Top startup news for today, Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Good morning! Here are some of the top technology startup news stories for today, Wednesday, March 27.

Xpeng Motors, Tesla rival in China, is planning another $500 million in funding to take on Tesla’s Model 3. Chinese electric car startup, XPeng Motors, is aiming to raise at least $500 million for the production of its upcoming car, codenamed E28, which is set to go head-to-head with Tesla’s Model 3. The electric startup company is also considering an initial public offering in the United States. Founded in 2o14 by Xiaopeng Motors is a electric vehicle and technology company that designs and manufactures smart car. Xpeng is equipped with experts from top companies in the field such as Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Ford, Mazda, GAC Motor, Alibaba Group, Tencent, Huawei, P&G and Mi, and more.

Rad Power Bikes secures undisclosed amount of private funding to accelerate growth. Rad Power Bikes, a North American electric bike brand, secured a round of private funding to accelerate growth initiatives including product innovation, inventory, staffing, and operations. The total amount of the deal was not disclosed. Backers included Darrell Cavens and Mark Vadon, Seattle-area entrepreneurs and investors known for building and scaling ecommerce brands such as Zulily, one of a few ecommerce retailers to reach $1 billion in annual net sales in five years. They are both joining as advisors, with Cavens also being added to Rad Power Bikes’ Board of Directors.

Automotive AI startup Teraki secures $2.3 million in additional funding; launches DevCenter for quicker data and AI model training. Automotive AI startup Teraki has raised $2.3 million in additional funding for its mission to provide breakthrough AI and edge data processing software to meet the exploding data demands of the $395 billion automotive electronics industry. The latest backing for the technology platform, which brings a more than tenfold increase in efficiency to the components used in automotive electronics, comes from Hong Kong-based Horizons Ventures and American Family Ventures. The total funding to date amounts to $5.3 million.

Bitcoin exchange DragonEx hacked. The Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange DragonEx says it has been hacked. The company made the announcement on its official Telegram channel on Monday. “On March 24th, DragonEx has [sic] encountered attacks from hackers, our users’ crypto assets and Platform crypto assets were transferred and stolen,” the statement reads. Part of the assets, the statement continues, have already been retrieved. “We will do our best to retrieve back [sic] the rest of the stolen assets,” the company said.

PhotoShelter banks $8 million in funding. PhotoShelter, a NYC-based digital asset management platform for visual storytellers, raised $8m in funding for product innovation across its cloud-based visual media platforms, PhotoShelter and Libris, accelerate staff expansion and finance a new company headquarters this year. The round was led by Level Structured Capital, an affiliated fund of Level Equity, a New York private investment firm focused on providing capital to software companies.

Fifty women sue Salesforce, claiming the CRM giant helped failed website Backpage.com in sex trafficking. Fifty women are suing Salesforce, alleging the company profited by helping Backpage to engage in sex trafficking. As we reported last year, Backpage.com CEO was arrested on pimping charges. “In public, including on Twitter, Salesforce boasted about fighting human trafficking using its data tools. But behind closed doors, Salesforce’s data tools were actually providing the backbone of Backpage’s exponential growth. Salesforce didn’t just provide Backpage with a customer-ready version of its data and marketing tools,” the lawsuit claims. Salesforce has since denied the the claims, issuing a statement on Tuesday: “We are deeply committed to the ethical and humane use of our products and take these allegations seriously.” The case is Jane Does #1 through #50 v. Salesforce Inc., CGC-19-574770, California Superior Court, San Francisco.

Sauce Labs secures $50 million to help app developers test their apps across browsers, operating systems and devices. Sauce Labs, a cloud-based testing startup that ensures your favorite mobile apps and websites work flawlessly on every browser, operating system, and device, has secured a $50 million growth investment from Riverwood Capital to drive strategic growth and fuel efforts to evolve portfolio beyond functional testing. In conjunction with the funding, the startup also announced that Jeff Parks from Riverwood Capital will be joining its Board of Directors.