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 first quarter report on Israel AI activity.

Next up is news on seven acquisitions, three equity filings, 17 funding rounds and 11 executive hires in the AI sector.

Companies we have tracked over the past year or so in the news this week include Recursion, Expert System, Scipher Medicine, Ordr, Klearly and Amperity.

See all of this and more below ↓

OUR EXCLUSIVE THIS WEEK

Israel AI Report 1Q20

M&A

Eye on A.I. tracked only one acquisition in the quarter. DoiT International, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based business services company using machine learning, acquired superQuery in February.

Funding

Eleven companies based in Israel raised a total of USD 266m in the first quarter. The largest came from AI semiconductor maker Halio, which raised USD 60m, followed by K Health, which raised USD 45m and the USD 36m raised by Intuition Robotics. Two companies in the first quarter of 2019 raised USD 41m by comparison.  

Executive Moves

Hiring in the first quarter included Zebra Medical Vision which bought in a new CEO with Ohad Arazi. Radcom also got a new COO in Hilik Itman.

Israel’s unemployment rate has hit 22% as the outbreak of COVID-19 gains traction. Over 3,800 citizens have been diagnosed with the disease. The government is considering tightening existing restrictions on social distancing as they are still being ignored by some, media reports say.

Access the complete data set here.

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

SS&C Technologies, the Windsor, Connecticut-based financial industry services firm, said it acquired Captricity, which uses machine learning to process documents.

Yokogawa, the Tokyo, Japan-based infrastructure industry services firm using AI, said it completed the acquisition of Grazper, which analyses images with AI.

FaceBank, the Jupiter, Florida and New York City-based virtual entertainment company, said it is acquiring live streaming station fuboTV. FaceBank creates digital likenesses for use with AI and social media.

Deloitte, the New York City-based consultancy, said it acquired Australian data science firm Bistech.

Prytek, the Singapore-based venture capital firm focused on AI and other technology, acquired UK-based Delta Capital.

Novus Health, the Toronto, Ontario-based health industry services firm, said it acquired Near Threat Analytics, a real time data analysis firm using AI.

Cognizant, the Teaneck, New Jersey-based professional services company using AI, said it acquired marketing consultancy Lev.

FILINGS

WeTrade, the Beijing, China-based travel company using AI, refiled for a shareholder sale of USD 991k to be raised from the sale of 330,337 shares at USD 3.00 each.

In October, the company said it planned to raise USD 300k from the sale of 100k shares at USD 3.00 each over the counter in the US, where it is incorporated in Wyoming.

Other deals include Bio Essence and Yield10 Bioscience, the Woburn, Massachusetts-based agricultural company using AI.

FUNDING

MiningLamp Technology, the Beijing, China-based data mining firm using AI, raised USD 300m in a funding round led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings and Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings, according to a South China Morning Post report.

Lilium, the Munich, Germany-based company developing autonomous air taxis, said it raised USD 240m in a funding round led by Chinese technology giant Tencent.

Dremio, the Santa Clara, California-based data lake services firm, said it raised USD 70m in a funding round led by Insight Partners. The venture capital unit of Cisco also participated.

Espressive, the Santa Clara, California-based business services firm using AI, said it raised USD 30m in a Series B funding led by Insight Partners.

Pyramid Analytics, the Amsterdam, Netherlands-headquartered business services firm using machine learning, said it raised USD 25m in a funding round led by Jerusalem Venture Partners.

Arkose Labs, the San Francisco, California-based anti-fraud company using AI, said it raised USD 22m in a Series B led by Microsoft’s venture fund M12.

DataGuard, the Munich, Germany-based business compliance services firm using machine learning, said it raised USD 20m in a funding round led by the UK’s One Peak.

Helm.ai, the Menlo Park, California-based autonomous vehicle software developer, raised USD 13m in a seed round that included Capital Ventures, Amplo, Binnacle Partners and SV Angel, according to a TechCrunch report.

Bright.md, the Portland, Oregon-based virtual healthcare company using AI, said it raised USD 8m in a Series C round led by B Capital and Seven Peaks Ventures.

Stellar Cyber, the Santa Clara, California-based cybersecurity firm using machine learning, said it raised USD 7.1m in additional funding from Susquehanna International Group in an expanded Series A now totaling USD 21.8m.

Revuze, the Netanya, Israel-based marketing company using AI, said it raised USD 5.1m in a financing round led by Maverick Ventures.

Fritz AI, the Boston, Massachusetts-based AI development platform, said it raised USD 5m in an expanded seed funding round led by The Foundry Group.

Eigen Technologies, the London, UK-based natural language processing firm, raised USD 5m in an extended Series B funding from the venture capital unit of ING, according to a Finsmes report.

Kaizo, the Amsterdam, Netherlands-based business services firm using AI, said it raised USD 3m in a seed round led by Google’s AI-focused Gradient Ventures and Partech.

OneThree Biotech, the New York City-based drug development platform using AI, said it raised USD 2.5m in a seed round led by Primary Venture Partners and Meridian Street Capital.

Other deals include Pathlight, Fintso and Excess2sell

PEOPLE

ArmadaHealth, the Baltimore, Maryland-based doctor/patient matching service using machine learning, said it hired Susan Torroella as president and CEO.

Butterfly Network, the Guilford, Connecticut-based ultrasound company using AI, said it hired Laurent Faracci as CEO.

RealNetworks, the Seattle, Washington-based facial recognition company, said it hired Judd Lee as CFO and treasurer.

Recursion, the Salt Lake City, Utah-based drug development company using AI, said it hired Michael Secora as CFO.

The company hired Shafique Virani as chief corporate development officer earlier this month.

Expert System, the Modena, Italy-based business services firm using natural language processing, said it hired Gabriele Donino as COO. Donino was head of AI at Swiss Re.

Earlier this month the company hired former Dell executive Walt Mayo as CEO.

Scipher Medicine, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based medical services platform using AI, said it hired Slava Akmaev as chief technology officer.

Optum Ventures made an unspecified investment in the company last month.

Ordr, the Santa Clara, California-based cybersecurity firm using machine learning, said it hired Jeff Horne as chief security officer, Danelle Au as chief marketing officer and Ratnesh Saxena as vice president of product management.

The company raised USD 50m in an expanded Series B from the Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente Ventures earlier this month. In December, the company raised USD 27.5m in a Series B led by Battery Ventures. In October the company hired former Cisco executive Anthony Dumont as vice president of worldwide sales.

Klearly, the Durham, North Carolina-based marketing firm using machine learning, said it hired Matt Webbink as chief product officer.

The company raised USD 1.5m from a seed round in October led by IDEA Fund Partners.

ForgeRock, the San Francisco, California-based digital identity firm using AI, said it hired Renee Beckloff as vice president of cloud success and former Oracle executive Sudhakar Peddibhotla as vice president of engineering for autonomous identity.

Amperity, the Seattle, Washington-based marketing firm using AI, said it hired former GAP executive Chris Chapo as vice president of customer success.

In November, the company required Custora, another marketing firm. Amperity raised USD 50m in a Series C funding that included Tiger Global Management and Goldman Sachs in July. In April, Amperity hired former Starbucks and Microsoft executive Lynn Girotto as chief marketing officer.

Green Revolution Cooling, the Austin, Texas-based data center cooling firm, said it hired former Dell executive Larry Kosch as director of product marketing.

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