Top tech startup news stories you need to know this Thursday, January 4

Good morning! Here are some of the top tech startup news stories today Thursday, January 4.

Silicon Valley Autonomous-Car Startup Signs Deal With Volksagen and Hyundai.  Silicon Valley-based startup Aurora has signed partnership agreements with Volkswagen and Hyundai to develop a self-driving system within their vehicles, the company announced on Thursday. The partnership is one of the latest between global automakers and Silicon Valley tech companies. Aurora was founded in 2016 by robotics expert Drew Bagnell, Chris Urmson, who came from Alphabet’s Google, and Sterling Anderson, who formerly worked at Tesla.

San Francisco-based startup Akiri launches blockchain data sharing network. San Francisco-based startup Akiri launched its first product, a network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform to the healthcare industry. The vendor-agnostic tool, called Akiri Switch, uses blockchain technology to securely transmit information using codes, the company said in a press release.

Chinese social network startup Renren’s stock jumps 47% after it announced it’s raising money through cryptocurrency. Chinese social network, Renren, saw its stock climbed 47.39 percent to $18.32 a share by the close of the U.S. trading session Wednesday. The company is looking to raise funds through an initial coin offering (ICO), according to a white paper released Tuesday.

Spotify confidentially files for IPO. The popular music-streaming platform, Spotify, confidentially filed IPO documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late last month, according to an Axios report citing multiple unnamed sources. Other news outlets including Reuters reported the news.

Magic Leap finally launched its debut product. Magic Leap, a mixed reality startup, has finally launched its debut product, Magic Leap One. The head-mounted virtual display product will be available to customers this year as a creator edition. Magic Leap One is comparatively lighter than its VR counterparts that are available in the market presently. The company was launched in 2010 by Rony Abovitz.

Malaysian food delivery startup Dahmakan has raised $2.6m in a recent funding round.  The Malaysian healthy food delivery startup, Dahmakan, has $2.6 million to accelerate its growth and expand its business across Southeast Asia. Unlike its competitors, FoodPanda and Deliveroo, Dahmakan delivers ready-to-eat meals from its kitchen and thereby controlling the entire process from food production to delivery. The startup has raised a total of $3.9 million in funding.

Snowflake Computing poised to raise a second massive funding round in less than a year. Cloud-based data-warehousing startup, Snowflake Computing, is about to raise a $270 million Series E funding round that would put the company into unicorn status, according to a report. Snowflake Computing is a cloud-based data-warehousing startup publicly launched by Bob Muglia in 2014, after spending two years in stealth mode.

Blockchain-based skills platform BitDegree pays you cryptocurrency to study Python.  This Lithuania-based startup BitDegree will pay you to learn Python programming language. BitDegree  has an education platform that it hopes will change the face of technology training and skills.