The Briefing: AMD Buying Xilinx For $35B, Rockset Raises $40M, Moxie Launches Fitness Studio, And More

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

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AMD to buy Xilinx for $35B

Semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced it will buy chipmaker Xilinx in a $35 billion all-stock deal that stands to intensify its rivalry with Intel in the data center chip market.

Shares of AMD fell  in premarket trading, while those of Xilinx surged  after the deal was announced.

Dr. Lisa Su, AMD CEO, will lead the combined company as chief executive. Xilinx President and CEO, Victor Peng, will join AMD as president responsible for the Xilinx business and strategic growth initiatives, effective upon closing of the transaction.

Faire now valued at $2.5B following $170M Series E

Online wholesale marketplace Faire, which is connecting more than 100,000 local retailers and 10,000 brands, announced a $170 million Series E round of funding led by Sequoia Capital.

This investment raises the San Francisco-based company’s valuation to $2.5 billion, more than double the valuation from their Series D round that was announced in October 2019. It also brings the total funding for the company to $436 million since the company’s inception in 2016, according to Crunchbase data.

Joining Sequoia in the round were existing investors Y Combinator, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Forerunner Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, as well as participation from new investors D1 Capital Partners, DST Global, Dragoneer and Norwest Venture Partners.

Eightfold AI now a unicorn

Eightfold AI raised $125 million in Series D funding on a valuation of $1 billion. The company’s AI-powered Talent Intelligence Platform manages talent recruitment, retention and diversity.

General Catalyst led the round, which also included existing investors Capital One Ventures, Foundation Capital, IVP and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Total funding raised to date is more than $180 million.

Funding rounds

• Rockset closes $40M: Rockset, a real-time indexing database company, announced a $40 million Series B round of funding. Sequoia Capital led the oversubscribed round with participation from Greylock Both firms co-led Rockset’s Series A in 2018. This brings the company’s total amount raised to $61.5 million.
• Apeel bags $30M: Apeel, which develops plant-derived shelf life extension technology for fresh produce that improves quality and reduces food waste, announced $30 million in new funding from the International Finance Corporation, Temasek and Astanor Ventures. Apeel will use its new funding and technology to help smallholder farmers in emerging markets extend crop shelf life and gain access to new markets, including the U.S. and Germany.
• Human API brings in $20M: Human API, a company enabling consumers to connect and share electronic health data with companies they trust, announced a Series C funding round of more than $20 million. The round included Samsung Ventures, CNO Financial Group, Allianz Life Ventures and Moneta VC, as well as from existing investors BlueRun Ventures, SCOR Life and Health Ventures and Guardian Life Insurance.
• strongDM secures $17M: strongDM, a single sign-on company for backend infrastructure, raised $17 million in Series A funding. Sequoia Capital led the round with participation from all existing investors.
• Strider secures $10M: Strider Technologies, developing a software toolset to manage risk, closed on $10 million of Series A funding led by Koch Disruptive Technologies with One9 Ventures and existing investor DataTribe participating.
• Leading Edge raises $7.6M: Leading Edge Equipment Technologies, the maker of silicon wafer manufacturing equipment for solar panels, said it raised $7.6 million in Series A financing. The round was led by Prime Impact Fund with Clean Energy Ventures and DSM Venturing participating.
• Obsess inks seed round: E-commerce platform Obsess, which enables brands to create interactive, shoppable online virtual stores and showrooms, announced that it has closed a seed funding round led by Venture Reality Fund, WXR Fund and Jump Capital, bringing its total funding to $3.4 million.
• Moxie comes online with $2.1M: All-in-one online fitness studio Moxie launched with nearly 5,000 live classes and $2.1 million in seed funding from a group of investors that included Vectr.

New funds

• The Engine raises $230M for second fund: The Engine, the venture firm spun out of MIT that invests in early-stage Tough Tech companies focused on climate change, human health and advanced systems, announced its Fund II with $230 million in commitments. MIT provided anchor funding for Fund I and Fund II, bringing the total amount across the fundings to $435 million. Harvard University joins MIT in Fund II as a limited partner.
• Aristagora VC launches with $60M fund: New venture capital fund Aristagora VC, a collaboration between Israeli and Japanese general partners, announced its first fund of $60 million that will target seed-stage technology companies and serve as a feeder for later-stage investments and multi-stage exit strategies.
• Intuitive creates VC fund: Intuitive, creator of the da Vinci surgical system, said it created Intuitive Ventures and will start off with a $100 million fund to invest in startups focused on minimally-invasive care. Julian Nikolchev will lead the firm as president.

Other news

Snowflake gets into health care: Data cloud platform, and new public company, Snowflake is entering the health care industry through a partnership with Bridge Connector, an interoperability company. The integration of the two platforms will enable data liquidity for providers, technology vendors and payers to decrease time spent on cloud implementation.

Illustration: Dom Guzman