Pokémon Go creator Niantic has released a statement on its Facebook page explaining some of the recent changes. You may have noticed on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit that some of these changes have been quite controversial. Hence today’s statement. Read More
E-commerce startup Shoppable is announcing that it has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding. The New York City-based startup offers several products that allow publishers and consumers to take advantage of what founder and CEO Heather Marie calls “shoppable moments” — those times when you read about a product or see it featured in a photo or video and, if it was easy… Read More
We’ll be live at today’s big Samsung reveal — and you can be, too, kind of, sort of. The electronics giant has offered up a few clues that today’s event will include a reveal of the latest Galaxy Note (including all of the above S Pens), a few weeks ahead of the phablet’s traditional IFA unveiling. There have been plenty of rumors and leaks about what appears… Read More
Twitter this morning announced a change to how its Moments feature will work for those who want to follow the Rio 2016 Olympic Games via its platform. Previously, followable Moments were limited-time collections that would insert tweets into a user’s timeline for a matter of hours or, at most, a few days. But with the debut of the followable Olympics Moments, Twitter will insert… Read More
Whereas setting up the original Xbox One often felt like I was handling some sort of Medicare-provided DIY iron lung, the One S is a far tighter experience that’s luxurious and efficient in its build. Shoddy vent grids covering an alarmingly hollow-sounding interior have been replaced with an innovative perforated vent design that is as fresh-looking as it is solid-feeling.… Read More
Ping Identity announced its first acquisition since being acquired by Vista Equity Partners in June for $600 million, grabbing Austin-based UnboundID for an undisclosed purchase price. The purchase, which Ping CEO Andre Durand says wouldn’t have been possible before the acquisition, expands his company’s mission beyond protecting pure business identity to customer identity and… Read More
It would be a shame if we were able to build autonomous cars before we could simplify car buying. Today, buying a used car means booking multiple weekends to test drive and examine every car at every dealership within a 50 mile radius. We fight through every other lemming on the nine to five grind who only had their weekend to hunt for their DeLorean every time we go out. Eventually we… Read More
Sensay, the chatbot startup that lets people ask for advice from fellow users, has today announced the close of a $4.5 million seed round extension led by Norwest Venture Partners. Other participants include Greycroft Partners, Sweet Capital, NHN, Draper Associates, as well as existing investors.
This brings Sensay’s total funding to $6 million.
Plus, the platform has also introduced… Read More
ShareACamper, the Germany-headquartered peer-to-peer rental platform for motorhomes and caravans, has raised €2 million in seed funding. The backing comes from mostly unnamed investors from the tech and RV (recreational vehicle) industry, including German software development company Werkdigital. Read More
Distil Networks, a company that helps discover and eradicate bad bots, announced a $21 million Series C round today.
Funders include new investor Silicon Valley Bank along with previous participants Bessemer Venture Partners, Foundry Group and TechStars. It comes on the heels of another $21 million round in June, 2015 and brings the total raised to $65 million across all rounds.
With the… Read More
The latest move in the online takeout ordering space sees publicly-listed Just Eat sell its Benelux businesses (the Netherlands and Belgium) to rival Takeaway.com. The transaction consists of €22.5 million payable in cash, of which 80 per cent is being paid up front, and 20 per cent will be paid 6 months after completion, “subject to the satisfaction of certain obligations”. Read More
UK startup truRating, which is aiming to offer restaurants and retailers an alternative feedback platform to the likes of Tripadvisor and Yelp by offering bricks-and-mortar outlets the ability to obtain feedback from customers at the point of paying, via the same POS device, has closed a £9.5 million ($12.6M) Series A funding round. Read More
Start-up fundraising is hard. Despite ubiquitous headlines about unicorn valuations and how it’s never been easier to raise money in Silicon Valley, the process of raising capital can be gruelling, unpredictable, and non-transparent. To shed some light on best practices for successful startup fundraising, I sat down with my partners Eric Feng and Randy Komisar to ask and answer the… Read More
3D Hubs, an online marketplace for 3D printing services, is tapping into two recent trends enabled by industrial 3D printing: the rapid prototyping of new products, and the move to personalised and bespoke production. Read More
According to KPMG and CB Insights, a total of $5.7 billion was invested in fintech in the first quarter of 2016 alone. While companies in China and the U.S. receive most of this funding, Southeast Asia fintech investment has increased significantly as well. Read More
When I spoke with Jan Beckers, chairperson of fintech company builder FinLeap, earlier this year, he was particularly bullish about the insurance sector and the shake up he expects insurance brokering to receive because of new technology. That’s something we are starting to see happen. Read More
It’ll take some time before the smoke clears and we understand more about how this deal impacts the global ride-sharing economy, but right now it looks like Uber is sitting a lot prettier than many people believe. Read More
If you watch a lot of Facebook Live broadcasts, get ready to see some ads. The company is now testing short video ads that will play during breaks in Facebook Live broadcasts, they confirmed to Adage. The move shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone who follows Facebook and their various video products. Video ads are lucrative for Facebook and a Live product devoid of ads would cause… Read More
Uber China is going to merge with Didi Chuxing, Consumer Reports finds some issues with Glow fertility apps security, new iOS 10 beta release comes out with some new emojis, Technology Crossover Ventures has a new $2.5 billion growth fund, and Niantic shuts down third-party Pokemon Go services. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Last year at this time, many publishers were wrestling with the question of what to make of Facebook Instant Articles. Facebook’s audacious proposition was that it would host content from publishers on Facebook, with no link back to those publishers’ sites. In return, the publishers could either run their own ads and get 100% of the revenues or letFacebook handle placements… Read More
