Owner.com serves up $10.7M so that independent restaurants can get cooking
– Owner.com is a free online ordering, delivery and marketing platform for independent restaurants, closed $10.7 million in seed.
– The funding was led by SaaStr Fund, with participation from Redpoint Ventures and Day One Ventures, as well as a group of individual investors including Naval Ravikant, CNBC’s The Profit host Marcus Lemonis, The Kitchen Restaurant Group’s Kimbal Musk, DoNotPay founder Joshua Browder, Figma founder Dylan Field and independent restaurant owners and customers of Owner.com.
– The company provides a free online ordering, delivery and marketing platform for independent restaurants that puts them on similar playing fields with the big guys.
– It is free for restaurants and charges customers a 5% convenience fee when they order from the website.
– The company was founded by Adam Guild, a high school dropout and a Thiel Fellow.
India’s Inshorts raises $60 million following Public social network app growth
– Indian startup Inshorts raised $60m in a new financing round.
– The round was led by Vy Capital and joined by existing investors.
– The company plans to use the funds to expand its business.
Happs Raises $4.7M in Post-Seed Funding
– Happs is a Los Angeles, CA-based community-driven live video platform for independent creators.
– The company raised $4.7m in post-seed funding.
– The round, which brought total funding to date to $6.2m, was led by Bullpen Capital with participation from Crosslink, Goodwater and Corazon.
– The new investment will be used to expand operations and business reach.
Maven Acquires The Spun and Raises $20 Million in Equity
– Maven, a modern media company operating and powering premium publishers, announced that it has acquired The Spun, a fast-growing digital and social sports brand that brings what’s trending in the sports world to avid and loyal consumers.
– The addition of TheSpun.com to Maven’s lineup of sports properties, anchored by Sports Illustrated, operated under a license from Authentic Brands Group (ABG), boosts Maven’s Sports vertical readership to more than 50 million per month, according to Google Analytics.
– Concurrent with the acquisition, Maven completed a $20 million equity financing with new and existing institutional investors, including Hunt Technology Ventures and Invenire Capital.
Climavision Raises $100M in Funding
– Climavision, a Louisville, Ky.-based provider of a weather services and intelligence platform, raised $100m in funding.
– The Rise Fund made the investment.
– As part of the transaction, TPG’s Edward Beckley, Steven Mandel, and Mariana Popa, who make climate investments on behalf of the Rise platform, will join Climavision’s board of directors alongside Chris Goode and Co-Founder Colin Cookes.
Jellysmack Confirms Series C Investment from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 to Drive International Expansion
– Jellysmack has raised a Series C investment round from SoftBank Vision Fund 21.
– The investment was announced today by SoftBank Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son during their Earnings Results Briefing for FY2020.
– The funding will accelerate Jellysmack’s international expansion and acquisitive growth as well as R&D investment in its core technology.
– In connection with the investment, Yanni Pipilis, Managing Partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers, will join the Jellysmack board of directors.
– Jellysmack combines its AI-powered technology and expertise to identify social video creators and fuel their growth by optimizing video performance, uncovering new audiences, and establishing new revenue streams across multiple platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube.
Applied XL raises $1.5M to build ‘editorial algorithms’ that track real-time data
– Applied XL, a startup creating machine learning tools with what it describes as a journalistic lens, is announcing that it has raised $1.5m in seed funding.
– The company is led by CEO Francesco Marconi (previously R&D chief at The Wall Street Journal) and CTO Erin Riglin (former WSJ automation editor).
– The company started out by working on a number of different data and machine learning projects as it looked for product-market fit — but it’s now ready to focus on its first major industry, life sciences, with a product launching broadly this summer.
– The startup is compared to Bloomberg and Dow Jones, suggesting that just as those companies were able to collect and standardize financial data, Applied XL will do the same in a variety of other industries.
GeniusU Raises $1.4M in Seed Funding
– GeniusU is a Singapore based digital edtech platform.
– The company raised $1.4m in seed funding.
– The capital being raised would be used for continued global expansion and to grow the key leadership team.
Newsela Raises $100M Series D Round
– Newsela, a US-based instructional content platform for K-12 classrooms, announced today a $100m Series D investment.
– Franklin Templeton and TCV led the round, with participation by Owl Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Waycross Ventures and several others.
– Newsela takes authentic, real world content from trusted sources and makes it instruction ready for K-12 classrooms.
eFuse Raises $6M in Funding
– eFuse is a Columbus, OH-based startup operating the “LinkedIn for gamers.
– Company raised $6m in funding.
– The round was led by Ohio Innovation Fund with participation from: Seth Curry (Philadelphia 76ers, NBA), Denzel Ward (Cleveland Browns, NFL), Ezekiel Elliott (Dallas Cowboys, NFL), and Chase Winovich (New England Patriots, NFL).
– The new investment will be used to expand the platform and continue to grow its community of gamers.
