Top tech startup news for today, Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Good morning! Below are some of the top tech startup news for today, Wednesday, June 12, 2019.

Symphony, the messaging platform startup taking on Bloomberg’s dominance of Wall Street, raises $165 million at $1.4 billion valuation. Symphony, a messaging platform for Wall Street firms, will soon announce that it raised $165 million from investors to fuel its global expansion, according to a report from CNBC citing people with knowledge of the company. The company is now valued at a massive $1.4 billion making it a unicorn startup. The Palo Alto-based startup has more than doubled its user base to 430,000 since 2017, exceeding the 325,000 clients of Bloomberg, a data, analytics and news company founded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

Insurance technology platform Hi Marley closes $8.7 million in Series A funding. Insurance technology startup Hi Marley announced it has raised $8.7 million Series A funding round led by an early stage venture capital firm True Ventures, with participation from Underscore VC. Hi Marley is a software provider offering the first AI-enabled conversation platform specifically designed for the insurance industry. Founded in 2017, Hi Marley is a conversation platform that simply and easily connects people with their insurance companies. Marley combines intelligent messaging and human touch to make the experience as easy and efficient as possible.

Mobile measurement and fraud prevention startup Adjust raised a whopping $227 million led by Morgan Stanley, others. Adjust, the industry leader in mobile measurement and fraud prevention, today announced it has raised a whopping $227 million in a new round of funding. Led by investors Eurazeo Growth, Highland Europe, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners and Sofina, it is one of Europe’s largest capital raises in 2019. The financing round brings Adjust’s total funding to $250 million. In conjunction with the funding, Adjust also announced that Eurazeo Growth, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners and Sofina will be joining its board.

Orca Security lands $6.5 million seed round to secure and deliver IT security teams full stack cloud visibility. Orca Security, an Israeli cloud visibility startup company, announced today a $6.5 million in seed funding led by YL Ventures for its mission to provide organizations with seamless full stack visibility into their complete cloud infrastructure footprint, all without complex and costly per-asset integration. Founded in 2019 by former Check Point executives Avi Shua and Gil Geron, the Orca Cloud Visibility Platform utilizes its unique SideScanning technology to seamlessly deliver comprehensive full-stack visibility into all of your entire cloud infrastructure and assets in a fraction of the time and cost of alternative approaches.

Sense Photonics emerges from stealth with $26 million to expand depth sensing LiDAR and 3D sensor for autonomous vehicles and industrial robotics. Sense Photonics, a tech startup company building the next generation of LiDAR and 3D sensor solutions for autonomous vehicles, industrial equipment and other applications, announced today that they have closed a $26 million Series A funding round to for continued development and commercialization of its sensor technology and the transition to high volume manufacturing. The round was co-led by Acadia Woods and Congruent Ventures, with participation from a number of other investors, including Prelude Ventures, Samsung Ventures and Shell Ventures.

Triton Digital acquires enterprise podcasting and on-demand audio publishing platform startup Omny Studio. Triton Digital, the global technology and services leader to the digital audio and podcast industry, has acquired Melbourne, Victoria, Australia-based Omny Studio, the creators of the world’s most advanced podcast and on-demand audio publishing platform. The total amount of the deal was not disclosed. Founded in 2012 by Andrew Armstrong, Ed Hooper, and Long Zheng, Omny Studio provides an all-in-one audio capture, storage, editing, and analytics solution, built for radio and podcasters. The acquisition now makes Triton Digital the exclusive provider of the industry’s most advanced, full-stack enterprise podcasting solution.

Dassault to buy health software company Medidata for $5.8 billion to gain access to fast-growing market for clinical trial technology. French technology giant Dassault announced yesterday it’s buying buying health software company Medidata for $5.8 billion to expand its service footprint and gain access to the fast-growing market for clinical trial technology. The acquisition is an all-cash deal worth $5.8 billion.  Founded in 1999 by Glen de Vries, Medidata Solutions offers SaaS-based clinical development solutions addressing the functioning of customers’ clinical trials.

SpaceX launches Canadian surveillance satellites, lands another rocket successfully in California. SpaceX successfully launched three satellites built by Maxar Technologies’ subsidiary MDA in a mission called “RADARSAT Constellation.” This was the seventh SpaceX launch this year. Less than eight minutes after liftoff, SpaceX landed the large “booster” stage of the Falcon 9 rocket at the company’s pad in California. The Falcon 9 rocket’s lower “booster” stage previously launched the company’s “Demo-1” mission in March of this year before it landed for reuse. Founded in 2012 by Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, SpaceX, is an aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company.

Is Mark Zuckerberg lying about not knowing about the problematic privacy practices at Facebook? Facebook Inc. uncovered emails that appear to connect Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to potentially problematic privacy practices at the company, according to a report from Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter. Facebook Worries Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices Internal exchanges uncovered in response to FTC probe could cast doubt on founder’s commitment to user privacy, people familiar with the matter say. Facebook stock drops by 2 percent on the news.