Kustomer, the customer service messaging and management platform, has agreed to be acquired by Facebook. While the terms of the transaction were not disclosed, it has been widely reported that the transaction value is $1B.
Tech
Levels Raises $12M for its Biowearable Device that Monitors Glucose in Real Time
Forget about wearing your Apple Watch to track your health. Levels is the biowearable that provides real-time feedback on how your diet and activities directly impact your health. Through continuous glucose monitoring, which has traditionally been reserved for those with diabetes, the company is on a mission to address the rising rates of metabolic dysfunction in the US by monitoring the effects of your food choices. Levels currently has a waitlist of 44,000 people. AlleyWatch caught up with founders Casey Means MD Josh Clemente, Sam Corcos, David Flinner and Andrew Conner to discuss the importance of metabolic health, the company’s plans to expand the team across engineering, operations, and marketing, and recent funding round from investors that include A16z, Marc Randolph, Dick Costolo, Michael Arrington, and Matt Dellavedova.
Kinetic Raises Another $11.25M to Protect Industrial Workers with its Patented Wearable Device
Industrial companies are constantly seeking new ways to keep their workforces safe and KINETIC has been one of the key solutions. The company’s patented wearable device, Reflex, detects unsafe postures and provides real-time alerts to employees whenever they are engaging in high-risk motions. The company’s dashboard layers software so that managers and safety personnel can have a bird’s eye view into safety and incident data; now address workplace issues with a data-driven approach. AlleyWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Haytham Elhawary to learn about KINETIC’s technology is keeping workforces globally safe, how warehouses are able to leverage the platform, and the company’s recent funding round from investors that include Crosslink Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Nationwide Ventures, Prologis Ventures, and Ubiquity Ventures.
The Next Stage in the Financial Revolution: AR and VR Solutions
The next step in the financial evolution has welcomed the applications of immersive Augmented and virtual realities. AR and VR can transform traditional banking and financial services into staggering, visual experiences by developing a personalized, face-to-face virtual environment.
Conducto Raises $3M for its CI/CD Toolkit to Power Workflow Automation
Conducto is one of the newest tools that’s being used by engineers to automate workflows and simplify complex CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery) and data pipelines. Conducto’s pipeline toolkit allows engineers to define their pipeline in Python instead of a configuration language, is easy to visualize as a pipeline scale with more tasks with the use of a tree structure, and is also easy to debug. For companies, adopting CI/CD enables them to reduce costs, innovate faster, experiment more, and improve the quality, security, and deployment of their software. The company’s technology is battle-tested as it was used by hundreds of traders at the cofounders’ previous company. AlleyWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Jonathan Marcus to learn about the technology, the company’s launch, and recent funding round.
Flick Raises $5M for Sports Fans to Chat and Discuss Games in Real Time
Sports are meant to bring fans together but the pandemic has made our love of sports more isolating with fans now forced to turn to technology platforms to share their passion. Flick, founded by the founders of Fanduel, is the mobile chat and engagement platform built exclusively for sports fans. AlleyWatch caught up with Cofounder, CEO, and repeat entrepreneur Nigel Eccles to learn how his experience cofounding FanDuel inspired him to build Flick, the company’s experience raising virtually during the pandemic, and recent funding round from investors that include AlleyCorp, Bullpen Capital, Everblue Management, Amity Ventures, and Courtside Ventures
Augury Raises Another $55M for Its Predictive Maintenance Platform for Industrial Machinery
We often forget to listen more and talk less when dealing with problems. The same happens to be true for industrial machinery. Augury is the predictive maintenance platform that “listens to machines” to detect what is wrong using IoT sensors to understand acoustic signals to troubleshoot. Augury has compiled the largest library of machine fault data and uses this data to train its AI model. The company is on pace to triple its contracted revenue this year AlleyWatch caught up with Cofounder and CEO Saar Yoskovitz to learn more about Augury’s platform, impressive, growth in this trillion-dollar industry, and latest funding from investors that include Qumra Capital, Insight Venture Partners, Eclipse Ventures, Munich Re Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and Lerer Hippeau.
ButterflyMX Raises $35M for its Smart Video Intercom System That Provides Building Access and Security with Ease
“That’s when the lightbulb went off in my head. This was the era of the iPhone 4, where you could already stream YouTube, and Apple had just launched FaceTime so I knew you could stream video to a mobile app, I should be able to open the building door from my smartphone too!” ButterflyMX Founder Cyrus Claffey shares more about how the company’s smart intercom system is already being used in nearly half a million apartments in five short years, the effect of the pandemic on the popularity of its offering, and the company’s recent funding round from investors that include Volition Capital, Egis Capital, RiverPark Ventures, and Stifel Financial Corporation.
Air Raises $12M as Demand for Visual Storytelling Shows No Signs of Slowing Down
In today’s content-driven world, businesses continue to rely more on visual storytelling than ever before. Remote work has only accelerated this. Air is the cloud collaboration tool for creative minds that fundamentally changes the way teams approach visual work, making collaboration easier, and eliminating the need to move assets to and from the cloud. CEO and Cofounder Shane Hegde discusses the evolution of Air, product roadmap, and more on the experience of raising a round via Zoom meetings. Backers in this latest round (Series A) include Tiger Global, Lerer Hippeau, Slack Fund, WndrCo, Red Sea Ventures, and Advancit Capital.
nTopology Raises $40M to be the Design Software of Choice for Engineers Working with 3D
Additive manufacturing has disrupted the entire manufacturing process paving the way for the rapid adoption of 3D printing to create stronger, lighter, more complex parts and systems. nTopology is the first engineering design software built natively for this shift. CEO Bradley Rothenberg offers some insight into how manufacturing has changed as a result of 3D printing, how the company raised 33% more than its target in less than weeks (all during the pandemic) from notable investors that include Insight Partners Root, Canaan, DCVC, and Haystack, and much, much more…
Stack Overflow Raises $85M to Boost its SaaS Offering for Teams to Collaborate and Share Sensitive Company Knowledge
The go-to resource for software engineers, Stack Overflow has served as the information exchange for anything coding related since 2008. The company is now increasing its focus on its SaaS offering – Stack Overflow for Teams, a collaboration platform and repository for sensitive company information. The overnight shift to remote work has fueled the growth of this product. CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar shares some details on the impressive traction, the company’s future plans, and recent funding round from investors that include GIC, Silver Lake Waterman, Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Spark Capital, and Union Square Ventures.