Startup Monday #24: Latest tech trends and news happening in the global startup ecosystem

Startups / Founders / Venture Capital / Israel

Startups in the USA

CommonGround, a startup developing technology for what its founders describe as “4D collaboration,” has raised $19 million in funding. This isn’t the first time founders Amir Bassan-Eskenazi and Ran Oz have launched a startup together — they also founded video networking company BigBand Networks, which won two technology-related Emmy Awards, went public in 2007 and was acquired by Arris Group in 2011. Read more

San Diego-based ClickUp, which makes productivity software for businesses including tools for remote work, has raised $100 million in a second round of venture capital funding. Read more

According to LinkedIn’s latest ranking of the top start-ups these are the 25 hottest US start-ups that are creating the most buzz among job seekers. The professional networking site analyzed activity from over 645 million members to create the ranking, which evaluates factors like interest in the company, employment growth, engagement with employees, job interest and ability to attract talent from LinkedIn Top Companies. Read more

Venture Capitals

Madrona Venture Group has raised more than $500 million in fresh capital that the 25-year-old Seattle venture capital firm will use to bankroll both early and later-stage startups. It marks the firm’s largest fundraising effort. The new funds reflect Madrona’s continued bet on the growing Pacific Northwest tech ecosystem, as well as the fruits of returns from investments in companies such as Accolade, Redfin, Snowflake, Heptio, Xnor.ai, Lattice Data, and a flurry of others. Read more

The top 10 VC and PE deals of 2020. Read more

Pegasus Tech Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based global venture capital firm has invested in Modal’s $15M Series A round. Modal provides e-commerce to the world’s leading automotive dealers and brands, integrating directly into a dealership’s website as an embedded feature that enables users to complete the entire transaction cycle. Modal’s platform has not only created accessibility to digital transactions, but also is building the ultimate ‘multimodal’ channel to introduce an entire ownership operating system. This additional investment was through one of Pegasus’ Venture Capital-as-a-Service (VCaaS) funds. Read more

Hashed Ventures, the South Korea-based blockchain firm, has raised $120 million for a fund that will be focused on the new era of distributed networks. Read more

MedTech

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) predicts that by 2032, the U.S. will see a shortage of approximately 122,000 physicians. And with the burnout in medical professionals as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, that estimate could already be too low. Read more

San Jose, Calif.-based MedTech Corinth that develops the FDA-cleared Veloxion system for treating symptoms related to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), has received 5 million venture loan from Horizon Technology Finance Corporation. Corinth said it will use the $5 million in proceeds collected from Farmington, Conn.-based Horizon’s loan for general working capital purposes. Read more

3 MedTech Growth Stocks With Solid Prospects for 2021. Read more

Biotechnology

The global red biotechnology market size surpassed at US$ 320.76 billion in 2019 and expected to reach US$ 510 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 6.13% during period 2020 to 2027, according to Precedence Research Report. Read more

A biotechnology company Revance Therapeutics will relocate its global headquarters from Silicon Valley to Nashville. As part of the relocation, the governor said the biotechnology company will invest more than $10 million and create nearly 150 jobs over the next five years. Those jobs are in addition to the company’s more than 450 employees currently working in its California offices and throughout the rest of the country. Read more

Startups in Europe

€37.9bn of VC funding raised, 21 IPOs, 15 new unicorns, 1,933 seed rounds and 181 VC funds raised later, 2020 is almost over for Europe. Here is the key data and information on startup ecosystem and tech trends in Europe in 2020: Read more

Cellugy, the Danish-based biotech startup replacing single-use plastics with 100% natural bio-cellulose, announces the securement of €2.38 million in seed round funding from the European Innovation Council Accelerator Pilot Phase 2. The company, which was founded in 2018 has been developing a biomaterial to sustainably replace fossil-based plastic in the packaging industry. The world produces approximately 360 million tons of plastic every year, and almost 40% is single-use. Read more

Seares, an innovative Tuscan startup active in the nautical accessories sector, with its intelligent mooring systems has conquered investors obtaining a seed investment of €400K, which will allow it to support its industrial plan. Founded in 2018, the startup aims to revolutionize the mooring of boats and floating structures. Read More

Startups in Israel

At least three Israeli blockchain startups have recently announced the completion of major funding rounds: Unbound Tech, Celsius, and Fireblocks. Blockchain payments infrastructure startup Simplex has also announced the launch of its latest products, solutions that enable crypto exchanges and wallets to simplify the buying and selling of crypto assets. Read more

Israeli agrotech startup Pigmentum, which develops genetic based technology to enhance natural flavor and color in plants, announced that it has secured a $1 million investment from Israeli Foodtech incubator FreshStart. According to FreshStart, the agrotech company also received an invitation to join the incubator program that is backed by Israeli food industry giants, Tnuva and Tempo, as well as VC funders, OurCrowd and Finistere Ventures. Read more

The pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Merck and Teva , in conjunction with the Biotech Fund and Amazon Web Services , will build a Laboratory for Digital Health and Computational Biology in Israel announced The Innovation Authority and Israel’s National Digital Ministry. The budget for the computer lab is 10 million dollars and planned for the next five years. Read more

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