There’s some closure (literally and figuratively) for Move Loot, the furniture resale marketplace that we wrote earlier this month was up for sale. The startup — backed by nearly $22 million in funding from a list of top investors that included Y Combinator, GV, Index, Metamorphic and Sherpa — has shut down its business and sold access to its customer list to Handy, the… Read More
If paparazzi have a right to take photos (they do) and newspapers are allowed to print photos taken by paparazzi (they do), it stands to reason that those in the brief spotlight of an eager photographer’s flash have a right to fight back, too (they do). Anti-paparazzi clothing has been around for a while, and if you’ve ever wondered how it works, oh boy have you come to the… Read More
So much for losing its mojo.
Despite twists and turns in recent years that have sometimes rivaled those of a telenovela, and even with its most famous member, John Doerr, no longer a general partner, Kleiner Perkins has raised two new funds totaling $1.4 billion, show newly processed SEC filings.
The firm’s digital growth fund — its third — has secured $1 billion in… Read More
Shasta Ventures is raising up to $300 million for a fifth fund according to a new SEC filing that lists managing director Jason Pressman and Rob Coneybeer (Coneybeer co-founded Shasta with fellow managing directors Tod Francis and Ravi Mohan in 2004; Pressman joined the following year).
Shasta appears to be sticking with its knitting with its new fund. It saw an enormous return when its… Read More
The aptly named Ok-Google.io is the big ol’ massive list of “Ok, Google” commands that Google is too proud to build right into Android. It’s gorgeous, it’s easy to navigate, and it’s pretty much guaranteed to teach you at least one trick you didn’t know Google Now could handle. Read More
An accelerator that helps tech nonprofits develop their products and raise grant money, Fast Forward, has attracted $1.25 million in philanthropic funding of its own. Backers include big names in venture capital and tech. Omidyar Network, Google.org and BlackRock donated the largest share, along with AT&T, The Nasiri Foundation and Rita Allen Foundation. Fast Forward will use the money… Read More
A few times every month I get an email from a CEO or investor that says something like this: “We are seeking a Bridge for our company. Since we already raised our Seed and you do Post-Seed, we thought you would be ideal to speak to about this.” I have concluded there is a lot of confusion over how a post-seed round differs from a bridge round. Read More
Cognovi Labs is a new analytics startup that relies on Twitris to take a sample of social media chatter to deduce real-time, large-scale, automated sentiment about specific topics. As a real-world example of the tool’s capability, the Cognovi Labs analyzed Twitter chatter leading up to the Brexit vote and predicted that polls leaning toward the “remain” camp were incorrect… Read More
This is a guest post by Matt Clifford, co-founder and CEO of Entrepreneur First Almost no one in the UK tech ecosystem wanted Brexit. Most of us are worried about the impact on our country and the continent – but one group that’s well positioned to thrive is the UK’s startups. I’ve spent much of the last few days talking to Entrepreneur First’s portfolio and there… Read More
The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Attorney General alleging that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is unconstitutional, and as a consequence is preventing critical research into discrimination online from being accomplished. Read More
Kanye West and Adidas just announced they are turning their Yeezy collaboration into a full-fledged partnership. The deal, which Adidas is calling “the most significant partnership ever created between a non-athlete and an athletic brand”, will result in the creation of a new business unit inside of Adidas – akin to how Nike handles the Michael Jordan brand. The new unit will… Read More
Over a year ago, Amazon’s AWS cloud computing unit announced the beta launch of the Amazon Elastic File System (EFS).
While AWS already offers a number of cloud storage services in the form of S3, Glacier and Elastic Block Store, the idea behind EFS is to offer AWS users access to a more straightforward file storage system that at least partly mirrors the features of the kind of… Read More
DoorDash started off as a restaurant delivery company — but, like many on-demand delivery companies, its ambitions are certainly much higher than that. And it’s taking one step beyond food delivery today by adding the ability to purchase alcohol through DoorDash. While DoorDash may have already delivered food from breweries or restaurants that offer paired food, it still… Read More
Box announced Box Shuttle today, a new service that combines software and consulting to help customers move large — as in millions or even hundreds of millions — of legacy files to the Box service. Previously, companies with files stored in network file shares or legacy content management systems like Microsoft SharePoint, EMC Documentum or OpenText were on their own when it came… Read More
All Def Digital (ADD), a three-year-old, L.A.-based web video platform and media company that was cofounded by hip hop impresario Russell Simmons, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Third Wave Digital Partners. Other investors in the round include WPP Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and earlier investors Nu Horizons, Greycroft Partners, eVentures and Advancit Capital. The company… Read More
The first thing you notice about the Aspire S 13: It’s not a MacBook Air. In a space in which Apple’s laptop has so dominated the aesthetic conversation around thin and light laptops, it’s worth noting when a company goes boldly in some other aesthetic direction. The primary way in which the new Aspire sets itself apart from the competition is in pricing, promising high-end… Read More
TechCrunch Include Office Hours are happening this July! In New York, Taylor Green from Lerer Ventures and in San Francisco, Sergio Monsalve and Ed Yip of Norwest Venture Partners will join TechCrunch to provide valuable advice and feedback to startups. Launched in 2014, Include is TechCrunch’s diversity program, aimed at facilitating opportunities for underrepresented groups in… Read More
Uber has today announced new safety features for drivers within the driver-side app, including reminders to take a break when the drivers have been working for too long. These features are meant to fight against the four D’s of dangerous driving: drunk, drugged, distracted and drowsy. Across 11 pilot cities, Uber will be sending out reminders for drivers to take a break if they’ve… Read More
There’s little question that we’re living in the midst of a hardware startup renaissance. Crowdfunding, low cost components, rapid prototyping, scalable manufacturing – the stars have aligned perfectly to facilitate a golden age for innovative hardware solutions – but roadblocks still remain. Tempo Automation is a San Francisco-based startup built around the admirable… Read More
British startup Made is opening its largest showroom to date in Paris tomorrow. Made is a sort of Everlane for furniture. The company tries to cut as many middlemen as possible to provide good looking furniture at affordable prices. And yet, 60 percent of its sales still happen in the U.K. The company is now heavily focusing on international expansion. And this new showroom is a great example… Read More
