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How consolidations will play out in the transportation, food and entertainment industries
There has been no shortage of thoughtful articles exploring a bubble in technology. I would argue that the world has already been transformed, and there is no bubble in the purest sense. Instead of massive flameouts that leave everyone burned, I think we are going to see a wave of beneficial consolidation and rationalization in industries that appropriately have seen exceptional venture… Read More Farfetch grabs another $110 million for its fashion marketplace
Farfetch is growing like crazy as the company just secured $110 million. The London-based startup has become a dominant e-commerce player in the fashion space. Farfetch runs a marketplace that connects high end fashion retailers with customers. But the company doesn’t plan to stop there. Read MoreTeachable raises $2.5 million to help instructors teach outside the confines of course marketplace
New York-based Teachable has raised $2.5 million in a seed round of venture funding to help instructors of anything set up their own branded storefronts for selling courses and connecting with learners online. The company’s technology lets instructors teach courses online in any subject without having to commit their proprietary materials and personal brands to a single… Read MoreLiveNinja secures a further $2M to combine live web chat and messaging
With the rise and rise of messaging (I have at least six messaging apps on my phone and counting), tech companies are piling into the space. Many are trying to shoe-horn ‘chat bots’ into behaving like they are capable of customer service. Facebook Messenger, Kik, Twitter, Skype, Telegram, and WhatsApp have all announced such services. But as others have pointed out, we are nowhere… Read MorePeergrade lets students grade each other’s assignments
For as long as I can remember, technology has been seen as a panacea that will finally make education scalable beyond the one to few model employed in the classroom. As a result there seems to be an endless conveyer belt of edtech startups finding new (and sometimes very old) ways to utilise the internet’s networking capability to improve learning. Read MoreConnected-battery maker Roost announces two new low-cost smart smoke alarms
Beginning life as a Kickstarter campaign back in 2014, the team at Roost found a compelling, low-cost backdoor into the world of smart smoke alarms dominated by the team at Nest. Roel Peeters and James Blackwell, both formerly of Wi-Fi chip maker Ozmo, applied their Wi-Fi know-how to a smart battery, a component that transforms an existing smoke alarm into a connected device that can be… Read MoreCharge starts price war with $10 per month SMS-and-data phone plan
Charge is a new mobile internet provider who aims squarely at the generation of people who prefer to tap on their mobile devices rather than talk into them. Next week, the company is launching a $10 per month SMS-and-data plan, and a $20 per month plan that adds unlimited voice, too. Perfect for the data-first generation of cellphone users. Read MorePassport raises $8 million to help cities offer pay-by-mobile parking, transit
Passport Inc. raised $8 million in a Series B round of funding to help cities make parking and transportation systems easier for people to use, and harder for them to abuse. MK Capital led the investment in Passport, joined by Grotech Ventures and Relevance Capital. The new round brings Passport’s total capital raised to $17 million. The Charlotte, North Carolina startup provides… Read MoreAccomable wants to solve the accessible holiday search problem
The problem with most holiday search engines is that accessibility features are either listed in terms too generic to be entirely reliable or useful, or not listed at all. Enter U.K. startup Accomable, which is setting out to become the ‘Airbnb for the mobility sector’ or perhaps something more akin to Expedia but for accessible travel. Read More
MetaProp NYC kicks off the second class of its real estate accelerator with lease marketplace Flip
If you need (or just want) to get out of the lease on your apartment, a startup called Flip can help you do it — and you might even make money in the process. The company launched back in December, and now it’s joining as the “anchor startup” for the second class at MetaProp NYC, an accelerator for real estate startups. Flip co-founder and CEO Susannah Vila told me… Read MorePrete splits from Treat to bring unlimited blowouts to SF
Prete is a new blowout startup launching today in San Francisco and Los Angeles that wants to hook you up with unlimited hair styling. No cuts, color or anything else, just as many blowouts as you want for $129 a month. Some of you may recall a story I wrote about a similar blowout service coming to SF called Treat that wanted to use established salon space for unlimited blowouts. Treat gained… Read MoreInstacart, PlateJoy partner to deliver recommended groceries to dieters
The makers of a virtual nutritionist app, PlateJoy, have partnered with Instacart to offer same-day delivery of the foods that they recommended to users through the PlateJoy app A subscription to PlateJoy costs $59 for six months. Users get food recommendations for themselves and family, cooking tips and recipes, and access to a personal nutritionist they can consult through PlateJoy. Founder… Read MoreParachute lets organizations receive live-streamed emergency incidents recorded with your iPhone
While there are a number of mobile apps that serve as a panic button of sorts – alerting friends or family when you feel you’re in danger – last year’s TechCrunch Disrupt NY hackathon winner Witness resonated with the event’s audience because it also promised a way to discreetly record incidents of civil disobedience and police brutality at a time when… Read MoreTechCrunch is coming to Austin and Seattle in June
It’s that time again. TechCrunch is headed to Austin and Seattle for the 2016 TC Meetup + Pitch-off. If you were looking to pitch your startup to the TechCrunch team, local VCs and your local community, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Ten companies will be selected to participate in the pitch-off. Each will have exactly 60 seconds to pitch their wares to a panel of… Read MoreGiphy launches a keyboard for iOS called Giphy Keys
With all of Giphy’s integrations with chat platforms, it was only a matter of time before the betaworks-backed GIF platform launched its own keyboard. World, welcome Giphy Keys into the mix. The Giphy Keys third-party keyboard launches on iOS today, and lets users send GIFs from any app they want. Even Snapchat. Here’s how it works: Once you’ve downloaded the Giphy Keys app… Read MoreShenzhen Valley Ventures has a new incubator for hardware startups
Shenzhen Valley Ventures in Palo Alto, Calif. is launching an incubator for hardware startups in partnership with one of its largest limited partners, Zowee, a factory that works with hardware giants like Xiaomi Technology Co. and Samsung Ltd. Zowee’s Shenzhen facility includes unique prototyping and manufacturing equipment, and testing labs for electromagnetic interference and… Read MoreUber Offers get merchants to pay for your ride
Uber wants to be your car, and the billboard. It’s turning its frequently used app into a surface for external commerce promotions in hopes of rewarding users with special deals. If Uber will give you $20 off for shopping with its partners, you might stick with it over competitors. Eventually, pushing riders to make purchases could potentially earn Uber referral fees that might boost… Read MoreFormlabs acquires Pinshape, an online 3D printing community/marketplace
By the time the Form 1 began shipping to Kickstarter backers, the market was already flooded with countless 3D printers built around the same basic plastic extruding technology. But Formlabs offered something different. The Massachusetts-based startup eschewed the RepRap process offered up in popular consumer machines from companies like MakerBot and 3D Systems in favor of a more complex… Read MoreAdBlock Plus teams up with Flattr to help readers pay publishers
Ad blockers are often painted as the enemy of online publishers, but sometimes things are more complicated. AdBlock Plus, for example, just announced that they’re working with startup Flattr on a new product that allows readers to pay the publishers who produce the content they read, listen to and watch. As a result of the partnership, AdBlock Plus said it has also made a small investment… Read MoreAsos and Telefónica’s Wayra launch fashion tech accelerator
Fashion retailer Asos already has its own corporate venture arm, the aptly-named Asos Ventures. And now the publicly listed U.K. company is getting into to the startup accelerator business with a new fashion tech program being run in partnership with (and by) Telefónica’s Wayra. Read More
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