Slow Ventures launches a new $145M fund and adds Scott Marlette as a partnerSlow Ventures — a previously small-ish fund founded by former Facebook employees — is raising a much larger fund as it looks to grow into something more like a traditional venture firm. Founded by Kevin Colleran and Dave Morin — with former Facebooker Sam Lessin also recently joining — Slow Ventures has raised $145 million for its latest fund. While Slow will continue to focus on earlier-stage investments, but more than half of the fund will be devoted toward more follow-on investments, Colleran said in a blog post. [ Tech Crunch ] How Snapchat Became a $25 Billion Business In 5 YearsThe image messaging app filed for an initial public offering that could value the company at $25 billion. Here's how it got there. [ Inc. ] How the top banking apps stack up against their startup competitorsThere was a time when retail banks had their heads in the sand when it came to embracing the mobile phone revolution — but not anymore. A new report from App Annie shows that while apps from retail banks still lag behind those of their upstart competitors in user ratings, some have have seen their usage grow rapidly, buoyed by new features. [ Business Insider ] Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon suggests having too many Asian tech CEOs undermines ‘civic societyPresident-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategist seems to think there are too many immigrants leading Silicon Valley. Steve Bannon, who previously served as Breitbart News Network’s executive chairman, hinted at some of his views on foreign workers at technology companies in the past. In an interview between Trump and Bannon that took place last year, and that The Washington Post resurfaced yesterday, Bannon alluded to the idea that foreign students should return to their respective countries after attending school in the US, instead of sticking around and working at or starting tech companies. [ Recode ] PERFECTING YOUR DIGITAL ASSISTANT Aaron Levie spends more time thinking about the future of work than most. When the 30-year-old entrepreneur co-founded Box, it was as a place for average people to store their files online — Dropbox before there was Dropbox. But years ahead of Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, Levie saw that the real money in online storage was in the workplace — and so the company turned to making products that let people collaborate at work. [ The Verge ] LATEST FUNDING LeEco secures $600M in fresh funding as financial issues reportedly halt electric car projectThere’s good news and bad news for LeEco, the ambitious Chinese tech company that is working on electric cars, smartphones, smart TVs and more. Fresh from the leaking of an internal letter from billionaire CEO Yueting Jia which cautioned against its rapid international expansion, the company has landed $600 million in fresh funding. [ Tech Crunch ] Ant Financial, Ucar Invest $100M In Used Car Transaction Service Firm Souche.ComAnt Financial Services Group and Ucar Inc. have invested US$100 million in Souche.com, a Hangzhou-based used car dealership transaction services provider, as the company's series C financing round. Ant Financial will help Souche.com launch credit-based car loans, utilizing Ant Financial's personal credit rating and financial services. [ China money network ] Paradigm Diagnostics Raises $7M in First Close of Series B Funding Paradigm Diagnostics, a Phoenix, AZ-based developer of cancer diagnostic tests, raised $7m in the first closing of the Series B financing. The round was led by Mesa Verde Venture Partners. In conjunction with the funding, Dr. Carey Ng, a Managing Director of Mesa Verde, joined the board of Paradigm. Phononic raises a cool $40 million to make quiet, spacious refrigeratorsRefrigeration and air conditioning used to require vapor compressors, chemicals like Freon, fans, water chillers or passive heat sinks. But a North Carolina company called Phononic has developed solid-state refrigeration technology instead. [ Tech Crunch ] Glycomine, Inc. Announces $12 Million Series A Financing to Advance a New Generation of Replacement Therapies for Rare DiseasesGlycomine, Inc. a biotechnology company developing a new generation of replacement therapies for rare diseases, today announced that it has raised $12 million in a Series A financing led by Sanderling Ventures and supported by Chiesi Ventures as well as existing high net worth individuals and patients. Royole Corporation Receives ~$80M in Series Pre-D FundingRoyole Corporation, a Fremont, Calif.-based manufacturer of advanced flexible displays, flexible sensors, and smart devices, received (USD) ~$80M in series Pre-D funding. Warmsun Holding Group made the investment which valued the company at approximately (USD) $3 billion. The company intends to use the funds for research and development, production, sales, and other fields. [ Finsmes ] MOD Pizza raises $42M in fresh doughBellevue-based MOD Pizza has raised another $42 million, this time from Fidelity Management & Research, as well as previous funder PWP Growth Equity. This brings the amount raised by the fast-casual pizza chain to nearly $150 million. [ Seattle Times ] Stem Cell Transplant Startup With Harvard Tech, Magenta Therapeutics, Gets $48.5MAdult stem cell transplants can be very effective against certain leukemias and lymphomas. You get whacked with high-dose chemo or radiation to hopefully kill the cancer cells. Then you get blood-forming adult stem cells, usually donated from a family member. [ Forbes ] Cloud project management firm Mavenlink raises $39mProject management Software as a Service company Mavenlink Inc. has raised $39 million in a Series D round led by Goldman Sachs. Founded in 2008, Mavenlink offers software and services for advanced project management, task collaboration, resource allocation, work management and professional services. [ Silicon Angle ] LLR Partners Leads $34M Investment in SUN Behavioral Health LLR Partners today announced a $34 million growth capital investment in SUN Behavioral Health, a national operator of freestanding psychiatric hospitals. Existing investors including HealthInvest, NewSpring Capital, Petra Capital Partners and SV Life Sciences also participated in the round. EdTech startup Firefly Learning gets £4.5m in Series A led by BGF VenturesFirefly Learning, a London-based EdTech startup, has closed a £4.5m Series A round led by BGF Ventures. The startup, which also drew support from Beringea, can be used by teachers, students and parents to set homework, create resources and track students’ learning progress. [ Tech city news ] Womply Bags $30M to Help Small Businesses Harness DataFor small or medium-size brick-and-mortar merchants, it can be complicated managing data related to sales, marketing and customer behavior. Startup Womply brings sales, customer and marketing data together in a web-based suite of software tools for businesses in areas spanning services like hair salons, plumbers, law firms and medical offices. [ WSJ ] Yewno Attracts New Strategic Investor, Adds $6.5 million to the Initial $10 million Round of Funding Yewno, maker of a new inference engine that mimics the human brain and provides an entirely new approach to knowledge discovery, has attracted a new international strategic investor that brings additional expertise in the publishing industry and an entré into Asia. [ Business Wire ] MORE LATEST FUNDING D.C.-based fast-casual restaurant chain lands $25 million in fundingWeFarm’s ‘Quora for farmers’ scales up in Africa with $1.6M from LocalGlobe Spoiler Alert Eats $2.5M to Grow Online Surplus Food Marketplace Skedulo grabs $9.2 mln Series A Aperia Technologies Secures $16 Million in Additional Funding AnalyticsMD nabs $13 million to ramp up artificial intelligenceWebsite-creation platform PageCloud raises $4M Series A SEB invests in machine learning outfit Now Interact Gaming analytics startup Mobalytics grabs $2.6 million in seed funding Echo app aims to take the hassle out of ordering repeat prescriptionsEast Meets East is a dating service for Asians in the U.S. Israeli startup Sealights raises huge $11 million first funding round Apptentive raises $3.6M from Vulcan, Origin Ventures, SurveyMonkey, others to fuel growth Swedish machine learning platform Now Interact rallies $5 mln Series A Business lender P2Binvestor raises $7.7 million Invincea Raises $10 Million in Strategic Growth Capital Y Combinator in $2.7m funding for Korea’s ‘Uber for cleaners’ Zwift, a multiplayer game that’s making indoor athletics more social, just raised $27 million LATEST EXITS Like by smiling? Facebook acquires emotion detection startup FacioMetrics Facebook could one day build facial gesture controls for its app thanks to the acquisition of a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff company called FacioMetrics. The startup made an app called Intraface that could detect seven different emotions in people’s faces, but it’s been removed from the app stores. Viacom Inks Deal with Telefonica to Buy Television FederalViacom Inc. recently announced that it has entered into an agreement with Telefonica S.A to acquire Television Federal S.A. (Telefe). The acquisition will be made by the company’s Viacom International Media Networks (“VIMN”) division and is expected to be value accretive for the company by boosting its presence in Argentina. [ zacks ] MORE LATEST EXITS General Electric to Buy Two Tech Startups for Its Digital BusinessCrisis Prevention Institute to be sold to different private equity firm FUND RAISED Cambia Health, Mosiac Health Partner to Launch Echo Health VenturesCambia Health Solutions and Mosiac Health Solutions have teamed up to launch Echo Health Ventures, a partnership that combines the proven digital health investment expertise of both organizations to scale funding in existing innovative solutions. Together, Echo Ventures will work to build successful new digital health companies to deliver value that is responsive to systems, providers and consumers. [ HIT consultant ] APUS finds India 3 times bigger than China, vows $44m fresh investment Chinese app maker APUS just made an unusual announcement: India is its fastest growing market with 16 percent users. Only 5 percent of its users are in China. So the company is planning to invest upwards of US$44 million into India, and will go on a hiring spree to get a 200-people team going in its new office in the country. [ Tech in Asia ] Curated by Venture Pulse Team. Find us on : [ Venturepulse.org, CrunchBase, AngelList ] |