Databricks, a big data analytics platform built by a team that grew out of the Apache Spark project, today announced that it has raised a $140 million Series D round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from New Enterprise Associates and Battery Ventures. This brings Databricks’ total funding raised to date to $247 million, which includes a $60 million round the company… Read More

 Enterprise-grade smart lock startup Latch has added a third product to its portfolio. The ‘Latch C’ is notable as its first smart lock to be certified to work with Apple’s HomeKit. Read More

 A stem cell cryobank, self-flying personal planes, and an augmented reality data platform were amongst the highlights of the prestigious Y Combinator startup accelerator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day part 1. You can read about all 50 startups that launched today in verticals like AI and biotech, and check back later for the full list and favorites from day 2. For now, based on investor buzz… Read More

 IBM today announced that it is working with a consortium that includes Dole, Golden State Foods, Kroger, McCormick and Company, Nestlé, Tyson Foods, Unilever and Walmart to bring the benefit of blockchains to the food supply chain.
IBM, just like most of its competitors in the public cloud computing space, has been working on various blockchain projects in the last few months.
Given the… Read More

 Redis Labs, a database company that specializes in in-memory databases, said today it has raised $44 million in a funding round led by Goldman Sachs. Redis Labs is like other typical open-source based database companies, where it offers the technology for free while charging for an enterprise tier. It’s a bet that while anyone can build something on the technology, the company will have… Read More

 Despite countless attempts and millions in venture capital, the calendar, one of the most ubiquitous work tools, has remained largely unchanged for as long as I can remember. Rather than overwrite the calendar in an effort to make it obsolete, Ahryun Moon and Jasper Sone, co-founders of GoodTime, are putting the calendar front and center — embracing it as a means of understanding… Read More

 You’ve probably had the experience of going to a website and seeing a lot of content that’s not really relevant. For the most part, a lot of this is organized in a way that’s either pre-defined or based on a limited number of signals that aims to sort of personalize the experience for a normal user. But as time goes on and the competition for eyeballs continues to heat up,… Read More

 Releaf is a new B2B marketplace that wants to help African businesses prosper by helping them find partners they can trust. The startup, which is currently taking part in Y Combinator, has signed up about 1,000 businesses since its public launch in Nigeria on August 3. Read More

 CoreOS today announced the general availability of Microsoft Azure support for its Kubernetes-based Tectonic container management platform. It previously only fully supported container deployments on bare metal servers and AWS. Beta support for Azure launched in March and with this new release, Tectonic now offers hybrid support for multi-cloud deployments across its three supported… Read More

 Microsoft announced a new product in its Azure line-up in preview today that will make it easier for developers to build event-based applications. The Azure Event Grid makes events (like uploading a picture or video, clicking a button, updating a database, etc.) first-class Azure objects. Event Grid complements Azure Functions and Azure Logic Apps, Microsoft’s existing serverless offerings. Read More