EYE ON A.I. GETS READERS UP TO DATE ON THE MOST CRITICAL FUNDING, CORPORATE AND REGULATORY NEWS WITH ORIGINAL CONTENT AND MEDIA REPORTS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE.

This week our corporate finance newsletter features our interview with one of the minds behind Amazon’s Alexa, Igor Jablokov, who is out with another startup. The reluctant second-time CEO says Amazon, Google and Microsoft just can’t get AI right.

Next up is a dozen acquisitions, five equity filings, 23 funding rounds, a handful of regulatory moves and 16 executive hires in the AI sector.

Companies we have tracked over the past year or so in the news this week include ServiceNow, Securiti.ai, Symphony RetailAI, ElectrifAi, Biofourmis, AiCure, Arceo.ai, CleverTap, Liquidnet and MRP Prelytix.

See all of this and more below ↓

OUR EXCLUSIVE THIS WEEK

Pryon to seek at least USD 25m later this year

CEO Igor Jablokov, one of the minds behind Amazon’s Alexa, is back in the corporate saddle because he says the tech titans just can’t get AI right.

Read the full story here.

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

NetBase, the San Francisco, California-based social media analytics company, said it acquired Quid, the text analytics company using AI.

Crowd Analyzer, the Dubai-based social media monitoring platform using AI, said it acquired Task Spotting.

eDreams ODIGEO, the Barcelona, Spain-based online travel and e-commerce company using AI, said it acquired RoamAmore, the online hotel booking firm using AI.

Elder Research, the Charlottesville, Virginia-based data science and AI consulting firm, is acquiring The Institute for Statistics Education website Statistics.com, the online analytics education firm.

PDI, the Atlanta, Georgia-based business services firm, said it acquired SwiftIQ, the analytics firm using AI.

ASGN, the Calabasas, California-based business services company using AI, said it acquired Blackstone Technology Group from Blackstone Federal.

Open Systems, the Redwood City, California-based cybersecurity firm, said it acquired Sqooba, the analytics firm using AI.

ServiceNow, the Santa Clara, California-based AI IT firm, said it acquired Passage AI. Last week, ServiceNow acquired Loom Systems.

LiveVox, the San Francisco, California-based customer services firm, said it acquired SpeechIQ, the quality assurance company using AI.

Cactus Communication, the Mumbai, Maharashtra-based scientific publishing platform, said it acquired Danish AI company UNSILO.

Other deals include Stingray and Corsearch

FILINGS

Schrodinger, the New York City-based drug development firm using machine learning, said it is raising as much as USD 160m from the sale of 10m shares at USD 14 to USD 16 each on the Nasdaq.

Black Diamond Therapeutics, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based oncology firm using machine language, saw its shares double on the first day of trading on the Nasdaq.

The company raised USD 201m from an upsized initial public offering of of 10.6m shares at USD 19 each.

Earlier the company said it was raising as much as USD 160m from an initial public offering of 8.9m shares at USD 16 to USD 18 each.

1LifeHealthcare, the San Francisco, California-based healthcare platform using machine learning, saw its shares rise 58% on the first day of trading on the Nasdaq.

The company raised USD 245m from an initial public offering of of 17.5m shares at USD 14 each, the lowest end of the marketed range.

The company was seeking as much as USD 280m.

Other deals include Clip Interactive/Auddia and ReWalk

FUNDING

Skymind Global Ventures, the now London, UK-based AI startup incubator, raised USD 800m for a venture capital fund, according to TechCrunch report. The company was previously based in Hong Kong.

Prime Movers Lab, the Jackson, Wyoming-based investment firm focused on AI and other technology, said it raised USD 100m for its first early-stage fund.

ActiveCampaign, the Chicago, Illinois-based marketing firm using machine learning, said it raised USD 100m in a Series B led by Susquehanna Growth Equity. Last week, the company, hired Jessica Hannes as vice president of support.

Miovision, the Kitchener, Ontario-based traffic networks management firm using AI, said it raised CAD 120m (USD 90.99m) in a funding round led by TELUS Ventures.

Securiti.ai, the San Jose, California-based cybersecurity company, said it raised USD 50m in a Series B financing led by General Catalyst and Mayfield. In August, the company raised USD 31m in a Series A funding also led by Mayfield and Navin Chaddha.

OpsRamp, the San Jose, California-based AI IT services company, said it raised USD 37.5m in a funding round led by a venture unit of Morgan Stanley.

Aquant, the New York City-based business services platform using AI, said it raised USD 30m in a Series B funding round led by Insight Partners.

Merantix, the Berlin, Germany-based incubator focused on AI companies, said it raised €25m (USD 27m) in a funding round that included Trusted Insight, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Iguazio, the Herzliya, Israel-based data science platform, said it raised USD 24m in a funding round led by INcapital Ventures.

IDbyDNA, the San Francisco, California-based biotechnology firm using AI, said it raised USD 20m in a Series B led by ARTIS Ventures.

Persona, the San Francisco, California-based identity verification platform using AI and facial recognition, said it raised USD 17.5m in a Series A funding round led by Coatue and First Round Capital.

Otter.ai, the Los Altos, California-based transcription app using natural language processing, raised USD 10m in a seed funding round led by Japanese telecoms firm NTT DOCOMO, according to a Voicebot.ai report.

Imagr, the Auckland, New Zealand-based automated checkout startup, raised USD 9.5m in a pre-series A funding round led by Toshiba Tec, a unit of the Japanese conglomerate Toshiba that makes cash registers and other retail industry technology, according to Finsmes report.

Concentric, the San Jose, California-based business document security firm using deep learning, raised USD 7.5m in a funding round that included Clear Ventures, Engineering Capital, Homebrew, and Core Ventures, according to a Security Week report.

AdmitHub, the Boston, Massachusetts-based college support services company using natural language processing, said it raised USD 7.5m from Salesforce Ventures and the Google Assistant Investments program.

Kloud.io, the San Jose, California-based robotic process automation software developer working on data gathering, said it raised USD 4m in a seed funding led by Unusual Ventures.

Nirveda Cognition, the Glendale, California-based document and analytics platform using AI, said it raised an unspecified amount in a funding round led by Mexico Ventures.

Other deals include Verkada, Mural,Yogi, Whip Media, Aumni and Directly

LEGAL AND REGULATORY

The US government’s General Services Administration plans to develop a library of AI use cases that agencies can refer to as they start to invest in the technology, according to a fedscoop report. A set of government agencies is slated to meet February 12 to discuss challenges they face in adopting AI as part of the new library program.

The Scottish government funds six climate change-projects using AI, according to a Government Computing report.

The UK government has developed a public sector manual to help deploy AI technologies, according to a Computer Weekly report.

PEOPLE

Symphony RetailAI, the Dallas, Texas-based marketing company using AI, said it hired Chris Koziol as CEO. In March, the company hired Kevin Sterneckert as chief marketing officer.

The company is a portfolio company of SymphonyAI, the Los Altos, California-based startup incubator.

Directly, the San Francisco, California-based chatbot maker, said it hired Mike de la Cruz  as CEO and Antony Brydon as vice president of platform. (See funding section for latest round)

ElectrifAi, the Jersey City, New Jersey-based AI company, said it hired Gregg McNulty as chief information officer and Luming Wang as chief technology officer.

The company hired Debra Fahey as senior vice president, global head of delivery & operations and Michael Fox as senior vice president of product management in November.

In October, the company hired Deron Hurst as senior vice president of federal government division. In July, the company, which was formerly known as Opera Solutions, hired Edward Scott as CEO.

Biofourmis, the Boston, Massachusetts-based healthcare services company using AI, said it hired Jaydev Thakkar as COO and Milan Shah as chief technology officer. In November, the company acquired Biovotion, the German wearable health tech firm.

Tricentis, the Mountain View, California-based IT testing firm using AI , said it hired Grigori Melnik as chief product officer.

AiCure, the New York City-based healthcare analytics company, said it hired Ed Ikeguchi as president and chief medical officer. In November, the company raised USD 24.5m in a Series C led by Palisades Growth Capital, the technology-focused private equity firm based in Los Angeles.

Arceo.ai, the San Francisco, California-based cybersecurity firm, said it hired former Twitter executive Mike Convertino as chief security officer. In September, the company raised USD 37m in a funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and San Francisco’s Founders Fund.

Iterate.ai, the San Jose, California and Denver, Colorado-based business services firm, said it hired Mike Frazzini as chief of data science and the evaluation cloud.

CleverTap, the Mountain View, California-based marketing platform using AI, said it hired Prashant Parashar as chief human resources officer. In October, the company raised USD 35m in a Series C led by Sequoia India and Tiger Global Management.

Realeyes, the New York City-based marketing services firm using computer vision, said it hired Joe Zahtila as chief revenue officer.

Liquidnet, the New York City-based institutional investment services provider, said it hired Vicky Sanders as global head of investment analytics. In June, the company acquired Prattle, an automated investment company using AI.

MRP Prelytix, the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based business software firm using AI, said it hired Pierre Custeau as senior vice president of product. In January, the company hired Garry Dawson as senior vice president of global account based marketing.

PINC, the Union City, California-based logistics and inventory robotics company, said it hired Mike Medcalfe as vice president of customer success.

Other hiring includes Augmentir and SentinelOne

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