Synthesia’s AI video generation platform hooks $12.5 million Series A led by FirstMark

by Jordan Crook - April 20, 20210

As AI gets stronger, the possibilities of what we can do with it grow exponentially (for better or worse). Synthesia, an AI video generation platform, is looking to make video content creation as simple and efficient as possible, and FirstMark is taking a bet on it. The company has just announced

Sales scheduling platform Chili Piper raises $33M Series B funding led by Tiger Global

by Mike Butcher - April 15, 20210

Chili Piper, which has a sophisticated SaaS appointment scheduling platform for sales teams, has raised a $33 million B round led by Tiger Global. Existing investors Base10 Partners and Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI-focused VC) also participated. This brings the company’s total financing to $54 million. The company will use the

Cado Security locks in $10M for its cloud-native digital forensics platform

by Ingrid Lunden - April 15, 20210

As computing systems become increasingly bigger and more complex, forensics have become an increasingly important part of how organizations can better secure them. As the recent Solar Winds breach has shown, it’s not always just a matter of being able to identify data loss, or prevent hackers from coming in

No-code publishing platform Shorthand raises $8M

by Anthony Ha - April 10, 20210

Shorthand, the Australian startup behind a no-code platform that allows publishers and brands to create multimedia stories, has raised $10 million Australian (just under $8 million U.S.) from Fortitude Investment Partners. CEO Ricky Robinson told me via email that this is Shorthand’s first institutional round of funding, and that the company

Messaging platform Gupshup raises $100 million at $1.4 billion valuation

by Manish Singh - April 8, 20210

A startup that began its journey in India 15 years ago, helping businesses reach and engage with users through texts said on Thursday it has attained the unicorn status and is also profitable. San Francisco-headquartered Gupshup has raised $100 million in its Series F financing round from Tiger Global Management, which

Butter is building an ‘all-in-one’ platform to run virtual workshops

by Steve O'Hear - April 8, 20210

Butter, a startup registered in Denmark but operating fully remote, is building an “all-in-one” platform for planning and running virtual workshops. Offering video software and other features dedicated to workshopping, the idea is to pull people away from using more generic tools, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, which, arguably, aren’t

India’s Spinny raises $65 million to expand its online platform for selling used cars

by Manish Singh - April 8, 20210

Hundreds of thousands of used cars are sold in India each month. But buying one through the offline and traditional channel could prove to be a painstakingly long and high-risk process. A Gurgaon-based startup that is attempting to improve this experience said on Thursday it has raised a new financing round. Spinny

Twitch expands its rules against hate and abuse to include behavior off the platform

by Taylor Hatmaker - April 7, 20210

Twitch will start holding its streamers to a higher standard. The company just expanded its hate and harassment policy, specifying more kinds of bad behavior that break its rules and could result in a ban from the streaming service. The news comes as Twitch continues to grapple with reports of abusive

Hiro Capital puts $2.3M into team sports tracking platform PlayerData — as does Sir Terry Leahy

by Mike Butcher - April 7, 20210

Hiro Capital has gradually been making a name for itself as an investor in the area know as ‘Digital Sports’ or DSports for shorts. It’s now led a $2.3m funding round in PlayerData. While the round might sound small, the area it’s going into is large and growing. Also investing

Esri brings its flagship ArcGIS platform to Kubernetes

by Frederic Lardinois - April 6, 20210

Esri, the geographic information system (GIS), mapping and spatial analytics company, is hosting its (virtual) developer summit today. Unsurprisingly, it is making a couple of major announcements at the event that range from a new design system and improved JavaScript APIs to support for running ArcGIS Enterprise in containers on