1.7B

Big moves ahead for Kahoot, the Oslo startup that’s built a popular platform for users to create, share and play education-focused “games”, played by billions of students and adults over the years. The company has announced that it is going fully private in an all-cash PE deal at 35 NOK per share, valuing Kahoot at $1.7 billion (17.2 billion Norwegian kroner) based on 492,836,049 shares issued and outstanding. The private equity division of Goldman Sachs Assets Management is leading the acquisition, with existing…

The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has given the go-ahead to Amazon’s proposed billion-dollar iRobot acquisition, concluding that the deal “would not lead to competition concerns in the U.K.” Amazon first revealed plans to buy robot vacuum maker iRobot for $1.7 billion last August, though the megabucks deal was always likely to draw scrutiny from regulators. The European Commission (EC) will decide by July 6 whether to clear the deal (with or without remedies) or launch a full-scale investigation,…

In the latest announcement from an automaker to expand electric vehicle manufacturing in the US, BMW released Wednesday it will invest $1.7 billion in its US EV operations to boost output. After setting a new US delivery record in the third quarter with 4,337 EVs delivered, BMW plans to accelerate the pace even further. The US just hit 6% EV market share in the third quarter as it progresses towards its goal of 50% by 2030. With new federal incentives and a shifting consumer preference for EVs, demand is only…

A BMW i4 electric car. BMW will invest $1 billion in its sprawling factory near Spartanburg, South Carolina, to start building electric vehicles and an additional $700 million to build a electric-battery plant nearby. The German automaker's announcement Wednesday reflects its commitment to…

Swedish last-mile delivery companies Instabox and Budbee have have announced plans to merge in a 18 billion krona ($1.7 billion) deal. The two companies, which were both founded out of the Stockholm area in 2015, serve as the delivery and logistics partner for major brands including multinational clothing retailer H&M, offering delivery services directly to people’s homes as well as automated lockers in key hubs where they operate: Instabox operates in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands,…

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Happy Friday, y’all! Start your weekend off right with some delicious podcast morsels from Equity, Found and Chain Reaction. Also, time is ticking away on a $1,300 savings for TechCrunch Disrupt, so get on that before 11:59 p.m. PDT today. We hope you have a good weekend, see ya Monday!  — Christine The TechCrunch Top 3 Double “ring” ceremony: Amazon and iRobot’s…

Katie Roof / Bloomberg: FrontApp, which offers the Front customer communications tool, raised $65M led by Salesforce and Battery at a $1.7B post-money valuation, up from $859M in 2020 — Customer communication software maker FrontApp Inc. is now valued at $1.7 billion after receiving $65 million in financing led by Salesforce Ventures and Battery Ventures. Katie Roof / Bloomberg: FrontApp, which offers the Front customer communications tool, raised $65M led by Salesforce and Battery at a $1.7B…

Manya Saini / Reuters: HomeLight, which offers AI tools for home buyers, sellers, and real estate agents, raised a $115M Series D at a $1.7B valuation, $60M in equity and $55M in debt — HomeLight said on Thursday it had raised $115 million in a late-stage funding round that valued the real-estate home technology platform at $1.7 billion. Manya Saini / Reuters: HomeLight, which offers AI tools for home buyers, sellers, and real estate agents, raised a $115M Series D at a $1.7B valuation, $60M in…