Technology

While denouncing the separation of migrant families as &inhumane,& chief executive officer Marc Benioff reportedly told employees that Salesforce will continue its contract with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) because ittechnology isn&t involved in the CBPU.S.-Mexico border policies. Benioffinternal memo, obtained by Bloomberg News, was in response to a recent petition signed by more than 650 Salesforce employees asking him to reexamine the deal in response to the Trumpadministrationpolicy of separating migrant families at the border.

On Tuesday, a federal judge issued an order to reunite families and end most separations. Salesforce has worked with the CPB since March, providing it with tools to manage staff recruiting and communication.

Known for his outspoken public support of progressive causes, Benioff wrote in the memo that he is &opposed to separating children from their families at the border. It is immoral. I have personally financially supported legal groups helping families at the border. I also wrote to the White House to encourage them to end this horrible situation.&

Though the contract will continue, Salesforce chief operating officer Keith Block said on Twitter that Salesforce will donate $1 million to organizations supporting separated families, while its non-profit, Salesforce.org, will match employee contributions.

Salesforce is one of several companies that have denounced the separations, but continue to do business with government agencies involved in border policies. These include Microsoft, which has a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Amazon, where employees reportedly asked chief executive officer Jeff Bezos to cancel contracts with government agencies that want to use its facial recognition tech. Google, on the other hand, reportedly decided not to renew a Pentagon contract after several employees resigned to protest its involvement with controversial AI research project Project Maven.

TechCrunch has contacted Salesforce for comment.

What3words, a startup that has divided the entire world into 57 trillion 3-by-3 meter squares and assigned three words to each one, has disclosed three new investors all from the automotive world.

What3words announced Thursday that the venture arm of Chinalargest auto group SAIC Motor, Formula 1 champion Nico Rosberg, and audio and navigation systems company Alpine Electronics have invested in the London-based company.Existing investor Intel Capital also participated in the round.

The latest funding round will be used to expand into new markets and product developments.

The investment, which was not disclosed, illustrates interest in the industry for technology that simplifies the user experience in cars, can be easily used with voice commands, and prepares companies for the age of autonomous vehicles. Since, theaddressing system gives a unique three-word combination to a location it fixes a major flaw with a lot of voice-operated navigation systems: duplicate street names.

The company has assigned these 57 trillion squares a unique three-word name using an algorithm that has a vocabulary of 25,000 words. The system, which anyone can use via the what3words app, is available in more than a dozen languages. For instance, if you want to meet a friend in a specific corner of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, you can send the three-word address prices.slippery.traps. An Airbnb host might use a three word address to direct a guest to a tricky entrance. Someday, riders might be able to say or type in a three-word address to direct a self-driving car to drop them off a specific entrance at a large sports arena.

&This fund raise cements the direction this company is going,& What3words CEO Chris Sheldrick told TechCrunch. &Which is how, in the future, we are going to tell cars and devices and voice assistants where we&re going.&

Earlier this year, what3words disclosed thatDaimler had taken 10% stakein the company. Daimler stake and these recently revealed investors are all part of its Series C funding round.

The companynovel global addressing system has been integrated intoin Mercedes& new infotainment and navigation system—called the Mercedes-Benz User Experience or MBUX. TheMBUX debuted on the new Mercedes A-Class, a hatchback that went on sale outside the U.S. in the spring. A sedan variant of the A-Class will come to the U.S. market in late 2018.

TomTom also announced plans last month to integrate what3words into its mapping and navigation products in the second half of this year.TomTom supplies its automotive navigation and traffic technology to car manufacturers, including Volkswagen, Fiat Chrysler, Alfa Romeo, Citroën and Peugeot.

The company is in talks with other automakers and suppliers to get what3words integrated into vehicle infotainment systems.

Media exits happen, but typically you don&t hear of tech events companies being sold. Well, thatthe case in Singapore whereSingEx — a subsidiary of the countryTemasek sovereign wealth fund — has forked out to buy a majority share inUnbound Innovations, a five-year-old UK-based business that runs technology events worldwide.

Details of the transaction were not made public, but TechCrunch understands from a source that SingEx bought a majority share inUnbound in a deal that values the company at £18 million, or around $23.5 million. A second source explained that the deal is akin to a joint venture, which roughly splits the company in half between Unbound and SingEx. In that case, the original investmentfrom SingEx would be around the $12 million mark.

Unbound has been around since 2013 but it seems to have struck out with its Innovfest event series, which has focused on uniting governments with corporates and the startup world. That aside, it has run ‘Unbound& events in London since 2014 and it works with corporates such as Unilever, HSBC and Accenture on innovation projects.

Indeed, this investment news comes weeks after the conclusion of Unboundtwo-day Singapore-based event, Innovfest Unbound, which claimed to attract over 12,000 attendees.Innovfestbegan with events in Singapore and Miami last year with a Bahrain debut earlier this year; those two added to the recent event account for over 20,000 attendees, Unbound said.

Coming up next is aLondoneventJuly, followed by the Miami returnlater this year and another in Bahrainis planned for 2019. But thatlikely only just the start.

Unbound said that this new capital will go towards doubling its operations and expanding into new verticals and geographies through a mix of acquisition and organic expansion. Right now, thereno word on what those expansions might look like.

It stands to reason that expanded reach is good for Temasek, too. The fund has a big position on tech within its $275 billion portfolio — which added UST Global via a $250 million deal yesterday — and having a majority stake in Unbound will likely increase its exposure to tech ecosystems, companies and more. Not to mention that the events business is actually pretty lucrative in itself.

Note: The original version of this article was updated to correct an error about the Unbound London events business and add more source-based reporting.