Top startup news for today, Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Good morning! Here are some of the top technology startup news stories for today, Tuesday, February 19.

nsKnox bags $15 million in Series A funding to further develop its corporate payment protection platform. nsKnox, a provider of corporate payment protection solutions based on its innovative Cooperative Cyber Security technology platform, has raised $15 million Series A funding round to expand its global customer base and to further develop its corporate payment protection platform. The fresh round was led by Viola Ventures and M12, Microsoft’s venture fund, with participation from Discount Capital, the investment arm of Israel Discount Bank, and previous seed investors. Founded in 2016 by Alon Cohen, founder and former Chairman and CEO of CyberArk, nsKnox helps companies and businesses to protect every payment by automatically detecting and preventing fraud attempts in real time. The  startup provides a real-time corporate payment protection platform that helps defend organizations against cyber-fraud, internal fraud, social engineering and data manipulation attempts throughout the journey of the payment.

Inovia Capital raises $600 million early-and growth-stage funds. Inovia Capital, an early stage Canada’s premier venture firm, has raised $200 million early-stage fund, as well as a new $400 million growth-stage fund to accelerate its leadership position and further expanding activities in its core markets of Canada and Silicon Valley. The venture firm has also opened a new office in London, providing entrepreneurs with a valuable bridge across the two continents. Founded in 2001 by Chris Arsenault, the Montréal, Quebec, Canada-based iNovia is an early stage venture capital firm that invests in category-defining technology startups. Epic companies are forged by exceptionally qualified founders; iNovia supports these remarkable individuals with custom playbooks for attracting talent and scaling efficiently.

Google acquired a small cloud start-up as it looks to catch up to Amazon and Microsoft. Google announced today its intent to acquire cloud migration startup Alooma, marking its next play in the competitive space. The total amount of the deal is yet to be disclosed. Alooma helps companies migrate their data from multiple sources to one data warehouse, according to Google’s announcement. Founded in 2013 by Rami Amar, Yair Weinberger, and Yoni Broyde, Alooma is a real-time data pipeline as a service that allows the integration of any data source like databases, applications, and any API. Alooma has raised about $15 million from investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequioa Capital Israel, according to publicly available funding data. Alooma allows users to build data pipelines in minutes. Alooma lets users Integrate all your data sources to Amazon’s petabyte scale data warehouse. With Alooma, users can stream their data to Redshift tables to derive real-time insights. Alooma allows users to import data from any source. Alooma natively supports dozens of the most popular data sources.

Artificial intelligence startup ViSenze secures $20 millions in Series C funding. ViSenze, a Singapore-based artificial intelligence company powering visual commerce, raised $20m in Series C funding. The round was led by Gobi Partners and Sonae IM, with participation from Tembusu ICT Fund, 31Ventures Global Innovation Fund, and Jonathan Coon’s Impossible Ventures, as well as existing investors Rakuten Ventures, WI Harper Group, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) Ventures, Raffles Venture Partners, Enspire Capital, and UOB Venture Management. The latest round brings total funding to date to $34.5 million. ViSenze was founded in 2012 by Oliver Tan, also the CEO. The startup provides visual commerce at scale for retailers and publishers by delivering intelligent image recognition solutions that shorten the path to action as consumers search and discover on the visual web. Retailers like Rakuten, ASOS, Urban Outfitters, Zalora, and more use the company’s solutions to convert images into immediate product search opportunities.

Finnish VR startup Varjo launches a new $6,000 virtual reality headset that lets you see with ‘human-eye’ resolution. Finnish VR startup Varjo has unveiled its first virtual reality (VR) $5,995 headset today in an effort to capture the growing industrial market for the technology. The newly launched headset will be sold directly to businesses in industries like architecture, engineering and construction. The startup has already partnered with companies including Airbus, Audi and Volkswagen. Founded in 2016, Varjo’s 20/20 Eye Tracker is the most advanced eye tracking technology ever integrated into a VR device. Designed to work in human-eye resolution with sub-degree accuracy, 20/20 Eye Tracker™ enables eye data analytics for training and simulation, research, industrial design and more.

IOTA Foundation partners with incubators Cofoundery, Nova, to fund startups using blockchain. IOTA Foundation, a non-profit foundation behind the cryptocurrency Iota (MIOTA), has joined forces with incubators cofoundery and Nova to fund DLT startups using blockchain. As part of the partnership agreements, the three organizations will collaborate together to increase the number of successful startups utilizing the next generation of Distributed Ledger Technology. The program will enable aspiring tech entrepreneurs, through funding and mentorship, to develop innovative new business models using IOTA technology. The partnership program with Nova is now open for applications, and entrepreneurs are invited to apply at: wearenova.co.uk/partnerships/iota.

Coinbase acquires blockchain analytics startup Neutrino for an undisclosed amount. Coinbase has acquired blockchain intelligence startup Neutrino to help  the popular cryptocurrency exchange prevent theft of funds, investigate hacks and ransomware attacks, and identify suspicious transactions. The company made the announcement in a blog post on its website. According to the acquisition agreement, Coinbase will continue to operate as a standalone business in its London office. The acquisition will also contribute to creating an open and protected financial system. “Neutrino will help us prevent theft of funds from peoples’ accounts, investigate ransomware attacks, and identify bad actors. It will also help us bring more cryptocurrencies and features to more people while helping ensure compliance with local laws and regulations,” Varun Srinivasan, Coinbase Engineering Director, said.