Top tech startup news for today, Monday, September 23, 2019

Good morning! Below are some of the top tech startup news for today, Monday, September 23, 2019.

Microsoft launches e-commerce tools to compete with Amazon in the cloud business. Microsoft Monday announced the roll out of two e-commerce tools to take on Amazon in the cloud business space. The tools help retailers manage their business online. This is part of Microsoft latest attempt to attract customers who are in a constant battle with Amazon. The first tool, Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Commerce lets retailers create online product pages. The second tool is a service called Dynamics 365 Connected Store, which taps sensors to give insights to employees.

GitHub buys code analysis platform startup Semmle. Last week we wrote about GitHub when the San Francisco, CA-based startup raised new funding. Today, the provider of a platform to build and share code, has acquired Semmle, another San Francisco, CA-based provider of a code analysis platform for finding zero-days and automating variant analysis. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. GitHub provides a platform to share code with others and collaborate with them. Over 31 million people use it to build software across 97+ million repositories.

Kabbage founders raises over $11 Million in funding their new salesforce startup, Drum. Kabbage has lent over $7 Billion in capital to over 185,000 businesses in the last ten years, According to Bank Innovation. The founders, Rob Frohwein and Kathryn Petrali, are now foraying into a new area, which they believe is needed by every small business—more salespeople. Today, the duo announce the launch of their new startup, Drum, with over $11 million in funding. Drum aims tohelp lower the cost and expand access to salespeople for any business. Drum also enables anyone to earn money promoting businesses they believe in.

Israeli tech startup DustPhotonics raises $25M in Series B funding led by Intel Capital to develop pluggable optical modules for data centers. DustPhotonics, an Israeli tech startup that develops and manufactures pluggable optical modules and solutions for data center, enterprise and HPC applications, has secured $25 million Series B investment to fund its roadmap and expand its operations and global market presence. The round, which was  led by Intel Capital and joined by WRVI Capital, also includes a continued investment from veteran entrepreneur, Avigdor Willenz. Optical modules are hot-pluggable optical transceiver used in high-bandwidth data communications applications.

Digi-Prex, an Indian startup that uses WhatsApp to runs an online subscription pharmacy and serves patients with chronic diseases, has raised $5.5M in seed round. Digi-Prex, an Indian startup and a provider of Chronic disease management platform built on WhatsApp, has raised in $5.5M in seed round to provide patients with a holistic solution to assist in the management of their conditions. The round was led Khosla Ventures, Vedanta Capital, Y Combinator, Quiet Capital, and SV Angel, with participation from Justin Mateen, a founder of Tinder. The startup started 7 months ago by providing  patients with a subscription that allows them access to discounted medicines delivered to their home regularly and provides them access to a full service platform customized to their particular condition allowing them a one stop shop to assist in the management of their condition.

LiDAR technology startup Blickfeld unveils a new long-range LiDAR that detects obstacles at a distance of up to 250 meters. Today, Blickfeld, a Munich, Germany-based startup that develops and sells LiDAR sensors and provide the software to interpret complex 3d point clouds, announced the launch of Cube Range, a MEMS-based LiDAR sensor for extended detection of objects at a distance of up to 250 meters. In combination with the well-established Blickfeld Cube, Blickfeld now offers a full LiDAR suite for autonomous vehicles. The Cube Range sensor was designed as a robust and powerful 3D solid-state LiDAR for the mass market. It has a range of 150 meters with 10 percent reflection; a range of up to 250 meters is easily achievable with higher reflection. In addition, the Cube Range exhibits an impressive resolution of 0.18°.