Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Capital Gains: Square’s Big Round, Alibaba’s Play for TV and More

All the week’s big funding news, now in one place.

Vjeran Pavic

It was another big week for big deals. Here’s a roundup of the latest funding headlines, brought to you by Re/code:

  • Square closed a $150 million investment round (which Re/code reported on in August) led by the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, valuing the payments and e-commerce company at $6 billion.
  • The Swedish company behind Truecaller, a calling app that uses an advanced caller ID and contact system, raised $60 million in a round led by investment firms Kleiner Perkins and Atomico. The app has 85 million users, and is available to download for free on Apple and Android smartphones.
  • The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba invested $50 million in Peel, which makes a TV remote app for smartphones and tablets. Peel’s CEO said Alibaba was particularly impressed with the app’s install base of 96 million users.
  • The bitcoin wallet and analysis company Blockchain raised approximately $30 million in a funding round (NYT) led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Wicklow Capital.
  • Segment.io, a customer analytics company that came out of Y Combinator, raised $15 million in a Series A funding round (Dow Jones) led by Accel Partners, with participation from Kleiner Perkins. The company has more than 4,000 customers and plans to double the size of its team over the next year.
  • Thync, a startup developing a wearable that promises to adjust mood by sending ultrasonic or fine electric currents through the brain, said it has raised $13 million from Khosla Ventures, Sling Media co-founder Blake Krikorian and other undisclosed investors.
  • Product Hunt, a social network for entrepreneurs and tech obsessives, raised $6.1 million in a Series A funding round (WSJ) led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Re/code previously reported on Product Hunt’s $1 million seed round in August.
  • San Francisco-based digital art collection service Depict raised $1.6 million from investors including Raptor Ventures’ Jim Pallotta and 3M New Ventures’ Thomas Andrae.
  • The Internet video company JunkArmy (makers of the “FailArmy” YouTube channel) raised $1.2 million from investors, including Bertelsmann Digital Media and Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh