John Borthwick, Naveen Selvadurai, and Heather Hartnett to school us on startup studios at TC Disrupt NY
Some of the most influential and successful companies in the game have come out of startup studios. Just look at Giphy, Reserve, and Operator. But what makes a startup studio successful? At Disrupt NY in May, we aim to find out. Betaworks’ John Borthwick, Expa’s Naveen Selvadurai, and Human Ventures’ Heather Hartnett will be joining us for a panel called “How A… Read MoreWith Sqreen, web developers can seamlessly find and avoid security threats
French startup Sqreen wants you to rethink how you deal with security for your web-based apps. With little effort, Sqreen can inspect, track and fix security holes, acting like a shield. You won’t have to change your workflow as Sqreen plugs to your existing app. Read MoreGametime now lets users “snap and sell” printed tickets
Mobile ticket sellers Gametime added a new feature to their app this week that could draw a larger supply of concert and sports tickets to their marketplace. Designed to make it easier for users to sell old-school printed tickets via mobile, the “snap and sell” feature in Gametime feels something like check scanning in mobile banking apps. A user who clicks the… Read MoreThe League launches a rebuilt, event-centric dating app
The League, the dating startup that’s maybe-maybe-not elitist, is launching version 2.0 in a new city — Los Angeles. Founder and CEO Amanda Bradford said The League has already rolled out the updated app to users in its existing markets, New York and San Francisco, without much fanfare. Today, however, marks the official launch, as well as the addition of its first city in nearly… Read MoreTwitter co-founder Biz Stone relaunches Jelly as a human-powered search engine
Calling it an “un-pivot,” Biz Stone is bringing back Jelly, the Q&A app he created in 2013. Launching today, the new and improved Jelly remains close to its roots, but with an added twist. This time, everything is anonymous so you can ask what you really want to know. Referring to the new Jelly an “on-demand search engine,” Stone said that one lesson he learned… Read More- CRUNCH NETWORK
About those Mexican sharks
You know entrepreneurship has gone mainstream when a local Shark Tank hits cable TV. I was approached by the Shark Tank production team in Mexico to recommend startups for the show. I sent some names of candidates that had not yet received institutional capital nor angel investment and could benefit from the exposure — at their own risk. As entrepreneurship and reality TV collide in… Read More Bitlock crowdfunded a smart bike lock in 2013. What happened next?
Two and a half years ago Bitlock set out to crowdfund a smart bike lock at a time when hype around connected devices was surging and goodwill in crowdfunding platforms was buoyant. Since then both categories have taken some confidence knocks and served up disappointments aplenty. So what happened? Did Bitlock ship, and if so, did its smart device live up to expectations? What problems did it… Read MoreSamsung backs Mast Mobile, the startup that helps you manage multiple numbers on one phone
Communication startup Mast Mobile is launching on Android — specifically the Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. The news is part of a broader partnership with Samsung, which has made a minority investment of undisclosed size in the company. In addition, Mast said it’s launching the first commercial integration with the Samsung Knox Cloud SDK… Read More
Deliveroo begins investing in kitchen space to bring more restaurants to your area
Deliveroo, the on-demand delivery service for restaurant food, has begun investing in its own kitchen space, as a means to help solve the supply-side problem and expand the offering. Dubbed RooBox, the startup has launched an off-site kitchen initiative that is bringing restaurant brands to areas of London that have a large residential population but are currently underserved in terms of… Read MoreTour booking software startup Xola scores $5M Series A led by Rakuten Travel
Xola, a software platform that manages booking and marketing for tour providers, is venturing deeper into international markets after closing a $5 million Series A. The funding was led by Rakuten Travel, which is Japan’s largest online travel agency, and contributed half of the round. Read MoreDrivy grabs $35 million for its car rental marketplace
French startup Drivy has raised another $35 million (€31 million) from Cathay Innovation, Nokia Growth Partners and existing investors Bpifrance, Via-ID and Index Ventures. If you don’t already know Drivy, the company wants to rethink the way car rental works today. Read MoreAcqui-hire experts Tasman acqui-hired by consulting juggernaut Ernst & Young
So you wanna buy a startup? But how do you get the deal signed and roll their team into yours? Consulting behemoth Ernst & Young wants to have the answers and rule M&A advisory services in Silicon Valley. So today it acqui-hired Tasman Consulting, Bay Area specialists in integrating acqui-hires and acquisitions into their new parent companies. Read MoreAffirm acquires budgeting app Sweep to expand into personal finance
Online lending company Affirm has announced it is acquiring Sweep, an app-based personal finance tool. The move comes just two weeks after Affirm raised a $100M Series D round, which was partially raised to help the company expand into new product categories outside of lending. Specifically, Max Levchin, co-founder and CEO of Affirm, acknowledged that users will most likely never be… Read MoreGenetics startup Twist Bioscience is working with Microsoft to store the world’s data in DNA
Twist Bioscience, a startup making and using synthetic DNA to store digital data, just struck a contract with Microsoft and the University of Washington to encode vast amounts of information on synthetic genes. Big data means business and the company able to gather a lot of it is very valuable to investors and stockholders. But that data needs to be stored somewhere and can cost a lot for… Read MoreClearTax nabs $1.3M to make filing taxes online in India less stressful
The Indian government has taken several steps to make filing taxes online easier, but the process can still be, well, taxing. ClearTax wants to make it easier. The startup, a Y Combinator alum, just raised angel funding of $1.3 million. Investors include Max Levchin (this is the PayPal co-founder’s first investment in India), Scott Banister, Neeraj Arora, Naval Ravikant, and Ruchi Sanghvi. Read MoreJaguar partners with Tile to make sure drivers never leave without their wallets
Automaker Jaguar Land Rover Ltd. today announced a partnership with Silicon Valley startup Tile Inc. to prevent drivers from leaving home, or any other place, without their essential personal items. Tile, which has raised $16 million in total venture funding to-date, makes small, waterproof tags that employ Bluetooth low-energy radio and GPS technology to locate objects to which they are… Read MoreNow some Ubers will only wait 2 minutes before charging you, not 5
Better sprint outside, because now Uber can ditch you if you’re just two minutes late for your ride, or start charging you before you get in the car. Previously, people got a five-minute grace period to get to the car after it arrived, or to cancel their trip after they sent a request. But now, Uber is telling some users to “Request When You’re Ready” or face fees… Read More
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