Top startup news for today, Thursday, April 25, 2019

Good morning! Below are some of the top tech startup news stories for today, Thursday, April 25.

Getaround acquires Drivy, for $300 million. Getaround, a San Francisco, CA-based carsharing company that lets you rent cars from people nearby, has acquired Drivy, a Paris, France-based carsharing platform, for $300 million. Drivy was founded in 2010 by Paulin Dementhon. It’s the Europe’s leading carsharing platform with 55,000 cars shared across the above six countries, with a community of two and a half million users. The combined company now spans 300 cities in the U.S. and Europe and  and more than five million users between Drivy and Getaround.  The Drivy app allows drivers to find a nearby car, open it with their smartphone and drive away.

Tellus closes over $9 million Series B funding. Tellus, a provider of Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) technology solutions, has closed a $9 million Series B growth capital financing to accelerate its contracts from States, Managed Care Organizations (Payers) and thousands of providers as it expands its Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) business nationally. The round was led by Carroll Capital with participation from additional investors. CIBC Bank USA provided the debt capital financing through its CIBC Innovation Banking team.

Chili Piper bootstraps past $2 million ARR; raises $3 million seed round to accelerate growth. Chili Piper, an enterprise software startup that just bootstrapped past $2 million annual recurring revenue, has attracted a $3 million seed round led by Flashpoint Venture Capital. The fresh round will enable the company to support development of new solutions focused on “Buyer Enablement” – enabling businesses to help their buyers, extending its highly successful scheduling platform used by companies worldwide. Founded in 2016 by Alina Vandenberghe, Ivan Dyachenko, and Nicolas Vandenberghe, Chili Piper is reinventing buyer engagement by enabling companies to book or connect prospects in real time from web forms.

Ruum Receives €10M from SAP for global expansion. Ruum has raised 10 million Euros from German enterprise software maker SAP to continue to devote resources to its enterprise offering while moving into the global SMB market. Ruum, which has a core team of 20, provides a SaaS based project management software which has already acquired more than 30,000 users from 2,000 companies, 200 nonprofits, which can use the software free of charge; and six blue-chip enterprise customers, including NIVEA parent company Beiersdorf AG. Ruum is a spin-off of  SAP.iO Venture Studio, the internal incubation program managed by the SAP.iO business unit.

Biomedical Software Startup BostonGene Secures $50M in Series A from NEC to Transform Cancer Treatment Using Precision Medicine Analytics. NEC Corporation and BostonGene Corporation (BostonGene), a Boston, Mass-based biomedical software company, today announced a US$50M series A strategic investment in BostonGene by NEC. BostonGene, a pioneer in the use of biomedical software for advanced patient analysis, has discovered, developed, and patented a holistic approach to cancer treatment by defining the optimal therapy combination for individual patients, with a particular focus on immuno- and targeted therapies.

Happy Returns bags $11 million in funding to accelerate growth. Happy Returns, a provider of return and logistics solutions for retailers and their customers, raised $11M in funding. The round was led by existing investors, U.S. Venture Partners and Upfront Ventures, as well as PayPal which has made a strategic investment. Happy Returns has raised a total of $25 million since inception. Founded in 2055 by CEO and co-founder David Sobie, the 55-person company provides a combination of software, services, and logistics that enable retailers to provide an in-person return experience through a nationwide network of Return Bar locations, as well as through the retailer’s own stores, or by carrier.