Wia, an Irish startup that offers a cloud platform to enable developers to turn various sensor-based hardware into fully-fledged Internet of Things (IoT) devices, has raised €750,000 in seed funding. The rather modest round is led by Suir Valley Ventures, with participation from Enterprise Ireland. Read More
TrackR, one of the better known of the little bluetooth devices which track your lost keys and EDCs (Everyday Carry, don’t you know?) has now gone big with the securing of a $50M Series B round led by Steve Murray at Revolution Growth. Also participating was the Foundry Group, Amazon Alexa Fund, DoCoMo Capital, The Glenmede Trust and Bespoke Strategies. Prior this the company had raised… Read More
In April, Google unveiled a new vision for its Google Earth application, two years in the making, that introduced more ways to explore the planet through guided tours, informational cards, integrated 360-degree videos and Street View imagery, and more. Initially, the new Google Earth was available only on Android and Chrome. Today, it’s arriving on iOS. The updated iOS application for… Read More
When you first look at Redkix, it looks like any other Slack clone, but while you could definitely use it just like Slack, the team offers an important twist on the standard company chat theme: it plays nice with email. After a year of private testing with about 7,000 users, the team is opening up its public beta today and launching its paid premium program in private beta.
Oudi Antebi… Read More
Ikea is getting into the domestic solar power generation and storage market in the UK, with new solar panel and home storage battery system products. The products include panels that integrated with existing roofing solutions provided by Solarcentury, a UK solar power company, which includes a 25 year guarantee on the panels themselves, as well as s six-year warranty on installation and… Read More
Instagram Stories has blossomed from a Snapchat clone into an integral part of the world’s largest dedicated visual communication app in the first year since its launch. Half of the businesses on Instagram produced a story in the last month, and it’s boosted the app’s average usage to 32 minutes per day for those under 25, and 24 minutes per day for those 25 and up.
If… Read More
The PayPal partnerships keep coming. The still growing payments giant today announced a new deal with Skype that will allow users in 22 countries worldwide to send money to other Skype users through an updated version of the Skype mobile app. This extends PayPal’s potential reach by a sizable amount – the Skype app has been downloaded over a billion times to date, and has… Read More
Plex today is taking its Live TV service, including its DVR, out of beta, while also expanding to Apple TV and Android, and introducing a new “time-shifting” feature that allows you to pause, rewind and fast-forward through your live TV programs. The company first introduced its DVR capabilities for those who connect a TV tuner and antenna to their Plex setup last fall, then moved… Read More
HP has a new entrant in that most curious PC niche – the backpack computer. A product of the virtual reality computing wave, the backpack PC provides all the power needed to drive high-quality VR headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, but with a form factor that allows the user to roam about untethered. The new HP Z VR Backpack is a bit different from the rest of the field, though,… Read More
Hyperloop One has achieved a new milestone in terms of making its Hyperloop vision a physical reality: The company completed a test on July 29, 2017 at its full-scale Nevada test track that travelled at high speed, running nearly the entirety of the 500 meter (1640 foot) test route. XP-1, the company’s first Hyperloop pod, reached speeds of up to 310 km/h (192 mph) during the test, which… Read More
Oracle might not be the first company you think of when it comes to cloud computing, but the company has made significant strides in recent years. Today, it announced the bi-annual update to its Oracle Cloud Applications Suite. This is update number 13 for those keeping score at home. The suite includes a range of enterprise software including ERP (think back-office management), HR and CRM/CX… Read More
While Samsung and Apple continued to occupy long-time number one and two spots in the global smartphone market in the second quarter of the year, Chinese Android OEMs Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi are continuing to close the gap. Read More
Asian streaming company M17 Entertainment, which recently merged with Singapore-based dating startup Paktor, has closed a $40 million Series A round. This new funding will be used to increase M17’s roster of streaming talent — the company agrees contracts with its streamers and celebs, much like a talent agency — and expand into new genres, such as reality TV, variety shows… Read More
ProoV, a startup founded by a couple of industry veterans, solves a problem the founders encountered many times over the years: how do you get the CIO or CTO to agree to do a proof of concept for your startup to show that your idea will actually work as you’ve described. Today the company announced a $14 million Series B financing round led by Helios Capital and Mangrove Capital… Read More
WhatsApp is about to get an unlikely competitor in India, its largest global market based on users. That’s because Paytm, the $8 billion-valued company behind the country’s top digital wallet, is in the process of expanding its services into person-to-person communication, games and other mobile content. The planned update, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, will… Read More
In what looks like a pretty decent exit for German company builder Makers, two of its incubated startups have been acquired by performance marketing platform OLAmobile. Read More
It looks like Snap is enlisting outside help to advance its expansion into new hardware projects. The U.S. company is in talks with China-based drone maker Zero Zero Robotics over an acquisition, according to a source with knowledge of discussions. The deal, which was first reported by The Information, is in the range of $150 million-$200 million, the source told TechCrunch. That price… Read More
Filling up your car can be a hassle, especially when there are lines at the gas station. It also costs too much because part of it is covering real estate costs. A startup called Booster thinks it has a solution for this and is partnering with major employers to send its gas trucks to office parking lots. The company says it can save you time by filling your tank while you’re at work… Read More
MIT’s latest jewelry is alive, 500 Startups shuts down its Canada fund, Theranos settles with Walgreens and Samsung’s latest Galaxy Note 8 leak. All this on Crunch Report! Read More
Snap shares fell 4% and closed at a record low on Tuesday at $13.10, but it wasn’t just because of the dreaded lockup expiration, which allowed some insiders to finally sell shares. Snap faced another devastating blow when it was revealed that the company won’t make it into the S&P 500, a popular stock market index. The way Snap has divided up its classes of stock have made… Read More
