THE BUSINESS OF TECHNOLOGY
Fitbit, a maker of wearable fitness tracking devices, has raised $732 million in its IPO. The company, trading under the ticker symbol FIT on the New York Stock Exchange, priced 36.6 million shares at $20 per share, for an initial market capitalization of $4.1 billion.
Alibaba and Foxconn have invested $236 million into the SoftBank’s robotics division. The two companies have pumped $118 million into SoftBank Robotics Holdings for a 20% stake each. SoftBank retains a controlling…
Doctor on Demand, a service which allows doctors to connect with patients via video, has closed a $50 million Series B financing round led by Tenaya Capital. Qualcomm Ventures, Dignity Health, Ann…
U.K. beauty salon appointment service Wahanda has secured $73 million in funding, TechCrunch reports. The company has also announced the acquisition of ZenSoon, a beauty platform based in France. All of the…
Britain leads the way in playing host to ‘unicorn’ tech companies – firms that have passed the $1 billion valuation mark – but Europe’s big players still lag far behind the numbers…
India-based home solutions startup HomeLane has secured $50 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital. The company had previously raised $4.5 million in February, and will use this latest cash injection for…
A report from The Financial Times suggests that Uber is preparing a $1 billion round of funding in order to crack the Chinese market. Uber currently operates in 11 Chinese cities, and…
Venture capital in Spain has, traditionally, been hard to come by. But that is changing. Spanish firms attracted €209 million ($235 million) in VC investment in 2013 , down from €221 million…
Microsoft has acquired BlueStripe Software, an application management services company. Deal terms were not disclosed. BlueStripe previously attracted investment from Trinity Ventures and Valhalla Partners. Microsoft will stop selling BlueStripe, instead integrating the software into its other products, but will support existing customers.
Duolingo, a website which offers free language tutorials, has raised $45 million in an investment round led by Google Capital. The company, which boasts over 100 million users, has previously attracted funding…