Private Equity

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ffVC and NYU are mixing researchers with investors in the name of machine intelligence

 The timing was perfect. Just as startups were settling into NYU and ffVC’s new brains-meet-money accelerator, “AI Nexus Lab,” Uber acquired Geometric Intelligence. In a stroke of luck, the startup that would become Uber’s AI lab happened to have been raised by NYU Tandon’s Data Future Labs. Uber’s interest in Geometric helped solidify New… Read More

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Pluto AI raises $2.1 million to bring intelligence to water treatment

 Former 500 Startups accelerator company Pluto AI is announcing $2.1 million in fundraising today from Fall Line Capital, Refactor Capital, Unshackled Ventures, Comet Labs and additional angels. Pluto is taking advantage of the sensorification of modern water treatment plants to extrapolate insights that can save operators precious time, money and water. Read More

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Let’s meet in Pittsburgh on April 11

 In preparation for Disrupt New York and our upcoming TC Sessions series on Robotics Matt Burns and I will be heading to Pittsburgh to talk to some startups. We could use some help. We’re aiming to be in Pittsburgh on April 11 and we need a spot and potentially a beer sponsor. We prefer neutral spots but we could be convinced if you have a cool meeting space at your accelerator or office.… Read More

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Looker catches the fancy of CapitalG, Goldman and Geodesic with $81.5M Series D

 Business intelligence platform Looker is announcing an $81.5 million Series D today led by CapitalG. Rather than compete in segmented markets against visualization and data preparation startups, Looker wants to own the vertical of business intelligence. The company supports the adoption of enterprise machine learning by providing a source of clean and reliable data. Read More

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Grail is raising at least $1 billion to fund its early cancer screening test

Arteriosclerosis, blood vessel The early cancer screening startup Grail plans to raise more than $1 billion in Series B financing today, possibly up to $1.8 billion. While the company doesn’t want to name investor names, only mentioning in a release the funding will come “primarily from undisclosed private and strategic investors,” Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google… Read More

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This bed with built-in subwoofer, TV, lamp and power outlets may be your last purchase, ever

screen-shot-2016-12-22-at-2-50-21-am Furlenco’s new “Pod” might just be the most outrageous product hitting the market this holiday season. The Bangalore, India based furniture rental startup has always had a penchant for targeting the millennial subset, but this is something else entirely — because as any 20-something knows, adding a bed to things makes them universally more practical. The Pod includes… Read More

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Ruvento raises new seed fund to invest in hardware across Singapore, China and the U.S.

Behind The Scenes At CERN The European Organisation For Nuclear Research Today, Ruvento is announcing a new $25 million seed fund for hardware startups in need of capital from Singapore, China and the U.S. The fund, managed by Slava Solonitsyn and Alex Toh, will write 70 percent of its checks between $100k and $500k. The rest of the capital will be reserved for follow-on investments of up to $2 million. Ruvento is not the first investor to take a… Read More

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Joy raises $2.5M for its interactive photo frame

joy-album-woman-child-01 Joy, hardware startup and resident positive emotion, today announced the launch of its first product, the Joy Album — an interactive photo frame designed from the ground up. Joy has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from investors including Obvious Ventures, The Chernin Group, BoxGroup, and Maywic Select Investments. At first glance, the tablet-like device seems to have a lot… Read More

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Kickstarter is breaking down assumptions about where innovation can occur

sad-leaving-kickstarter While it’s easy to point to products like the Pebble Smart Watch as a sign that crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter are gaining ground against traditional institutional financiers and angels, the reality is that the vast majority of projects were never in the sights of Sand Hill Road. Rather, Kickstarter is illustrating that all it takes to sustain innovation outside of Silicon Valley… Read More

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