Top tech startup news for today, Monday, December 16, 2019 – Intel, Bluespace.ai, CallMiner, DataRobot, PlayerMaker, General Fusion, and Atrium Sports

Good morning! Below are some of the top tech startup news for today, Monday, December 16, 2019.

Intel buys Israeli AI startup Habana Labs for $2 billion. Intel Corp has bought Israel-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm Habana Labs for about $2 billion to expand its AI portfolio to bolster its data-center business, the chipmaker said on Monday. Habana Labs was founded in 2016 to unlock the true potential of AI by providing an order of magnitude improvements in processing performance, cost and power consumption. The startup has offices in Tel Aviv, San Jose, Beijing and Gdansk, Poland. It has raised $120 million to date, including $75 million in a funding round led by Intel Capital last year.

DataRobot buys adaptive data preparation startup Paxata to bolster its AI capabilities. Enterprise artificial-intelligence platform company DataRobot has reached a deal to acquire Paxata, an analytics and AI startup that provides the first adaptive data preparation platform built for the analyst to turn raw data into ready data for analytics. The financial terms weren’t disclosed. The deal, which is expected to be completed within the next two weeks, will help DataRobot closes a gap in the company’s offerings, according to the company executive.
As part of the acquisition, all of Paxata’s nearly 100 employees, including Prakash Nanduri, its chief executive and co-founder, will join DataRobot, which now has a workforce of about 1,100. Founded in 2012 by Prakash Nanduri, Chris Maddox, Dave Brewster, and Nenshad Bardoliwalla, Paxata’s platform provides an interactive, analyst-centric data prep experience powered by a unified set of technologies designed from the ground up for comprehensive data integration, data quality, semantic enrichment, collaboration and governance.

Bluespace.ai Secures $3.5M in Seed Funding. Bluespace.ai, a San Jose, CA-based new autonomous driving startup, has closed a $3.5m in seed funding to bring high occupancy autonomous vehicles to domestic and growing markets. The round was led by Fusion Fund with participation from Steve Chen and others. Co-founded by Joel Pazhayampallil, Co-founder & CEO, and Christine Moon, Co-Founder & President, Bluespace.ai aims to brings advanced technology to the right mobility application through automated transit solutions. The company’s mission is to provide accessible, sustainable, and equitable urban mobility enabled by its AV software.

Atrium Sports buys data and video analytics tools startup Synergy Sports. Atrium Sports, a New York and- and Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium-and technology platform for sports and video data content, has acquired Synergy Sports Technology, a provider of data and video analytics tools for the NBA, the MLB and NCAA Division I-II-III basketball and Division I baseball. The financial terms of deal were not disclosed. The acquisition will accelerate Atrium’s expansion strategy and strengthen its technology solution offering globally.By integrating Synergy Sports’ content into Atrium’s platform, teams, leagues and federations will gain access to comprehensive data and advanced automated video production of live sporting events and more.

CallMiner raises $75M in new funding from Goldman Sachs to help businesses improve contact center performance. CallMiner, a Waltham, Mass.-based tech startup and a developer of speech-analytics software powered by artificial intelligence, has closed a $75 million in new venture funding to accelerate go-to-market plans and use case expansion for its analytics platform, Eureka. The round, which was led by GS Growth, an investment unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., brings the company’s total funding raised to date to $142 million. Since inception in 2002, CallMiner has helped businesses and organization mined over 2 billion hours of conversations.

PlayerMaker scores $10M funding to grow its football performance analysis platform and accelerate global expansion. PlayerMaker, a Tel Aviv, Isreal based sports tech startup, has raised  $10 million Series B round to build on current traction throughout EMEA into a global expansion of the PlayerMaker technology, with focus on the American and Asian markets. The round was led by FengHe Group. Co-founded in 2016 by CEO Guy Aharon, PlayerMaker is a players’ performance platform, using motion sensors that are mounted on the players’ boots. Using AI algorithms, their device tracks and analyzes all technical, tactical, biomechanical and physical movement on and off the ball, giving managers, coaches and players a granular understanding of their performance.

General Fusion raises $65M Series E to develop commercial fusion energy and enable carbon-free energy future. General Fusion, the British Columbia, Canada-based renewable energy tech startup developing utility-scale fusion power using magnetized target fusion, announced today it has closed USD$65 million of Series E equity financing. The round was led by Temasek, a global investment company headquartered in Singapore, with participation from the Cleantech Practice of Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), the DLF Group, Gimv, I2BF Global Ventures, and others.They were also joined in this financing by many existing international investors in the Company, including Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Braemar Energy Ventures, Entrepreneurs Fund, and SET Ventures. This $65 million of new financing, together with the release of CAD$50 million in additional investment from Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund, enables the Company to formally launch the program to design, construct, and subsequently operate its Fusion Demonstration Plant.