Snapchat enters gaming landscape; SpaceX sends Space Station payload; scooter startup attains $300 million.
Santa Monica’s electric scooter company Bird has raised $300 million in its latest funding round underwritten by venture firm Sequoia Capital. As a part of this round, Roelof Botha, partner at Sequoia Capital, will join Bird’s board of directors. The beginning of the round was raised while Bird was valued at $2 billion, Axios reports.
Business Insider reports that Snap Inc. of Venice will soon launch a gaming platform for its Snapchat app. The mobile gaming option will offer instant games within the app, useful to Snap because games increase overall time users are actively engaged with the app itself. It’s also expected that this platform will have a social leaderboard feature. A move to augmented reality gaming, a market with an anticipated value of $284.93 billion by 2023, could be a wise business decision for Snap.
International Space Station Resupplied by SpaceX
Space Explorations Technology Corp., Elon Musk’s Hawthorne-headquartered aerospace company, officially launched its 15th mission to the International Space Station June 29. The most recent supply payload is one of 20 that SpaceX has been contracted to deliver to the Space Station, and carried an estimated 6,000 pounds of supplies and research materials for over 250 projects. SpaceX launched their CRS-15 rocket, the fastest reusable rocket to date, from the Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Socal Tech reports.
Tech reporter Samson Amore can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8335. Follow him on Twitter @samsonamore.
