Agrihive – this week’s spotlight, received funding to deliver Farmecco, to capture and streamline financial components of farmers’ businesses digitally and generate real-time reporting of costs and revenues. Over 70,000 beef farmers are expected to benefit from the initiative. $600 thousand in seed funding from Australia’s Department of Agriculture and Meat & Livestock Australia. Based in Australia.
Ceres – captures, processes, and delivers high-resolution spectral imagery-as-a-service for agriculture. $5 million in Series A to total $8 million to date. Based in Oakland, California in the U.S.
Cornershop – an on-demand grocery delivery service focused on Latin America markets in Chile and Mexico, has raised $21 million in Series B to now total $30.2 mllion from 13 investors. Based in San Francisco, California in the U.S.
Devicare – develops remote-monitoring devices for patients with chronic illnesses. It plans to use the funding to launch clinical trials for Lit-Control, a sensor-enabled sample cup used to measure urinary pH and Tao-Control, to help patients take oral anticoagulants. €3 million in seed funding. Based in Barcelona, Spain.
Go-Jek – Uber-rival and Indonesian motorbike ride-hail service, has raised $1.2 billion in new funding led by Tencent at a $3 billion valuation. In March, Uber notably scrubbed a non-compete deal with the Go-Jek. Based in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Intrinsic Therapeutics – is developing therapies to treat disc herniations in the spine for discectomy patients. It is also developing spinal implants to treat the causes of sciatica and low back pain. $49 million in new venture capital and debt financing. Based in Woburn, Massachussetts in the U.S.
Kreditech – is developing credit ranking and finance products for the unbanked and underbanked. Its competition includes Experian-partner Lenddo and San Francisco-based LendUp. €110 million in new equity funding. Based in Hamburg, Germany.
Lantern Pharma – develops drugs for novel targeted cancer therapeutics. $3.7 million in Series A funding. Based in Dallas, Texas in the U.S.
Soylent – food replacement product-maker and advocate of meatless, non-dairy food food alternative from sustainable sources, has raised $50 million in new VC funding. The young firm has recently been subjected to a barrage of controversies: algae-caused illnesses and product recalls. Based in Los Angeles, California in the U.S.
Vivet Therapeutics – develops gene therapies, or experimental techniques that use genes to treat or prevent diseases, that are delivered with synthetic adeno-associated viruses for rare, inherited metabolic diseases. €37.5 million in Series A funding. Based in Paris, France.
Taranis – aims to make a dent in the $300 billion a year product losses due to pest and crop disease. It aims to build a precision agriculture intelligence platform that identifies, predicts and prevent crop diseases. $7.5 million in Series A funding. Based in Israel.
Territory – the prepared food delivery service which targets customers in gyms and other healthy living outlets with its calorie-controlled meals, has raised $6.7 million in Series A funding. Based in Washington D.C.
Other Relevant News of Interest
Following Macron’s successful bid for the French presidency, investors are betting less on U.S. stock markets in favor of those of Europe’s.
Ford’s CEO is under the spotlight now as Tesla’s market capitalization has exceeded Ford’s.
500 Startups is targeting nearly $22 million for a seed fund focused on Canada and up to $10 million for another seed fund focused on Vietnam.
New California bill would make it easier to sell home-cooked food.
Hampton Creek terminates senior managers, after it couldn’t raise more than $7 million towards its $150 million goal. The company is notable for its vegan egg-less mayo spread.
The average American household would be willing to spend $3,500 on partial and $4,900 on fully autonomous car technology, according to a study.
Among the six top areas that artificial intelligence or AI is expected to impact include healthcare and clean energy.
Microsoft announced a smartwatch called “Emma” for people with Parkinson’s disease. Announced during its 2017 Build Developer Conference this week, the watch’s motors “create vibrations to counter a Parkinson’s patient’s tremors, effectively stabilizing them.” The brilliant device was conceived by Haiyan Zhang, Innovation Director at Microsoft Cambridge. More than 10 million people in the world suffer today from Parkinson’s.
Sources: Crunchbase, TechCrunch, MobiHealth News, AgFunder
