Visa is acquiring Plaid for US$3.5B, twice its final private valuation – TechCrunch
Visa today announced that it is buying financial services API startup Plaid for US$3.5 billion, in a deal that is expected to close in the next three or six months, TechCrunch reported.
Plaid is a platform that helps developers share banking and other financial information more easily, kind of what Stripe does for payments.
The report named the exit price, which is twice the company’s final private valuation, as “a triumph” for its investors. Plaid has raised a total of US$353.3 million, according to Crunchbase.
Another TechCrunch report stated that Visa, together with Mastercard, had “quietly” participated in a funding round for Plaid earlier.
Apple said to refuse the government’s request to unlock gunman’s iPhones – SCMP
US Attorney General William Barr criticised tech giant Apple on Monday for not giving “substantive assistance” to investigators in unlocking iPhones belonging to the perpetrator of a recent terrorist attack at a US Navy base in Florida, South China Morning Post reported.
The FBI had gotten court approval on probable cause to search the devices belonging to gunman Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani.
In a statement, Apple said that it was helping the investigation by providing information about the gunman’s Apple accounts, iCloud backups, and transaction information. It also stated that it has handed over “many gigabytes” of data to investigators, stating that it has provided “all of the information” it has.
Also Read: Today’s top tech news: Visa study says cross-border e-commerce sales poised for explosive growth
Lumitics raises seed funding to track the food wasted by Singapore’s F&B outlets, restaurants – e27
Singapore-based food waste tech startup Lumitics has raised US$557,000 in an oversubscribed seed funding round.
Co-led by the business angel and hospitality industry veteran Franck Courmont and ReadyVentures, the funding round also included Startup-O and Louise Daley (Deputy CEO of Accor Hotels Asia Pacific), who invested in her personal capacity.
With this, Lumitics’s total investment raised to date has exceeded US$743,000.
The startup said it will use the fresh investments for further product development, expand its market share in Singapore, and bring its solution to regional markets.
Capital markets platform iSTOX raises US$5M from Korea’s Hanhwa – e27
Singapore-based capital markets platform iSTOX has secured US$5 million in an investment round from South Korea-based Hanwha Asset Management.
iSTOX is a capital markets platform to support the one-stop issuance, custody, and trading of digitised securities. It is currently enrolled in the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) FinTech Regulatory Sandbox, and it expects to graduate in the first quarter of 2020.
Other key shareholders of iSTOX include Singapore Exchange (SGX), and Heliconia, a subsidiary of Temasek, which focusses on investing in fast-growing companies.
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