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Google cloud, teams up with SpaceX’s starlink, for enterprise connectivity at networks edge. Starlink’s entire aim, is to provide reliable, broadband-quality connections to areas that have typically been hard or impossible to reach, with legacy ground-based network infrastructure, including cellular networks. The tie-up with Google means, that not only will business and public sector customers taking advantage of that new network, but also to cloud-based infrastructure and applications, including AI and machine learning capabilities, analytics, and more. Google and Starlink expect to become available to enterprise customers soon.

Risk defense startup, SpecTrust, raises a $4.3 million seed investment. The funding round was led by Cyber Mentor Fund. Using its platform, the firm states that an organization’s risk team, can review and investigate everything a customer doe,s from its first page view to its last click with unified behavior, identity, history, and risk data. SpecTrust aims to fix the economics of fighting fraud with a no-code platform, that will potentially cut 90% of a business’ risk infrastructure spend.

Worksome, raises $13 million in Series A funding round, for its freelance talent platform. The platform connects freelancers looking for professional roles, with employers needing tools to find and manage freelancer talent. Worksome has 550 active clients, and over 30,000 freelancers in its marketplace. Its largest customers are found in the creative industries, tech and IT, pharma, and consumer goods. And its biggest markets are the U.K., and U.S.

Agnostiq Inc., a quantum computing SaaS start-up, has raised $2 million in seed funding . The funding will be used to support the continued development of its software platform. The financing was led by Differential Ventures. The company previously raised $830,000 in pre-Seed funding.

Tata Consultation Services, launches a cloud-based Intelligent Subscription solution, leveraging SAP Business Technology Platform, to help the media and publishing industry, transform customer experience and shift to subscription-based, order-to-cash processes for physical, and digital content. The solution enables greater cross selling, or up selling to consumers, resulting in enhanced revenue growth.

Cloud-based authorization start-up, Authomize, raises $16 million in series A. The funding was led by Innovation Endeavours. This brings the start-up’s total raise, to $22 million to date. The capital will be used to support Authomize’s R and D, and hiring efforts this year, as expansion ramps up.

Data security and governance start-up, Cyral, raises $26 million. Cyral monitors activity across popular databases, pipelines, and data warehouses. This brings its total raise to $41.1 million. The company plans to put the funds toward expanding its platform, and global workforce.

Code security start-up, BluBracket, raises $12 million in a series A. The platform can monitor real-time risk scores across codebases, Git configurations, infrastructure as code, code copies, detecting passwords, and over 50 different types of tokens, keys, and IDs. The round was led by Evolution Equity Partners. The capital will be used to further develop BluBracket’s products, and grow its sales team.

Container observability start-up, Sosivio, raises $4 million in seed.  The round was led by Seamans Holdings. Sosivio’s platform, provides visibility into cloud-native environments, as well as proactive failure prediction, automated resolution, and contextual analysis of signals. The proceeds will be used to support product launches, and allow the company to scale over the next few years.

Treasury Prime, a banking-as-a-service startup that delivers its product via APIs, raises $20 million in  Series B. Deciens Capital, and QED Investors co-led the round. The firm plans to use the funds to invest, aggressively in its business.The capital comes in at around a year, since the startup announced its Series A. Treasury Prime was valued at just over $40 million at the time of its Series A, and current valuation has not been disclosed yet.

Amazon Web Services, announces it’s release of AWS SaaS Boost, as open source, distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. The tool is designed to help companies transform their on-prem software, into cloud-based software as a service.The goal of AWS SaaS Boost, is to foster an open environment for developing, and sharing reusable code, that accelerates the ability to deliver and operate, multi-tenant SaaS solutions on AWS. This announcement comes just a couple of weeks, after the company open-sourced its Deep Racer device software, which runs its machine-learning fuelled, mini race cars.

Healthcare SaaS provider, Dr. First, raises an additional $50 million equity investment from Sixth Street Growth, following the firm’s $35 million investment from last year. The company provides a range of software solutions for stakeholders, across the healthcare spectrum.The investment from Six Street Growth, will go towards continuing its business growth. Dr. First’s tools are used by nearly 300,000 healthcare professionals, today.

Singapore-based fintech firm, Aleta Planet, announces a joint venture, called AP Studios , with SaaS solution startup, Fooyo. The joint venture will offer digital marketing, and ecommerce solutions for the Singaporean businesses, preparing to target Chinese tourists, once Covid-19 travel restrictions are lifted. AP Studios will develop digital tools to enable merchants in Singapore, to cater to Chinese tourists and business travelers who visit the city-state annually.The new business is looking to develop tools such as payment checkout webpages, chatbots, WeChat and Alipay mini programs, crowd-control monitoring solutions, and interactive tourism apps. 

SuperOps dot A.I., a professional services automation, and remote monitoring and management  platform, raises $3 million in seed funding. The funding round was  led by Elevation Capital, and Matrix Partners India. SuperOps dot A.I.’s platform, is tailored to cater to various segments of the MSP market, and intends to build a truly unified PSA, RMM solution powered by intelligent automation.

VisibleRisk, a joint venture between Moody’s Investors Service, and the VC firm Team8, raises $25 million for its cyber risk evaluation platform. VisibleRisk offers real-time monitoring, custom reporting, and analysis, as well as transparency into the variables that determine a cyber rating. VisibleRisk claims that its cyber ratings are based on cyber risk quantification, which allows companies to benchmark their risks, against those of peers. The funding will be used to expand the company’s workforce.

Big Time Studios, raises $21 million to bring non fungible tokens to the biggest game economies.The Los Angeles company, was started by CEO Ari Meilich, and game designer Thor Alexander. The funding comes in two parts.The first $10.3 million in a round led by FBG Capital, And Big Time Studios is in the process of closing an $11 million fund, that it will use to invest in game companies, that adopt its technology. Big Time Studios’ team includes alumni of Epic Games, Riot Games, Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, and Decentraland. 

SaaS-maker Birdie, raises $11.5 million in Series A round of funding, led by Index Ventures. The UK-based caretech startup, has raised a total of $22.9M. The firm is focused on building tools for social care providers, to drive efficiencies in a chronically under resourced sector.To date, Birdie has partnered with almost 500 providers across the U.K., and currently its platform is being used to support the care of more than 20,000 older people, every week.

SightCall raises $42M, for its AR-based visual assistance platform. The core of its service is AR technology, which comes embedded in their apps, or the service apps its customers use. SightCall’s range of verticals includes insurance, telecoms, transportation, telehealth, manufacturing, utilities, and life science and medical devices. The funding is being led by InfraVia, an European private equity firm. The valuation of this round is not being disclosed. SightCall’s Series B marks the largest funding round yet, in this sector.

Munich-based parcelLab, which offers a final-mile fulfillment service for online retailers, raises  $112 million in Series C. The funding round was led by the U.S. VC firm, Insight Partners. The new funding will be used for parcelLab’s global expansion plans, and new product development. ParcelLab’s main competitor is U.S.-based Narvar, which has raised $64 million, with its last round being a Series C funding.

SaaS platform Locobuzz, raises Rs 9Cr in pre-Series A, from SIDBI Venture. Locobuzz helps clients streamline their customer experience processes, leading them to create long-lasting relationships with their customers, and position themselves as thought leaders in their domain.The SaaS startup will utilise the funds, to enhance its platform's technological capabilities, scale up its team across functions, and marketing and sales efforts. Their business verticals range from BFSI, telecom, automobile, retail, FMCG, ecommerce, and more.

Redwood Software raises $379M, for enterprise process automation. The funds will be put towards accelerating product development, as it looks to grow its customer base. Founded in 1993, Netherlands-based Redwood aims to orchestrate, and automate business processes across hybrid IT environments. The company claims it serves over 3,000 enterprise customers, in over 150 countries.

Cold-chain startup Celcius, raises seed round from Eaglewings Ventures. The firm is focused on building a technology-driven solution, to the problems of the conventional cold-chain network in India. According to the firm, there has been an increase in demand for cold chain solutions in the country, in the wake of the pandemic. The COVID-19 vaccine requirement is heavily dependent on a robust, and seamless cold-chain network, for effective distribution.

Ahmedabad-based App-it-simple, better known for its digitalproducts CallHippo, and SoftwareSuggest,  invests $200,000 in Enthu dot A I. Ankit Dudhwewala, Founder of App-it-simple, has also invested in his personal capacity. Enthu dot A  is an agent evaluation, and performance management software, that helps contact centers improve the quality of their customer conversations. The funding will help Enthu dot A I, accelerate its engineering and sales efforts, and move a step forward towards its vision of enabling contact centres, to deliver better customer outcomes.

Social enterprise startup, Haqdarshak, raises Rs 6.65 Cr in pre-Series A round. Haqdarshak ensures citizens at the last mile, get access to government, and private welfare schemes and services. This is done through a mobile and web SaaS platform for corporate partners, complemented by a training platform, used by community women entrepreneurs. Haqdarshak recently launched its app, on the Google Play Store. The funds will be used for hiring quality talent in execution and tech teams, and strengthening the current monitoring and evaluation process. It will also use the funds to launch, and expand vaccination plus health insurance coverage-focused services, at the last mile with a digital push, and invest in plug-and-play tech tools.

Bengaluru-based telemedicine, and mobile health startup, Practo, is looking to raise about Rs 60 crore in debt funding, from Trifecta Venture Debt Fund - II, in six tranches. According to the MCA filings, Practo has already received the first tranche, amounting to Rs 15 crore. The company last raised $32 million in August 2020, in a round led by A1A Company. This development comes at a time, when the company recently announced its ‘Corporate Suraksha’, a corporate vaccination programme, for companies across India

Bengaluru-based telemedicine, and mobile health startup, Practo, is looking to raise about Rs 60 crore in debt funding, from Trifecta Venture Debt Fund - II, in six tranches. According to the MCA filings, Practo has already received the first tranche, amounting to Rs 15 crore. The company last raised $32 million in August 2020, in a round led by A1A Company. This development comes at a time, when the company recently announced its ‘Corporate Suraksha’, a corporate vaccination programme, for companies across India

Deeptech AI start-up, thingsTHINKING, has raised €4.5 million in a funding round led by Early-bird and a number of angel investors. The company’s propriety tool ‘Semantha’, offers textual processing by providing out-of-the-box functionality, bypassing the dreaded training phase for AI-based applications. Earlybird co-founder, Dr. Hendrik Brandis said, “With semantha, domain experts can finally educate an AI system as if it were a co-worker, using just a few and simple examples”. The current funding allows would help them grow their technological advantage, and market faster, while supporting their  international partners.

Google LLC, collaborates with CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., to deliver half a dozen of their cybersecurity tools, to make it easier for IT teams to spot malware. CrowdStrike’s flagship product is a platform called Falcon, that companies use to protect systems such as servers, and employee devices. The platform can now send security information, from a company’s environment to Google’s cloud-based Chronicle, an analytics platform. Chronicle can store and analyzing petabytes of security data at once. Google and CrowdStrike’s collaboration focuses on securing public cloud environments. According to the companies, they will work together, to make it easier to set up Falcon, inside Google Cloud virtual machines.

Data-logics, Inc., a source for Adobe PDF, and enterprise document management technologies, announces the launch of Data-logics Cloud, a suite of cloud-based PDF processing products, which includes a free app on Zapier, and a robust API on Amazon Web Services. This exciting next-generation move for the company, provides Data logics users with the same enterprise-grade capabilities to create, edit and convert PDFs. Based in Chicago, IL, they support hundreds of customers worldwide, who are using document management technology in diverse applications. With the addition of these new cloud offerings, that customer base will be able to become even more expansive.

Leading digital workflow company, Service now, announced it has signed an agreement to acquire next-generation observability leader, Light step. Acquisition will help ServiceNow customers accelerate digital transformation with insight-driven, action-oriented workflows. ServiceNow is already a recognized market leader in IT service management, IT operations management, and digital workflows. With Lightstep, an emerging pioneer in next-generation application monitoring and observability, ServiceNow will help DevOps engineers build, deploy, run, and monitor state-of-the-art, cloud-native applications.

Infor, the industry cloud company, today announced that Norgesmøllene A.S., part of Cernova, the Norway-based flour milling and industrial group, has deployed Infor Cloud Suite Food & Beverage, to support its digital transformation process. Infor CloudSuite Food & Beverage, which also incorporates Eye Share, to manage the workflow of inbound supplier invoices, is expected to streamline processes, and boost visibility for Norgesmøllene A.S. 

Clubhouse, finally launches its Android app. The voice-based social network, launched its beta Android app on Play Store for users in the U.S., and said it will gradually make the new app available in other English-speaking countries, and then to the rest of the world. Clubhouse began developing the Android app early this year, and started to test the beta version externally - earlier this month. Clubhouse’s launch on Android comes at a time when scores of technology giants including Facebook, Twitter, Discord, Spotify, Reddit, and Microsoft’s LinkedIn, have either launched their similar offerings, or announced plans to do so.

Commonwealth Bank is partnering with global e commerce platform provider, Big Commerce. The bank says that, this move will make it easier for businesses of all sizes, to launch and grow their online stores. Big Commerce, one of the world’s largest SaaS e commerce platforms, helps businesses to build their online store, market to customers, and drive sales through various channels such as Instagram, Facebook and eBay. The partnership will provide the bank’s business customers with an integrated offering that allows them to establish and grow their online presence, and ensure a best in class online shopping experience for their customers.

UAE - based Crescent Enterprises, announced doubling its venture capital investments in start-ups, to $272 million by 2022. Founded in 2017, CE-Ventures has already invested over $136 million in 32 start-ups and VC funds across ME and A, the US, India and Southeast Asia. CE-Ventures plans to focus investments in the fin-tech, food-tech, B2B SaaS, and energy technology sectors. CE-Ventures extends its support beyond funding, by helping international start-ups expand into the ME and A region, and likewise helps local start-ups expand into global markets. 

U.S. pipeline company halts operations after cyber-attack. Colonial Pipeline did not say what was demanded or by whom, but ransomware attacks are typically carried out by criminal hackers, who seize data and demand a large payment, in order to release it. The attack on a pipeline operator, which says it delivers roughly 45% of all fuel consumed on the East Coast of the USA, underscored again the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure to cyber attacks both by criminal hackers and U.S. adversaries. The attack on a pipeline operator, which says it delivers roughly 45% of all fuel consumed on the East Coast, underscored again the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure to cyber attacks both by criminal hackers and U.S. adversaries. The company said it hired a cyber-security firm to investigate the nature and scope of the attack and has also contacted law enforcement and federal agencies. 

France-based Shift Technology, a SaaS provider, of AI-enhanced decision automation and optimization solutions for the insurance sector, raises $220 million in Series D funding round. Shift Technology‘s latest investment round, brings total investment in the company, to $320 million along with a market valuation, of over $1 billion. This investment reportedly marks Advent’s sixth growth equity investment in 2021. Shift’s round was led by Advent International, via Advent Tech, along with contributions from Avenir, and other investors. With this latest funding, Shift said it would use the capital to expand its business operations into the US, Europe, and Asia as well. The funds raised by Shift Technology, will also be used to support research and development work, in the implementation of new solutions, to cater to innovative decision automation and optimization needs, for insurers.

Corporate finance software provider, Bill dot com LLC has signed a $2.5 billion deal, to acquire Divvy-Pay Inc., better known as Divvy, whose cloud service enables companies to issue business credit cards to their employees. Publicly traded Bill dot com said on Thursday, that it’s financing the transaction with $625 million in cash, and $1.875 billion worth of common stock. For Bill dot com, the rationale behind the acquisition is that it will allow businesses to make their finance operations more centralized. Bill dot com  provides a single pane of glass for paying suppliers and sending invoices that, with the addition of Divvy’s technology, will also enable businesses to manage corporate credit cards, in the same place.

Neu-Reality, an Israeli AI start-up that's developing high performance AI compute platforms for cloud data centres and edge nodes, has unveiled NR1-P, a new AI-centric inference platform. NR1-P is NeuReality’s first implementation of this new AI-centric architecture, with other implementations to follow. This prototype platform validates the technology, and allows customers to integrate it in orchestrated data centres, and other facilities. The prototype platform aims to accelerate the growth of real-life AI applications, such as public safety, e-commerce, social networks, medical use-cases, digital assistants, recommendation systems and Natural Language Processing.

Comforte AG, a global leader in enterprise data security, has announced a new partnership with the UK-based data security consultancy firm, Rakatu. Modern enterprises both large and small, must look beyond traditional perimeter security and encryption, to keep sensitive data safe. Rakatu and comforte, will enable more organizations to leverage cloud technologies, while keeping sensitive data safe.
 

Houston SaaS startup, Molecule, closes its $12M series A funding round, with support from a local VC, Mercury Fund. The company has a cloud-based energy trading, and risk management solution for the energy industry, and supports power, natural gas, crude or refined products, chemicals, agricultural commodities, softs, metals, cryptocurrencies, and more. The company will use its new funds to further build out its product, as well as introduce offerings to manage renewable credits, according to the release.

Enterprise security firm Aurion-pro Solutions, is set to sell its cybersecurity business to Austin-based software company,y Forcepoint LLC, for $9.6 million. Aurion-pro said, cash proceeds from the deal will help its plan to become “debt-free”, sometime after the second quarter this year. The deal will also help its balance sheet to significantly improve KPIs, in the coming quarters. 

Timescale grabs $40M Series B, as it goes all in on cloud version of time series database. Redpoint Ventures led the round, with help from existing investors Benchmark, New Enterprise Associates, Icon Ventures and Two Sigma Ventures. The company reports that, it has now raised approximately $70 million. Timescale is based in New York City, but it’s a truly remote organization, with 60 employees spread across 20 countries and every continent, except Antarctica.

Kahoot acquires Clever, the US-based ed-tech portal, for up to $500M. The plan will be to continue growing Clever’s business in the U.S., which currently employs 175 people, as well as give it a lever for expanding globally, alongside Kahoot’s wider stable of ed-tech software and services. The deal is a combination of cash and shares, and gives Clever an enterprise value of between $435 million and $500 million.

SoftBank leads $15 Million round for China’s industrial robot maker, You-i-bot. Youibot, has raised over 200 million yuan to date. Youibot plans to spend the fresh proceeds, on research and development in its mobile robots and proprietary software, team building, and market expansion. 

ReCharge, a provider of subscription management software for e-commerce, raises $227 million in a Series B growth round, at a $2.1 billion valuation. Summit Partners, ICONIQ Growth, and Bain Capital Ventures led the funding. ReCharge, plans to use its fresh capital to accelerate hiring in both R-and-D, and go-to-market functions such as sales, marketing, and customer success. The start-up now has 15,000 customers, and 20 million subscribers across 180 countries on its platform.

Upstream Works, Announces Amazon Connect Cloud Contact Centre Solutions, for Enterprises. Upstream Works Software Ltd., a provider of Omnichannel Contact Centre solutions, debuts Upstream Works for Amazon Connect, now on the AWS Marketplace. UWA offers cloud contact centre solutions, that are optimized for enterprises, and enable contact centres to personalize engagements, and increase efficiency with a scalable, and cost-effective platform. 

Text Blaze, which was a part of the recent Winter 2021 Y Combinator accelerator, raises $3.3 million in seed round. The company’s investment was led by Two Sigma Ventures, and Susa Ventures. With it’s new funding , they are planning to expand it’s staff from four, to ten. Text Blaze’s speed-writing automation service has a freemium model, and a consumer paid offering that costs just $2.99 monthly.

Cymulate raises $45 Million in Series C, to test and improve cybersecurity defenses via attack simulations. The funding was led by London-based One Peak Partners. Cymulate, lets organizations and their partners, run machine-based attack simulations on their networks to determine vulnerabilities, and automatically receive guidance on how to fix what is not working. Co-headquartered in Israel and New York, the firm will be using to continue investing in its platform, and to ramp up its operations. Cymulate doubled its revenues last year, on the back of a customer list, that now upwards of 300 large enterprises and mid-market companies, including the Euronext stock exchange network, as well as service providers such as NTT and Telit.

Rainforest raises seed funding of $36 million led by Nordstar, with participation from Insignia Venture Partners. This includes equity financing of $6.5 million, and a $30 million debt facility, from an undisclosed American debt fund. Rainforest’s portfolio currently includes three brands, which it acquired for about $1 million each. The company wants to wait until its portfolio is larger, before disclosing what brands it owns.

FPT Corporation, Vietnam’s largest technology and IT services group, has acquired SaaS startup, ‘Base.vn’, for an undisclosed sum. The deal was announced at an event held in Ho Chi Minh City today. FPT’s offer came at a time that Base.vn was trying to raise a new funding round. The SaaS firm says that its client base includes more than 5,000 Vietnamese corporations, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises.

Obviously.AI Raises $3.6 Million From TMV, B Capital Group, Arka Venture Labs, Golden Gate Ventures, and other VCs. With this round of funding, the platform is  reshaping how the modern business user works with Artificial Intelligence.Obviously. AI will use the funding to grow the company’s Research and Development, introduce time series, and other new-age algorithms, expand its sales and marketing team, and build an ecosystem that can further automate the predictive AI capabilities.

Software firm, ‘SUSE’  seeks valuation of nearly $7 billion in IPO. Enterprise software company SUSE, set the price range for its initial public offering in Frankfurt, at 29 to 34 euros per share on Wednesday, implying a market capitalisation of between 4.9 and 5.7 billion euros. SUSE, whose open-source software helps run applications on cloud servers, mainframe computers, and devices at the edges of networks, said it was seeking to raise around 1 billion euros from investors.

B2B retail SaaS platform ‘6 Degree’ raises $1M from SucSEED Indovation Fund, and other angel investors as a part of series A. 6 Degree is a fashion network, with over 15,000 professionals, and home to over 4,000 fashion designers. The startup has long-standing partnerships with over 100 multi-brand stores, and leading fashion platforms, including Lakme Fashion Week, and The Fashion Design Council of India. 6 Degree will use the funds, to ramp up operations for its flagship product. Honeycomb, a B2B retail SaaS platform, catering to the fashion and lifestyle sector. 6 Degree claims to be on track to grow another 5X this year, enabling over 3,000 brands to scale with it.

Acronis raises $250 Million, at a $2.5 Billion valuation, to double down on cyber protection services. The funding was led by CVC. Integrating with a range of popular enterprise software packages, Acronis now have over 10,000 managed service providers, and 500,000 businesses using their services. The funding will be used on engineers, and M and A, to complement their cyber protection services. The company is also focussing on its next steps, which could involve a public listing, or a sale in the next 12 to 24 months.

HoneyBook, a client experience and financial management platform, for service-based small businesses and freelancers, raises $155 million in a Series D round, led by Durable Capital Partners LP. With the latest round, HoneyBook has now raised $248 million since its inception in 2013. The company plans to use its new capital toward continued product development, and to boost its 103-person headcount, across its San Francisco and Tel Aviv offices.

Thentia, a global leader in GovTech Software-as-a-Service, raises $10 million in Series B investment, led by New York City-based Spring Mountain Capital, with participation from BDC Capital. Thentia was developed by subject matter experts, with a mission to transform GovTech through best-in-class technological capabilities. Thentia will use this equity financing to accelerate its go-to-market strategy, and grow its position across the U.S., as the industry-leading SaaS platform for the government technology sector.

IoT platform ‘Thingsup’, raises $100,000 from GSF Accelerator. Launched in 2020, Thingsup is a low-code, SaaS-based platform that comes with ready to use, wireless IoT sensors, and enables businesses to digitalise their entire supply chain operations, within a few days, instead of months. The Parent company iobot stated that, the investment will be used to cater to the demand for digitalising cold chain logistics, the market for which, is rapidly expanding due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.