Iris Automation Inc. has raised $1.5 million to bring “sense and avoid” technology, and truly self-flying capabilities, to drones used for industrial tasks. Even for human pilots, identifying obstacles and deciding precisely how to maneuver a fast-flying aircraft around them poses a serious challenge. Iris’ technology analyzes and draws insights from videos captured by… Read More
In December, Hulu announced the debut of user profiles in order to make its streaming TV service more personalized to end users, offering each user their own Watchlist, viewing history and recommendations based on their activity and interests. At the time of launch, the feature wasn’t broadly available, however. That’s now changing, as Hulu has just rolled out user profiles to… Read More
Microsoft is following its acquisition of Montreal-based Maluuba with additional investment in the city that’s become quite the artificial intelligence hotbed. Microsoft announced in Davos on Wednesday that it will be growing its research and design office there (which is what Maluuba will be, post-acquisition) to double the size over the course of the next two years. Microsoft will also… Read More
DocuSign, the electronic signature company, has ended its search for a permanent CEO. Effective this week, Daniel Springer is taking the reigns and former CEO Keith Krach is moving to a chairman role. With a reported valuation of more than $3 billion, 14-year-old DocuSign is said to be scaling, with speculation that it’s nearing its long-awaited IPO. Though he couldn’t comment… Read More
TechCrunch is pleased to offer Microsoft Accelerator’s Tel Aviv Demo Day today at 6:30 p.m. local time, 8:30 a.m. PST. The Microsoft Accelerator is an immersive three- to six-month program aimed at helping entrepreneurs get through the challenges of building a company, finding customers and scaling to global markets. There are seven accelerators located around the world, from Seattle… Read More
There has been another development at Compass, the real estate startup that recently hit a $1 billion valuation. The company has appointed a new COO, Maëlle Gavet. She will report to Robert Reffkin, the CEO and co-founder of Compass.
Gavet was most recently at Priceline, the travel services giant, which she joined as EVP in 2015 tasked with integrating a number of its brands, and with a… Read More
YouTube has introduce a new in-app messaging platform, which has been in testing since mid-2016 – but there’s a catch: It’s only available in Canada for now. Why Canada? Well, it’s not unusual for companies to soft launch products in Canada, because it’s a good testing ground thanks to its market similarity to the U.S., albeit with a total addressable population… Read More
Ford has a new patent out for a vehicle camera system – but it’s not designed for use in autonomous cars, as you might imagine. Instead, it’s a vehicle-mounted camera concept that would use data fed by the vehicle itself about its speed, trajectory and more to determine how to best position themselves to get the best shots. The Ford patent, which was originally filed in 2015… Read More
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) may be a step behind its rival Hyperloop One but is making its own plans to go global — starting with an announcement today HTT has signed an agreement to explore connecting a hyperloop system from Slovakia to the Czech Republic. HTT already has an agreement with the city of Bratislava, Slovakia to build a hyperloop there, but this new… Read More
Pipedrive, a CRM platform designed to help SMBs sell more, has closed $17 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Atomico, the global VC firm founded by Skype’s Niklas Zennström, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, and Rembrandt Venture Partners. The Estonia/U.S.-based startup last raised $9 million in Series A funding back in May 2015. Pipedrive says will use… Read More
ProtectWise, a security startup that records all your network traffic DVR-style, and saves it in the cloud, announced a $25 million round today. The company’s security strategy is surprisingly simple. It records all of the networking activity, then indexes the data and provides customers with forensic tools to search and review it. Once a breach has been detected, the victimized… Read More
Not even flexible, freelance jobs in the on-demand economy will be saved from the siege of automation. Starship Technologies is putting its self-driving delivery robots to work in the US. Specifically, its first US partners are the food delivery startup DoorDash, and courier marketplace Postmates, which are beginning pilot tests with Starship’s delivery robots in Redwood City, Calif.… Read More
Tesla will be making electric motors and gearboxes at its Nevada Gigafactory, in addition to batteries. The news comes from Nevada governor Brian Sandoval, who discussed that additional manufacturing plans for the Gigafactory during a policy speech on Tuesday.
The Gigafactory, which officially opened for business last year, is a massive facility with a $5 billion price tag, a solar-power… Read More
Data governance and management startup Collibra — originally founded in Belgium but now based out of New York to help businesses in sectors like finance and healthcare to manage and comply with data retention policies — has raised $50 million in its latest round of funding. The company is not disclosing the valuation, but we heard that it is in the region of $650 million (which is… Read More
On Wednesday, January 18, 2012, websites all over the Internet covered their homepages in a uniform message. Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, Craigslist — giants of media and commerce — joined more than 50,000 sites in an unprecedented blackout. It was an act of protest so powerful and inspiring that it did something no one thought possible: It moved Congress. Read More
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has had his temporary right to remain in Russia extended, according to a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman. Read More
In the United States, VC funds raised a whopping $40.6 billion in 2016[1]. It was the largest year for VC fundraising since 2000 when the venture industry raked in a jaw dropping $101.4 billion[1]. Yet the 2016 exit market was a mixed bag.
Despite many forecasting (hoping?) that herds of unicorns would enter the public market in 2016, the IPO market was lackluster at best. There were only 31 U.S. Read More
The British pound may be at one of its lowest points of the last 50 years right now (and may still go lower…welp), but some investors see this as an opportunity. A new fintech VC called Motive Partners, founded by a team of fintech entrepreneurs and investors, is launching today with offices in London and New York. The company is not revealing its fund size but earlier this month it… Read More
InsideSales, a predictive analytics platform which helps salespeople focus on finding and engaging prospects at the right time and in the right way, announced a $50 million round today with a couple of strategic investors — Microsoft and the Irish government.
The round was led by Polaris Capital, a long time investor, along with newcomers QuestMark Partners, and the Irish Strategic… Read More
Navigation and mapping company TomTom — which provides data to companies like Uber and Apple as well as for its own GPS systems — has made an acquisition to add more autonomous driving technology to its platform. It has acquired Autonomos, a Berlin startup that has worked in R&D consultancy for various self-driving projects out of Germany. Financial terms of the deal have not… Read More
