Top tech startup news for today, Tuesday, November 26, 2019 – Siemens, Cocoon, SoftBank, VTex, Cymulate, PriceFX

Good morning! Below are some of the top tech startup news for today, Tuesday, November 26, 2019.

Former Facebook employees launch Cocoon, a social media network for your family. Yesterday, Cocoon made its debut on Apple’s iOS just in time for the US Thanksgiving holidays. Unlike Facebook, Cocoon is a new social media network targeted at family. Founded by Sachin Monga and Alex Cornell, the Y Combinator-backed startup has raised $3 million for the new startup. Before launching Cocoon, Monga was a former product manager at Facebook. On their website, the startup claimed to be: “a special app for your most special relationships, designed to keep you close no matter where you are.”

AI healthtech startup Deep 6 AI secures $17M Series A to accelerate clinical trial recruitment. Deep 6 AI, an artificial intelligence-based healthtech startup and a provider of clinical trials acceleration software, announced it has raised $17M in Series A funding to accelerate the growth of its network of leading healthcare providers and trial sponsors and keep expanding its suite of innovative, AI-native software products. The round was led by Point72 Ventures, with GSR Ventures and strategic partners participating. The investment will build the company’s capacity to meet demand from healthcare providers, pharma companies, and contract research organizations for the company’s suite of AI-driven tools designed to accelerate and optimize clinical trials design, recruitment, and management.

Siemens acquires material modeling and simulation software startup MultiMechanics. Siemens, Global technology company, has acquired MultiMechanics, an Omaha, Nebraska-based material modeling and simulation software company.The amount of the deal was not disclosed. Founded in 2010 and led by Leandro Castro, Chief Executive Officer, MultiMechanics develops MultiMech, a material modeling and simulation software tool that allows companies to accelerate the product development lifecycle by virtually predicting failure in advanced materials at an unprecedented level of speed and accuracy.

SoftBank leads $140 million investment in Brazilian tech startup VTEX. VTEX, a multi-tenant cloud commerce provider platform that unifies customer experiences across all channels into a comprehensive enterprise solution, has closed a $140 million investment round from SoftBank’s Latin America fund in conjunction with Gávea Investimentos and Constellation Asset Management. According to VTEX, the new capital will be used to support its continued global expansion and advancements to its cloud commerce offerings. Founded in 1999 by Geraldo Thomaz and Mariano Gomide, the São Paulo, Brazil-based VTEX is a provider of SaaS with an auto-scaling elastic cloud infrastructure for higher conversion rates. The startup helps brands accelerate their unified commerce transformation. With an auto-scaling cloud infrastructure and a powerful set of tools, the platform accelerates the commerce transformation of complex operations.

Cymulate raises $15M in Series B Funding to accelerate growth. Cymulate, a Rishon Lezion, Israel-based SaaS-based Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) platform startup, has raised $15 million in Series B funding to accelerate further growth in the US, expanding sales, marketing and operational support to broaden the customer base, to broaden its approach beyond BAS by offering end-to-end security testing platform for the entire digital estate of organizations, incorporating on-prem, cloud, IoT and beyond. The round was led by Vertex Growth Fund with participation from other existing investing partners, including the investment arm of Vertex Ventures Israel, Dell Technologies Capital and Susquehanna Growth Equity (SGE). To date, Cymulate has raised $26 million in total funding.

Pricefx closes additional €23 million Series B funding round. PriceFx, a Munich, Germany-based SaaS pricing software startup announced today it has raised additional €23 million in Series B funding to expand the company’s award-winning pricing platform and engage in strategic M&A projects. The round, which brings the total funding to €48 million, was led by Digital+ Partners, a leading European B2B technology growth investor, and Bain & Company, one of the world’s top management consulting firms. Series A investor Talis Capital also participated in phase II. Founded in 2011, Pricefx delivers a complete price optimization and management platform based on native cloud architecture, providing industry leading time to value and total cost of ownership advantages to customers.