Tag Archives: Startups

Credit card giant Visa is acquiring Plaid, San Francisco-based company that focuses on democratizing financial services through technology. The sum of the acquisition made up $5.3 billion, which is twice as much as Plaid’s valuation in 2018.We’re incredibly excited to share that Plaid is joining @Visa!Together, we’re looking forward to expanding our products for developers and connecting consumers with the fintech services that are making money easier for everyone. More details...

Snap Inc, the parent company of multimedia messaging app Snapchat, has acquired Ukraine-based startup AI Factory. This computer vision startup is the same company that has worked on creating Snapchat’s Cameos feature.AI Factory’s company profile shows that it provides several artificial intelligence business solutions for “image and video recognition, analysis and processing” . Thus, the Cameos feature also works on the same image and video processing technology developed by the company.The...

While it may sound like a marketing gimmick or a play on words, two founders behind blockchain startup Alchemy believe that their two-year-old startup might become the “Microsoft” of blockchain technology. In a series of serendipitous events, the founders Nikil Viswanathan and Joe Lau (who are both Stanford graduates) have been able to raise about $15 million from several investors that include billionaire Charles Schwab, Reid Hoffman who is LinkedIn’s co-founder, Stanford University and...

On December 16, Intel announced that it had acquired Habana Labs in a clear indication that it aims to venture deep into the AI chip market. Habana is an Israel-based developer of programmable AI and machine learning accelerators that are used for cloud datacenters. Analysts estimate that this deal is worth about $2 billion.Intel further stated that it will enhance its AI strategy as Habana starts sampling its proprietary silicon to customers. Last November, Habana raised $75 million in...

Now, we all know SoftBank for its “unicorn status” investment decisions and so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to many that the investment giant has participated in a Series A round of funding for Accel Robotics which is a San Diego-based startup that has been involved in the cashierless space for a bit now. The funding round also attracted other investors including Toyo Kanetsu Corporate Venture Investment Partnership, RevTech Ventures and New Ground Ventures.Accel Robotics and other...

Tribe Accelerator, that is a blockchain accelerator backed by the Singaporean government, has raised 25 million Singaporean dollars which is roughly about $16 million for startups that are presented on its platform. Sources indicate that the accelerator revealed this in a press release yesterday and that about $28 million in total has been raised so far for startups that employ blockchain technology to revolve issues that the world currently faces. The accelerator further revealed that the...

Frankfurt am Main: Gebäudekomplex der Europäischen Zentralbank Foto cc 3.0 by Epizentrum, Wikipedia Die Europäische Union investiert zunächst 100 Millionen Euro in einen Fond für Blockchain sowie künstliche Intelligenz. Mit diesem Vorhaben möchte die EU in Zukunft verhindern, dass Unternehmen von Europa nach Asien oder die USA abwandern. Der erste Einzahlungsbetrag soll der...

A San Francisco -based startup TRM Labs, which emerged from YCombinator and looks at blockchain analysis as a tool for the ensuring of compliance, has received $4.2 Million in funding from various investors that included PayPal Ventures. The big problem with compliance for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology is that most banks and financial institutions would rather not deal with the intricacies and the technological hoops which they would have to leap through before they get a clear...

Spanish bank Banco Santander SA on Monday announced it is acquiring a major stake in the British payments platform Ebury. The price of this acquisition is, according to the announcement, £350 million ($453 million).Proud to announce that @bancosantander has bought a majority stake in Ebury! ? https://t.co/3F8Zisjz1u pic.twitter.com/15GC4O05A8— Ebury (@EburyUK) November 4, 2019Santander is buying 50.1 percent of Ebury’s stake, which makes it a stakeholder having a controlling vote.  This...

In what seems like a match made in heaven retail giant Walmart and financial services company Green Dot have both decided to extend their partnership beyond the Walmart MoneyCard Program and to build an accelerator that will enable fintech startups to thrive.The retail giant disclosed this yesterday and indicated that the focus of the accelerator would be towards retail products that would in their own words “sit at the intersection of retail…shopping and consumer financial services,”.The...