Michael Kim is pretty much killing it. Kim’s Cendana Capital just closed on $260 million in fresh capital across a network of five funds. Altogether, the San Francisco-based outfit now manages around $450 million — which says a lot about how much the market has changed. We talked with Kim — who runs Cendana with principal Graham Pingree — about that ongoing evolution. Read More
IBM today announced that users on its Bluemix cloud will soon be able to add two Nvidia Tesla P100 accelerator cards to their bare metal servers. The company says this feature will launch later this month and, when it’s live, IBM will likely be the first major cloud provider to offer support for these chips. Read More
Taser is now Axon. The brand has been a household word for years, but the company felt it was time to leave that identity behind and double down on the body camera and digital evidence management side of its business. As part of that move, it’s offering free body cameras and software to any police department that asks. Yes, free as in beer, and yes, any as in any. Read More
Microsoft has had a fair bit of investment action with InsideSales, the startup with a unicorn valuation of $1.5 billion, and today they are expanding that relationship with some product integration. The companies announced that InsideSales Playbooks will be available on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. Playbooks offer customers a set of recommendations aimed at sales teams, such as the… Read More
AT&T’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner hasn’t yet completed, but the company is already leveraging Time Warner assets to boost its own services – first with its streaming TV service DirecTV Now, which is currently giving out free HBO, and now today it’s rolling out free HBO to AT&T’s “Unlimited Plus” wireless plan subscribers. The… Read More
French fintech startup Compte Nickel was acquired by French bank BNP Paribas yesterday. I couldn’t nail down the price but I’ve heard that it was quite significant. Compte Nickel was one of the leading fintech startups in France. You can open the equivalent of a current bank account in thousands of tobacco shops in just a few minutes. Compte Nickel gives you an IBAN and a… Read More
With AI and machine learning breathing down the neck of the vast quantities of dull contract checking which currently goes on in many law firms, its no wonder startups are training their guns on this sector.
Legaltech is, naturally, driving down the cost of legal work and new wave of these startups range from the ‘Uber of Lawyers’ (Lexoo, Linkilaw, Lawbite) that create a lawyer… Read More
Coras connects tickets to customers through a global distribution platform so they can purchase tickets through any Coras-connected site. It’s now closed a €1.9 million investment round led by Atlantic Bridge, with participation by The Edge (the guitarist with U2), Hambro Perks and Elkstone Capital. Read More
There are several apps on the market that help you track your spending (Parity), save money (Pennies), or invest (Moneybox) using basic machine learning. Now an ambitious startup wants to do all three. Based out of London, new startup Oval (Apple, Android) will combine expense tracking, saving, and investing into one app, while also adding a social element by enabling its community of users… Read More
Dish’s internet TV service for cord cutters, Sling TV, is expanding its lineup today just ahead of the launch of YouTube TV and Hulu’s live TV service. The company has added another premium network – Showtime – along with other additions aimed at families and Spanish-language viewers. With the launch of Showtime, Sling TV now offers the top premium cable channels… Read More
Security technology services provider Armor is getting ready to do some shopping for new technology thanks to $89 million in fresh funding. The company, which was majority owned by the private equity firm The Stephens Group, now counts SST Telemedia, a large telecommunications investor, as a co-owner. The Dallas-based company counts 1,200 customers using its managed internet security services… Read More
If you were a fan of Master of None, the original comedy series exclusive to Netflix starring and led by Aziz Ansari, then you’ll be happy to hear that it’s coming back on May 12. The second season will be available to stream then, picking up where the first left off with what looks like a Very European Adventure for Ansari and friends, including Tim & Eric’s Eric… Read More
Time Inc. is getting into the influencer marketing business in a bigger way, with a new offering called Time Inc. Connect.
This influencer network will be “powered by” startup Speakr — as explained to me by Time Inc’s senior vice president of digital business development and business operations Regina Buckley, this means Time Inc. Connect will combine Speakr’s… Read More
Disrupt NY is right around the bend, and with it comes a brand new type of content: The Startup Spotlight.
Each of these companies will have a total of 15 minutes to tell their story, from origin to potential pivot to real solution, with all the highs and lows that come with it.
Today, I’m pleased to announce three of the companies we’re highlighting at the Disrupt NY Startup… Read More
Amazon this morning rolled out new tools for developers of Alexa apps, aka “Skills,” which aim to give them more insight into their app’s users, as well as allow them to build location-based skills. The first is a new metrics dashboard – similar to those used by developers of mobile applications, but designed for these voice apps – which lets Alexa developers… Read More
Talla, a Cambridge, Mass. startup, wants to help companies ease into artificial intelligence, and they have come up with a new service assistant bot that gives companies whatever degree of intelligence-fueled power they are looking for. The tool, called ServiceAssistant, works as an IT or HR help desk inside of Slack or Microsoft Teams and gives customers a few options on how to use it. First… Read More
Netflix’s new way of rating the shows and movies you watch on its platform is binary: Thumbs up if you like it, thumbs down if you don’t. The streaming service is looking for clear-eyed decisions on what you like and what you don’t, in place of the wishy-washy five star system that it had in place until today. The change is about making content recommendations more relevant… Read More
A self-driving shuttle will ferry around 100 people in Greenwich, London along a short route on a public cycle and pedestrian path over the next three weeks, in a trial using Oxbotica’s driverless vehicle technology. The goal, according to Oxbotica, is to show average people that they can safely share space with autonomous cars, helping dissuade any perception of threat and generally… Read More
Facebook has implemented a new photo-matching technology to ensure people can’t re-share images previously reported and tagged as revenge porn — intimate photos of people shared without their consent. That means if someone tries to share a photo that Facebook has previously taken down, that person will see a pop-up saying the photo violates Facebook’s policies and that… Read More
