AI finance news – is this useful to anyone? – Info AI

Prime Trust acquires FundAmerica, Hitachi buys REAN, SGOCO plans USD 50m rights offering, Endava and Opera IPOs pop and downsized Aurora drops as trading starts, IBM spinoff takes investment from Peter Thiel fund, Google’s AI-focused VC fund invests in visual analysis firm Zoora, Awake gets new CEO while STATS gets new CTO & a Q2 ICO data roundup

The Artificial Intelligence – Blockchain finance newsletter gets readers up to date on the latest funding news and related issues.

Prime Trust, the Las Vegas, Nevada-based financial services company for the blockchain, said it acquired FundAmerica, a crowdfunding software services developer. Terms weren’t disclosed.

Hitachi Vantara, the Santa Clara, California-based subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Hitachi, said it was acquiring REAN Cloud, the IT services firm. Terms weren’t disclosed. Hitachi Vantara provides corporate data and analytics services.

AXS Blockchain Solutions, the Vancouver, Canada-based business services firm, said it acquired Chainlinks Lab for CAD 4m (USD 3.1m).

Partners Group, the Baar, Switzerland-based investment firm, may announce the USD 6bn acquisition of data analytics company Information Resources from New Mountain Capital by the end of the month, according to a Reuters report.

SGOCO, the Hong Kong-based company developing virtual reality technology, announced a USD 50m right offering.

AgEagle Aerial Systems, the Neodesha, Kansas-based agriculture imagery and data analytics company, said Alpha Capital Anstalt may sell as many as 4.25m shares it holds in the company, or a 5.49% stake. After a complete sale of the shares Alpha would hold a 4.5% stake in AgEagle. The sale is worth as much as USD 7.69m based on the USD 1.81 share price at the time of the announcement.

AgEagle said last week it had hired Barrett Mooney as chief executive officer. He succeeded company founder Bret Chilcott, who will remain as chairman and president.

Alpha Capital Anstalt, the Vadux, Lichtenstein-based investment fund, is also one of the selling shareholders in a deal from troubled BTCS, the Silver Spring, Maryland-based blockchain investment firm.

Other filings included iMine and FDCTECH

Over USD 100m

Stem, the Millbrae, California-based company developing AI-backed energy storage, said it raised CAD 200m (USD 152m) from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan as part of a Series D funding that included an additional USD 26m from investors including BNP Paribas and Magnesium Capital.

Endava, the London, UK-based business services firm developing AI technologies, saw its shares rise 20% on their first day of trading Friday after it and shareholders, which include founder Alex Day, raised a larger-than-expected USD 127m in an initial public offering of 6.3 million American Depositary Shares at an above range USD 20 each. The company and shareholders had initially sought as much as USD 106.4m from the sale of 5.6m ADS at USD 17 to USD 19 each on the NYSE.

Opera, the Oslo, Norway-based AI-backed mobile browser, saw its shares close up 8.5% on their first day of trading Friday after it raised USD 115m from an initial public offering of 9.6m ADS at USD 12 each, the highest end of the indicative range.

The Chinese city of Nanjing is forming a USD 1.4bn blockchain investment fund, according to a Coindesk report.

Other deals included Megvii and Tuya Smart

USD 100m to USD 50m

Aurora Mobile, the Shenzhen, China-based company using AI for marketing, saw its shares rise as much as 13% on their first day of trading after it raised a less-than-planned USD 77m in an initial public offering of 9.1 million ADS at USD 8.50 each, the lowest end of the marketed range. The company had originally planned to sell 12m ADS. The shares closed the week at 10 cents below their IPO price.

BlockFi, the New York City-based cryptoasset-backed US dollar lender, said it raised USD 52.5m in a funding round led by Galaxy Digital Ventures.

ODX, the Singapore-based blockchain-backed internet service provider, said it raised USD 60m from investors that included Pantera and BlockTower Capital.

Other deals included Root Ventures and Wayz.ai

Under USD 50m to USD 10m

Cogito, the Boston, Massachusetts-based company using AI for customer call center services, said it raised USD 37m in a Series C led by a Goldman Sachs venture capital fund. The venture capital arm of Salesforce, an existing investor, also participated.

SessionM, the Boston, Massachusetts-based retail data and analytics platform using machine learning, said it raised USD 23.8m in a funding round led by the venture capital arm of Salesforce**.** General Atlantic also participated.

Groundspeed Analytics, the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based firm developing AI-backed insurance processes, said it raised USD 30m in a Series B led by Oak HC/FT.

Kandou Bus, the Lausanne, Switzerland-based AI computer chip technology developer, said it raised USD 15m in a Series B funding from Bessemer Venture Partners and Walden Investment.

Xage Security, the Palo Alto, California-based company developing blockchain security systems for the industrial use of the Internet of Things, said it raised USD 12m in a Series A led by March Capital Partners. A venture capital fund from General Electric also participated.

Under USD 10m and undisclosed

Zorroa, the Berkeley, California-based visual search and analysis platform, said it raised USD 7m in a funding round led by Google’s AI-focused venture capital fund Gradient Ventures.

Senzing, the Venice Beach, California-based AI software developer, said it took an investment of unspecified size from Mithril Capital Management, a technology focused growth fund co-founded by Peter Thiel. Senzing was spun out of IBM two years ago.

snap40, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based wearable healthcare device company using AI, said it raised USD 8m in a seed funding led by ADV.

Petroteq Energy, the Sherman Oaks California-based company developing blockchain technology for use in the oil and gas industry, said it is raising USD 1.8m from the sale of shares and warrants. Earlier this month the company applied to uplist to the Nasdaq.

TraNeXus, the Dublin, Ireland-based tourism company developing blockchain services, said it is planning an ICO of unspecified size in the last quarter of 2018.

Outlier, the Oakland, California-based corporate data analytics firm using AI, said it raised USD 6.2m in a Series A funding led by Ridge Ventures.

Other deals included CriptoHub, Universal Protocol Platform, FlipNick, Cloud Benefit Solutions, Blockchain Mining, Peblik, Beeline and BinaryVR

Augur, the Tallinn, Estonia-based crypto-prediction platform that some use for financial markets, is attracting securities regulators, according to an Insurance Journal report.

US Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo tells Congress the regulator is behind on blockchain, according to a Coindesk report. His prepared remarks are here.

Nasdaq hosted a closed door crypto-conference this week with market players where it urged them to take steps to raise the public image of the new industry, according to a Bloomberg report.

Awake Security, the Sunnyvale, California-based cybersecurity company using AI, said it hired Rahul Kashyap as chief executive officer. Kashyap was previously the chief technology officer at Cylance. Current Awake CEO Michael Callahan will continue in a technical leadership role and as a board director.

Kingland, the Clear Lake, Iowa-based business software developer using AI, said the dean of the University of Iowa’s business school David Spalding is joining the board.

STATS, the Chicago, Illinois-based sports data and analytics firm, said it hired former JPMorgan banker Helen Sun as chief technology officer. STATS said Sun will oversee the development of new products, which will include AI-backed products.

The Green Organic Dutchman, the Toronto, Canada-based medical marijuana grower, said it has hired IBM veteran Geoff Riggs as chief information officer to lead initiatives in AI and ecommerce.

Crowdstaffing, the San Jose, California-based human resources firm using machine learning, said it hired Scott Giroux as vice-president of operations. Scott joins from Volt Workforce Solutions.

Gopher Protocol, the Los Angeles-based AI-enabled mobile technology developer, said it hired David Davis as an interim chief executive officer. Davis was most recently the CEO of software developer BitSpeed. Mansour Khatib previously held Gopher’s interim CEO position. The statement didn’t say what role, if any, he would maintain at Gopher.

In June, Gopher said a partially owned subsidiary was acquiring blockchain software developer TOKENIZE-IT SA.

AlphaPoint, the New York City-based blockchain services firm, said it hired Kristin Boggiano as chief legal officer. She was most recently senior regulatory counsel at Guggenheim Asset Management.

In June, the company hired former Nasdaq executive Michael Schmidt as chief human resources officer and raised USD 15m in a Series A from Galaxy Digital Ventures.

TraNeXus, the Dublin, Ireland-based tourism company developing blockchain services, said it has hired Christoph Klenner as CEO of operating company TraNeXus Global Services. Klenner was previously head of the European travel industry association. He is also joining the TraNeXus board.

Ether Capital, the Toronto, Canada-based cryptocurrency investor, said it hired Brian Mosof as chief executive officer and Stefan Coolican as chief financial officer. Mosof was running a family office before taking up the position. Coolican was a director at investment bank Cormark Securities.

Appier, the Taipei, Taiwan-based company developing AI-backed business services, said it hired Min Sun as chief artificial intelligence scientist. Sun was an assistant professor of electrical engineering at National Tsing Hua University.

Other hires included ZoomInfo, Kennedy Marketing, SambaNova Systems, Long Blockchain, WANdisco and Aion Foundation,

Advisory appointments included CriptoHub and DigitalTown,

Highlights of the Q2 Coindesk report courtesy of the Irish Tech News include:

37 companies filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to raise USD 304m in the quarter.

Companies pursuing initial coin offerings raised more funds than through venture capital rounds.