A San Francisco startup called iBeat has raised $1.5 million in seed funding to make a smartwatch that constantly monitors a wearer’s heart and, in the event of cardiac arrest, checks in on them, and notifies loved ones and emergency responders. Ryan Howard, who previously founded and was CEO of the electronic health records venture Practice Fusion, said he started iBeat after losing… Read More
MikMak, the service that creates and distributes short-form “mini-mercials” so users can shop via video, has today announced the close of a $3.2 million seed round, led by VaynerMedia, with participation from SLOW Ventures, UTA Ventures, BRaVe Ventures and MX Investments. As part of the round, Gary Vaynerchuk will be joining MikMak’s Board. MikMak launched back in May of… Read More
The $1,200 Staaker drone does away with the traditional remote control, replacing it with a wearable armband. Instead of controlling the drone like a remote-controlled plane, you put the Staaker into one of several follow modes and it will keep you in view as you careen down a mountainside or flip upside-down on a surfboard. I had a chance to try it out and was mightily impressed. Read More
People only post the highlights of their life on Instagram, so today the app adds its own version of “Stories” to poach goofy, off-the-cuff, everyday content from Snapchat. It works exactly like Snapchat Stories, allowing you to post 24-hour ephemeral photo and video slideshows that disappear. But since Instagram Stories appear at the top of the old feed, your followers will… Read More
Apptimize, a company that helps businesses optimize, test and rapidly iterate on their mobile apps, has just raised $12.4 million in a new round of Series B funding. Investor interest was strong due to the client list Apptimize has lined up, which includes notable names like Hotel Tonight, Trulia, Vevo, Hotels.com, and The Wall Street Journal, for example. In total, there are around 100… Read More
LinkedIn, the social platform for people to network and look for work that’s getting acquired by Microsoft for $26 billion, is taking the wraps off a new feature that it hopes will get more of its 433 million users moving — literally and figuratively — when it comes to engaging with the site: today, LinkedIn is taking its first foray into video content, created by… Read More
Startups are constantly talking about feedback from their users — having meaningful conversations with real users to figure out what they want, and how they can give it to them. But where are these conversations happening? Lord knows that App Store rating and Reviews systems don’t account for the vast majority of users, and it’s generally true that people are more likely to… Read More
Pokémon Go creator Niantic has released a statement on its Facebook page explaining some of the recent changes. You may have noticed on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit that some of these changes have been quite controversial. Hence today’s statement. Read More
E-commerce startup Shoppable is announcing that it has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding. The New York City-based startup offers several products that allow publishers and consumers to take advantage of what founder and CEO Heather Marie calls “shoppable moments” — those times when you read about a product or see it featured in a photo or video and, if it was easy… Read More
We’ll be live at today’s big Samsung reveal — and you can be, too, kind of, sort of. The electronics giant has offered up a few clues that today’s event will include a reveal of the latest Galaxy Note (including all of the above S Pens), a few weeks ahead of the phablet’s traditional IFA unveiling. There have been plenty of rumors and leaks about what appears… Read More
Twitter this morning announced a change to how its Moments feature will work for those who want to follow the Rio 2016 Olympic Games via its platform. Previously, followable Moments were limited-time collections that would insert tweets into a user’s timeline for a matter of hours or, at most, a few days. But with the debut of the followable Olympics Moments, Twitter will insert… Read More
Whereas setting up the original Xbox One often felt like I was handling some sort of Medicare-provided DIY iron lung, the One S is a far tighter experience that’s luxurious and efficient in its build. Shoddy vent grids covering an alarmingly hollow-sounding interior have been replaced with an innovative perforated vent design that is as fresh-looking as it is solid-feeling.… Read More
Ping Identity announced its first acquisition since being acquired by Vista Equity Partners in June for $600 million, grabbing Austin-based UnboundID for an undisclosed purchase price. The purchase, which Ping CEO Andre Durand says wouldn’t have been possible before the acquisition, expands his company’s mission beyond protecting pure business identity to customer identity and… Read More
It would be a shame if we were able to build autonomous cars before we could simplify car buying. Today, buying a used car means booking multiple weekends to test drive and examine every car at every dealership within a 50 mile radius. We fight through every other lemming on the nine to five grind who only had their weekend to hunt for their DeLorean every time we go out. Eventually we… Read More
Sensay, the chatbot startup that lets people ask for advice from fellow users, has today announced the close of a $4.5 million seed round extension led by Norwest Venture Partners. Other participants include Greycroft Partners, Sweet Capital, NHN, Draper Associates, as well as existing investors.
This brings Sensay’s total funding to $6 million.
Plus, the platform has also introduced… Read More
ShareACamper, the Germany-headquartered peer-to-peer rental platform for motorhomes and caravans, has raised €2 million in seed funding. The backing comes from mostly unnamed investors from the tech and RV (recreational vehicle) industry, including German software development company Werkdigital. Read More
Distil Networks, a company that helps discover and eradicate bad bots, announced a $21 million Series C round today.
Funders include new investor Silicon Valley Bank along with previous participants Bessemer Venture Partners, Foundry Group and TechStars. It comes on the heels of another $21 million round in June, 2015 and brings the total raised to $65 million across all rounds.
With the… Read More
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
