Are buyouts the new IPOs?
Buyouts may replace IPOs as the exit of choice for tech companies in the coming months. This comes as the number of startups unable to exit into a frozen market continues to grow. With only two tech IPOs so far in 2016, and poor market returns for the majority of those already public, companies are turning elsewhere to cash in on their efforts. Just this week, analytics firm QLik was… Read MoreStartup step-by-step: The battle
Every battle is won before it is fought. This bit of pop wisdom, brought down to us from Sun Tzu and countless motivational speakers, is the koan for a generation of can-do entrepreneurs. But there is another version of this line, one that is less rosy. Every battle is won or lost before it is fought. In the all-singing, all-dancing world of entrepreneurial theatre, the important part is the… Read MoreLifeliqe debuts VR-enabled educational content to keep kids interested in learning
San Francisco-based startup Lifeliqe (pronounced “life like”) debuted and demoed its new virtual reality, educational content experience from the floor of the Augmented World Expo 2016 this week. According to co-founder and CEO Ondrej Homola, Lifeliqe spent the last three years creating a library of high-quality, interactive VR content. The patience may have paid off, as the… Read MorePHIND’s new app will help you discover places, see if they’re buzzing
A visual technology and search startup called PHIND took the stage at last year’s Startup Battlefield at Disrupt NY to debut what it was then calling a “Shazam for places” – that is, an app that let you snap a photo to learn about the world around you. Today, roughly a year later, PHIND is launching its production version, which focuses on helping users discover new… Read MoreThis is your last day to apply for the TC Pitch-offs in Austin and Seattle
This is your last chance. At the end of the day, applications will close for the TC Pitch-offs, going down in Austin and Seattle in a couple of weeks. And I don’t want you to miss out. We’ve already gotten dozens of applicants for both Austin (June 14) and Seattle (June 16), but in the end, only ten companies will compete. Each will be given exactly 60 seconds to pitch their wares to… Read MoreSnapchat secretly acquires Seene, a computer vision startup that lets mobile users make 3D selfies
Snapchat has acquired Seene (also known as Obvious Engineering) a couple of months ago, TechCrunch has learned. Seene lets you capture 3D models from your phone with a simple smartphone camera. Snapchat could use Seene’s format for a brand new category of selfie lenses, a new 3D photo format and potentially virtual reality projects. According to our sources, Snapchat was interested… Read MoreGawker CEO Nick Denton goes after thin-skinned Silicon Valley billionaires
Gawker Media CEO Nick Denton joined Kara Swisher on stage at Vox Media’s Code Conference next to an empty chair — reserved for Peter Thiel, who is involved in a lawsuit against Gawker and did not attend the conference. The conversation centered around Gawker’s decision to publish a story that noted that Thiel was gay — among other controversial stories that the… Read MoreMedium acquires Superfeedr, a real-time API that supercharges your feeds
Medium has acquired a small startup called Superfeedr, an API to turbocharge the way you handle RSS, Atom and JSON feeds. For a company like Medium, Superfeedr can generate feeds with a ton of items and push them in real time to PubSubHubbub-compliant services. According to Superfeedr’s Read MoreLoot Crate, the subscription startup for fans and geeks, raises $18.5M
Geeky commerce startup Loot Crate is announcing that it has raised $18.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Upfront Ventures, with participation from Breakwater Investment Management, Time Inc., Downey Ventures (startup investment arm of Team Downey, the production company founded by Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey), M13 and Sterling.VC. When you subscribe to Loot Crate, you… Read More
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The barbell effect of machine learning
Machine learning will have a barbell effect on the technology landscape. On one hand, it will democratize basic intelligence through the commoditization and diffusion of services like image recognition and translation into software broadly. On the other, it will concentrate higher-order intelligence in the hands of a relatively small number of incumbents that control most of their… Read More IoT startup Notion draws $3.2 million in additional funding
Notion, a connected home startup headquartered in Denver, closed $3.2 million in additional funding as part of the second tranche of a previous seed round from last year. XL Innovation led the deal with Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures participating. Notion has now raised a total of 5.7 million dollars in addition to a successful Kickstarter. The company currently has 11 employees and has… Read MoreDigit adds $22.5 million Series B to its savings account
Fast moving fintech startup Digit closed a $22.5 million Series B today just a year after closing an $11.3 million Series A. Ribbit Capital led the round with support from all prior investors including General Catalyst. This new round brings their total fundraising to $36 million. The San Francisco based startup, founded in February 2015, operates in the savings space and has been doubling… Read MoreTile raises $18 million to make personal belongings easy to find
To help people find lost, stolen or misplaced personal effects with the proverbial touch of a button, a startup called Tile has raised $18 million in a Series B funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. For the unfamiliar, Tile makes square, waterproof tags that employ Bluetooth low-energy radio and GPS technology to find objects they’re attached to, like wallets, keychains, purses… Read MoreIndian used car platform Droom gets Series B to enter Southeast Asian markets
Droom, one of several startups taking advantage of India’s booming secondhand vehicle market, is planning to enter new countries after raising a Series B from Beenext and Digital Garage. The company hasn’t disclosed the amount of the round, but TechCrunch has learned that it’s between $25 to $30 million at a post-money valuation of more than $200 million. Read MoreElon Musk doesn’t think Google will compete with Tesla — but Apple could
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is watching the competition closely — including electric cars from existing manufacturers, and of course, potentially Apple. But he said at Vox Media’s Code Conference that he doesn’t view Google as a potential competitor. More clearly, he views that companies that might choose to work with Google as direct competitors to Tesla Motors. Read MoreElon Musk wants people on Mars by 2025
One can never underestimate the ambition of SpaceX and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk. After making a bold adjustment to Tesla Motors’ outlook, saying the company could produce 500,000 cars annually by 2018, Musk now says that he says SpaceX may be able to have people on Mars by 2025. More specifically, he expects to launch a manned mission to Mars in 2024, which would arrive in 2025. He… Read MoreThread, the U.K. personal styling service for men, picks out £4M funding led by Beringea
Thread, the U.K. personal styling service for men that uses a mixture of algorithms and humans to help solve the online clothes shopping problem, has raised a further round of funding. Read MoreSocial Nature raises $1M to promote natural products with influencer marketing
We write about a lot of influencer marketing companies at TechCrunch, but Social Nature has a unique focus — natural products. The company is announcing it has raised $1 million in seed funding from investors, including Shopify co-founder Scott Lake, the Pereira/Wharton family, the founders of Pomme Natural Markets and Simon Whitfield (the Olympic triathlete) and Brenda Irwin of… Read MoreTubular Labs raises $10 million to measure online videos across social platforms
Just how popular was that video of the mom laughing in her Chewbacca mask? And how did that video stack up against the mermaid pillow one that went viral in January? Are videos published by Last Week Tonight watched more or shared more than videos published by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert? Mountain View, Calif.-based Tubular Labs Inc. is using big data analytics to figure out such… Read More
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