Good morning! Below are the top tech startups news for today, Monday, February 10, 2020.
iPhone manufacturing in China is in jeopardy amid coronavirus outbreak. Coronavirus continues to spread around the globe. In addition to taking over 900 casualities, the virus is also taking toll on businesses that depend on Chinese labor.The ripple effect of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China continues this week, leaving iPhone production in the region in limbo. Apple supplier Foxconn was approved to resume production in Zhengzhou, a key manufacturing plant in the region, Reuters reported Sunday citing an unnamed source with direct knowledge. So far only 10% of the workforce, about 16,000 people, have returned, the source told Reuters, adding requests to reopen a plant in Shenzhen were not approved.
Iora Health Closes $126 Million Series F Funding Round. Boston-based Iora Health, an innovative primary care provider network with a mission to restore humanity to healthcare, today announced an investment of $126 Million as part of their latest funding round. India-based Premji Invest, the billion dollar investment group of Wipro Ltd chairman Azim Premji, led the funding round and was joined by existing investors Cox Enterprises, Temasek F-Prime Capital, Devonshire Investors, .406 Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, Polaris Partners, and Khosla Ventures. Iora Health was founded to transform healthcare. With a two-year compound annual growth rate of over 70%, the company has 48 practices across the U.S. serving thousands of Medicare beneficiaries. Iora’s focus on longitudinal relationships with patients and Medicare plans via value-based care partnerships encourages connections.
Google abandons plan to buy stakes in Africa’s largest wind farm. Danish wind turbine maker Vestas announced that Google has canceled plans to buy a 12.5% stake in Africa’s largest wind farm after delays to the project.The wind farm in Kenya was initially set for completion 2017, after which Google had committed to buy the stake from Vestas. But the delay led to Google canceling in 2019, Vestas said. Lake Turkana wind farm (LTWP), located in Kenya, is the single biggest operating wind farm in Africa. The wind farm provides 310MW of reliable, low cost energy to Kenya’s national grid. The LTWP consortium comprises of KP&P Africa B.V and Aldwych International as co-developers, Investment Fund for Developing Countries, Vestas Eastern Africa Limited, Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd, KLP Norfund Investments AS and Sandpiper.
Datawarehouse startup Snowflake raises massive $479 million in funding at $12.4 billion valuation. Snowflake, the San Mateo, Calif.-based data warehousing cloud service provider Snowflake Computing, today announced $479 million in additional growth funding co-led by new investors, Dragoneer Investment Group and Salesforce Ventures. Existing Snowflake investors, including Altimeter Capital, ICONIQ Capital, Madrona Venture Group, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia, and Sutter Hill Ventures, are also participating in the round. This funding round raises Snowflake’s post-money valuation to over $12.4 billion. Just two years, the company was valued at $1.5 billion when it raised a whopping $263 million this January 2018. Founded in 2012 by Benoit Dageville, Marcin Zukowski, Thierry Cruanes, Snowflake Computing is the only data warehouse built for the cloud.
EmployStream nabs $7M Series B funding for onboarding automation software for the staffing industry. EmployStream, a provider of onboarding automation to the staffing industry, announced the close of its $7 million Series B funding round led by Plymouth Growth Partners, with support from several key investors including JumpStart, Rev1 Ventures, Ohio Innovation Fund and North Coast Angel Fund. EmployStream will use the capital to expand product development, increase its footprint in the staffing industry and drive innovation of ideas inspired by its rapidly growing customer base. Founded in 2014 by Rob Sable, the Cleveland, Ohio-based EmployStream is a hiring workflow automation software platform for staffing companies and other high-volume employers.
Europe’s A/O PropTech VC launches with €250M to invest in startups disrupting real estate and tackle climate change. A/O PropTech, Europe’s largest property technology venture capital firm, announced its official launch with €250 million capital to invest in startups disrupting real estate. PropTech backs and supports companies from late-stage seed to IPO. We’re comfortable with the rough imperfection of a new venture. It enables founders to create, iterate and scale disruptive tech-enabled products and platforms. Founded last year by Gregory Dewerpe, the London-based A/O Proptech A/O PropTech invests permanent capital in supporting entrepreneurs and companies shaping the future of real estate, across all segments of the ecosystem, from series A to IPO.
