Week Ending 05.19.19
BRAINBOX AI MAY RAISE OUTSIDE FUNDS BY THE END OF THE YEAR
PEGASYSTEMS & SYMPHONY AI MAKE ACQUISITIONS WHILE CONVERSIONPOINT BUY IN DOUBT
FIVERR INTL FILES NYSE IPO
XOMETRY ATTRACTS DELL, BMW & GE WHILE WEKAIO BRINGS IN HPE AND QUALCOMM
SAN FRANCISCO BANS FACIAL RECOGNITION
INTERPRETA HIRES SIRI CO-CREATOR & DLA PIPER FORMS AL DESK
AND MORE ↓
EYE ON A.I. GETS READERS UP TO DATE ON THE LATEST FUNDING NEWS AND RELATED ISSUES. SUBSCRIBE FOR THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER.
LATEST FROM EYE ON A.I.
BrainBox AI, the Montreal, Canada-based building services company, may kick off its first outside funding round as early as the end of this year, CTO and co-founder Jean-Simon Venne said.
The company hasn’t decided on the exact structure or size of the funding round. “We’re looking at different options,” according to Venne.
One possibility, outside of a standard seed round of a few million dollars, is to bring in a real estate company as a strategic investor in a larger funding raise to scale faster. Read more
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Pegasystems, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based marketing firm using AI, said it acquired In The Chat, the messaging firm.
Symphony AI, the Los Altos, California-based investment firm focused on AI, said it acquired Azima, a machinery diagnostics company.
Apptio, the Bellevue, Washington-based business service firm using machine learning, said it is acquiring Cloudability, a rival business services firm also using machine learning.
Health Carousel, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based healthcare staffing services firm, said it acquired Lucidity, a physician staffing services firm using AI.
Luokung Technology, the Beijing, China-based location services firm, said it is acquiring a 67.36% stake in Beijing BotBrain AI Technology. BotBrain founder Xueyu Lu will retain the rest.
Ginkgo Bioworks, the Boston, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company, said it it acquired Warp Drive Bio, a machine learning-driven subsidiary of REVOLUTION Medicines. Ginkgo raised USD 90m in a Series A in February.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise, the San Jose, California-based computing company, said it is acquiring super computing firm Cray in a deal valued at USD 1.3bn.
FILINGS
Fiverr International, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based online services marketplace using machine learning, said it is raising a USD 100m placeholder in an initial public offering on the NYSE.
Slack, the San Francisco, California-based workplace communications firm, said it plans to start trading on the NYSE on June 20.
Slack filed for a direct listing in April. The company itself will raise no new funds but current shareholders, which include CEO Stewart Butterfield and Japan’s SoftBank, have the option to sell shares they own.
The company said in the original filing it plans to continue investing in AI. Slack paid USD 43.3m in cash for AI communication company Astro Technology in September last year.
ConversionPoint Technologies, the Newport Beach, California-based ecommerce platform for small-and-medium sized businesses using AI, postponed an up to USD 43m initial public offering of 6.2m shares at USD 6 to USD 7 each, according to a Renaissance Capital report.
The move puts the acquisition of Inuvo, the marketing technology firm using AI, in doubt. Details are here and here.
Change Healthcare, the Nashville, Tennessee-based healthcare technology firm using AI, refiled for a placeholder USD 100m initial public offering on the Nasdaq.
Other deals include Social Life Network and Globe Photos
FUNDING
Tealium, the San Diego, California-based marketing services firm using machine learning, said it raised USD 55m in a Series F led by Silver Lake Waterman.
Xometry, the Gaithersburg, Maryland-based manufacturing services firm using AI, said it raised USD 50m in a funding round led by Greenspring Associates. The venture capital funds of Dell Technologies, BMW and GE also participated.
WekaIO, the San Jose, California-based business services firm using AI, said it raised USD 31.7m in a Series C, which included participation from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Qualcomm.
Algorithmia, the Seattle, Washington-based business services firm using AI, said it raised USD 25m in a Series B led by Norwest Venture Partners. A venture capital unit of Japanese e-commerce site Rakuten also participated.
Locus, the Bengaluru, India-based logistics firm using AI, said it raised USD 22m in a Series B from Falcon Edge, Tiger Global Management, Exfinity Technology Fund and Blume Ventures Fund.
Innowatts, the Houston, Texas-based electricity analytics firm using AI, said it raised USD 18.2m in a Series B led by Energy Impact Partners. Existing investors, including Shell Ventures and Spain’s Iberdrola, also participated.
icometrix, the Leuven, Belgium-based brain image analysis firm using AI, said it raised USD 18m in a new funding round led by Forestay Capital, the tech-focused unit of Waypoint Capital.
Quadric.io, the Burlingame, California-based supercomputer developer, said it raised USD 14m in a funding round led by Japanese auto parts maker DENSO.
Madrona, the Seattle, Washington-based startup incubator, raised USD 11m for AI investments, according to a GeekWire report. Over half when to SeekOut, the Seattle, Washington-based human resources services company using machine learning, which said it raised USD 6m in a Series A.
Understory, the Madison, Wisconsin-based weather analytics company using AI, said it raised USD 5.25m in a Series B led by early stage investor True Ventures.
Tools4Patient, the Gosselies, Belgium-based drug development services company using AI, said it raised €4m (USD 4.5m) in a Series B. Proceeds will be used for commercialization.
Geospiza, the Denver, Colorado-based emergency and first responders services company using machine learning, said it raised USD 1m in seed funding.
Chefling, the Sunnyvale, California-based home kitchen management company using machine learning, said it raised an unspecified amount in a Series A led by Germany’s BSH Hausgeräte.
InterGen Data, the Dallas, Texas-based business services firm using AI, said it raised USD 800k in seed funding from angel investor Stan Thomas.
LEGAL & REGULATORY
San Francisco voted to ban the use of facial recognition by city agencies. Media coverage is here and here.
Canada and France announced the Declaration of the International Panel on Artificial Intelligence.
PEOPLE
Interpreta, the San Diego, California-based healthcare analytics company using AI, said it hired Siri co-creator Norman Winarsky as vice president of artificial intelligence and natural language analytics.
Law firm DLA Piper said it started a dedicated AI practice. Partners Larissa Bifano in Boston and Danny Tobey in Dallas will lead the US desk. Gareth Stokes in Birmingham, Mark O'Conor in London and Robert Seidel in Edmonton will run the international practice.
Intema Solutions, the Montreal, Canada-based marketing agency using machine learning, said it promoted Laurent Benezra to president and CEO. Benezra was previously an executive vice president. Outgoing President and CEO Roger Plourde will remain as executive chairman of the board.
Clarify Health Solutions, the San Francisco, California-based healthcare analytics using machine learning, said it hired former Morgan Stanley banker William Atkins as CFO.
GoSecure, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based cybersecurity company using machine learning, said it hired James Kunkel as COO.
Zoovu, the New York City-based marketing company using AI, said it hired Tim O’Neil as chief revenue officer. The company raised USD 14m in a Series B in February and acquired SmartAssistant, the AI marketing firm, in January.
CareerArc, the Los Angeles, California-based human resources company using AI, said it hired former ZipRecruiter executive Jason Blais as executive vice president of sales and Linda Souza as senior vice president of marketing. CareerArc Chief Marketing Officer Yair Riemer was also promoted to president of the career transition services business. The company raised USD 30m in January in a round led by software industry-focused PeakEquity Partners.
Belmont Technology, the Houston, Texas-based oil and gas services company using AI, said it hired former RoyalDutch Shell executive Alan Cohen as executive advisor - industry solutions.
Mitre, the Mclean Virginia and Bedford, Massachusetts-based government services firm, said it hired former National Security Agency executive and AI expert Charles Clancy as vice president for intelligence programs. Mitre also said it hired former Verizon executive Gus Bentivegna as vice president of human resources and talent enablement.
Infogain, the Los Gatos, California-based IT consultancy using AI, said it hired former Wipro and Oracle executive Jitinder Sethi as vice president of strategic solutions & chief enterprise architect. In September Infogain hired former Wipro executive Kulesh Bansal as CFO.
Other developments include UK Artificial Intelligence Council