To predict and prevent fraud online even more quickly than cybercriminals adopt new tactics, Sift Science has raised $30 million in a Series C round of venture funding in a round led by Insight Venture Partners. According to the U.S. Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2015 annual report, reported internet crimes alone, ranging from personal and corporate data breaches to credit card… Read More
A new startup called Civic, launching today, wants to help Americans stop becoming victims of identity theft. The company is aiming to topple similar identity protection services like LifeLock by focusing on a broader market than just credit monitoring, while also allowing people to respond to fraud alerts in real-time in order to prevent the fraud from actually taking place. Today,… Read More
Duolingo is probably the most popular mobile education app, but until now, the company’s focus has been solely on language learning. Today, the company is expanding its reach by launching Tinycards for iOS, its first app that can be used for learning virtually anything that involves memorization: vocabulary, equations, history facts and every Pokémon’s name and stats (I’m… Read More
Doppler Labs, the makers of the Here Active Listening system and the Here One headphones, has today announced the close of a $24 million follow-on Series B funding round led by Peter Chernin and The Chernin Group. New investors also contributed, including Kevin Efrusy, David Geffen, Dan Gilbert, Henry Kravis and Anton Levy, among others.
Doppler Labs has been on the scene since 2014, slowly… Read More
Two weeks ago, Twitter was reportedly in talks with the NBA to acquire digital rights to stream hoops action. Well, those discussions materialized quicker than a LeBron James-led fast break. Recode is reporting that Twitter will exclusively stream two live and original NBA programs weekly, beginning next season. The social media network will also double the amount of NBA game highlights… Read More
Apple l’avait déjà annoncé lors de sa conférence d’inauguration de la WWDC en juin, mais maintenant c’est officiel. Apple Pay est désormais disponible pour les clients des banques partenaires possédant une carte Visa ou MasterCard. Malheureusement, rares sont ceux qui vont pouvoir s’en servir dès aujourd’hui.
Parmi les grandes banques françaises, seul le Read More
When the partners at Bloomberg Beta — a $75 million seed investment fund — sit down to review how they’re doing, they say they don’t first look at the valuation of their portfolio. Instead, they first take a look at how the founders in the fund are grading them as investors and partners. While paper valuations are always important for any firm, a key metric Bloomberg… Read More
You’re a diehard New York Yankees’ fan stuck deep in Connecticut without access to a car or reliable public transportation, but the launch of startup Rally means you no longer have to give up hope of making the trip to Fenway Park for the Yankees-Boston Red Sox series August 9. Numaan Akram, CEO of Rally, invited me to a screen-sharing session Monday to demonstrate how quick and… Read More
Something as indispensable as hearing aids — which cost upwards of $5,000 (and that’s just for the basics) — should be as accessible and, frankly, affordable as a smartphone. Considering how many people have hearing loss, or are at risk, it’s astonishing to see that innovation in this space has been painfully stagnant. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. Read More
It’s not quite Steve Jobs or The Social Network. Think Friends With Benefits. The writing team behind that 2011 Justin Timberlake/Mila Kunis vehicle has been given the early thumbs-up from Warner Bros. for their upcoming Tinder-centric romantic comedy.
The studio is developing the apparently Comic Book Guy-inspired script, Worst Tinder Date Ever, penned by romantic comedy vets Keith… Read More
Amazon this morning is introducing a new way to read short-form content on Kindle devices and in the Kindle app with the launch of “Singles Classics.” The service will bring articles, stories and essays from well-known authors and top periodicals – many available in digital format for the first time. The articles will be priced at 99 cents each, with writers and… Read More
Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have another game besides Pokemon Go that they want you to remember: Pokemon Sun and Moon. Since I loved Pokemon before it was about getting exercise and meeting new people, I’m very excited about Sun/Moon’s release on Nintendo 3DS, which happens November 18. But I’m struggling to remember if all new Pokemon in each sequel were as weird as… Read More
As rumors swirl of yet more consolidation in the digital music market, a longtime player out of Europe already live in 180 countries is finally making a full entry into the U.S. in a play for more scale. Deezer, an on-demand streaming service that competes against the likes of Spotify and notably pulled out of an IPO last year, has today taken the wraps off a website and iOS, Android and… Read More
Snapchat bought Bitstrips, the startup behind Bitmoji, back in March. The acquisition was worth a reported $100 million, but at the time, how the product would be integrated wasn’t clear. Today, Snapchat finally acknowledged the acquisition and revealed how it would integrate Bitstrips’ product: Users can now send their Bitmoji to each other either in chat or in snaps. We saw… Read More
Service is an app we’ve covered before – the startup acts as an intermediary between you and businesses where you’ve had bad experiences. So this means whenever your bags are lost by an airline or a restaurant ruins your meal, Service will interface with the business on your behalf to help make things right in the form of a refund, credit, etc. After being in business a year… Read More
Mobile advertising can be really intrusive. But, if done right, you might not even notice you’re being advertised to. That’s what mobile rewards startup Kiip is all about. It allows advertisers to seamlessly integrate relevant content and rewards into mobile apps. Today, Kiip has announced the close of its $12 million Series C round led by North Atlantic Capital with new… Read More
If you’ve used free wi-fi in San Francisco, there’s a good chance you’ve used Zenreach and just don’t know it yet. The company, until now, has flown largely under the radar, because they wanted to amp up their business quietly for competitive reasons. And they’re finally ready to announce themselves and their new $30 million Series B funding. (Their previous… Read More
Google saw a record number of data requests from law enforcement agencies worldwide during the second half of 2015 as the request total passed the 40,000 mark for the first time. That’s up from 35,365 in the first half of the year and 30,140 one year previous, according to the tech giant’s latest transparency report. Read More
San Francisco-based Volata Cycles looked around at the bicycle market and found it lacking, especially when it came to included options. Bikes are still largely sold as basic packages, with a rider expected to add-on key items like lights, and if you’re even thinking about on-board computers or advanced anti-theft, you’re wading into a complex and expensive third-party market.… Read More
There are lots of things you could say about Marc Benioff. Like, that he cofounded and runs Salesforce, one of the world’s biggest cloud computing companies. Or that he’s also a book author. Or that, last Halloween, he dressed like a pirate and spent hours handing out candy to kids in his San Francisco neighborhood. (True story.) Yet Benioff may eventually be… Read More
