Top tech startup news for today, Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Hola! Below are some of the top tech startup news for today, Wednesday, October 20, 2019.

Apple’s stock is on tear as the tech giant beat Wall Street’s expectations. Apple’s stock is on fire today as the company rakes in $64 billion in quarterly revenue versus $62.99 billion estimate. The revenue boost is partially attributed to 18% growth in Apple’s services business and 54% growth in wearables, including the AirPods. However, iPhone sales came in lighter than expected. During the quarter, Apple’s iPhone revenue was $33.36 billion versus $32.42 billion estimate. Apple now has $205.9 billion in its war chest, down 2.2% from previous quarter.

Gympass uses $300M Softbank funding to launch NYC Tech Hub with Kiril Tsemekhman. Following their recent $300M funding from Softbank, the corporate wellness leader GymPass will be opening its first Tech Hub in NYC, launching a data science hub and an AI Applications team that will be used to create meaningful and efficient experiences through customization of the user’s journey on the platform.   On a mission to defeat inactivity, Gympass helps companies revolutionize how inactive employees engage in physical activity, driving lasting behavioral change. Gympass currently has over 2000+ clients across 14 countries and nearly 47,000 gym and studio partners.

Twitter bans political ads after Facebook refused to do so to protect free speech. Just last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before United Congress to defend his not to fact-check or remove ads placed by politicians. To avoid similar backlash and criticism, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced Wednesday that the social network will no longer allow political ads on its website. In a tweet posted on his site, Jark Dorsey said: “We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons..”

Artificial intelligence startup Aegis AI rebrands as Actuate; launches new intruder-and-threat-detection AI solutions to keep the society safer from gun threats. Aegis AI, an artificial intelligence startup that builds software which employs computer vision to automatically detect weapons in security camera feeds, today announced that it’s rebranding as Actuate and launched new AI threat-detection features. Actuate was founded in early 2018 by University of Chicago MBAs Sonny Tai and Ben Ziomek. Tai is a former Marine Corps captain who spent his formative years in Johannesburg, South Africa, where gun violence rates are some of the highest in the world, while Ziomek brings deep data science and AI expertise gained from his time as a program manager at Microsoft.

Curated raises $27.5M in seed and Series A funding to scale its platform and boost its staff strength. Curated, an online shopping platform that matches customers with experts, announced $27.5m in funding to continue investing in their team and experts, improving the online platform, marketing to scale the business and expanding to more shopping categories that have low online penetration. The round was led by Forerunner Ventures. Backers in the company also included a variety of LinkedIn executives, the former chairman of online specialty retailer Backcountry.com, Michael Zeisser, and John Burbank of Passport Capital. Founded in 2017 and led by Eduardo Vivas, CEO, Curated is an online shopping platform that matches customers with experts for items that have some degree of complexity, like outdoor sports equipment and travel experiences.

Rockbridge Growth Equity acquires ProSites from The Riverside Company. Rockbridge Growth Equity, a private equity firm in a Detroit, has acquired ProSites, a tech startup and provider of comprehensive online marketing solutions, from The Riverside Company. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. Founded in 2003 and led by Dave Rutan, CEO, ProSites specializes in website design and hosting, reputation management, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising and practice communication software. The company serves more than 14,000 clients in the dental, medical, financial and accounting practices and is endorsed by 12 state dental associations.

Brut. expands with launch in the U.S., raises $40M in new funding. Brut., the next-gen global digital media brand startup for millennials and Gen Z, today announced its official launch in the U.S. Brut. also announced it raised approximately $40M in Series B funding to continue its worldwide expansion, starting with bolstering its operations in the U.S.  The round was led by Red River West and blisce. Other backers include Aryeh Bourkoff, Founder and CEO of LionTree LLC, and Eric Zinterhofer, Founding Partner of Searchlight Capital Partners.  Founded in 2017, Brut. is building an unmatched community around the world, delivering socially conscious news and entertainment across eight social platforms

Datanomix secures $2M to grow its manufacturing analytics platform and convert machine data streams from shop floor into actionable insights. Datanomix, a tech startup with focus on the global Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) digital transformations, has raised $2 million in a fresh round of capital to fuel commercialization and further development of their Fusion product. The round was led by Bruce Sachs, with participation from Wasabi Ventures, York.IE, Alumni Ventures, Argon Ventures, WPI and several local angels. Founded in 2015 by enterprise data veterans John Joseph (CEO) and Greg McHale (CTO), the Nashua, New Hampshire-based Datanomix offers a manufacturing Analytics platform that combines machine data streams from your shop floor into actionable insights for your top floor. Focused on the global Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) digital transformations, Datanomix extend value far beyond traditional data visualization and process productivity tools.