Week Ending 4.12.2020
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 starts with our exclusive on Pactum’s current seed round and more with co-founder and CEO Martin Rand.
Next up is news on five acquisitions, 25 funding rounds, some regulatory moves and eight executive hires in the AI sector. There were no equity filings this week.
Companies we have tracked over the past year or so in the news this week include Paidy, 98Point6, Tonkean, Vendantu, MixMode, Jvion, Bigfinite, Reputation.com, Veracyte and Liquid.
See all of this and more below ↓
Pactum co-founders Kristjan Korjus, Martin Rand and Kasper Korjus
OUR EXCLUSIVE THIS WEEK
Pactum raising up to USD 4m seed round
Covid-19 supply chain chaos driving inbound client interest at the contract negotiating firm.
Pactum, the San Francisco, California-based business services firm using AI, is currently raising an up to USD 4m seed round to build out staff, according to co-founder and CEO Martin Rand.
“It’ll be a mix of old and new investors,” Rand says. “We’re mainly talking to US [venture capital funds].”
Pactum came out of stealth last fall after it raised USD 1.15m in a pre-seed round from investors that included Jaan Tallinn, the co-founder of Skype and Ott Kaukver, chief technology officer of business communication software services firm Twilio.
The firm currently has 10 employees and plans to triple that by bringing in analysts, negotiation designers, enterprise sales people and full stack developers.
Pactum has developed a corporate negotiating platform and is targeting the, according to some estimates, about 80% of contractual agreements that aren’t even subject to an actual negotiation. Many are also just rolled over without much or any analysis.
Read the full story here.
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Social Finance, the San Francisco, California-based lending platform, said it is acquiring Galileo Financial Technologies, the payments platform that developed AI-based fraud detection capabilities, for USD 1.2bn.
Zscaler, the San Jose, California-based cybersecurity firm, said it is acquiring Cloudneeti, a cybersecurity company using machine learning.
Hanley Wood | Meyers Research, the Costa Mesa, California-based housing data company, said it acquired Scottish satellite imagery and AI firm Bird.i.
CNN, the Atlanta, Georgia-based broadcast media firm, acquired Canopy, a content personalization company using machine learning.
Luxoft, the Zug, Switzerland-based digital strategy and software engineering firm, said it acquired CMORE Automotive, which specializes in AI and autonomous driving technology.
FUNDING
AISpeech, the Suzhou, China-based voive recognition company, said it raised 410m yuan (USD 58m) in a Series E round of financing led by Shanghai-based dual-currency fund CTC Capital, according to a Deal Street Asia report.
Tyto Care, the New York City-based telehealthcare company using AI, said it raised USD 50m in a round co-led by Insight Partners, Olive Tree Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures.
Paidy, the Tokyo, Japan-based consumer credit firm using machine learning, said it raised USD 48m in a Series C extension from ITOCHU, according to a Pymnts report.
In November the company, raised USD 143m from the extension of a Series C round and debt financing from banks including Goldman Sachs.
Ferrum Health, the San Francisco, California-based developer of an enterprise IT and AI patient safety platform for health systems, said it raised USD 48m in a seed funding round led by Blumberg Capital.
98point6, the Seattle, Washington-based AI-enabled telemedicine platform, raised USD 43m in a Series D financing round led by Goldman Sachs, according to a Built in Seattle report.
In November, the company raised USD 50m in a Series C “anchored” by Goldman Sachs. The company developed an app connecting doctors with patients.
Glassbox, the New York City-based analytics platform using machine learning, said it raised USD 40m in a Series C funding round led by Brighton Park Capital.
Tonkean, the San Francisco, California-based robotic automation & management platform, said it raised USD 24m in a Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
In October, the company said it raised USD 7.2m in a seed round led by Foundation Capital.
Okera, the San Francisco, California-based data firm using machine learning, raised USD 15m in a funding round led by ClearSky Security, according to a Data Management Solutions Review report. (See People section for the company’s new CEO)
Vedantu, the Bengaluru, India-based online edtech startup using AI, raised an additional USD 12.56m in a funding round led by Chinese venture firm Legend Capital and Omidyar's Ohana Holding, according to a Your Story report.
Vendatu announced a USD 24m extended Series C in February led by GGC Capital.
SourceDay, the Austin, Texas-based business services firm using machine learning, said it raised USD 12.5m in a Series B round of funding led by Baird Capital.
DeHaat, the Gurgaon, India-based agricultural services platform for farmers using AI, raised USD 12m in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital India, according to a TechCrunch report.
IFM Restoration, the Dallas, Texas-based online marketplace that connects contractors with rental-property owners using AI, raised USD 10m in a Series A funding round led by S3 Ventures, according to a Biz Journals report.
Ferrum Health, the San Francisco, California-based developer of an enterprise IT and AI patient safety platform for health systems, said it raised USD 9m in a Series Seed funding round led by Blumberg Capital.
Mindler, the Stockholm, Sweden-based mental healthcare platform using machine learning, raised €8m (USD 8.7m) in a Series A co-led by Ventech and Shibsted, according to a TechEU report.
Arturo, the Chicago and San Francisco, California-based real estate analytics firm using AI, said it raised USD 8m in a Series A funding round led by Crosslink Capital.
Double, the New York City-based human resources firm using AI, said it raised USD 6m in a funding round led by Index Ventures and Daphni. The company matches executives and assistants.
Node, the San Francisco, California-based AI modelling platform, raised USD 6m in a funding round led by entrepreneur Mark Cuban, according to a Venture Beat report.
MixMode, the Santa Barbara, California-based cybersecurity company using AI, said it raised USD 4m in a Series A led by Entrada Ventures.
In March, the company hired Bryan Elliot as vice president of engineering.
AgroScout, the Misgav, Israel-based crop protection firm using AI, said it raised USD 3m in a funding round led by Kibbutz Yiron.
MyBuddy.ai, the San Francisco, California-based English tutoring service for kids, said it raised USD 1m in a seed funding round led by LETA Capital.
Other deals include SwineTech, Wellpay, Damon Motorcycles, RISE Robotics and Miso Robotics
LEGAL AND REGULATORY
The US Department of Energy said it is release USD 30m in funding for for machine learning and AI research focused on complex management systems and physical science.
PEOPLE
Sense Photonics, the San Francisco, California-based autonomous vehicle LiDAR and robotic 3D sensor maker, said it hired Shauna McIntyre as CEO.
Jvion, the Atlanta, Georgia-based healthcare industry services firm using AI, said it hired Jay Deady as CEO.
Last month, the company hired Eric Schrock as chief technology officer and Lizzy Feliciano as chief marketing officer.
Bigfinite, the San Francisco, California-based manufacturing analytics platform using AI, said it hired John Vitalie as CEO, David Merino as CFO, Crystal Black as vice president of marketing, Cristian Marfà as vice president of technical sales and Daniel Voicu as vice president of security.
In November, the company raised USD 15m in a Series B financing that included investors such as growth equity investor Atlantic Bridge and the venture capital unit of Honeywell, the aerospace firm.
Okera, the San Francisco, California-based data firm using machine learning, hired former Zoomdata CEO Nick Halsey as CEO, according to Data Management Solutions Review. (See Funding section for the company’s new round)
Reputation.com, the Redwood City, California-based marketing platform using deep learning, said it hired Amir Jafari as CFO.
Last month, the company hired Rebecca Biestman as chief marketing officer.
BioTelemetry, the Malvern, Pennsylvania-based wearable medical technology company, said it hired Andrei Stoica as chief technology officer. Stoica was last a senior vice president at IQVIA and lead the development of its AI/ML cloud platform.
Veracyte, the South San Francisco, California-based cancer testing company using machine learning, said it hired Tracy Morris as vice president of corporate communications and investor relations, effective immediately.
In July, the company said current CEO Keith Kennedy will also serve as COO.
Liqid, the Broomfield, Colorado-based data storage firm using AI, said it hired Nader Soudah as vice president of channel sales.
Last month, the company hired John Spiers as chief strategy officer.
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