] Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
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