Volvo Cars plans to use technology from Luminar, a developer of automotive lidar hardware and software technology, in its upcoming all electric next generation SUV. The announcement was made at last week’s CES event in Las Vegas and also marked the North American debut of the automaker’s Concept Recharge, a manifesto for Volvo Cars’ future, […]
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Pediatric Mental Health Company Little Otter Lands $22 Million
SAN FRANCISCO – Little Otter, a digital mental health company to provide tools and treatment for both children and their families, has closed a $22 million Series A funding round. The round was oversubscribed and led by CRV, with participation from Torch Capital, Vast Ventures, Hinsdale, Boxgroup, _Able, Carrie Penner Walton, G9, Springbank Collective, along […]
Doordash CEO Joins Facebook Board of Directors
Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, announced that Tony Xu [photo], co-founder and CEO of DoorDash, Inc., has been elected to the company’s board of directors, effective immediately. DoorDash is the nation’s leading food delivery service with over 3 million drivers — also known as dashers — picking up and delivering from restaurants, convenience […]
Venture Investment in Health Care Sets Record in 2021
SANTA CLARA – Venture investment in healthcare reached new heights in 2021, with more than $80 billion invested in biopharma, medical device, diagnostics/tools (dx/tools) and healthtech companies, according to Silicon Valley Bank’s annual Healthcare Investments and Exits Report. The more than 30% increase over 2020’s record is punctuated by a banner first half of the year. “Venture […]
Red Cross Declares National Blood Crisis
The American Red Cross says it is facing a national blood crisis due to the Omicron variant – its worst blood shortage in over a decade, posing a concerning risk to patient care. Amid this crisis, doctors have been forced to make difficult decisions about who receives blood transfusions and who will need to wait until […]
Bank of America to Reduce Overdraft Fees
Bank of America announced significant changes to its overdraft services, including plans to eliminate non-sufficient funds (NSF) fees beginning in February, and to reduce overdraft fees from $35 to $10 beginning in May. The company will also eliminate the transfer fee associated with its Balance Connect for overdraft protection service in May. These and earlier changes over […]
Take-Two Makes Things Go Right With Zynga
NEW YORK & SAN FRANCISCO — Gaming company Take-Two Interactive of New York has agreed to acquire San Francisco-based Zynga in an out of sight cash and stock deal valued at $9.86 per Zynga share, with a total deal value of approximately $12.7 billion. Zynga stockholders will receive $3.50 in cash and $6.36 in shares […]
Magna, UT Named Best City for First-Time Home Buyers
SANTA CLARA — Realtor.com has compiled its first ever list of Best Markets for First-Time Homebuyers, a report which predicts the cities and towns with the best combination of quality of life and affordability that young homebuyers are looking for. What is it that makes these markets great for first-time homebuyers? They have strong job markets, short […]
New Mobileye Chip to Allow for Autonomous Driving
Mobileye has introduced the EyeQ Ultra at CES in Las Vegas, the company’s most advanced, highest performing system-on-chip (SoC) purpose-built for autonomous driving. EyeQ Ultra maximizes both effectiveness and efficiency at only 176 TOPS, making it the industry’s leanest autonomous vehicle (AV) chip. This efficiently designed SoC builds on seven generations of proven EyeQ architecture […]
WEKA Scores $73 Million Led by Hitachi Ventures
CAMPBELL — WEKA, the data platform for AI, announced that Hitachi Ventures led its recent round raising $73 million in funding, which brings the total amount raised to $140 million. Other investors participating in this round were strategic investors, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NVIDIA, Micron, and Digital Alpha, and financial investors including MoreTech Ventures, Ibex […]
Softbank Vision Fund Leads $110 Million Round in Labelbox
SAN FRANCISCO — Labelbox, a training data platform for enterprise machine learning applications, has closed a $110 million Series D funding led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2. Snowpoint Ventures and Databricks Ventures also participated along with previous investors B Capital Group, Andreessen Horowitz and Catherine Wood, CEO and founder of ARK Invest. To date, Labelbox […]
KFC to Launch Plant-Based Fried Chicken
Are you ready for plant-based fried chicken? Kentucky Fried Chicken and Beyond Meat are kicking off the new year with the debut of Beyond Fried Chicken. Beginning Monday, January 10, KFC restaurants across the U.S. will offer Beyond Fried Chicken for a limited time, while supplies last. The plant-based Beyond Fried Chicken was developed by […]