Author Archives: Ingrid Lunden

German security firm Avira has been acquired by Investcorp at a $180M valuation

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Mergers and acquisitions largely grinded to a halt at the end of March, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic spreading around the world, but today comes news of a deal out of Europe that underscores where pockets of activity are still happening. Avira, a cybersecurity company based out of Germany that provides antivirus, identity […] Continue reading German security firm Avira has been acquired by Investcorp at a $180M valuation→

In the wake of COVID-19, UK puts up £20M in grants to develop resilient tech for critical industries

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Most of the world — despite the canaries in the coal mine — was unprepared to cope with the coronavirus outbreak that’s now besieging us. Now, work is starting to get underway both to help manage what is going on now and better prepare us in the future. In the latest development, the UK government today […] Continue reading In the wake of COVID-19, UK puts up £20M in grants to develop resilient tech for critical industries→

Collibra nabs another $112.5M at a $2.3B valuation for its big data management platform

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GDPR and other data protection and privacy regulations — as well as a significant (and growing) number of data breaches and exposées of companies’ privacy policies — have put a spotlight on not just the vast troves of data that businesses and other organizations hold on us, but also how they handle it. Today, one […] Continue reading Collibra nabs another $112.5M at a $2.3B valuation for its big data management platform→

Axonius nabs $58M for its cybersecurity-focused network asset management platform

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As companies get to grips with a wider (and, lately, more enforced) model of remote working, a startup that provides a platform to help track and manage all the devices that are accessing networked services — an essential component of cybersecurity policy — has raised a large round of growth funding. Axonius, a New York-based […] Continue reading Axonius nabs $58M for its cybersecurity-focused network asset management platform→

SMB loans platform Kabbage to furlough a ‘significant’ number of staff, close office in Bangalore

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Another tech unicorn is feeling the pinch of doing business during the coronavirus pandemic. Today, Kabbage, the Softbank-backed lending startup that uses machine learning to provide speedy and more accurate evaluations of loan applications for small and medium businesses, is furloughing a “significant number” of its US team of 500 employees, according to a memo […] Continue reading SMB loans platform Kabbage to furlough a ‘significant’ number of staff, close office in Bangalore→

Kaizo raises $3M for its AI-based tools to improve customer service support teams

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CRM has for years been primarily a story of software to manage customer contacts, data to help agents do their jobs, and tools to manage incoming requests and outreach strategies. Now to add to that we’re starting to see a new theme: apps to help agents track how they work and to work better. Today […] Continue reading Kaizo raises $3M for its AI-based tools to improve customer service support teams→

Assembled raises $3.1M led by Stripe to build ‘the operating system for support teams’

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CRM software accounts for one-quarter of all enterprise IT spend. But ironically, while a lot of money is spent on platforms like Salesforce or SAP to manage incoming calls and outgoing marketing and sales activity, not a lot of attention is given to the issue of how to help the teams using all that software work […] Continue reading Assembled raises $3.1M led by Stripe to build ‘the operating system for support teams’→

YC-backed Turing uses AI to help speed up the formulation of new consumer packaged goods

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One of the more interesting and useful applications of artificial intelligence technology has been in the world of biotechnology and medicine, where now more than 220 startups (not to mention universities and bigger pharma companies) are using AI to accelerate drug discovery by using it to play out the many permutations resulting from drug and […] Continue reading YC-backed Turing uses AI to help speed up the formulation of new consumer packaged goods→

Thought Machine nabs $83M for a cloud-based platform that powers banking services

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The world of consumer banking has seen a massive shift in the last ten years. Gone are the days where you could open an account, take out a loan, or discuss changing the terms of your banking only by visiting a physical branch. Now, you can do all this and more with a few quick […] Continue reading Thought Machine nabs $83M for a cloud-based platform that powers banking services→

London-based Gyana raises $3.9M for a no-code approach to data science

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Coding and other computer science expertise remain some of the more important skills that a person can have in the working world today, but in the last few years, we have also seen a big rise in a new generation of tools providing an alternative way of reaping the fruits of technology: “no-code” software, which […] Continue reading London-based Gyana raises $3.9M for a no-code approach to data science→