IBM to acquire Ustream

IBM is buying San Francisco-based live video stream provider Ustream to help sell more video services to clients, including the National Football League, HBO and the Food Network, through its cloud platform. IBM is spending $130 million to buy the start-up. Founded in 2007, Ustream has raised $50 million from investors, including SoftBank Group Corp's venture arm and DCM Ventures, Bloomberg News said.

Delivery Hero gears up for IPO
Delivery Hero Holding GmbH, the online food delivery start-up partly owned by Rocket Internet SE, has picked three banks, including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs Group, to advise on a share listing this year. An initial public offering of the Berlin-based firm could raise as much as ^1 billion, according to a Bloomberg News report.

Digital Asset raises $52 million

Digital Asset Holdings, the blockchain start-up run by former JPMorgan Chase & Co banker Blythe Masters, has raised $52 million from investors and won a contract to radically speed up settlement in Australia's stock market. The funding round was more than two times oversubscribed and values New York-based Digital Asset at $100 million, according to Bloomberg News.

Alibaba to invest in Ele.me
China's Ele.me, a food-delivery start-up backed by Tencent Holdings, plans to close a funding round of at least $1.25 billion in a deal led by competitor Alibaba Group Holding. Alibaba will be Ele.me's controlling shareholder after the funding, which values the service at $4.5 billion. The deal could be announced by the Lunar New Year holiday starting February 8. Ele.me was in merger talks with group-buying site Meituan.com, but those fell apart, Bloomberg News said.

TravelersBox raises $10 million
Israel-based TravelersBox, which provides a solution to the pesky foreign currency left in your pocket after a trip, has closed $10 million in a Series-A funding round, led by Arbor Ventures. "There are more than three billion international travellers every year, and our mission is to provide an easy way to regain the lost value of their unused foreign currency," said Tomer Zussman, founder and CEO of TravelersBox.
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