Uber Lowers Fares In Over 100 Cities
Uber is lowering prices in over 100 U.S. and Canadian cities, effective tomorrow. January is a slower month for the car service and the company says it is reducing fares in order to increase demand. “Seasonality affects every business, and Uber is no exception,” said the company blog post. Uber claims that the increased demand will offset the lower prices and that drivers will… Read MoreUnicorns And Little Ponies Hit The Slaughterhouse As Maker Media Lays Off 17
Stables full of startups are being turned into glue, whether they’re mythical beasts, donkeys in party hats, or just baby horses. The latest forced to do layoffs is Maker Media, the champion of the do-it-yourself movement. 10 years and $10 million later, multiple sources tell me that Maker Media laid off 20% of its staff today. When asked, Maker Media confirmed to me that 17… Read MoreAnalytics Startup Mixpanel Lays Off 18 Employees
Mixpanel laid off 18 people yesterday, representing less than 10 percent of its 230-plus person team. “This is obviously a deeply tough decision,” said CEO Suhail Doshi. “By no means do we intend to hire people only to let them go … We’re very sorry that it happened.” Many other startups are also cutting costs by cutting their headcount. The news was… Read MorePeach Is A Slick New Messaging App From The Founder Of Vine
Chat chat chat, talk talk talk. We love it, you love it. Messaging apps are the hot for 2016 (again) and there’s seemingly a niche platform for all of us. There’s also big platforms for the rest of the world like Messenger, WhatsApp, Line, Snapchat and Hangouts (and tons more). One new app, Peach, is pretty interesting. Peach was created by the founder of Vine, Dom Hofmann. Read More3D-Printed Insole Maker SOLS Lays Off 20 Percent Of Staff
SOLS, a company using 3D-printing technology to make custom shoe insoles, has laid off 20 percent of its workforce, or 14 employees in total across all teams, TechCrunch has confirmed. The staff reductions come just ahead of a forthcoming product announcement due in a few weeks, as well as further efforts aimed at broadening SOLS’ product offerings, says co-founder and CEO Kegan… Read MoreMyMusicTaste, A Crowdsourcing Platform For Concerts, Raises $10M Series A
MyMusicTaste, a Seoul-based startup that gauges fan interest to help figure out where to plan concerts, plans to expand throughout Asia after landing a $10 million Series A led by Softbank Ventures Korea. Read MoreRNTS Media Completes $45M Acquisition Of Mobile Ad Company Heyzap
The deal is done — Germany company RNTS Media says it has completed its acquisition of Heyzap. The acquisition is worth up to $45 million, specifically $20 million in cash upfront, with cash and stock earn outs of $25 million. It was first announced in December and represents a team up between two mobile ad companies, namely Heyzap and RNTS subsidiary Fyber. RNTS CEO Andreas Bodczek… Read MoreGrocery Delivery Startup Honestbee Launches In Taiwan
Honestbee, a grocery delivery service backed by Formation 8, has launched in Taipei, its third city so far. Services are already available in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Niseko, Japan. During the first half of this year, Honestbee also plans to expand into Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta. Read MoreAnnouncing The Finalists For The TC CES Hardware Battlefield: Nima, Carbon, IdentiLock, And Wiivv
The third annual Hardware Battlefield at CES 2016 is nearly complete. Fourteen companies took to the TechCrunch stage at the Sands Expo with six minutes to prove their viability in the market. And it wasn’t just the audience that they were trying to impress. We had expert judges including Fitbit’s James Park, FirstMark Capital’s Matt Turck, and GV’s Lo Toney waiting in… Read More
Snap, The 4K Flying Camera With Auto-Tracking, Is Ready For The Spotlight
Snap, a flying camera we first wrote about in September, is ready for the spotlight as it takes the stage today to compete in the TechCrunch Hardware Battlefield at CES. The device, made by Vantage Robotics, provides an alternative for those who want professional aerial shots but don’t want the hassle of controlling a cumbersome (and expensive) drone like the DJI Inspire. Read MoreGilt’s Unicorn Tale Comes To An End After Being Acquired For $250M
Hudson’s Bay Company, the owner of department chain stores like Saks Fifth Avenue, said today it was acquiring Gilt Groupe for $250 million. The sale still represents a tough end to the story of Gilt. The startup was one of the original darling flash-sale sites coming out of New York. But that whole market has found itself challenged by slim operating margins, its initial popularity… Read MoreGet You A Growler Of Brass Monkey On Demand With Hopsy
We truly live in the future, friends. Food on demand. Love on demand. Uranium ore on demand. Now you’ve got growlers – essentially buckets – of beer on demand. This new app, created by Sebastien Tron, Andrew Perroy, and Bodie Paden, is called Hopsy and offers 32oz growlers of microbrew beers on demand. The company has raised $450,000 in pre-seed from angels and are looking to… Read MoreFind Your Trainer Helps You (Duh!) Find A Personal Trainer
We’ve seen plenty of startups succeed in the fitness space, from activity frackers like Fitbit to gym subscriptions like Classpass. But access to a personal trainer has yet to be democratized. Until now Find Your Trainer, with a fresh $1.5 million in seed funding, is an on-demand marketplace that connects customers with personal trainers that fit the user’s personal goals. Most… Read MoreThe Grillbot Is A Robot That Cleans Your Grill
Lazy grillers, rejoice. Thanks to the Grillbot, you may never have to clean your grill again. Today at CES we discovered the Grillbot, and it’s exactly what it sounds like – a robot that you plop down to automatically clean your dirty grill. Selling for $129, the robot has three replaceable metal bristles that help the robot both clean and move around your grill. Read MoreFusar Mohawk Turns Any Helmet Into A Powerful Smart Helmet
Meet Fusar, a helmet kit. Instead of trying to reinvent helmets, the Fusar system works with any helmet. You just have to clip the main component, the Mohawk, to your existing helmet to turn it into a safe, smart helmet. The full kit will be available for $549, and early adopters can buy it for $349. Read MoreIly Aims To Be The New Home Phone That Keeps Your Family Connected
If you’re a parent who’d like to do a better job keeping in touch with your kids when you’re not a home, then a forthcoming product called Ily might be the answer. Ilan Abehassera, founder and CEO of Ily-maker Insensi, has talked about his vision before, but today he’s demonstrating Ily onstage at TechCrunch’s Hardware Battlefield the Consumer Electronics Show. Read MoreVacation Rentals Search Engine Holidu Raises €5M Series A
It was only last July that HomeToGo, a European ‘metasearch’ engine for holiday rentals, raised €6 million in Series A funding. And now competitor Holidu has gotten in on the fundraising action. The Munich-based company has closed a €5 million Series A round led by EQT ventures. Also participating is Venture Stars, and Senovo, who join existing angel investors led by… Read More- CRUNCH NETWORK
Female Founders: The State Of The Union
Building a tech company from the ground up and having it succeed is an ambitious goal. Doing that as a female founder and CEO is another beast, entirely. When you stop and look at what it takes to be a successful female founder in tech — the numbers I mean — it’s enough to ward off women from even trying: 555 tech companies raised a Series B in 2015; however, only 5 percent… Read More PushDoctor, The U.K. Video-Based Doctor Service, Scores $8.2M Series A
PushDoctor, the U.K. ‘on-demand’ service that enables you to have a video consultation with a doctor, has raised $8.2 million in funding — money it plans to use to develop the data side of its offering to improve the way it integrates with other healthcare providers and to significantly bolster marketing. Read MoreAmpMe Syncs Multiple Devices To Become A Portable Speaker System
There are plenty of services out there that promise to sync up your devices to form a surround-sound speaker system. But AmpMe, an app that launched out of Montreal three months ago, claims to be the only one that can work across both iOS and Android. The company was founded by serial entrepreneur and angel investor Martin-Luc Archambault and has grown to over 1 million downloads in three… Read More
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