Reuters News
Danone’s (DANO.PA) venture capital division is backing French organic baby food start-up Yooji, in the latest example of a big food company turning to a smaller rival whose products promote healthy lifestyles, Reuters reported.
Private trades in Spotify shares are valuing the music streaming company at about $16 billion, according to people familiar with the deals, raising the prospect of a bumper flotation next year, Reuters reported.
Kik Interactive, which created the global chat platform Kik, valued at US$1 billion, said this week it raised nearly US$100 million in the sale of its own token, below its expectations, Reuters reported. A volatile crypto-currency market has partially reduced demand for token offerings, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said. In late August, Kik said it expected to raise US$125 million. Kik, a free chat and messaging application, is the first social media application to create its own digital currency. The company considers its token offering a success, noting that more than 10,000 people from 117 countries participated.
Silicon Valley venture capital firm IVP on Tuesday announced the close of a $1.5 billion fund, the latest in a string of massive new venture funds that are appearing as global investors scramble for a piece of the tech boom.
SAP (SAPG.DE), Europe’s biggest technology company, has agreed to buy U.S.-Israeli customer identity software company Gigya to strengthen its position in the booming market for online customer relationship marketing, the company said on Sunday.
Software startup Slack Technologies Inc said it raised US$250 million from SoftBank Group Corp and other investors in its latest funding round, boosting the company’s valuation to US$5.1 billion, Reuters reported. The latest fundraising, led by SoftBank through its giant Vision Fund and joined by Accel Partners and other investors, lifted Slack’s total funds raised to US$841 million, the enterprise messaging operator said in an e-mailed statement. The fund provides resources which will help Slack to run as a cash-generating company and the raise will reduce its dependence on outside financing, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield said. San Francisco-based Slack, which has an office in Vancouver, was launched in 2014 by Butterfield, a Canadian entrepreneur.
Finnish mobile games maker Rovio Entertainment Ltd set a price range on Friday for its planned listing that would value the maker of “Angry Birds” at up to $1.1 billion, well below potential values cited in media reports.
Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) is in discussions with Lyft Inc about a possible investment in the ride-hailing company, potentially deepening an existing partnership between the two firms, a source told Reuters.
Israel’s StoreDot, which is developing fast-charging battery technology, said on Thursday it raised $60 million in a third round of financing led by the truck division of Germany’s Daimler (DAIGn.DE).
Germany’s Bayer AG, one of the world’s biggest agricultural chemical companies, is joining a $100 million bet that the next big breakthrough in crop fertilizers will be found inside a biological Petri dish, Reuters reported.