Last week in the Bay Area tech scene, multiple giants made major moves to capitalize on specific industries. There were also a number of interesting funding rounds, and we kicked off our Future 5 coverage, which highlights innovative early-stage startups. In case you missed it, here’s last week’s top news from Silicon Valley. This is the Built In SF Weekly Refresh.
EBay announced plans to acquire TCGplayer for $295M. The e-commerce giant will add to its collectibles and trading cards offerings by absorbing TCGplayer, a New York-based digital media company with a focus on trading cards. It also develops technology to help buyers and sellers facilitate transactions. [Built In SF]
Inworld AI closed $50M in Series A funding. The company creates non-player characters (NPCs) in digital worlds through its no-code creation studio. Plans for the funding co-led by Section 32 and Intel Capital were not disclosed. This round brings Inworld’s total raised capital to $70 million. [Built In SF]
Bay Area Tech Quote of the Week
Afropolitan featured in the Future 5 series. As part of our continuing series featuring innovative early-stage startups, we spoke with Afropolitan about its four-part plan to create the world’s first digital nation. The Web3 company is building a “Network State” for the African Diaspora. It is now in its first stage of the plan and eventually plans to develop its own internal economy and buy land for a physical presence. [Built In SF]
YouTube launched a new podcast homepage. The company quietly unveiled its dedicated homepage to broaden its reach in the podcast industry one year after its first investments into the space. Last year, the company hired podcast executive Kai Chuk to lead YouTube’s venture into the space. So far the homepage is only available in the U.S. and has not been optimized to individual user trends. [Built In SF]
Limitless Guided Visualizations was featured as a Future 5 company. The company helps users rework their internal thoughts through what it calls metacognitive healing methodology (MHM), whole-body experiences that pull from psychedelic and traditional medicines. The company is currently in a growth stage, doing research with its clinical partner and hiring for various leadership roles. [Built In SF]
Carbon acquired ParaMatters. Carbon is a 3D-printing technology company that helps companies develop products quickly in order to accelerate market delivery. It has acquired ParaMatters, a software provider specializing in additive manufacturing. The acquisition is expected to expand Carbon’s current software capabilities by adding topology optimization. Carbon is also hiring. [Carbon]
In other funding news, vector database company Zilliz raised a $60M Series B extension, which will be used to expand its engineering and go-to-market teams. [Business Wire]
Headroom closed $9M in a funding round led by Equal Opportunity Ventures, which it will use to expand its team and invest in product development. The company’s platform helps make virtual meetings more productive and entertaining by harnessing the power of AI. [Built In SF]
Offering data-driven career coaching to businesses and their employees, Blossom raised $1.5M to hire new talent, further develop its AI platform and more. [Built In SF]
