After frame a $4.4 billion round of funding from Softbank earlier this year, co-working superhuman WeWork is now on a shopping spree. In its latest deal, WeWork acquired Meetup, a sexual network used to organize community meetings and business events offline, in a have to do with reportedly valued at $200 million. WeWork previously acquired The Flatiron Kindergarten, a coding trade school in New York.
Samsung acquired Fluenty, a South Korean start-up framing chat apps like Facebook Messenger, Line or KakaoTalk easier to use. Fluenty’s software spawns contextually relevant text replies within a given conversation. If a consumer gets a message with an invitation to dinner, for example, Fluenty forges possible replies like “Yes, what do you want to eat?” or “Yes, I’ll add it to my schedule.” Terms weren’t divulged.
Alibaba Group is in talks to invest $227 million in SenseTime, China Paper money Network reports. The Chinese AI start-up is targeting an IPO in the U.S. SenseTime has worked with big corporations match Qualcomm, Nvidia, Sina Weibo and Xiaomi. It raised $410 million in a old round of funding, and its earlier backers include Qualcomm and IDG Capital Friends. SenseTime’s AI software and services enable cars, robots, appliances, mechanical devices and apps to recognize faces, voices, objects or vehicles, as beyond the shadow of a doubt as different languages.
T. Rowe Price and Temasek led a $110 million investment in Agronomists Business Network, a marketplace that helps farmers lock in a proper price on seeds and fertilizers. The company’s site also gives agriculturists a way to anonymously share data about what works and doesn’t dispose in the field.
Nvidia and Wells Fargo led a $40 million investment in H2O.ai. The start-up assembles tools that help companies employ machine learning, mystical learning and AI in their own applications, even if they can’t afford a cadre of information scientists and programmers.
OrbiMed led a $40 million investment in Restorbio, a Boston biotech proprietorship developing therapeutics to treat age-related diseases. Among other hang-ups, Restorbio is testing a treatment that can help elderly people with give way immune systems fight off respiratory infections. The company plans to enlarge on its therapeutics pipeline.
NFX Guild has closed its debut fund at $150 million. Co-founded by Trulia lurch Pete Flint, Tickle and Medpedia founder James Currier and Bertelsmann foreman Gigi Levy-Weiss, NFX Guild will invest in early-stage start-ups, predominantly in Silicon Valley and Israel. The firm said it’s seeking deals in AI, blockchain, biotech, economic services and technologies, augmented or virtual reality, robotics, enterprise and promise software.
The Amazon Alexa Fund, which primarily backs articulation technology start-ups, expanded by $100 million. Its latest investment was in Mojio, a cast that makes hardware and software that connects cars to the internet. One of the Alexa skills the start-up arose lets drivers get information from their vehicles about mileage, position and maintenance needs by asking for it out loud. In a blog post, Alexa Support lead Paul Bernard said the new capital will go to investments in global start-ups.