The Trade Desk finishes strong at $30.10 per share after its first day on NASDAQ
Things are looking up for adtech companies on Wall Street — or at least for one of them. The Trade Desk debuted on NASDAQ today at a price of $28.75 per share, up nearly 60 percent from its IPO price of $18. And while there wasn’t a dramatic pop, it continued to climb and closed the day at $30.10 per share. That’s a good start, particularly considering that adtech companies… Read More- CRUNCH NETWORK
Data scientists need to swap sex appeal for power
If you go by the latest headlines, the data scientist is the most coveted and scarce enterprise commodity on the employment market. But you could just as easily argue that it’s a trendy title that has not nearly lived up to the hype — and could eventually be automated out of a job. Read More Self-driving Uber vehicles spotted on the streets of San Francisco
Several folks started noticing self-driving Uber cars in downtown San Francisco yesterday, fueling speculation the ridesharing company could soon be deploying autonomous vehicles for commercial use right where it all started in the Bay Area. Mattermark editor in chief Alex Wilhelm snapped a picture of a white Ford Fusion stopped at the intersection of Montgomery and Pacific. And, as first… Read MoreOrangemonkie makes your Etsy and eBay photos less crap
As any Etsy seller will tell you, photography is up there with the top most important parts of your sales listing. And yet, there’s a load of sellers who are great at making doo-dahs, but who post photos that are, frankly, embarrassing. Orangemonkie fixes that with smart and easy-to-use lightboxes and turntables, making photography fool-proof for online sellers. Read MoreWith Kúla Bebe, any smartphone is a 3D camera
If you spotted the iPhone 7 Plus launch and hung your head in sadness because the dual lenses weren’t for 3D photography, Kúla’s new Bebe might be the solution you’re looking for. The product splits your lens in half, taking a photo from two different angles at once, turning it into a 3D scene. Read MoreInfluxData closes $16 million Series B led by Battery Ventures to organize IOT data
Imagine for a moment that you’re riding in one of John Zimmer’s proposed autonomous sleeper cars and you’re fast asleep on a road trip across the state. All of the sensors on the vehicle are collecting data so that standard components like the engine and steering systems don’t kill you. At sub-second intervals, some believe your car could generate nearly a gigabyte… Read MoreGametime raises $20 million to sell last-minute, textable tickets to sporting events and concerts
Gametime has raised $20 million in venture funding for an app that allows people to find and buy tickets to a nearby concert or sporting event at the last minute, and even up to a half-hour after a game begins. Evolution Media Partners led Gametime’s Series B round, joined by GV, Stanford’s StartX Fund, Accel Partners, Casey Wasserman and Jeff Mallett. The funding brings… Read MoreNucleus raises $5.6M in Series A funding led by Amazon’s Alexa fund
Nucleus, the home intercom system which started shipping in August, has closed $5.6M in Series A Funding. The round was led by Amazon’s Alexa fund, which invests in promising startups that incorporate Alexa’s technology into their product (Nucleus recently added support for Alexa voice functionality). BoxGroup, Greylock Partners, FF Angel, Foxconn, and SV Angel also participated… Read MoreEuropean insurance tech startup FinanceFox closes $28M Series A
“We’re not a bunch of startup dudes saying we’re disrupting insurance… we’re not a bunch of arrogant pricks,” FinanceFox co-founder and CEO Julian Teicke told me during a call late last week. The company, which is announcing $28 million in Series A funding today, is one of a number of European ‘insurtech’ startups who are attempting to bring… Read More
Kickstarter is breaking down assumptions about where innovation can occur
While it’s easy to point to products like the Pebble Smart Watch as a sign that crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter are gaining ground against traditional institutional financiers and angels, the reality is that the vast majority of projects were never in the sights of Sand Hill Road. Rather, Kickstarter is illustrating that all it takes to sustain innovation outside of Silicon Valley… Read MoreTransit’s public transportation tracking app gets a big overhaul and $2.4M in funding
A big annoyance of city living is checking a site like Nextbus for your bus or rail’s arrival time, and then getting there only to find that you’ve missed it by a split second or the doors close as soon as you get there. Now, there’s actually an app that will yell at you to walk faster if you’re about to miss that bus. With a big update today, Transit — an app… Read MorePinterest hires a head of engineering for its new Seattle office
While there’s plenty of talent in the San Francisco Bay Area — where Pinterest’s main office is over at 5th and Brannan in San Francisco — it can be very costly to find and recruit that talent. And there’s a lot outside of San Francisco as well. One city, in particular, that Pinterest has turned its eyes to is Seattle. Last month, it opened an engineering office… Read MoreAngel.ai, a company that builds chat bots, acqui-hired by Amazon
It looks like Google, which yesterday acquired API.ai, a company that helps developers build conversational interfaces, isn’t the only major tech company hoovering up chat bot talent. TechCrunch understands that Angel.ai (formerly known as GoButler) has, at least partially, been acqui-hired by Amazon. Read MoreSubscription clothing service Stitch Fix expands to Men’s, still can’t figure out how to take my money
Stitch Fix can’t figure out how to take my money, but they’re expanding to include men’s clothing now. Good luck with that! Oh, am I going to write a blog post on TechCrunch about my personal issues with a startup? Yeah, maybe? (You may now click into the comments below and commence your trolling.) Here’s the thing: I haven’t been as obsessed with a new startup as… Read MoreBusiness process platform Progressly nabs Ruslan Belkin and announces $6M Series A from 8VC
Progressly, a new platform for supporting growth within large enterprises, just got a big boost in both money and staffing. Ruslan Belkin, a former top exec from Twitter and LinkedIn will be joining the roughly two year old company. With the spotlight drawn, Progressly is taking the opportunity to formally announce a $6 million Series A, led by 8VC, as part of its official coming out… Read MoreTinder taps Spotify to let you add music to your profile
Tinder is teaming up with Spotify to give users a new way to judge each other. Just as Tinder allowed folks to connect their Instagram accounts to their Tinder profile, the same is now true for Spotify. Users will be able to check out each others’ most-played songs on Spotify. But even if you don’t have Spotify, Tinder will still let you use Spotify to add your ‘Tinder… Read MoreVroom raises $50 million to make buying a used car as easy as shoe shopping online
Gunning to become the top seller of used cars online, Vroom Inc. has raised $50 million in a Series E round of equity funding, bringing its total capital raised to $218 million. The market for used cars in the U.S. alone surpasses $400 billion annually. According to the Edmunds.com Used Vehicle Market Report, retailers sold 38.3 million used cars in 2015 at an average price of $18,500. When… Read MoreHealthtech, Fintech, and AI dominate Techstars London Demo Day
Healthtech, Fintech and AI dominated Techstars London Demo day today in London. At a packed venue (the famous Royal Institution, no less) the teams demo’d their products in short pitches. Here is a run-down of the teams, with some more details of those that stood out. You can watch a Facebook Live recording of the demos here. Didimo
They say: “Didimo creates Virtual Avatars ready to… Read MoreFrench online restaurant FoodChéri raises €6M Series A
French food delivery startup FoodChéri, which operates an online only restaurant along the lines of EatFirst in the UK or Munchery’s original model in the US, has raised €6 million in Series A funding led by 360 Capital Partners, and Breega Capital. Read MoreStarOfService raises $10 million for its service marketplace
French startup StarOfService just raised another $10 million for its European Thumbtack alternative. Andrea Piccioni and Silvio Pagliani, ENERN Investments and Point Nine Capital participated in today’s round, as well as various business angels. When I first covered StarOfService, the company didn’t even try to hide from me that it was a Thumbtack copycat. The main difference is… Read More
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