StrictlyVC: December 1, 2017

Hi, all, greetings from beautiful Berlin! We’re here for TechCrunch’s newest Disrupt event, coming up Monday and Tuesday, from which we’ll shoot you anything/everything noteworthy.

 

We’re running out the door for dinner here, but we’ll have more for you Monday. Hope you have a terrific weekend.:)

 

 

Top News

 

BlackBerry has just been ordered to pay Nokia $137 million by an international court in a payment dispute, though the Canadian company says it will continue to pursue a separate claim over patent infringement. Reuters has more here.

 

 

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New Fundings

 

Graphic India, a four-year-old, Bangalore, India-based new media startup trying to build a comics empire, has raised $5 million in new funding from earlier backers Start Media and Backflip Studios’ co-founder Julian Farrior, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

 

H2O.ai, a five-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based artificial intelligence company that says it’s trying to democratize the technology, has raised $40 million in Series C funding co-led by Wells Fargo and NVIDIA, with participation from New York LifeCrane Venture PartnersNexus Venture PartnersTransamerica Ventures and Aegon Group. TechCrunch has more here.

 

Mojo.io, a Vancouver-based startup whose hardware and software system that acts as a WiFi hotspot for vehicle passengers and can also remotely identify a vehicle’s location, detect if it has been in an accident, and alert drivers about mechanical problems, has raised $30 million in funding led by Toronto’s Kensington Capital. Other participants in the round include Trend Forward Capital, German electric-car power supplier Innogy Ventures and earlier investors Amazon Alexa Fund,BDC CapitalDeutsche Telecom Capital Partners and Relay Ventures. The Globe and Mail has more here.

 

NanoCellect Biomedical, an eight-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based developer of microfluidic cell sorting technologies for cell-based assays, has raised $10 million in Series B financing, inclding from Illumina VenturesAnzu PartnersVertical Venture Partners5 Prime VenturesFusionX Ventures and Agilent TechnologiesMore here.

 

ReversingLabs, a nine-year-old, Boston-based provider of real-time file analysis and classification tools, has raised $25 million in Series A funding co-led by Trident Capital Cybersecurity and JPMorgan ChaseMore here.

 

 

People

 

Diane Bryant is permanently leaving her position at Intel after spending her entire 32-year career there to become Google Cloud’s new COO. Bryant was most recently the head of Intel’s Data Center Group. Business Insider has more here.

 

Vine founder Dom Hofmann says he’s working on — and self-funding — a follow-up to Vine. The popular service, acquired by Twitter in 2012, was shut down last year. He tweeted out the news yesterday.

 

Pinterest’s longtime president and top business exec, Tim Kendall, is leaving to launch a startup aimed at curbing tech device addiction. Kendall had joined Pinterest in 2010 from Facebook, where was the company’s director of monetization. Recode has more here.

 

Silicon Valley investor Shervin Pishevar, who was arrest in London in May (then released) following a rape allegation, is now being accused of sexual misconduct by a handful of women who’ve shared their stories with Bloomberg.

 

Following a volatile few months as a publicly traded company, the meal-kit outfit Blue Apron announced yesterday that CFO Brad Dickerson will replace co-founderMatt Salzberg as CEO. Salzberg will become executive chairman. TechCrunch hasmore here.

 

The couple behind the embattled Tezos cryptocurrency tech project wants the Swiss-based Tezos Foundation to cover their costs for lawsuits accusing them of fraud related to an online fundraiser it ran. Reuters has more here.

 

Randi Zuckerberg, a sister of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, publicly complained this week about being repeatedly harassed by a male passenger on her recent flight to Mexico; now a prominent flight attendants’ union is calling the issue a “silent epidemic” that airlines have failed to solve, says Bloomberg.

 

 

Jobs

 

GE Ventures, is looking to hire a senior associate to add to its growth equity team. The job is in San Ramon, Ca.

 

 

Essential Reads

 

Bitcoin is headed to Wall Street, whether regulators are ready or not.

 

Google has a long history of interoffice romance by top execs, a history it’s reckoning with now, reports The Information.

 

Uber’s Indian rival Ola has just begun offering a bicycle-sharing service, too.

 

 

Detours

 

On-demand soup.

 

Signs that you are a Gen-Xer going through menopause.

 

The mock neck shirt is back (but you don’t have to buy one!).

 

 

Retail Therapy

 

seat belt for dogs.

 


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