Reuters News
Chinese e-commerce firm 360buy has closed its latest round of financing, raising about $400 million that values the company at $7.3 billion, local media reported. The company, also known as Jingdong Mall, declined to provide financial details of the fundraising. The valuation of $7.3 billion is lower than the valuation 360buy achieved last April when it raised $1.5 billion from a slew of international investors, local media said. The latest round was participated in by Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund and the Tiger Fund, Reuters wrote.
Spotify is in the middle of a $100 million financing round that could value the music streaming company at just over $3 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported citing sources. The Journal said Spotify would raise the fresh capital from multiple investors including Goldman Sachs. The WSJ report did not name any other investors. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Accel Partners and others have invested about $189 million in the company in its prior financing rounds.
EarlySense, an Israeli-U.S. developer of patient monitoring systems, has raised $15 million in a financing round led by Israeli fund Pitango Venture Capital. Existing investors that participated include JK&B, ProSeed VC Fund, Docor International Management and Bridge Investment Fund.
There is a chant commonly overheard in the Bronx, that we can't print in a family publication. However, between Bobby Valentine's track record as a manager and Curt Schilling's history as an investor, that two-word chant seems more apt today, perhaps than ever before.
Ron Conway's success with a payroll tax initiative demonstrates a profound transformation playing out in San Francisco's business corridors and its halls of power. As startups blossom, attracting a wave of entrepreneurs and investment dollars, the tech industry is wielding newfound clout in local politics.
One of Silicon Valley's most established venture funds is seeking to ferret out startup talent in India at the very earliest stages by investing in AngelPrime, a Bangalore-based incubator program to foster young companies. The Mayfield Fund said it would take a majority investment in AngelPrime, bringing its India investment expertise to younger companies, and more technology companies, than in the past, Reuters reported. It did not disclose the exact amount, but said the overall fund run by AngelPrime would total less than $10 million.
In a victory for Thomson Reuters, a state judge tentatively ruled that the University of California must try to obtain and then disclose closely guarded information on the investment performance of VC funds managed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital.
Apple Inc will begin to sell an 8-inch version of the iPad on Friday to compete with smaller tablets including Amazon.com Inc's Kindle, but set a higher-than-expected price tag of $329 that Wall Street fears could curb demand.
Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder and Facebook Inc.'s first outside investor, is close to investing roughly $150 million in Airbnb in a deal that would value the lodging rental start-up at about $2.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Details of the investment round, which has not yet closed, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, Reuters wrote. The deal, if completed under the reported terms, would make Airbnb one of the Silicon Valley's most highly-valued private companies just four years after the company was founded by a trio of graduates from the Rhode Island School of Design and Harvard.
Jumptap, a seven-year old mobile advertising startup, said it is considering either listing its shares or selling itself, writes Reuters. Jumptap, which has raised $121.5 million through seven rounds of funding, counts Summerhill Venture Partners, WPP Plc and AllianceBernstein among its investors.