Berlin-based Jina.ai, an open-source startup that uses neural search to help its users find information in their unstructured data (including videos and images), announced that it has raised a $30 million Series A funding round led by Canaan Partners. New investor Mango Capital, as well as existing investors GGV Capital, SAP.iO and Yunqi Partners also participated in this round, which brings the company’s total funding to $39 million to date.
Berlin-based Jina.ai, an open-source startup that uses neural search to help its users find information in their unstructured data (including videos and images), today announced that it has raised a $30 million Series A funding round led by Canaan Partners. New investor Mango Capital, as well as existing investors GGV Capital, SAP.iO and Yunqi Partners also participated in this round, which brings the company’s total funding to $39 million to date.
EasySend, a no-code digital customer journey platform announced a $50.5 million Series B funding round led by Oak HC/FT. Existing investors Vertex IL, Intel Capital, and Hanaco Venture also participated in the round. The company also secured $5 million in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank.
The announcement follows a year of accelerated growth; the company expanded its US revenues by ten-fold as it supported digital transformation for insurance, banks, and credit unions such as Cincinnati Insurance, NJM Insurance Group, PSCU, Sompo, and Petplan. The funding will accelerate EasySend’s growth in the US and other geographic regions as well as support expansion into new verticals and product use cases.
Tal Daskal, Chief Executive Officer, EasySend: “COVID-19 led to a massive shift in the way people interact with businesses online. EasySend helps enterprises accelerate their five-year digital transformation plans in just three months, making it simple for them to offer exceptional online customer experiences. We are grateful for the support we’ve received from Oak HC/FT and our other investors and are excited to continue helping more businesses make the digital leap forward.”
Wise Systems – a leading AI-driven routing and dispatching platform provider – announced it has raised $50 million in Series C financing led by Tiger Global Management with participation from new and existing investors that include Section 32, Valo Ventures, Gradient Ventures, and Prologis Ventures.
Wise Systems’ real-time, automated system enables delivery and service operations with drivers worldwide across the last-mile industry. And the company will use the financing to further accelerate product development, market expansion across key geographies, and to address the increasing global demand for the company’s dispatching and routing solutions.
Known as a leader in AI technology for last-mile delivery operations, Wise Systems saw significant growth over the two past years, growing 300% year-over-year, experiencing increased demand for the company’s autonomous dispatch and routing technology across a number of markets. And today’s announcement comes on the heels of other significant developments for Wise Systems this year, including the availability of its platform in the SAP App Store and its launch in Japan. In July, Wise Systems announced a partnership with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC), under the umbrella of Daimler Trucks Asia (DTA), to offer the company’s AI-driven routing and dispatch software to MFTBC customers in Japan. This partnership extends Wise Systems’ reach to the commercial vehicle industry in Japan, one of the busiest last-mile markets in the world.
Cogniac, a San Jose, California-based startup developing computer vision tech for task automation, today announced that it raised $20 million in a series B1 financing round led by National Grid Partners with participation from National Grid, Autotech Ventures, Cisco Investments, Energy Innovation Capital, London Technology Club, Vanedge Capital, and Wing Venture Capital. CEO Chuck Myers says that the proceeds will be put toward the expansion of Cogniac’s workforce and the ramp-up of R&D efforts to support the company’s approach to computer vision, data storage, and “human-AI interactivity.”
Computer vision is a type of AI technology that allows machines to understand, categorize, and differentiate between images. Using photos from cameras and videos as well as deep learning components, computer vision can identify and classify objects and then react to what it “sees.”
Investments in computer vision startups are on the rise as businesses embrace automation during the pandemic, which continues to place a strain on the worldwide labor market. Despite not having passed the “awareness phase,” as per one survey, the computer vision market could grow from $10.9 billion in 2019 to $17.4 billion by 2024. External investments in computer vision startups have already far exceeded the $3.5 billion McKinsey estimated in 2016.
360Learning, a NYC- London, UK and Paris, France-based SaaS global collaborative learning company, raised $200m in growth funding.
The round, which brought total raised to over $240m, was led by Sumeru Equity Partners, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Silver Lake Waterman with participation from existing investors Bpifrance Large Venture, XAnge and Educapital.
The company will use the funding to:
Led by Nick Hernandez, founder, and CEO, 360Learning provides a platform that empowers learners to build their own skills, create courses in as few as 17 minutes and share knowledge throughout the business. The company also leverages AI to analyze data sets created from collaborative learning interactions and applies these insights to help learning communities identify what courses are missing or need to be improved, speed up course delivery, ensure learners find courses tailored to their immediate needs and keep growing through constant learning.
Wakeo, a Paris, France-based global leader in real-time visibility for overseas transport, raised $11M USD in Series A funding. Backers included 360 Capital and Promus Ventures, through its Orbital Ventures fund. The company intends to use the new to further invest in their ETA calculation models, continue to develop more added-value features, and accelerate international growth.
Led by co-founder and CEO Julien Cote, Wakeo leverages a worldwide network of hundreds of sources including shipping lines, airlines, carriers, ERP, TMS, as well as satellites, terminals, or IoT devices to provide real-time visibility for overseas transport. The platform integrates a data engine crossing those multiple data sources, powered by AI algorithms, to provide intelligent ETAs that anticipate disruptions and deliver customers’ promises.
Singapore-headquartered advanced aerial mobility company, H3 Dynamics Holdings, has completed its US$26 million Series B investment round led by Japan’s SPARX Mirai Creation Fund (backed by Toyota Motor and SMBC).
Singapore’s EDBI, ACA investors, Capital Management Group, the Grosvenor Group, Audacy Ventures, Ascent Hydrogen Fund, and French strategic investors ATEQ also joined the round.
“Our investors recognise that this is a long journey and that we must first address our immediate markets while solving key technical and regulatory challenges before adding more complexity,” said H3 Dynamics founder and CEO Taras Wankewycz.
In June 2019, e27 reported that the startup was in the process of closing a US$16 million Series B round, led by SPARX Mirai Creation Fund.
Clarisights, an SaaS marketing intelligence startup that offers reporting solutions has raised $14 Mn in a seed round led by Sequoia Capital India. Other participants in the round include OMERS Ventures and angel investors like Guillaume Cabane, Zach Coelius, Max Altschuler, Connor Murphy, Jens Lapinski.
The Clarisights platform lets companies connect marketing data to sales data that makes it easier for them to measure the performance of marketing strategies and attribute sales.
The Bengaluru and Palo Alto based startup founded in 2018 by Ankur Gupta and Arun Srinivasan. It describes its product as a data ingestion and analytics platform that enables marketers to visualise and derive insights from.
The platform has an in-browser interface that allows marketers to add sources like website analytics and digital advertising data. The backend then does necessary transformations, allowing the marketer to access the data and build interactive visualisations and dashboards.
The Mom Project, the leading platform for moms to discover their economic potential, announced today an $80 million Series C funding round led by growth investment firm Leeds Illuminate. Additional participants include existing investors 7GC, Initialized Capital, OCA Ventures, Citi, High Alpha and Grotech Ventures alongside Silicon Valley Bank.
The Series C round represents the largest global investment ever made in female workforce technology.
“It’s long past time we stop underestimating and undervaluing mothers in the workforce,” said Stephanie Nieman, Managing Director at Leeds Illuminate. “We’re investing in The Mom Project because we believe the potential for continued growth within this business is extraordinary.”
The new funds will accelerate the company’s goal to connect moms on its platform with more than $1 billion in economic opportunity in the next two years through investments in product development, distribution and team growth.
“We’ve demonstrated to the market that betting on moms is good business,” said Allison Robinson, The Mom Project founder and CEO. “We’ve seen 20x growth over the last three years and are eager to leverage this momentum and the trust and equity we’ve earned with moms and our customers and partners to continue building and expanding the reach of category-defining solutions that reshape how work evolves to meet the needs of modern families.”
The investment comes at a crucial time for moms and their families, who were some of the hardest hit during the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, 2.3 million women left the U.S. workforce—either through job loss or being forced to quit in order to care for their children—leading to the lowest levels of women in the labor force since the 1980s, prompting Vice President Kamala Harris to declare “a national emergency.”
The Mom Project has witnessed business leaders stepping up to the challenge, with companies identifying The Mom Project’s suite of hiring, upskilling and retention solutions as an effective way to solve pressing labor shortages while also addressing longer-term concerns around attrition, skill gaps and the need for greater diversity and empathy in the workplace.
Wise Systems announced it has raised $50 million in Series C financing led by Tiger Global Management with participation from new and existing investors that include Section 32, Valo Ventures, Gradient Ventures, and Prologis Ventures.
Wise Systems’ real-time, automated system powers delivery and service operations with drivers worldwide across the last-mile industry. The company will use the financing to further accelerate product development, market expansion across key geographies, and address the increasing global demand for the company’s next-generation dispatching and routing solutions.
“The last-mile industry has undergone radical transformation over the last five years, driven by a combination of technology, customer appetite, and disruptive newcomers like Wise Systems,” said Chazz Sims, CEO and co-founder of Wise Systems. “With this latest round of funding, we’re excited to invest further in our business and continue to push the boundaries of innovation and customer experience, embedding machine learning and AI in service of automation, efficiency and carbon reduction.”
A leader in AI technology for last-mile delivery operations, Wise Systems saw significant growth over the two past years, growing 300% year-over-year, experiencing increased demand for the company’s autonomous dispatch and routing technology across a number of markets. Today’s announcement comes on the heels of other significant developments for Wise Systems this year, including the availability of its platform in the SAP App Store and its launch in Japan. In July, Wise Systems announced a partnership with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC), under the umbrella of Daimler Trucks Asia (DTA), to offer the company’s AI-driven routing and dispatch software to MFTBC customers in Japan. The partnership extends Wise Systems’ reach to the commercial vehicle industry in Japan, one of the busiest last-mile markets in the world.
Zurich-based Archlet, a B2B SaaS application platform that empowers company buyers to make informed decisions in strategic sourcing, announced that it has secured $10M (approx €8.62M) in its Series A round of funding.
The fundraise comes early for Archlet, as it raised its $2.8M Seed round in January 2021. The additional capital will allow Archlet to further boost product development and to expand into new markets.
The round was led by HV Capital. Existing investors Wingman Ventures, Senovo, and La Famiglia also participated in this round. Business Angel Matthias Hilpert completed the round and said he will continue to support Archlet on its journey.
Archlet has successfully closed a $10M Series A funding round that will fuel and accelerate our growth journey even further. This round would not have been possible without the incredible team at HV Capital and the support and sparring from our existing investors. Additionally, we look forward to welcoming our new business angel, Matthias Hilpert, who will assist with strategic advice and action planning.
While the pace at Archlet is higher than ever before, we have taken a moment to reflect on our crazy journey. Since we founded Archlet two years ago, we have been on an incredibly satisfying and humbling adventure with many ups and downs, and, as a team, we have learned something valuable from every one of them. In 2021, our customer base has grown like never before, our dreams, goals, and visions have followed. It is this entrepreneurial spirit that makes the A-Team so exceptional, and we are very proud to be part of this crew.
Every day, the team works hard to get us closer to our vision of seamlessly connecting buyers and suppliers in the global supply chains. And every day, our user experience becomes better and even more intuitive. We are already well on the way, but with our additional funding, we are another step closer to offering a powerful end-to-end sourcing experience that can be used by any buyer in any organization.
3i Inc specializes in metaverse technology, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). The immersive technology company is also a member of Born2global Centre.
Ken Kim, CEO of 3i said: “The metaverse is the next-generation platform, where soon, all media flows are expected to move. Our products and solutions help enterprises and content creators leap onto the metaverse much more easily, seamlessly, and quickly than ever before, changing the way the physical world interacts with the digital world.”
This most recent round of funding included $20 million from new financial and strategic investors. The remaining $4 million came from existing investors.
“3i is a company which is growing dramatically in B2B digital twin solutions using AI and AR/VR technologies and B2C video content creation platform,” said Joo-wan Jeong, Director at SV Investment, the investment company that led the funding round.
He added: “I made this investment because I believe 3i will be able to grow into the only global player that possesses both technology and content in the integrated metaverse.”
In Q2 of this year, 11.5 million people answered this question by quitting their jobs. Next to retail, business services saw the biggest exodus of talent to freelancing, which is projected to be over half of the workforce by 2030. Today, leaving a corporate job means leaving your corporate paycheck and benefits, a risky move when only 5% of freelancers make over $100k a year. Freelance as a viable and lucrative career has been out of reach for most, but in the words of Vice President Harris: “I often say that the ability we should all have is to see what can be, unburdened by what has been.”
Today, we’re thrilled to announce Wethos’ new $8M round of funding led by Third Prime with participation from new investors Javelin, Full Circle, F7 Ventures, Clocktower, and Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, as well as continued support from Laconia, Valuestream, and many others. We’re also excited to add Wes Barton from Third Prime and Vivian Cheng from Javelin to our board alongside existing board member Dion Ridley, Engineering Leader at Netflix Studios. This fresh injection of capital follows 100x growth since we launched with just 100 studios less than a year ago. We proudly power nearly 10,000 virtual studios, which have won over $54M in projects by leveraging Wethos’ tools.
