Stripe, Visa join $8 million Series A round in African payments start-up Paystack

Lagos – 28th August 2018 - Paystack, a Nigeria-based start-up providing payments tools to businesses in Africa, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Stripe, and includes Visa, follow-on funding from Tencent and Y Combinator, as well as angel investors Tom Stafford (Managing Partner at DST Global), Gbenga Oyebode (founding partner of Aluko & Oyebode and Board member of MTN Nigeria), and Dale Mathias (Co-founder, Innovation Partners Africa).  This brings Paystack’s total investment to date to more than $10 million. Within a little over two years, Paystack's all-African team has grown to process nearly 15% of all online payments in Africa's largest economy, powering tens of thousands of businesses of all sizes including telcos, airlines, and government agencies.
https://paystack.frontify.com/d/5HvMw0IF9blo/paystack-media-kit#/press-releases/series-a-press-release

CyrusOne Inc. Announces Closing of Zenium Acquisition
Dallas – 27th August 2018 - CyrusOne Inc, a global data center REIT, has announced that it has closed its previously announced acquisition of Zenium Data Center, a hyperscale data center provider with properties in London and Frankfurt - Europe’s two largest data center markets. “We are thrilled to enter the European marketplace through the milestone closing of the Zenium acquisition,” said Jonathan Schildkraut, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of CyrusOne. “By the end of 2019, we expect our European platform to provide nearly 250 megawatts of potential data center inventory, inclusive of both the Zenium platform together with our organic site development efforts, spread across four major markets, giving us one of the largest platforms in Europe. With this closing achieved, we will now broaden our expansion efforts to include additional markets in other key geographies across the globe.”
http://investor.cyrusone.com/news-releases/news-release-details/cyrusone-inc-announces-closing-zenium-acquisition

VMware Announces Intent to Acquire CloudHealth Technologies, a Global Platform for Multi-Cloud Operations
Las Vegas – 27th August 2018 - VMware, Inc, announced at VMworld 2018, that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire CloudHealth Technologies. With over 3,000 global customers, CloudHealth Technologies delivers a cloud operations platform across AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. The platform enables customers to help analyze and manage cloud cost, usage, security and performance centrally for native public clouds. “Multi-cloud usage while beneficial to business creates a unique set of operational problems.” said Raghu Raghuram, Chief Operating Officer, products and cloud services, VMware. “With the addition of CloudHealth Technologies we are delivering a consistent and actionable view into cost and resource management, security and performance for applications across multiple clouds.”
https://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-newsfeed.VMware-Announces-Intent-to-Acquire-CloudHealth-Technologies-a-Global-Platform-for-Multi-Cloud-Operations.1557121.html

Accenture Completes Acquisition of Pillar Technology to Expand Industry X.0 Capabilities
Colombus, Ohio – 27th August 2018 – Accenture has completed the acquisition of smart embedded software company, Pillar Technology, significantly expanding its Industry X.0 practice in North America. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Pillar Technology has a team of 320 people and offices in Des Moines, Iowa; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Palo Alto, California. Pillar Technology brings more than 20 years of experience in the rapid, agile development of high-quality and user-friendly embedded software used in smart, connected products such as autonomous vehicles.

Accenture first announced the acquisition two weeks ago, together with the acquisition of San Francisco-based hardware engineering firm Mindtribe. The two complementary deals boost Accenture Industry X.0’s ability to help companies redefine smart connected software and physical products. Accenture Industry X.0 helps companies address the shift to digital products and services, transform their engineering, manufacturing and field operations, and digitize their enterprises.
https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/accenture-completes-acquisition-of-pillar-technology-to-expand-industry-x0-capabilities.htm

EY-Parthenon Acquires Bulger Partners - Enhances Strategic Advisory Offerings for the Software Economy
24th August 2018 - Ernst & Young US LLP has announced its acquisition of the management and strategy consulting business of Bulger Partners, LLC, a firm specializing in the software industry that has advised on over $40 billion in software-related transactions. The acquisition was completed Friday, August 24, and the former Bulger practice will operate under the EY-Parthenon brand. The acquisition will expand and deepen EY-Parthenon’s advisory services as technological convergence drives demand for software-focused advice. The combined business establishes a leading strategic advisory software practice, serving private equity investors and their portfolio companies from diligence through strategy and execution.
https://www.parthenon.ey.com/po/en/about/news-ey-parthenon-acquires-bulger-partners-

Vinacapital Ventures Officially Launches - Invests in Two Tech Start Ups
VinaCapital, an investment management firm in Vietnam, has officially launched VinaCapital Ventures, a US$100 million technology holding company and announced its first investments in Logivan and FastGo, two technology enabled start-ups providing solutions for the transportation and logistics markets in Vietnam. Consistent with VinaCapital’s strategy to invest in technology companies in Vietnam over the past ten years, VinaCapital Ventures will enable the group to capitalize on new opportunities in Vietnam’s fast-rising tech sector. “While manufacturing and property get most of the attention and investment in Vietnam, tech – and start-ups in particular – hold the greatest promise for the country,” said Don Lam, VinaCapital Co-founder and CEO. “Technology is playing a transformative role in all manufacturing and service sectors and will drive Vietnam’s economy forward. That’s why venture capital, including supporting start-ups and entrepreneurs, has been a key part of VinaCapital’s business for the past 15 years. With VinaCapital Ventures, we look forward to working with founders to bring Vietnamese technology products to the regional market and contribute to Vietnam’s socioeconomic sustainable development”.
https://vinacapital.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/VinaCapital-Ventures-Press-release-EN.pdf

Tech-Mahindra Acquires Czech engineering services firm Inter-Informatics for €5.4 million
Mumbai – 22nd August 2018 - IT services firm, Tech Mahindra, has announced it will acquire Czech-based engineering services firm, Inter-Informatics for €5.4 million (around ₹8 crore). “The investment committee of the Board of Directors of the company has approved the proposal to acquire a 100 per cent shareholding on a fully diluted basis in Inter-Informatics,” the software services provider said in a BSE filing. Inter-Informatics has a presence in the Czech Republic and Romania and, in 2017, posted revenues of $10.7 million. Tech Mahindra is to acquire Inter-Informatics through its subsidiary Mahindra Engineering Services Ltd (Europe). The deal is set to boost the company’s presence in the cabin engineering space as well as providing a highly skilled engineering team, focussed on the aerospace vertical. Tech Mahindra is already building teams in Europe and the US to cater to specialised software deals that require direct customer interaction.
This is the third acquisition by Tech Mahindra in the last two years.
https://www.techmahindra.com/

Accenture Forms Strategic Alliance, Invests in Chinese AI Start-up Malong Technologies
New York and Shenzhen, China – 13th August 2018 – Accenture has formed a strategic alliance with and made a minority investment in Malong Technologies, an artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, headquartered in Shenzhen, China. Malong has been recognized by global companies and organizations and analyst firms as an AI pioneer and innovation leader. The alliance gives Accenture a strategic AI presence in China and forms part of its wider regional growth strategy. Malong’s product recognition and auto-tagging technology, ProductAI®, lets machines "see" physical objects the way a person does. Retailers can use it to make product checkouts much more efficient and allow their customers to shop for items by taking a picture of it with their smartphones. Other use cases include defect detection in manufacturing to drive quality, baggage scanning for improved safety, and analyzing medical images to help doctors make critical decisions faster. https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/accenture-forms-strategic-alliance-invests-in-chinese-ai-start-up-malong-technologies.htm