Amazon will lose money on Whole Foods — but probably not for long

 Sometimes giving up something in the short-term can yield a big reward in the long-term. That’s the idea behind many of Amazon’s businesses, and that’s particularly true of the recent Whole Foods deal. Amazon’s purchase of the upscale Whole Foods grocery chain for $13.7 billion will go through on Monday, and already the online retailer has said prices will drop on… Read More

‘Athleisure’ brand Outdoor Voices closes $9 million in funding

 Outdoor Voices, the ‘athleisure’ brand that wants to take on Lululemon, has closed a $9 million round of funding.
The round was led by Mickey Drexler, with participation from a few strategic partners including Walter Robb (former co-CEO of Whole Foods) and OV’s lead manufacturer. As part of the deal, Drexler will take over as Executive Chairman of the Board.
Outdoor Voices… Read More

Microsatellite radar imaging startup raises $13M to launch new constellation

 Finland-based ICEYE is launching a constellation of microsatellites with the aim of helping provide a view from space where traditional imaging cannot, with images delivered within a few hours using a technology that is typically very expensive and difficult to deploy. The startup uses something called synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) to observe Earth even through clouds and in darkness, and… Read More

Twitch acquired video indexing platform ClipMine to power new discovery features

 In an announcement about a set of new discovery tools, Amazon-owned video game streaming site Twitch also unveiled that it recently acquired Palo Alto-based video indexing platform ClipMine. The startup’s technology is now being put to use to translate visual information in videos – like objects, text, logos and scenes – into metadata that can help people more easily find… Read More

Ripcord’s $40 million Series B will pay for more file digitizing robots and human jobs

 Bay Area startup Ripcord just scored a $40 million Series B, following its successful launch earlier this year. By all accounts, the company has apparently hit the ground running with its decidedly unsexy goal of using robots to digitize paper records for large corporations and organizations. According to CEO Alex Fielding, Ripcord already has a number of Fortune 100 companies on board,… Read More

Andrew Ng is raising a $150M AI Fund

 We knew that Andrew Ng had more than just a series of deep learning courses up his sleeve when he announced the first phase of his deeplearning.ai last week. It’s clear now that the turn of Ng’s three part act is a $150 million venture capital fund, first noted by PEHub, targeting AI investments. Ng, who formerly founded Google’s Brain Team and served as chief scientist at… Read More

Microsoft acquires Cycle Computing

 Microsoft today announced that it has acquired Cycle Computing, a twelve-year-old Connecticut-based company that focuses on helping enterprises orchestrate high-performance computing jobs, large data workloads and other “big computing” jobs in the cloud. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. While Microsoft plans to use the company’s expertise to improve its… Read More