Startup Around

Phantom AI, a Burlingame, Calif.-based developer of a vehicle-agnostic autonomous driving platform, raised $22m in Series A financing .

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product development while scaling operations in Europe and Asia.

Founded in 2016 by lead engineers from Tesla’s and Hyundai’s ADAS teams and led by Hyunggi Cho, CEO, Phantom AI provides a comprehensive autonomous driving platform that featuring computer vision, sensor fusion and control capabilities.

Delivered through a modular, software-based vehicle stack, OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers can select the components they wish to integrate and customize the configuration for high flexibility.

The company is working with several automakers, a truck OEM and multiple European and Asian tier 1 suppliers. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585918809.6102233/Phantom-AI-Raises-$22M-in-Series-A-Funding?ref=audio_experience

In these brain regions, the simple act of practising mindfulness increased both brain activity and the density of brain tissue:The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is responsible for self-control.

Just as doing curls increases muscle density in your biceps, practising mindfulness increases the density of brain matter where it counts.

Mindfulness is perhaps the only technique that can change your brain in this way, which produces a ripple of other positive effects.

You don’t even need to stop doing what you’re doing to practice mindfulness.

Bringing It All TogetherNothing can improve your brain the way mindfulness meditation can. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585917005.2647524/5-Ways-You-Can-Use-Mindfulness-To-Fix-Your-Brain,-Reduce-Stress-And-Boost-Performance?ref=audio_experience

Points Technology, a Chinese blockchain and AI startup, raised a multi-million US dollar worth Series A financing.

The company will use the funds to continue to invest into R&D while opening up its offerings to more clients in financial service sectors and beyond.

Founded in 2017 by Sarah Zhang, CEO, Points Technology provides a high performance and configurable blockchain-based confidential computing framework.

The platform enables governments, financial service firms and Internet companies to jointly develop machine learning model and perform analysis without exposing the original data to each other.

Points Technology has operations in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585915212.325981/Points-Technology-Secures-Multi-Million-Dollar-Series-A-Funding-Round?ref=audio_experience

Today Lunar, the Nordic challenger bank, has extended its Series B round from August 2019 and raised €20 million in additional funding, bringing the round as a whole to €46 million.

Plus, in addition to its online banking services, Lunar also has Lunar Business catering for small business, including a complete business solution with integrations for accounting solutions, loans and much more.

This new investment was led by Seed Capital, with the additional capital including equity from Greyhound and Socii.

Ken Villum Klausen, founder and CEO of Lunar said in a comment: We are pleased to extend our latest funding round and bolster Lunar’s pan-Nordic play.

Lunar taps into the Nordic infrastructure and that will expectedly impact our future unit economics and differentiates us from horizontally expanding challenger banks. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585913407.0155518/Nordic-challenger-bank-Lunar-adds-€20-million-to-its-Series-B?ref=audio_experience

To improve communication between your sales and customer success teams:1.

Flip the script by having the sales team and customer success teams sit in on each other’s roles every quarter.

Automation may seem like something that hinders communication, but in reality, automation can open up communication between a sales and customer success team.

Is the way your sales team is positioning something causing problems for your customer success team?

When it comes to improving communication between your sales teams and customer-facing employees, there are no quick fixes. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585911611.2043788/4-Tips-for-Communication-Between-Sales-and-Customer-Success-Teams?ref=audio_experience

SportsEdTV, a Miami-based sports education media company, closed a $3m Series A funding round.

The company intends to use the funds for key new hires, new content creation and increased marketing activities.

Led by Co-Founder & Chairman Robert Mazzucchelli, SportsEdTV provides learning tools to allow athletes, coaches and parents to improve in their chosen sport.

The company provides free video and blog content and offers a global online community, where athletes, parents and coaches can interact, connect, chat, share content and find new friends.

Videos feature coaching from world-class coaches and athletes – many of whom are or have coached world-champions. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585909807.8583932/SportsEdTV-Raises-$3M-in-Series-A-Funding?ref=audio_experience

Polish startup DevSkiller, a tech hiring platform, has raised around €1 million in a bridge round from Speed Up Energy Innovation.

DevSkiller was founded in 2013 as a software house and in 2016 launched its first own product – the DevSkiller Talent Score.

The platform automatically assesses the coding skills of candidates and employees with realistic, stack-specific coding tests focused on practical skills and problem-solving.

Plus, on top of the DevSkiller Talent Score, the company also offers a talent management platform.

“We’ve started off with DevSkiller which is the technical skills assessment platform powered by RealLifeTesting”, says Jakub Kubrynski, DevSkiller CEO. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585908006.2760234/DevSkiller-snaps-up-€1-million-to-help-companies-hire-top-tech-talent?ref=audio_experience

Undoubtedly, all business establishments, irrespective of their strength and type of industry, have been already affected greatly by the coronavirus pandemic.

Measures companies should undertake to minimise the business risk/ employment problem:Effective communication strategiesCompanies should make it mandatory to provide strict guidelines on all available platforms, whether through posters, blogs, IG stories, etc.

Strong business contingency planImplementing flexible business hours and work-from-home arrangements will safeguard the business and health of the employees.

Strong, clear coordination should be maintained routinely between state and local health officials and business representatives until the situation improves.

Undeniably, the entire industry, primarily the manufacturing industry and the informal sector—comprising daily wage workers, migrant labourers, domestic help—are among the worst affected areas. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585906206.25317/Impact-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-on-business-and-industry?ref=audio_experience

InnovationThe Covid-19 has already resulted into early signs of a shift in how consumers and businesses behave.

Some of these changes are direct, short-term responses to the crises which will revert to regular levels once Covid-19 is contained.

Some of the innovations which are likely to come are discussed below.

Grocery E-commerceBefore coronavirus crisis, though there was a good demand for online shopping but surprisingly there was a tiny demand for grocery e-commerce.

As the reliability of customers on online retailing is speeding up, there is going to be demand for online grocery shopping even after coronavirus is contained. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585904406.6747165/What-New-Innovations-will-Come-after-COVID-19-Pandemic??ref=audio_experience

India's recorded music industry combined with TV, radio and films is currently estimated to be worth INR 8,660 CrLatest figures show that over 200 Mn consumers in India listen to music on online streaming servicesThe biggest challenge remains monetisation as Indian audiences are habituated to having ads with music | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585902711.2054856/Mapping-The-Market:-India’s-Online-Music-Streaming-Landscape?ref=audio_experience