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Procter & Gamble acquires Walker & Company, Tristan Walker will remain as CEO

Walker & Company Brands, a startup making health and beauty products for people of color, has been acquired by consumer giant Procter & Gamble.

The company was founded five years ago by Tristan Walker,  who previously led business development for Foursquare, and who aimed to create products that would better serve the needs of people of color with coarse or curly hair. Walker & Co. started out with its Bevel shaving products for men, then launched Form, a collection of hair products for women. [ Tech Crunch ]

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Zola Will Open Its First Brick-and-Mortar Store in New York City

Zola, the fast-growing wedding planning and registry company, is about to take another big leap by opening its first brick-and-mortar location. On Wednesday at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit in Laguna Niguel, Calif., Zola CEO and founder Shan-lyn Ma announced that Zola will open a physical store in New York City in early 2019. [ Fortune ]

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French startup Glose just raised a $3.4 million funding round (€3 million) for its reading app on iPhone, iPad and Android. The company wants to make reading books more social.

If you’re an avid book reader, chances are you always carry a pencil with you to write some notes in the margins. Or maybe you have a tiny notebook with important quotes. But that experience hasn’t worked well with ebooks.

Sure, you can highlight text on your ereader, in the Kindle app and other ebook apps. But it’s hard to do anything with them down the road. Glose wants to leverage your phone to let you do more with the book you’re currently reading. [ Tech Crunch ]

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Farfetch bets on sneakers with $250M Stadium Goods acquisition 

The lines between streetwear and luxury fashion have blurred in recent years, especially as excitement around sneaker brands like Yeezy and Off-White has soared. A marriage between a luxury fashion marketplace and a sneaker and streetwear reseller seems like a natural way to wrap up M&A in 2018. With that said, Farfetch has acquired New York-based Stadium Goods, opting to pay $250 million for the sneaker startup in a combination of cash and Farfetch stock. Headquartered in London, Farfetch went public on the New York Stock Exchange in September, pricing its shares at $20 apiece and raising $885 million in the process. [ Tech Crunch ]

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Grab, the Southeast Asia ride-hailing firm that bought out Uber’s local business, has added another investor to its rolling cast of backers after it added $150 million from Yamaha Motor to its ongoing Series H round.

Grab, the Southeast Asia ride-hailing firm that bought out Uber’s local business, has added another investor to its rolling cast of backers after it added $150 million from Yamaha Motor to its ongoing Series H round. That round is targeted at $3 billion, and Yamaha Motor joins an investor group in the round that includes strategics like Toyota ($1 billion), Hyundai ($250 million), Microsoft (undisclosed), Thai bank Kasikorn ($50 million), travel firm Booking ($200 million) and regional bank UOB (undisclosed). A host of more institutional investors like OppenheimerFunds, Ping An Capital, Mirae Asset — Naver Asia Growth Fund also took part. [ Tech Crunch ]

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GV leads $90 million investment in Bowery to grow its indoor farming business

Vertical farming company Bowery Farming today announced the close of a $90 million funding round. The round was led by GV (formerly Google Ventures) with participation from Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

Bowery has opened two growing facilities near its headquarters in the New York area since the company began operations in February 2017.  The funding announced today will be used to open new facilities in additional not-yet-named cities by the end of 2019 and to support advances in company tech and innovation. [ Venture Beat ]

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Future Family secures a $100M credit line to help more families with fertility care

Future Family is a startup (and a Disrupt Startup Battlefield alum!) that helps families more easily afford fertility services like IVF and egg freezing. They work with fertility clinics to get the often unpredictable costs set in stone, then cover said costs and convert them into a more approachable monthly payment plan. [ Tech Crunch ]

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Bus optimization co Optibus raises $40m from Alibaba, Insight

The Israeli company's algorithms helping bus companies improve service and efficiency, reduce costs, streamline operations and reduce congestion and emissions. Israeli public transport optimization startup Optibus has raised $40 million in a series B financing round led by Insight Venture Partners and with the participation of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, the "Financial Times" reports. The company has raised $54.5 million to date, including this latest financing round.  Existing investors, including Verizon Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, New Era Capital and Sir Ronald Cohen, also participated in the round. [ Globes ]

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Finalcad, the mobile platform for the construction industry, raises $40M Series C

Finalcad, a mobile platform that enables the construction industry to digitize much of its processes, has closed $40 million in Series C funding. The round was led by publicly listed London venture capital firm Draper Esprit, and Cathay Innovation, with the support of Salesforce Ventures. Existing existing French investors Serena, Aster and CapHorn Invest also participated. [ Tech Crunch ]

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Luckin Coffee Raises $200M More, Doubles Valuation

China’s quickly rising Starbucks competitor Luckin Coffee has announced its raise of $200 million led by GIC and China International Capital Corporation. You’ll recall that the coffee-focused startup was reported to be raising a round of between $100 and $300 million in November. This confirms those reports. [ Tech Crunch ]

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AtScale lands $50 million investment led by Morgan Stanley

AtScale, the startup that helps companies move massive amounts of data into business intelligence and analytics tools, announced a $50 million Series D round today. Morgan Stanley led the round, with previous investors Storm Ventures and Atlantic Bridge joining in. New investor Wells Fargo also participated. The funding comes almost exactly a year after the company announced its $25 million Series C. Today’s funding brings the total amount raised to $120 million. [ Tech Crunch ]

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