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
Big data is more important than ever in just about every scientific discipline — and the data is bigger than ever, too. To help manage that data and get it into the hands of scientists and students, the National Science Foundation is putting $35 million towards a pair of software institutes that will build the tools necessary for 21st-century research. Read More
Kids are the ultimate beta testers. As soon as they figure out what a new technology is for, they try to make it do something else. They push boundaries, break rules, play with possibilities and share their results in real time. When I see how my son and his friends play Minecraft, I see the future of engineering and technology — and it’s an exciting one. Read More
We’re already halfway through the year, which means it’s time for another batch from 500 Startups to start rolling out. This year, 46 companies are going through 500 Startups’ 18th batch, ranging from traditional B2B tools to a smart pill case that helps track whether or not people are taking their medication.
500 Startups has been dipping its toes beyond its traditional… Read More
No one wants to fight a land war in Asia, not even Uber. It could have burnt mountains of cash battling for market share with local ride app juggernaut Didi Chuxing, between marketing, discounts, and driver incentives. Instead, Uber surrendered. It’s sold its UberChina operation to Didi in exchange for a 20% stage in the merged company, while Didi has invested $1 billion into Uber at… Read More
Powerful sensors and software have made autonomous cars impressively aware of their surroundings — but it isn’t just obstacles, pedestrians, and other cars that a vehicle’s AI needs to watch out for. It also needs to know what’s going on inside itself, and researchers from Fraunhofer are hard at work making that happen. Read More
OmniVirt is promising to help publishers and advertisers tap into the potential of virtual reality. It’s not the only startup working on VR/360-degree ads (competitors include Immersive Media and VirtualSky), but co-founder and COO Michael Rucker said OmniVirt stands out by offering a 360-degree ad experience in the mobile browser — users don’t have to buy a fancy headset,… Read More
Cybersecurity issues have plagued Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign for months, from her long-running email controversy to the recent hacks of the Democratic National Committee and the campaign itself. But cybersecurity experts appear to be embracing Clinton’s campaign — a fundraiser will be held for the campaign during Black Hat, a hacker conference taking place… Read More
You can’t say you haven’t seen this coming. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said again and again that the iPad Pro is the company’s vision of the future of computing. And today, Apple is confirming this vision with a new ad. Read More
Carousell, a four-year-old company in Singapore behind a listings app that enables peer-to-peer selling, has closed a $35 million Series B round to grow its reach into new countries and increase product development. Read More
Apple dropped a new iOS 10 beta today. I was expecting a bunch of bug fixes, and at best a couple of tweaks. But it became clear after just a few minutes that the iOS 10 developer beta 4 isn’t your average beta. Apple packed a nice surprise with the update. With the release of iOS 10 in September, Apple is introducing a groundbreaking technology breakthrough. iOS 10 will get over a… Read More
