Airbnb Inc has authorised the sale of an additional US$153 million in Series F shares, bringing the size of its current fundraising effort to about US$1 billion, according to Tech Crunch.

This was suggested by a new Delaware filing for Airbnb on Friday, identified by research firm CB Insights. The amount comes as an extension to their financing US$555 million round back in September 2016.

With the latest round, the filing prices the shares at US$105, which is consistent with the financing values the home-rental startup said at about US$30 billion.

Details of the equity are still unknown and it is not clear which investors might be getting these shares or if the round is even confirmed.

Dating back to its founding in 2008, Airbnb has raised more than US$3 billion in capital. Previous Airbnb backers include Google Capital, Technology Crossover Ventures, GGV Capital and Sequoia Capital.

The San Francisco-based company has secured a US$1 billion debt facility this year from banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, Bank of America Corp and Morgan Stanley.

The company also used some of its capital to buy back shares from Morgan Stanley this year.

Airbnb does not have a comment on the filing.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

Hong Kong provider of global logistics and fulfillment startup Floship Global Ecommerce Fulfillment recently announced that the company has successfully closed a pre-series A US$3.5 million bridge funding round earlier this December.

This fundraising was participated by Taiwan’s early stage technology-focused Cherubic Ventures, Hong Kong’s Big Boom and Empiricus Capital, as well as China’s Regent Capital.

“We are grateful for the investment of Ardent Capital and Vectr Ventures in earlier funding rounds, and our team is honored to be working with such respected investors as Cherubic Ventures, Big Bloom Capital, Empiricus Capital, and Regent Capital during this most recent round,” said Steve Suh, a Co-Founder of Floship.

Providing global e-commerce fulfillment directly from Hong Kong, Floship leverages on the strategic location of Hong Kong as the world’s number one air cargo hub, providing e-commerce vendors to compete in more markets from one centralized fulfillment warehouse.

“We are beyond excited about the results of our latest funding round. As our company continues to experience growth and gain positive traction in the marketplace, we could not be more thrilled about the validation we have gained from those who have made the decision to invest in our e-commerce fulfillment model,” said Steve Suh.

With the funds, Floship plans to accelerate the service improvements of their technology as well as increasing business expansion efforts through providing clients with seamless integration to ever more e-commerce platforms.

Besides, as Floship’s current technology integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, Dear Systems, and Aftership, the company is committed to building more integrations to shopping carts to serve more customers on a wider variety of e-commerce platforms.

Thus, the Floship’s team will also be working on accelerating the development of algorithms that help optimize shipping rates on a per package basis as well as building a set of tools to make it easier for online retailers to manage their daily global fulfillment at scale.

“As a leader in our industry, we differentiate ourselves by providing a highly automated fulfillment experience for online retailers utilizing multiple couriers to obtain the best rates for global e-commerce shipping.” Steve Suh explains.

To date, Floship has completed fulfillment for more than 100 crowdfunding campaigns, some of which have been the most successful in the world.

“But still, as a startup company that doesn’t have the luxury of standing still, we are always striving to improve. This latest funding round will allow us to do just that.” adds Steve Suh.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

Japanese space startup ALE is developing the technology to deliver on-demand man-made meteors, which could turn the night sky into a blank canvas.

The startup does this by launching a microsatellite packed with small pellets which will then release once it has reached the outer space to induce atmospheric re-entry.

This will result in meteors that are bright enough to be seen with the naked eye over the brightest city skies, potentially reaching audiences across a 200 km area in diameter on the ground.

The project is known as Sky Canvas and has attracted much attention as well as investment. As on Tuesday afternoon, the Tokyo-based space entertainment startup has raised up to JPY 700 million (about US$ 6 million) from angel investors.

Founded in 2011, it was a former investment banker with a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Tokyo, Lena Okajima who garnered private funding and collaboration with academics from three academic institutions to establish ALE.

With these funds, the company will officially launch its shooting star technology – Sky Canvas Project in 2018.

“Imagine a future, where you can use our meteors for international fireworks displays, a proposal for marriage, or a special memorial,” said Shinsuke Abe, ALE’s Research Director and Nihon University Aerospace Engineering Professor.

Besides, ALE’s artificial meteors can also serve another purpose – to be used as a vehicle to observe the upper atmosphere, to collect data on atmospheric re-entry of objects, and to better understand the nature of natural meteoroids.

Led by Lena Okajima and four research directors from academic institutions across Japan, ALE has begun publishing papers and presenting its findings from the project at space symposiums.

“We are excited to showcase our artificial meteor project, the very first of many we plan on undertaking as a space entertainment company,” Okajima said. “As the first pioneers in the space entertainment field we aim to consistently further the frontiers of this industry while contributing to scientific research.”

ALE has also disclosed plans to provide its artificial meteors to corporations and governments for entertainment purposes, such as outdoor festivals, sports games, city promotions and theme parks.

But it is very likely that the grand showcase for this outer space entertainment could be the opening of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which ALE is rumored to have bid to take part in.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

Video Url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHvyz3h-rRo