- ID tech: Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) acquired ID verification startup Confirm.io for undisclosed terms. The team and tech will fold into Facebook.
- The three-year-old company provided an API that let companies quickly verify the authenticity of a government-issued identification card.
- Confirm.io raised at least $4M since its launch.
- CAR-T developer: Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) and Lilly Asia Ventures (NYSE:LLY) were among the investors in a $100M Series A round for Tmunity. Other investors included Ping An Ventures, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Be the Match BioTherapies, and Penn Medicine. Tmunity has now raised $110M in funding.
- Tmunity develops novel products using the immunological potential of T-cells to fight cancer. The company has two solid tumor pipeline projects in early clinical development: one CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor T-cells) program and one TCR (T-cell receptor) program.
- Competition: Novartis (NYSE:NVS) has the FDA-approved CAR-T treatment Kymriah for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and Kite Pharma (now owned by Gilead) received approval for Yescarta for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Celgene (NASDAQ:CELG) just acquired the rest of CAR-T developer Juno Therapeutics (NASDAQ:JUNO).
- Linear generator: American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP) participated in an $83M Series C round in linear generator manufacturer EtaGen. The round brings EtaGen up to $133M in funding.
- Fellow strategic investors Centrica (LON:CNA) Innovations, Statoil (OL:STL) Energy Ventures, KCK Group, Louis M. Bacon, joined AEP. Existing investors include Bill Gates and Kholsa Ventures.
- Commercial drone: Intel Capital (NASDAQ:INTC) , Comcast Ventures (NASDAQ:CMCSA), Verizon Ventures (NYSE:VZ), and Syngenta Ventures (NYSE:SYT) were among the participants in a $75M Series D round for commercial drone company PrecisionHawk. The round brought the total funding up to $104M and was led by Third Point Ventures.
- PrecisionHawk was founded in 2010 and provides drones and associated software and services so that companies can use unmanned aerial vehicles.
- The startup says it has clients in 150 countries in industries including agriculture, insurance, energy, and construction.
- Competition: Other drone startups include Kespry ($61.4M total funding), DroneDeploy ($31M), Iris Automation ($10M), and Prenav ($6.5M).
- Outlook competitor: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Outlook competitor Front raised a $66M Series B round led by Sequoia and DFJ. Total funding now stands at $79M. As part of the investment, Sequoia’s Bryan Schreier will join the Front board.
- Front has 2.5K companies using its shared inboxes and other communication channels including text messages, live chat, and Twitter. Front has dozens of integrations with third-party services.
- Front processed over 350M emails and messages last year and half of its DAUs don’t open Gmail or Outlook at all, which has inspired Front to work on developing a client for single users that still have a share option.
- The startup has enough cash for the job with the CTO claiming a nine-year-long runway.
- Meal subscription: Blue Apron (NYSE:APRN) competitor Sun Basket received a $57.8M funding round that included a $42.8M Series D round led by August Capital and a $15M debt segment from Trinity Capital Investment. Total funding now tops $100M.
- Sun Basket stands apart for offering organic, healthy meals with options for specialized diets like paleo and gluten-free with plans to add vegan, Mediterranean, and pescatarian options.
- VentureBeat reported that Sun Basket hit a $275M revenue run rate this month with net revenue up 280% on the year.
- AR camera app: SoftBank (OTCPK:SFTBY, OTCPK:SFTBF) and Sequoia Capital China invested $50M in AR camera app developer Snow China, which is owned by Naver Corporation (OTCPK:NHNCF).
- Snow will use the investment to build on its AR tech and spread out further geographically beyond the current markets of Korea, Japan, and China.
- Snow’s Snapchat-like (NYSE:SNAP) products include the B612 and Foodie apps, which include picture filters and stickers. The company launched in 2015 and now has more than 100M subscribers.
- Previously: AWS buys security startup with NSA roots (Jan. 24)
- Previously: SoftBank fund leads $865M round in construction startup (Jan. 24)
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