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On the heels of Deliveroo raising more than $2 billion ahead of its debut on the London Stock Exchange this week, another hopeful in the food delivery sector has closed a super-sized round. Glovo , a startup out of Spain with 10 million users that delivers restaurant take-out, groceries and other items in partnership with brick-and-mortar businesses, has picked up a Series F of $528 million (€450 million). Glovo aims to become the market leader in the 20 markets in Europe where it is live today, in part by expanding its “q-commerce” service — the delivery of items to urban consumers in 30 minutes or less — and it will be using the money to double down on that strategy. This is a milestone funding round not just for the company, but its home country: it marks the largest-ever round raised by a Spanish startup. “We started in Spain, where you have access to far less capital than other countries in Europe. We do more with less and that’s made us leaner,” said Sacha Michaud, the co-fo

Before you can improve a workflow, you have to understand how work advances through a business, which is more complex than you might imagine inside a large enterprise. That’s where Celonis comes in. It uses software to identify how work moves through an organization and suggests more efficient ways of getting the same work done, also known as process mining Today, the company announced a significant partnership with IBM where IBM Global Services will train 10,000 consultants worldwide on Celonis. The deal gives Celonis, a company with around 1200 employees access to the massive selling and consulting unit, while IBM gets a deep understanding of a piece of technology that is at the front end of the workflow automation trend . Miguel Milano, chief revenue officer at Celonis says that digitizing processes has been a trend for several years. It has sped up due to COVID, and it’s partly why the two companies have decided to work together. “Intelligent workflows, or more broadly spoken w

Debby Wu / Bloomberg : TSMC says it plans to spend $100B over the next three years to expand its chip fabrication capacity   —  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plans to spend $100 billion over the next three years to expand its chip fabrication capacity, the company said Thursday. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3sG0ygP

JP Mangalindan / TechCrunch : Tonal, which makes a smart home strength training workout system, raises $250M Series E at a $1.6B valuation; Tonal's sales rose 800% from Dec. 2019-Dec. 2020   —  When the pandemic unfolded last year, demand for at-home fitness equipment skyrocketed, and Tonal was no exception. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/39u3xkU

Tim Hardwick / MacRumors : Microsoft has officially discontinued its Cortana mobile app for both iOS and Android   —  As expected, Microsoft today discontinued its Cortana mobile app.  As a result, the company has ended all support for third-party Cortana skills and eliminated the Cortana app for iOS and Android devices. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3cEGo0O

Nandita Bose / Reuters : During an address, President Biden said Amazon uses “various loopholes” to avoid paying any federal income taxes, but says he doesn't want to “punish” them   —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Wednesday singled out Amazon.com Inc for not paying federal taxes during … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/31ygCoK

Bloomberg : Sources: draft Biden executive order would require companies doing business with the federal government to report hacks of their networks within a few days   —  - Biden using cyber crisis to mandate tighter security practices  — Order would require basic security practices for U.S. agencies from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3ucp1KK

John Tozzi / Bloomberg : BrightInsight, which helps drug/device makers build apps for patients and doctors, raises $101M Series C led by General Catalyst, source says at $750M valuation   —  - Startup builds digital tools for drugmakers, medical devices  — Investors have put $26 billion into digital health ventures from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3rytPIV

Kaya VC’s new €72 million ($80m) fund will focus on startups in Prague, Warsaw and the wider CEE region. Previously called Enern, the Central and Eastern European VC — which, historically, started out investing in wind-farms and ended up invested in software — has changed its name to better reflect its modern focus. The firm will also back startups “at any stage” of funding. LPs in the fund include the EIF and a number of successful entrepreneurs from the region. This is the team’s fourth fund, and together with the previous funds, the AUM is around €250m. The fund has invested in 27 companies with the latest investments into B2B marketplaces, healthtech and blockchain.  The decade-old Prague-based VC (“KAYA” will be the official naming format) has previously invested in Booksy (raised $70 million in January 2021), Twisto (€16 million this year), DocPlanner (€80m in 2019), and Rohlik ($230m this year). Kaya previously participated in liquidity events for Skype, Wise (formerly Transf

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch : Deliveroo drops by as much as 30% on its LSE debut, after pricing shares at £3.90, valuing it at around £5.6B; poor debut likely due to labor practice issues   —  Update: It seems that the market is volatile indeed.  After pricing its shares at the lower end of the range … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/31vZ24K

imToken , the blockchain tech startup and crypto wallet developer, announced today it has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Qiming Venture Partners. Participants included returning investor IDG Capital, and new backers Breyer Capital, HashKey, Signum Capital, Longling Capital, SNZ and Liang Xinjun, the co-founder of Fosun International. Founded in 2016, the startup’s last funding announcement was for its $10 million Series A, led by IDG, in May 2018. imToken says its wallet for Ethereum, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies now has 12 million users and over $50 billion in assets are currently stored on its platform, with total transaction value exceeding $500 billion. Ethereum wallet imToken raises $10M Series A from IDG to expand in the US, Asia and Africa The company was launched in Hangzhou, China, before moving to it current headquarters to Singapore, and about 70% of its users are in mainland China, followed by markets including South Korea, the United States an

Global logistics company Geodis has tapped startup Phantom Auto to help it deploy forklifts that can be controlled remotely by human operators located hundreds, and even thousands, of miles away. The aim is to use the technology to reduce operator fatigue — and the injuries that can occur as a result — as well as reduce the number of people physically inside warehouses, according to the Geodis. The use of remotely operated forklifts won’t replace employees — just where they work. It’s that detail that Geodis, which often has operations outside of city centers, finds appealing. Stéphanie Hervé, chief operating officer for Geodis’ Western Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, told TechCrunch that use of the remotely operated forklifts will help the company attract a new group of workers, including those with physical disabilities. The intent isn’t to outsource workers to other countries, but to find more workers within a region, according to the company. Under the partnership, P

By now you’ve probably heard of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) ratings for companies, or ratings for their carbon footprint. Well, now a UK company has come up with a way of rating the ‘ethics’ social media companies.     EthicsGrade is an ESG ratings agency, focusing on AI governance. Headed up Charles Radclyffe , the former head of AI at Fidelity, it uses AI-driven models to create a more complete picture of the ESG of organizations, harnessing Natural Language Processing to automate the analysis of huge data sets. This includes tracking controversial topics, and public statements. Frustrated with the green-washing of some ‘environmental’ stocks, Radclyffe realized that the AI governance of social media companies was not being properly considered, despite presenting an enormous risk to investors in the wake of such scandals as the manipulation of Facebook by companies such as Cambridge Analytica during the US Election and the UK’s Brexit referendum. EthicsGrade Industr