TechTaffy

tech:

taffy

Ikea acquires TaskRabbit

By TechTaffy Desk

Swedish furniture giant Ikea has signed a conditional agreement to acquire San Francisco, CA-based on-demand services platform companyTaskRabbit for an undisclosed sum. The two companies had earlier worked on a pilot project in November 2016 in London to enable furniture-assembly services by Taskers to Ikea customers.

TaskRabbit connects consumers with ‘taskers’ to handle everyday needs such as furniture assembly, moving and packing, handyman work, and home improvements. The company’s service platform is available in 40 cities around the United States and in London.

“We will be able to learn from TaskRabbit’s digital expertise, while also providing Ikeacustomers additional ways to access flexible and affordable service solutions to meet the needs of today’s customer,” said Jesper Brodin, president and CEO of Ikea, talking on the transaction.

Ikea owns and operates 357 IKEA stores in 29 countries. The store’s online presence represents an e-commerce business with over two billion visits every year, according to the company.

[Image courtesy: TaskRabbit]

Just in

Series A

Tembo raises $14M

Cincinnati, Ohio-based Tembo, a Postgres managed service provider, has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round.
Around the web

Raspberry Pi is now a public company — TC

Raspberry Pi priced its IPO on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning at £2.80 per share, valuing it at £542 million, or $690 million at today’s exchange rate, writes Romain Dillet. 
Fundings

AlphaSense raises $650M

AlphaSense, a market intelligence and search platform, has raised $650 million in funding, co-led by Viking Global Investors and BDT & MSD Partners.
Around the web

Elon Musk’s xAI raises $6B to take on OpenAI — VentureBeat

Confirming reports from April, the series B investment comes from the participation of multiple known venture capital firms and investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding, writes Shubham Sharma. 
IT

Capgemini partners with DARPA to explore quantum computing for carbon capture

Capgemini Government Solutions has launched a new initiative with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to investigate quantum computing's potential in carbon capture.