Top tech startup news for today, Thursday, October 3, 2019

Good morning! Below are some of the top tech startup news for today, Thursday, October 3, 2019.

Top analyst: Apple to launch iPhone SE2 a smaller, cheaper iPhone that’s just as powerful as iPhone 11 early 2020. According to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will launch the iPhone SE2 with an A13 chip, the same found in the iPhone 11, during the first quarter of 2020. Kuo said in a note on Thursday. Kuo has an excellent track record of predicting Apple products ahead of their release.  The iPhone SE2 will reportedly use the iPhone 8 body but the same A13 processor that’s used in the iPhone 11. Kuo said he thinks this will be the best upgrade for more than 100 million iPhone 6 series users. “iPhone SE2, which will be the best upgrade choice for existing 100mn iPhone 6 series users, will be a key growth driver for Apple in 2020,” Kuo said.

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey’s defense startup, Anduril, is now making attack drones. Last month, we wrote about Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus, which Facebook acquired for $2 billion in 2014 after he raised raised funding for his new virtual border startup, Anduril. Now, the startup is branching out into attack drones, with the launch of the “Interceptor,” an AI-connected, unmanned aircraft that’s designed to detect targets and “kill rotary or fixed-wing threats autonomously in any environment, day or night.” It’s envisioned as a way to provide another layer of security for military forces, as well as protect “critical infrastructure.”

Vital Technologies raises $8 million to biohack alcohol with a CUUR. Israeli-based startup Vital Technologies raised $8 million in funding from private investors to develop a consistent, effective and safe product for post-alcohol recovery. Until Vital & CUUR, there has been no serious science and technology-driven effort to develop a consistently effective and safe product for post-alcohol recovery to the billions of individuals drinking alcohol in this $1.3 trillion global market. Founded in 2014, Vital Technologies is a supplements life-science startup company. It’s on a mission of creating a new and disruptive category of wellness products. Based on pharma-class R&D and dozens of human studies, Vital develops CUUR: powerful fast-acting beverage recovery products, exclusively incorporating botanicals, amino acids, electrolytes and vitamins.

Unqork raises $80 million Series B funding to drive the No-Code Enterprise Revolution. Unqork, the no-code application platform built for the enterprise, has closed $80 Million in Series B financing led by CapitalG, the growth equity investment fund of Google parent company Alphabet. As part of the new investment, Unqork will be expanding operations into additional markets, verticals, and growing its engineering team. Founded in 2017, Unqork is a cloud-based no-code enterprise application development platform that combines the simplicity of a no-code interface with the functionality and power of enterprise-grade software. Unqork’s clients include John Hancock, Goldman Sachs, Careerwise, and Liberty Mutual.

IronSource, a mobile adtech startup, raises over $400 million at $1.55 billion valuation. IronSource, an Israeli mobile adtech startup that designs engagement and analytical tools that empowers mobile and digital businesses, has raised over $400 million from British private equity firm CVC. Founded in 2014 by Tomer Bar Zeev, Arnon Harish, Eyal Milrad, Gil Shoham, Itay Milrad, Nethanel Shadmi, Omer Kaplan, Roi Milrad, and Tamir Carmi, IronSource develops technologies for app monetization and distribution, with its core products targeting game developers. It said it was on track to finish 2019 with about $1 billion in revenue. The new funding, which now puts IronSource value at $1.55 billion, will give CVC a 25% Stake in IronSource.

Dell and Cisco lead Series C investment of $33M in NYC-based NS1’s vision to manage the world’s application traffic. Today, NS1 announced it has raised $33 million Series C investment round led by Dell Technologies Capital and joined by Cisco Investments and additional investors. The new capital infusion will help the company innovate more aggressively in application traffic technologies that unlock strategic value for every application and every enterprise. The funds will grow the team and customer base worldwide. The endorsement by the investors speaks volumes about the way NS1 is fundamentally changing how enterprise operations and application traffic teams overcome complexity and often unpredictable conditions in infrastructure.

BiomeSense scores $2 million in seed round funding. BiomeSense, a microbiome startup developing a novel biosensor and analytics platform for daily gut microbiome tracking, announced today that it has closed its $2 million seed funding to develop its unique tools for daily gut microbiome tracking. The round was led by BioX Clan, which specializes in early stage funding for new bioscience technologies. Other investors included Seerave Foundation and SOSV, which was following up on its pre-seed investment in BiomeSense via the biotech accelerator program, IndieBio.