Week Ending 07.14.19
ATHENA SECURITY TARGETS 10X REVENUE JUMP
INVITAE, MATTERPORT & WAYSTAR MAKE ACQUISITIONS
DYNATRACE RAISING USD 300M IN IPO & MEDALLIA RAISING USD 260M
REALWARE & BETA BIONICS RAISE SERIES B FUNDING
US, UK, RUSSIA & ISRAEL WORK ON AI STANDARDS
MOJIO HIRES CFO
CHINA AI INVESTMENT FALLS OFF CLIFF
AND MORE ↓
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LATEST FROM EYE ON A.I.
Athena Security, the Austin, Texas-based security camera company using AI, is targeting a 10x jump in revenue in the wake of its seed funding, said Chris Ciabarra, co-founder and chief technology officer.
It currently generates about USD 1.2m in annual revenue from the about 1000 security cameras it operates at USD 100 a month, Ciabarra said.
Athena is targeting schools, corporations and places of worship. Schools take about 100 cameras while some company sites can take as many as 1,000, the CTO said.
Ciabarra said he expects Athena to hit the USD 10m annual revenue target by the end of the first quarter next year.
Read the full story here
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Invitae, the San Francisco, California-based genetics company, said it acquired Jungla, which uses AI in genetic testing.
Matterport, the Sunnyvale, California-based business services firm using 3D visualization, said it acquired Arraiy, the machine learning and computer vision company.
Waystar, the Louisville, Kentucky-based business services firm focused on healthcare, said it acquired Digitize.AI, which uses AI to automate interactions with insurance firms.
TapClicks, the San Jose, California-based marketing company using machine learning, said it acquired iSpionage, a marketing firm.
Palo Alto Networks, the Santa Clara, California-based cybersecurity company using AI, said it completed the USD 410m cash acquisition of Twistlock, a shipping container firm. In June it acquired cybersecurity company PureSec for an unspecified amount and in March it acquired Demisto, the cybersecurity company using AI, for USD 560m in cash and stock.
Aspen Technology, the Bedford, Massachusetts-based business services software company using machine learning, said it acquired AI company Mnubo.
Acorn Growth, the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based private equity firm focused on aerospace and defense, said it acquired Black Sage Technologies, which is developing systems to counter unmanned drones.
QA, the London, UK-based education company, said it acquired San Francisco’s Cloud Academy, which runs courses on machine learning and other technology.
Inpixon, the Palo Alto, California-based cybersecurity company using AI, said it acquired Jibestream, a location technology firm.
Inpixon said last month it was raising USD 15m from the sale of shares with warrants. In September, the company hired Adam Benson as chief technology officer.
Pico, the New York City-based financial services company, said it acquired Corvil, the financial services company using machine learning.
Exxe, the New York City-based investment firm focused on AI, real estate and other sectors, said it acquired Eastern European property company DHE for about USD 10m.
MMTEC, the Beijing, China-based financial trading services company, said it acquired a 49% stake in a newly-formed Singapore entity called Xchain Fintech, a financial technology firm using AI.
E2open, the Austin, Texas-based supply chain company using AI, said it acquired trade software firm Amber Road.
Exabeam, the San Mateo, California-based cybersecurity firm using AI, said it acquired Israel’s SkyFormation.
FILINGS
Medallia, the San Francisco, California-based marketing company using AI, said it and shareholders are raising as much as USD 261m from an initial public offering of 14.51m shares on the NYSE at USD 16 to USD 18 each.
In June it acquired Israel’s Cooladata for its AI technology and in May said it was acquiring Strikedeck, a marketing firm using AI and machine learning.
Dynatrace, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based AI company, said it is raising USD 300m in an initial public offering on the NYSE. The company is backed by Thomas Bravo, the private equity firm.
RAPT Therapeutics, the South San Francisco, California-based cancer research firm using machine learning, said it is raising a placeholder USD 86m in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq.
Other deals include Amesite, Health Catalyst and CloudMinds
FUNDING
RealWear, the Vancouver, Washington-based industrial workwear company using AR, said it closed a USD 80m Series B round led by Teradyne. The venture capital units of speaker maker Bose and chip maker Qualcomm also participated.
Beta Bionics, the Boston, Massachusetts-based autonomous medical technology company, said it closed a USD 63m Series B2 equity financing led by Perceptive Advisors and Soleus Capital.
AlayaCare, the Montreal, Canada-based home health care platform using AI, said it secured USD 33m in a funding led by Inovia Capital.
Sensibill, the Toronto, Canada-based business services firm using AI, said it raised USD 31m in a Series B led by AI-focused venture fund Radical Ventures.
GNS Healthcare, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based medical analytics company using machine learning, said it raised USD 23m in a Series D fundraising led by Cigna’s venture capital unit.
Kyndi, the San Mateo, California-based AI company, said it raised USD 20m in a Series B led by the venture capital unit of computer chip maker Intel.
Tachyum, the San Jose, California-based AI chip maker, said it raised USD 20m in a Series A led by private equity firm IPM Group. The Slovak government also participated.
Belong.Life, the New York City-based social network for cancer patients and caregivers using AI, said it raised USD 14m in a Series B led by IQVIA.
Activ Surgical, the Boston, Massachusetts-based robotics company, said it raised USD 13m, according to a Massdevice.com report. The company was seeking USD 19m according to a regulatory filing. In March, the company hired former Olympus executive Todd Usen as CEO.
DotLab, the San Francisco, California-based women’s healthcare company using machine learning, said it raised USD 10m in a Series A funding led by CooperSurgical.
Tara AI, the San Jose, California-based business services company using machine learning, said it raised USD 10m in Series A funding led by Aspect Ventures. The USD 80m fund messaging firm Slack uses to support companies developing services for its app also participated.
Hifi Engineering, the Calgary, Canada-based oilfield services firm using AI, said it raised USD 10m in an equity financing that included BDC.
GetAccept, the San Francisco, California-based sales platform using AI, said it raised USD 7m in a Series A led by DN Capital.
SweetEscape, the Jakarta, Indonesia-based photography platform using AI, said it raised USD 6m in a Series A, according to a The Jakarta Post report.
Lumina, the Tampa, Florida-based security company using AI, said it raised USD 5m from unspecified investors.
DoNotPay, the San Francisco, California-based legal services using AI, said it raised USD 4.6m, according to SiliconANGLE report.
Roybi, the Palo Alto, California-based educational robot maker for young children, said it closed a USD 4.2m seed financing from unidentified investors.
Adventus Ventures, the Irvine, California-based startup incubator, said it raised USD 3m in a Series A led by OnFace SDC, the technology company using AI.
NexTech AR Solutions, the Toronto, Canada-based AR company focused on marketing, said it raised USD 1.58m in a management led funding round.
In May, it said it was raising CAD 1.8m (USD 1.3m) from the sale of three million shares with attached warrants. That same month it said it was acquiring an unspecified ecommerce firm for USD 2m in cash and stock as part of the acquisition of two unspecified ecommerce companies announced in March.
In June it said former technology journalist Mike Boland was joining its advisory board. It recently also appointed Ori Inbar to the board.
Flow Capital, the Toronto, Canada-based growth stage investment company, said it closed a senior secured two-year note of unspecified size in AI publishing company Echobox.
Other deals included Red Mountain Scientific and bluematador
LEGAL AND REGULATORY
Israel and Russia are developing national AI strategies. Read more about Israel here and Russia here.
AI and local services, according to a UK Parliament publication
The US Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology released a draft of a plan for AI standards, according to a VentureBeat report.
The US Department of Defense is asking private companies for insight into AI related applications for topics including cyberwarfare and dark web analysis, according to a fedscoop report.
And, read the results of a World Economic Forum poll on AI here.
PEOPLE
Mojio, the Campbell, California-based business services firm for the auto industry using machine learning, said it hired Olivier Poissonnier as CFO.
Palo Alto Networks, the Santa Clara, California-based cybersecurity company using AI, said it hired former IBM executive Jean English as chief marketing officer.
Palo Alto in June acquired Twistlock, a shipping container firm, and cybersecurity company PureSec. In March Palo Alto acquired Demisto, the cybersecurity company using AI, for USD 560m in cash and stock.
Zesty.ai, the Oakland, California-based analytics platform using AI, said it hired Scott Anderson as vice president of sales & customer success and Evan Robinson as the new vice president of engineering.
Seal Software, the San Francisco, California-based contractual analytics company using machine learning, said it promoted John O'Melia to replace CEO Ulf Zetterberg, who is now executive vice-chairman. Jim Wagner was also promoted to president.
Louisiana and Oregon to lose the most jobs to robots, according to Oxford Economics research cited in a Radio.com report.
Avast, the cybersecurity company using AI, said it hired Michal Pěchouček as chief technology officer. It also hired Jaya Baloo as chief information security officer.
MTX Group, the business services company using AI, said it hired Christina Bailey as CFO. She will be based in Frisco, Texas. It also hired Shaki Moorthy as vice president of integrations/analytics.
In June the company hired BG Weiss as chief strategy officer. In April it hired Das Nobel as CEO.
proteanTecs, the Haifa, Israel-based electronics diagnostics company using machine learning, said it hired Keith Morton as vice president worldwide sales.
Veracyte, the South San Francisco, California-based cancer testing company using machine learning, said Keith Kennedy, the company’s current CFO, will now also serve COO.
OspreyData, the Houston, Texas-based oil and gas services firm using AI, said it hired Richard Wuest as vice president of sales and Alex Lamb as data scientist. In April it hired Kenneth Collins as vice president of product optimization and services.
HVH Precision Analytics, the Wayne, Pennsylvania-based healthcare analytics company using AI, said it hired Pierantonio Russo as senior vice president of medical affairs.
Deep Lens, the Columbus, Ohio-based digital pathology platform using AI, said it hired Kevin Whiteley as vice president of provider sales.
Alion Science & Technology, the Washington DC-based engineering services company using AI, said it hired Katie Selbe as senior vice president and general manager of its cyber network solutions group.
It hired Don Raines as chief growth officer in June. The company sold its naval systems business unit to Serco for USD 225m in May.
And automation in the work place is expected to hit women the hardest, according to a McKinsey report.
Other hiring included Avnet, LPL Financial, Gritstone Oncology and Progenics Pharmaceuticals
DATA
Investment in China AI plunged to USD 140.7m in the second quarter of this year, from USD 2.87bn in the second quarter of 2018, according to Prequin data cited in a Financial Times report.