It’s Last Week In Venture, back from a short break with another run-down of deals that may have flown under your radar this week.

Plenty of ventures are operating outside the unicorn and public company spotlight, but their stories are still worth sharing.

Clothing and accessories manufacturing and retail results in stuff that’s sold, but also lots of stuff that’s not, or can’t be bought.

LA-based Camino Financial is a lender specializing in servicing small businesses started and led by Latinx people.

Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg, Imagination Capital, Streamlined Ventures, XFactor Ventures, and others participated in the deal. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1576276210.2692406/Last-Week-In-Venture:-Refreshed-Threads,-Floating-Ideas,-And-Lending-To-Latinx-Businesses?ref=audio_experience

As the holiday slowdown looms, the final U.S.-listed technology IPOs have come in and begun to trade.

Doing the best we can, here’s how they compare:EHang was worth around $680 million at its IPO price.

The company’s final private valuation (likely set during its $42 million Series B) is unknown.

Bill.com was valued at around $1.6 billion in its IPO, comfortably above its final private valuation of $1.0 billion.

So EHang priced low and its IPO is hard to vet, as we’re guessing at its final private worth. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1576274407.976659/Grading-the-final-tech-IPOs-of-2019-–-TechCrunch?ref=audio_experience

Founded in 2012, Nomiku became a plucky Silicon Valley darling by bringing affordable sous vide cooking to home kitchens.

The company scored a glowing TechCrunch profile the following year, as well, thanks in part to a great backstory.

“The total climate for food tech is different than it used to be,” Lisa Fetterman said in a call to TechCrunch.

“There was a time when food tech and hardware were much more hot and viable.

In 2015, the startup joined Y Combinator and launched a cooking app called Tender, featuring recipes from prominent chefs. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1576272815.3670068/Consumer-sous-vide-startup-Nomiku-is-winding-down-operations-–-TechCrunch?ref=audio_experience

Contxto – Despite economic obstacles, the Argentine beef industry is maintaining positive numbers.

As part of this, BitCow is one of the first blockchain-powered tools in the region for investors to tap into this age-old economic sector.

“Also, to get in line with the regulations of the comptroller bodies.”According to him, BitCow is a digital token using “real assets,” meaning cows.

In 2018, Argentina ranked sixth internationally for beef exports with 507,000 tons and 5 percent of the market share.

Nonetheless, today’s beef industry doesn’t compare to Argentina’s former golden days in the early 1900s. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1576270814.6927946/New-BitCow-blockchain-effort-offers-“digital-cow”-assets-in-Argentine-beef-industry?ref=audio_experience

The world’s largest AI research conference is underway in Vancouver, Canada.

With industry, governments, and academia investing billions, machine learning is red hot right now.

In other words, growth in the AI field will likely continue to drive the growth of NeurIPS.

The organizers of the biggest machine learning research conference of the year have to deal with the challenges that growth brings, but that’s a nice problem to have.

For AI coverage, send news tips to Khari Johnson and Kyle Wiggers and AI editor Seth Colaner — and be sure to subscribe to the AI Weekly newsletter and bookmark our AI Channel. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1576269113.0363991/AI-Weekly:-NeurIPS-proves-machine-learning-at-scale-is-hard?ref=audio_experience

The startup had previously received an investment of US$1.3 million in October 2018 in a round led by the Pacific Alliance’s Fund which is under the management of Angel Ventures.

I got you (an apartment), HomieIn Mexico, renting a home, much like buying one, is a daunting task.

When the proptech identifies a potential candidate, it will arrange an appointment for them to see the property.

If still, everything keeps running smoothly, the property owner, leaser, and Homie sit down and sign the agreement.

Related article: Latin America’s promising future for proptechHomie’s proptech offerings may mesh well with the Millennial and Gen Z market. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1576267310.2767105/Mexican-proptech-Homie-closes-investment-round-led-by-Sam-Zell?ref=audio_experience

November 2019 in Eastern Europe: Sberbank expands its empire, Baring Vostok cancels new fund, IT firms merge in Belarus and UkraineCrunchbase and East-West Digital News are teaming up to cover key tech and venture trends from Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union.

This monthly column by EWDN chief editor Adrien Henni highlights the most notable industry facts and trends from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as well as promising tech innovations.

Digital giants on the headlinesWitnessing the rapid transformation of the Russian digital scene, Sberbank, Mail.ru Group, and Yandex made the news again last month.

Besides, Sberbank announced last month the commercial launch of “Russia’s fastest supercomputer,” scheduled for mid-December.

This Moscow-based venture fund acquired a minority stake in Megapteka in a bid to enter the promising Russian online pharmacy market. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1576265406.8367703/November-2019-in-Eastern-Europe?ref=audio_experience

Bengaluru-based video-first experience discovery platform Trell has raised $2 Mn (INR 14.8 Cr) in Pre-Series A round led by Ruizheng Investment at $19 Mn valuation.

Prior to this funding, Trell has raised $1.25 Mn from Beenext and WEH Ventures in July last year.

Additionally, users explore Trell to discover experiences through other people with similar interests, preferences, and personality type.

In the short video app segment, TikTok, with more than 200 Mn users, is clearly dominating the Indian market.

Recently, short-video sharing app VMate has received $100Mn from Alibaba to increase its foothold in the Indian market. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1576263606.4661682/Sequoia-Surge-Startup-Trell-Raises-$2-Mn-Pre-Series-A?ref=audio_experience

Today we’re taking stock of a cohort of special companies: still-private startups that have reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).

Reaching $100 million in ARR, however, still stands out.

We explored the idea earlier this week, citing Asana, Druva and WalkMe as private companies that recently reached $100 million ARR.

The $100 million ARR club’s newest membersEgnyte: Reached $100M ARR in November 2019Egnyte, a player in the enterprise productivity, storage and security spaces, has kept growing since its $75 million Series E it raised last October.

Reaching $100 million ARR on that level of funding means that Egnyte has run efficiently as a business. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1576260015.8418796/The-newest-members-of-the-$100M-ARR-club-–-TechCrunch?ref=audio_experience

Serena Williams and Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd have backed business community platform Alice.

On Thursday (12 December), Alice, a platform that guides business owners through the growth of their company, announced two interesting new investors.

The first of the new backers is the popular dating app, Bumble, while the second is Serena Ventures, the VC fund founded by professional tennis player Serena Williams.

They set up Alice, a platform that uses machine learning to help business owners by matching them to personalised opportunities and resources.

Serena Williams said: “Alice helps connect business owners to resources important for their individual industry growth. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1576258209.2819717/Serena-Williams-and-Bumble-among-Series-A-investors-in-Alice?ref=audio_experience