Startups

Aug 05 Google Startups

Alphabet Dumps More Than 90% Of Its Stake In Robinhood

Google parent Alphabet has pared back large positions in multiple publicly traded firms.
The company sold off more than 4.3 million shares of the trading platform.
Alphabet still held about 612,000 shares of Robinhood as of June 30.

Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Vision Fund II filed suit against a former portfolio company, alleging massive fraud by the founding coterie, all of whom were relatives.
Buzzy social network startup IRL was valued at $1 billion and raised $150 million from SoftBank.
SoftBank alleged that the founders pumped up user numbers and engagement.

Preply said it bagged $70 million in fresh funding from Horizon Capital, a Ukraine-focused venture fund, Reach Capital and Hoxton Ventures.
The company plans to use the funds to assist its rapid expansion into AI, having launched new teaching assistants to enhance language learning.
It comes as tech investors have been racing to jump into AI, with many companies in the space raising seismic sums at sky-high valuations.

Kahoot has announced that it is going fully private in an all-cash PE deal at 35 NOK per share, valuing Kahoot at $1.7 billion (17.2 billion Norwegian kroner) based on 492,836,049 shares issued and outstanding.
The private equity division of Goldman Sachs Assets Management is leading the acquisition, with existing Kahoot backers General Atlantic, LEGO Group’s KIRKBI Invest A/S (“KIRKBI”) and Glitrafjord named as the other major shareholders in the deal.

Flipkart commenced a $700 million “one-time discretionary” cash payout to employees on Friday, the single-largest such compensation in the Indian startup ecosystem.
The Walmart-backed Bengaluru-headquartered startup is compensating employees for the separation of fintech PhonePe from the e-commerce group, a move that devalued Flipkart’s shares.