Top tech startup news for today, Thursday, May 23, 2019

Below are some of the top tech startup news stories for Thursday, May 23.

Streem acquires U.K. augmented reality (AR) Selerio in effort to bolster its AR teleconferencing tech. Streem, an AR startup that that enhances real-time communication and collaboration by creating an intelligent camera, has acquired a small U.K. AR startup called Selerio for an undisclosed amount. Founded in 2017, Selerio was spun out of research from Cambridge University for context-aware interactions in AR. Its product solves the core AR challenges like occlusion, 3D semantic understanding. Founded just two years ago, Streem platform delivers a combination of augmented reality (AR), computer vision, and machine learning.

DoorDash’s valuation rockets to $12.6 billion as investors pour millions into the food delivery startup. Food delivery startup DoorDash, has raised a massive $600 million in Series G funding at $12.6 billion valuation. The round was backed by new investors Darsana Capital Partners and Sands Capital, alongside existing investors Coatue Management, Dragoneer, DST Global, Sequoia Capital, Softbank Vision Fund, and Temasek Capital Management. Since inception, DoorDash has raised a total of $2 billion in funding over 10 rounds. Founded in 2013 by four Stanford students with experiences from Facebook, Square, Vevo, and eBay, DoorDash provides on-demand restaurant food delivery services connecting customers with local businesses across the United States and Canada.

Self-driving startup Aurora buys speed-sensing Lidar startup Blackmore. Fresh off the $530 million Series B funding round, Aurora Innovation Inc., a self-driving vehicle startup announced Thursday it’s acquiring lidar maker Blackmore, a company that develops a detection system known as lidar, used in self-driving technology. Blackmore’s laser scanning tech offers the unusual and very helpful ability not just to detect nearby objects but to discern their velocity. The total amount of the deal was not disclosed. Founded in 2016 by Jim Curry, Randy Reibel, and Trenton Berg, Blackmore Sensors and Analytics develops frequency-modulated continuous wave lidar imaging and its supporting analytic tools software. Aurora works at the intersection of rigorous engineering and applied machine learning to address one of the most challenging, important and interesting opportunities of our generation: transforming the way people and goods move

Modern Health just raised $9 million from Kleiner Perkins and Jared Leto to transform how you get mental healthcare at work. Modern Health, a mental well-being benefits platform for employers today announced a $9 million Series A funding round led by Kleiner Perkins. Jared Leto, Y Combinator, and Afore also participated in the round. The platform provides companies with a suite of products for employees to access the emotional care they need while helping employers improve worker productivity, retention, and limit costs from over-prescribed in-person therapy. Modern Health will use the new capital to accelerate the development of the product, build its sales organization, and expand its customer base. Kleiner Perkins partner Mamoon Hamid will join the company’s board of directors.

Beautystack raises £4M in Seed funding to expand its team. Beautystack, a London, UK-based new booking app for beauty services, raised £4m in seed funding to build its team. The round was led by Index Ventures. Co-founded by Sharmadean Reid, Dan Woodbury, Chris Whittleston, and Ken Laloboin, Beautystack provides a visual booking app for beauty professionals. Beauty pros post images of their work, connect their calendars and their bank accounts, and their clients can book directly from an image, see what their friends are booking and like and save their favorite treatments.

Former Arsenal manager Wenger invests in Israeli startup PlayerMaker. Tel Aviv-based sports tech startup PlayerMaker announced that former Arsenal club manager Arsène Wenger will be joining the firm as an investor and operating partner. PlayerMaker developes a technology that tracks and analyzes soccer players’ technical, tactical and physical performance using sensors that are mounted on the athletes’ shoes. Founded by CEO and co-founder Guy Aharon, PlayerMaker’s footwear-based motion sensor provides solutions for talent identification and development, prevents injuries and improve coaching practices.

JumpCloud raises $50 million in funding to expand engineering, sales, and marketing operations. JumpCloud, a cloud-based Directory-as-a-Service provider that connects and manages employees, devices, and IT apps, has raised $50 million in funding to expand engineering, sales, and marketing operations, drive new functionality for customers and Managed Service Provider (MSP) partners, and establish a physical presence in strategic areas around the globe in order to provide a deeper level of support for customers in those regions. Investors include General Atlantic, and existing investors Foundry Group and OpenView Partners. Founded in 2012 by Rajat Bhargava, CEO, and David Campbell, JumpCloud provides a cloud-based directory service for companies to give users one set of credentials to securely access their systems, apps, networks, and file servers – regardless of platform, protocol, provider, or location.