¸½½üÉÏÃÅ

Here’s what you need to know today in startup and venture news, updated by the ¸½½üÉÏÃÅ News staff throughout the day to keep you in the know.

Subscribe to the ¸½½üÉÏÃÅ Daily

Databricks lands $38B valuation after Series H raise

San Francisco-based data and AI company hit a post-money valuation of $38 billion after raising a $1.6 billion Series H led by . The new round comes just seven months after the company raised $1 billion at a $28 billion valuation.

The Series H includes new investors , and . Existing investors participating in the round include , funds and accounts managed by , , , , , , , , funds and accounts managed by , and .

Databricks creates tools and products to help companies view both structured and unstructured data in a single location—what it calls a data “lakehouse”—without moving between different systems.

The company has now raised a total of almost $3.6 billion, according to the company.

— Chris Metinko

Whoop scores fresh $200M for athletic performance tech

Athletic performance startup has raised $200 million in a Series F funding round at a $3.6 billion valuation led by 2. The Boston-based company said the latest funding has tripled its valuation in less than 12 months and follows on the heels of its October 2020 Series E, when it raised $100 million at a $1.2 billion valuation.

The company offers a digital fitness and wellness platform that connects with a wearable device to help people monitor and make changes to their sleep, recovery and fitness training schedules.

Other participating investors in WHOOP’s latest round include , , , , , and .

The funding makes WHOOP one of the highest-valued players in the world of sports tech startups, an industry that is seeing increased investment. Through early August, investors had spent nearly $790 million in the sector, per ¸½½üÉÏÃÅ data, with many of the largest rounds occurring in the last 12 months.

— Marlize van Romburgh

Indian ride-hailing platform Ola plans to raise $1B in IPO

India-based ride-hailing giant is reportedly planning a public offering and has been narrowing down its list of bankers for the IPO. Bankers currently involved in the planned offering include , and , per a Reuters report.

Ola, which has raised at least $4.3 billion in known funding to date, counts Singapore’s and among its largest backers.

— Joanna Glasner

Health tech

• Ellipsis Health gets $26M to use voice as a vital sign in mental health care: San Francisco-based has raised a $26 million Series A funding round for its AI-assisted platform to identify and quantify behavioral health conditions such as depression through voice assessment. The round was led by with participation from , at , , , , Gary Loveman, , , , , , , , , Ricardo Villela Marino, and . Ellipsis says its goal is to use a patient’s voice as a vital sign to help assess their mental health. “Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, Ellipsis Health generates a science-based assessment of stress, depression and anxiety from less than 60 seconds of a person’s natural speech,” the company said in a funding announcement.

Enterprise tech

• Peak raises $75M for decision-making AI software:Ìý, based in Manchester, U.K., said it has raised a $75 million Series C funding round to grow its enterprise AI software platform. The latest funding round was led by new investor 2, with participation from all existing investors including , , , Arete and . Peak’s software is in an area referred to as decision intelligence and is designed to help companies boost efficiency and increase business performance by embedding artificial intelligence into their core decision-making operations. The company said it will use the fresh capital in part to open new offices in the U.S. and India and for R&D investment.

Alternative finance

Hum closes Series A: New York-based closed a $9 million Series A investment led by , with participation from , and .

The company, which uses an AI-driven platform that matches private companies with institutional capital options, will use the new funding to scale its go-to-market operations and add new institutional investors.

Hum said in its release it has helped companies secure more than $400 million in capital commits since the start of the year.

— Chris Metinko

Fintech

• Buy Now Pay Later Jifiti closes on $22.5M: , the investment arm of Ingka Group, owner of stores, led the round in the point of sale company. a white-label service, works with banks, lenders and merchants. As of 2019 Jifiti has been offered in-store at Ikea in Spain, France, Portugal and Belgium. Ingka Group will work with Jifiti to extend its point of sale for e-commerce and in-store solutions across all its markets. Other retail customers include and .Ìý

Illustration: