MILAN/LONDON Feb 3 (Reuters) - Italy's Data Protection Agency said on Friday it was prohibiting artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot company Replika from using the personal data of Italian users, citing risks to minors and emotionally fragile people. Replika, a San Francisco startup launched in 2017, offers users customized avatars that talk and listen to them. It has led the way among English speakers, and is free to use, though it brings in around $2 million in monthly revenue from selling bonus features such as voice chats. The'virtual friend' is marketed as being able to improve the emotional well-being of the user. But the Italian watchdog said that by intervening in the user's mood, it "may increase the risks for individuals still in a developmental stage or in a state of emotional fragility".

Tredence, the Data Science and AI Solutions company, announced it has raised USD 175 million in Series B funding from Advent International (Advent) to accelerate data-fueled growth and AI value realization for industries. Advent is one of the largest and most experienced global private equity investors. The full financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed. Advent will acquire a minority stake in Tredence with the $175 million investment. Advent has significant investment experience in the technology services and software sectors.

These new companies and health tech startups business are leveraging technology to reinvent medicine for the benefit of researchers, patients, and clinicians. This is a positive development for all parties involved. In the realm of medicine, the use of various technological advancements, such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, in addition to big data analysis and the connectivity of internet-connected items, play an essential role. There has been a shift toward placing a greater focus on the use of health tech startups in the medical industry, and as a direct consequence of this shift, new companies have been established to profit from this trend. These recently established companies have come up with novel approaches to diagnose and treat patients, increased the number of treatment alternatives that are available at more reasonable prices, and sped up the procedure of drug research and development.

Apromore, a leading provider of value-driven process mining software, announced its Series B funding round of USD $10.3 million (AUD $15.8 million) with investment from Salesforce and GBTEC, a Main Capital Partners backed company. In addition to the investment, Apromore has established a partnership with Salesforce to provide transparent connectivity between Salesforce Clouds and the Apromore process mining platform, leveraging MuleSoft technology. The combined solution enables organizations to seamlessly uncover friction points, bottlenecks, and optimization opportunities in their sales and service processes. "As businesses look for solutions to improve profitability, customer experience, and efficient delivery to combat rising costs, process mining is providing a competitive advantage of increased agility against ongoing economic disruption" The Series B round will enable Apromore to expand its product capabilities and connectivity options to meet the growing demand for best-of-breed process mining solutions from financial services, telecom, and other service-oriented businesses. Additionally, the investment will allow Apromore to further develop its geographic presence and extend its product portfolio into the field of prescriptive process analytics and AI-augmented process optimization.

Cogent Growth Partners (CGP), the leading buy-side intermediary for IT Services mergers and acquisitions, announced that it advised rockITdata in their recent strategic acquisition of Pharos Group, Inc. "Alignment of cultures and fit of the opportunity are two of the most important factors needed to assure M&A success," said George Sierchio, Executive Vice President and Senior Partner, Cogent Growth Partners. "rockITdata and Pharos Group share vast federal government market expertise and a very similar cultural with both companies being designated as Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses, which, when combined with rockITdata's deep AI and ML-enabled technology, should position them well for their business objectives surrounding revolutionary changes in this technology landscape." Recommended AI: "Bitcoin Has No Intrinsic Value". Then What Gives Bitcoin Value? Founded in 2019, rockITdata has rapidly ascended the cloud integration market, becoming an AWS Advanced Tier Partner and Public Sector Service Provider.

HawkEye 360 Inc., a leading commercial provider of space-based radio frequency (RF) data and analytics, announced the transition from Amazon Web Services (AWS) commercial services to AWS GovCloud (US) as a foundational element of their overall approach to protecting sensitive and controlled data. AWS GovCloud (US) is designed to host sensitive data, regulate workloads, and address stringent U.S. government security and compliance requirements. "Our AWS GovCloud (US) migration is a significant milestone for HawkEye 360. The move to AWS GovCloud (US) facilitates the development and delivery of export-controlled products and services and demonstrates to our customers the security and integrity of our data and analytics," said HawkEye 360 Vice President of Engineering, Chris Gregory. AWS GovCloud (US) is FedRAMP compliant and provides a robust platform for HawkEye 360 to develop and deliver products as well as streamlines the assessment process that demonstrates to the US government that HawkEye 360 is meeting the applicable requirements of the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), as well as the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Level 2 and NIST-800-171.

Dataloop, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based technology company that builds data infrastructure and a data operating system for AI companies, raised $33M in Series B funding. The round was led by NGP Capital and Alpha Wave Ventures, with participation from Amiti Ventures, F2 Venture Capital, and OurCrowd. The company intends to use the funds for global expansion, specifically by building teams in the US, Europe, and India. Led by CEO Eran Shlomo, Dataloop provides a platform for businesses of any size to move their AI project into production from start to finish, for uplifting AI effectiveness across many industries including retail, agriculture, robotics, autonomous vehicles, construction, and more. The data centric platform offers a developer-first full data life-cycle management platform in order to speed up this process.

Icertis, a Bellevue, WA-based provider of a contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform, raised $150M in funding. Silicon Valley Bank provided the revolving credit facility and convertible financing from Silicon Valley Bank. The company intends to use the funds to further extend its leadership position in the CLM category by accelerating the application of transformational technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain. Icertis provides an AI-powered, analyst-validated Contract Intelligence (ICI) platform that helps companies structure critical commercial, legal, and operational data within contracts and connect that data to surrounding procurement, ERP, HCM, and CRM systems, enabling many of the world's largest enterprises to accelerate revenue, reduce costs, better manage risk, and ensure compliance. Today, iconic brands and innovators use Icertis to govern the rights and commitments in their 10 million contracts worth more than $1 trillion in 40 languages and 90 countries.

OpenAI, whose text- and image-generating artificial intelligence has become a mainstream hit, is in advanced talks to raise more funding from Microsoft, which previously backed the startup with capital that includes credits to use Microsoft's Azure cloud computing services to develop its technology, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions. A new deal could help Microsoft grow Azure usage, one of its top priorities, while keeping OpenAI's business away from rivals including Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. The talks follow a previously undisclosed sale of OpenAI stock by existing shareholders last year to investors including Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, Bedrock Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. In that deal, the price of the shares implied a valuation of nearly $20 billion for the seven-year-old startup, said several people with knowledge of the deal.

Modulate, a leader in the fight against online toxicity, announced the completion of a $30 million Series A funding round led by Lakestar with participation from existing investors Everblue Management, Hyperplane Ventures, and others. In addition, Mika Salmi, Managing Partner of Lakestar, will join Modulate's Board of Directors. The company will use the funds to expand its team and continue scaling its groundbreaking proactive voice moderation platform, ToxMod. "ToxMod is changing the way game developers attack toxic behavior in their communities and this funding is a real validation of our mission to make online communities safer," said Mike Pappas, CEO of Modulate. "We're thrilled to welcome Mika and his vast store of experience to the Board as we grow our team and ramp up the development and deployment of ToxMod."