Top tech startup news stories you need to know this Saturday, December 23

Happy weekend! Here are top tech startup news stories you need to know this Saturday, December 23.

Amazon buys Blink in a bid to beef up its connected home lineup. Amazon just announced the acquisition of Blink, a brand that knows what it’s doing when it comes to connected home surveillance equipment, likely in an effort to grow in that market.  Blink provides wire-free home monitoring system.

Nuritas, Dublin startup funded by U2’s Bono reaches €25m for food molecule research.  A Dublin-based research enterprise startup Nuritas, has raised €25 million to develop health solutions against diabetes through the use of natural food molecules. Nuritas  was founded in 2014 by Dr Nora Khaldi. Khaldi is also the chief scientific officer for the company. Nuritas uses digital data processing to discover antimicrobial agents in food known as bioactive peptides.  Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, U2’s Bono and The Edge and Enterprise Ireland invested in the startup.

Blockchain Startup LO3 Partners With Power Exchange (also known as  EPEX SPOT).  Blockchain startup LO3 Energy and EPEX SPOT have signed a partnership agreement  to link local electric microgrids to broader wholesale markets and find ways to connect local energy markets to larger power networks using a blockchain-based platform. EPEX SPOT is a power trading company based in France and covering Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg. It allows users in each country to buy or sell excess power to each other.

Scaleworks acquires Sequoia-backed data start-up Keen IO. Scaleworks, a Texas private equity firm with focus on software startups, has acquired Keen IO, a start-up with data analytics software aimed at developers. Terms of the deal  were not disclosed.

Agile sensor technology may surpass LiDAR. The competitive race to develop the optimal vehicle sensor technology for self-driving vehicles could be embarking on a new course with ‘agile sensor technology’, which is presented as more accurate, efficient and safer than LiDAR.

Xiaomi set to blow past 2017 revenue target. According to Brinkwire, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc has told bankers it would top its annual revenue target by as much as 18 percent, according to sources familiar with the matter. The company is expected to make a net profit of at least $1 billion in 2017, banker projections based on the company’s revenue estimate of $17 billion to $18 billion show. Profits are estimated to reach about $2 billion in 2018.