Funding
Anonymous messaging app Yik Yak has raised $62 million in funding, according to the Wall Street Journal. The investment values the one-year-old company in the “low hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to the report. Sequoia Capital, which also invested in WhatsApp, another messaging service which was bought by Facebook for more than $22 billion, led this round of investment in Yik Yak. The company describes its service as a local bulletin board for a user’s area, but has come under fire recently from some claiming the app is home to cyber bullies. Yik Yak is particularly popular in U.S. colleges.
Sentient Technologies, which provides large-scaled artificial intelligence, has emerged from stealth with a $103.5 million funding round. Access Industries led the round while Tata Communications, Horizons Ventures and a group of private investors all participated. The company has now raised a total of more than $143 million to date. “Making sense of massive amounts of data is critical for consumer-facing digital businesses,” said Jörg Mohaupt from Access Industries. “We are delighted to be investors in Sentient and will apply its technology to our portfolio of e-commerce, media and entertainment businesses so that they can do innovative things and create new products for their customers. We look forward to supporting Sentient in its growth and development.”
Series E
Enterprise performance management (EPM) startup Host Analytics has raised $25 million in a Series E round led by CenterView Capital Technology. Existing investors Advanced Technology Ventures, Next World Capital, StarVest Partners and Trident Capital all participated in the round. The company will use the funds for growth in the U.S. and for international expansion. Host Analytics, a former Red Herring Top 100 winner, has now raised a total of $77 million to date. “We have an amazing opportunity, the upmarket position in cloud EPM, and are the fastest-growing company in the space,” said Dave Kellogg, CEO of Host Analytics. “We’re thrilled to be working with Centerview and to leverage their deep operational expertise as we continue the process of building an epic company.”