Top tech startup news stories you need to know this Wednesday, May 9

Good morning! Here are some of the top tech startup news stories today Wednesday, May 9.

Glassdoor announced it has agreed to be acquired by Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. for $1.2 billion in an all-cash transaction. Glassdoor is a leading job and recruiting company well known for providing greater workplace transparency. Glassdoor, which launched in 2008, is one of the largest job sites in the U.S. and welcomes 59 million people to its platform each month.* People come to find the latest jobs combined with insights into jobs and companies. Glassdoor currently has rich data on more than 770,000 companies located in more than 190 countries. This includes more than 40 million reviews and insights, including company reviews, CEO approval ratings, salary information, interview questions, office photos and more.

Healthcare Startup Solv Raises $16.8 Million To Build The OpenTable For Urgent Care. Solv provides consumers access to quality, same-day convenient care without hidden costs. Solv wants to do for Urgent Care what OpenTable did for restaurants by bringing transparent pricing and easy-to-book appointments to the health industry. The startup was founded by Heather Mirjahangir Fernandez (CEO) and Daniele Farnedi (CTO).

Rejuvenate Bio, a stealthy Harvard startup wants to reverse aging in dogs. Rejuvenate Bio is a startup cofounded by George Church of Harvard Medical School. He thinks dogs aren’t just man’s best friend but also the best way to bring age-defeating treatments to market. The company, which has carried out preliminary tests on beagles, claims it will make animals “younger” by adding new DNA instructions to their bodies.

TransitX  wants to replace cars (and subways) with flying solar pods. TransitX is a privately-funded shared mobility network with the convenience, capacity, and cost to replace buses, trains, cars, trucks, and short flights. The company is currently working on deploying its first system in the Philippines.

Google is stepping up its AI game with the announcement of new features at the first day of Google I/O Conference. The web giant unveiled a bunch of new features at its I/O conference. Some new skills move it well ahead of Amazon and Apple, while others were in the catch-up category.

Intel Capital pumps $72M into AI, IoT, cloud and silicon startups, $115M invested so far in 2018. Intel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment organization, announced today at the Intel Capital Global Summit new investments totaling $72 million in 12 technology startups. With this new funding, Intel Capital’s year-to-date investments have reached more than $115 million.

Short-term rental startup Travelio raises $4 million in Series A funding. Travelio, a portal for short-term rentals announced it has raised $4 million in series A funding. The round was led by Vynn Capital, the Kuala Lumpur-based VC firm launched earlier this year by former Gobi Partners vice president Victor Chua. The site currently hosts around 4,000 listings, all of which are whole-unit rentals including apartments, houses, and villas.

Square launches a service to run restaurant operations. Square launches software designed to run all of a restaurant’s operations. It now explains why Square bought food delivery service Caviar four years ago. Square calls it, its most sophisticated software yet — ties together in one place all of a restaurant’s operations, from booking tables to managing the after-meal check.

Escient Pharma raises $40 million to push orphan GPCR drugs into the clinic. Escient was founded by the former CTO of Receptos. He later sold it for whopping $7.2 billion to Celgene back in 2015, Marcus Boehm wasn’t supposed to start another company. Now he’s back with a new startup. Escient Pharmaceuticals launched Wednesday with $40 million in series A funding to develop novel G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-targeted drugs for a wide range of indications. The startup’s first focus will be neuro-immuno-inflammatory and autoreactive diseases.