Private equity firm Apollo Global Management this morning announced that it has completed its acquisition of Yahoo (formerly known as Verizon Media Group, itself formerly known as Oath) from Verizon. The deal is worth $5 billion, with $4.25 billion in cash, plus preferred interests of $750 million. Verizon will be retaining 10% of the newly […]
Apple buys classical music service, Primephonic
In a bid to expand its classical music offering, Apple today announced that it has Primephonic. The Amsterdam-based service, which launched in 2014, will bring a laser focus on a music genre that’s been sorely lacking in Apple Music’s generalized approach to streaming. The service will effectively be discontinued as a standalone offering, as it’s […]
Zendesk acquires AI automation startup Cleverly to advance customer service
Zendesk is looking to grow its customer service capabilities, and today it announced the acquisition of early-stage artificial intelligence startup Cleverly. Financial terms of the deal are not being publicly disclosed at this time and Cleverly has not been entirely public about the size of its funding. Founded in 2019, Cleverly is based in Lisbon, […]
Salad chain Sweetgreen buys kitchen robotics startup Spyce
Like so many other aspects of the robotics world, the pandemic has dramatically accelerated interest in the automated kitchen. After all, the food and restaurant industry was deemed essential amid global shutdowns, but finding kitchen staff proved a problem for many, especially early on when questions remained around COVID’s transmission. This week, California-based fast casual […]
MaxAB gets an extra $15M, acquires YC-backed Moroccan startup WaystoCap
Last month, MaxAB, the Egyptian B2B e-commerce platform that serves food and grocery retailers, raised one of the largest Series A on the continent, to the tune of $40 million. Today, it has raised a $15 million extension from existing investors — RMBV, IFC, Flourish Ventures, Crystal Stream Capital, Rise Capital, Endeavour Catalyst, Beco Capital […]
Extra Crunch roundup: Zūm CEO interview, Cisco’s M&A ethos, neoinsurance bad romance
When is the last time your doctor treated you at home?
Ramp and Brex draw diverging market plans with M&A strategies
From a high level, all of the recent deal-making in corporate cards and spend management shows that it’s not enough to just help companies track what employees are expensing these days.
Substack acqui-hires team behind subscription social app Cocoon
Subscription newsletter platform kingpin Substack shared today that they’ve acqui-hired the team behind Cocoon, a subscription social media app built for close friends. We covered the Y Combinator-backed startup’s initial $3 million seed raise led by Lerer Hippeau back in November 2019, shortly before the pandemic dramatically reconfigured how people used social media to communicate […]
Ramp raises $300M at a $3.9B valuation, makes its first acquisition
Less than five months after raising $115 million, spend management startup Ramp announced today it has raised $300 million in a Series C round of funding that values the company at $3.9 billion. That’s more than double the $1.6 billion that New York-based Ramp was valued at in April at the time of its Series […]
Elastic acquires build.security for security policy definition and enforcement
Less than a year after raising its $6 million seed funding round, Tel Aviv and Sunnyvale-based startup build.security is being acquired by Elastic. Financial terms of the deal are not being publicly disclosed at this time. The deal is expected to close in Elastic’s Q2 FY22, ending October 31, 2021. In an email to TechCrunch, […]