Luka, with $4.42 million in Series A, releases AI-powered chat bots
Just in time for the chat bot craze, Startup Battlefield alum Luka is enhancing its AI-powered messaging service with a variety of smart bots to help users get whatever they desire. Luka originally launched as a Yelp competitor, all done over text. Users could ask Luka, via chat, about where they should go to eat, whether reservations were available, and recommended dishes. The company has… Read MoreHands on with Reddit’s new smartphone app
“Finally” is one of those words that gets overused in tech news stories, but I think it’s fair to say that it’s taken a pretty long time for Reddit to release its first official, native apps for iOS and Android. Until now, the company has made do with Alien Blue, which started out as a third-party app before being acquired by Reddit in 2014. But as Sarah Perez… Read MoreThe Sacramento Kings just held the NBA’s first startup pitch competition
At a game on Tuesday night, the Sacramento Kings held the National Basketball League’s first ever pitch competition. Four local companies (narrowed down from 32 semi-finalists and about 100 applicants) pitched to the entire stadium, which voted on Twitter for the winner. QuickLegal, an on-demand legal advice service, won the competition and took home a $10,000 cash prize. But… Read MoreLitsy is a book-focused social network that goes beyond reviews
If you’re a book lover, Litsy might be the social app for you. The startup was founded by Todd Lawton and Jeff LeBlanc, who previously launched the book-themed clothing company Out of Print. Lawton told me the idea for Litsy came from connecting with Out of Print fans at events like book festivals and comic book conventions. “We realized that there’s a really passionate… Read MoreChatty fiction app Hooked gets an update where readers can write stories, too
Fiction app Hooked launched last fall, aiming to reinvent fiction with short stories modeled on text message conversations. Next up: Letting readers write their own stories. That arrives today with the launch of Hooked 2.0. Any Hooked reader can now create characters and then write their story one message at a time. They can also include photos and videos. The idea of typing out a full story… Read MoreRestaurant waitlisting app NoWait rolls out mobile payments
Restaurant waitlisting service NoWait is known best by consumers for its mobile app that lets you virtually “get in line” at nearby restaurants like Chili’s and others, where formal reservations may not be accepted. This helps speed up the time it takes to grab a meal, as you don’t have to waste time waiting for a table to become available. Now the company is planning… Read MoreE-commerce search startup Twiggle scores $12.5M Series A led by Naspers
Search engines on large e-commerce sites often spit up a lot of results, which is great if you want to browse, but otherwise annoying. Twiggle thinks it has the solution. Internet conglomerate Naspers agrees, because it has led the Tel Aviv-based startup’s $12.5 million Series A. Yahoo Japan, State of Mind Ventures (a returning investor), and Sir Ronald Cohen also participated in the round. Read MoreKaramba Security raises $2.5 million to keep hackers out of connected cars
GPS navigation. Entertainment systems that offer streaming music. Bluetooth door locks. As vehicles are increasingly connected to the internet, they also become vulnerable to hacker attacks. Now, a Tel Aviv-based startup called Karamba Security has raised $2.5 million in seed funding to bring cybersecurity solutions to the automotive industry. According to Karamba co-founder David Barzilai… Read More
Clutter on-demand storage services packs up $20 million from Sequoia
Clutter, the on-demand storage space looking to take on the likes of MakeSpace, has today announced the close of a $20 million Series B round led by Sequoia Capital. Sequoia also led a $9 million Series A for Clutter back in October. The premise behind Clutter is simple. Almost everyone that lives in a metropolitan area, whether it’s a shoebox apartment in New York or a house in… Read MoreCustomer communication startup Intercom raises $50M
Intercom, a startup helping businesses talk to their customers, has raised an additional $50 million in funding. Intercom’s products cover everything from website chat to marketing to customer support. When the company raised funding last year, co-founder and CEO Eoghan McCabe (pictured above) said integration is one of the big elements of the company’s strategy —… Read MoreSmartling acquires Jargon to help mobile developers ready their apps for international markets
Smartling, the translation tech company, has acquired TechStars alumni Jargon on Crunchbase which makes tools for mobile developers who want to “localize” their apps for different international markets, and the devices and app stores that are relevant in each one. New York-based Smartling is known for its “translation management system” software, and marketplace… Read MoreYik Yak’s CTO drops out as the hyped anonymous app stagnates
Is Yik Yak a thing anymore? Not so much, according to download stats, traffic charts, surveys and a source that says the college app’s monthly user count has been declining. That source — with intimate knowledge of the company — also tipped me off that Yik Yak‘s original CTO Tom Chernetsky has bailed, which the startup now confirms. He’s not the only one who… Read MoreSharethrough grades your headlines with its new Hemingway tool
Ask most writers and editors and I’ll bet they agree: Writing headlines is hard. It’s not easy to come up with something exciting and attention-grabbing that also conveys the important information about a story in just a few words. Meanwhile, brands and marketers are creating more of their own content, so they have to worry about this, too. Native advertising company Sharethrough… Read More- CRUNCH NETWORK
The Silicon Valley of Transylvania
Romania has long been a hotbed for tech companies outsourcing contact centers, software development and even research and development. Now, Romania is growing its own entrepreneurial culture. Read More Y Combinator flirts with having Hacker News community pick Fellowship companies
Upvotes! What are they good for? Soon, they might get your very, very early-stage company into Y Combinator. The incubator is experimenting with using the Hacker News community to pick startups for its Fellowship program. Read MoreThis new app lets you express your feelings with video memes, not GIFs
Today, GIFs have become a popular way communicate sentiment online and in mobile messaging, where written text doesn’t always do the job. More expressive than an emoji, these looping images let you share a specific thought or feeling with little effort. But today, a new app is launching to see if video can step in where GIFs leave off, by allowing for a different means of expression. Read MoreRev3 Founder David Prager forms new fund, Monstro Ventures, to back early-stage tech startups
The team behind Monstro is launching a new microfund called Monstro Ventures, according to co-founder David Prager. For the unfamiliar, Monstro is an ad agency with headquarters in Oakland and another office in Los Angeles that specializes in video creative, including videos that get hype going around crowdfunding or launches of new tech products. Prager is best-known as the founder of… Read MoreSenders gives you more context for the recipients and senders in email
The advent of email tracking has caused quite a bit of a ruckus, and is generally creepy. A NY-based startup called One More Company made an attempt to tackle this head-on with a service called Trackbuster, but now they’re interested in something else: “enhancing emails” by adding relevant and contextual info. Called Senders, the email service creates a sort of contact… Read More
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