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Vancouver-based Spacio acquired by HomeSpotter, adding open house lead generation to its services (BETAKIT)
All of Spacio’s employees and technology are joining HomeSpotter, with the combined teams now operating out of offices in both Minneapolis and Vancouver.
Wattpad, the Storytelling App, Will Launch a Publishing Division(NYTIMES)
The company will use what it calls Story DNA Machine Learning technology to take “the guesswork” out of the publishing equation.
Obo launches with $8.2 million to help companies get products right the first time (VENTUREBEAT)
Obo operates on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model to open product development plans so everyone in an organization can collaborate, from the top brass to product managers, engineers, and customer support teams.
Microsoft acquires another open-source company, Citus Data (CNBC)
The deal could help Microsoft make its argument that it supports open-source technologies, particularly in the cloud, while continuing to make money from popular proprietary software like Windows and Office.
Airbnb acquires Denmark’s Gaest to expand in bookings for meetings and offsites (TECHCRUNCH)
The acquisition points to two strategic developments at Airbnb, both aimed at helping the company diversity and grow its revenues.
Lever is the newest US-based startup expanding offices to Toronto(BETAKIT)
Founded in 2012, Lever offers companies a talent acquisition platform for teams to source, interview, and hire talent across all industries.
Varada raises $7.5 million to apply analytics to data lakes (VENTUREBEAT)
Varada, which uses an open-source Presto SQL query engine frontend and database connectivity via JDBC and ODBC, supports automated deployment in Amazon Web Services and most other secure virtual private cloud environments; it runs on a scalable, distributed architecture managed from a unified dashboard.
7shifts closes $10 million series A round to bring automation, compliance to restaurant management (BETAKIT)
The round was led by Napier Park Financial Partners, with participation from Teamworthy Ventures, Relay Ventures, and former CEO of Snagajob, Peter Harrison.
Kustomer nabs $35M to take on Zendesk and Salesforce with its Slack-like approach to CRM (TECHCRUNCH)
The round was led by Battery Ventures, with Redpoint Ventures, Canaan Partners, Boldstart Ventures, Social Leverage (Howard Lindzon’s fund) and Cisco Investments also participating.