IAC-Owned Ask.fm Acquires Recipe Network Foodily
IAC-owned social network Ask.fm has acquired the entire team behind recipe network Foodily, the companies are announcing today, which includes those focused on product, engineering and design. These nine team members will now be tasked with the continued development of Ask.fm’s Q&A platform, while the Foodily website and mobile app will be maintained by a separate division within IAC. Read MoreHobnob Lets You Create Personalized Event Invites To Send By Text
There are a number of services today that allow you to create and send digital invitations to birthdays, parties and other events, where the invites themselves are sent out via email, social networks, or even by postal mail if you choose. But a new application called Hobnob, launching now, is designed instead to support invite delivery entirely via SMS and MMS. This means recipients will… Read MoreDeep-Learning, Image-Analysis Startup Descartes Labs Raises $3.3M After Spinning Out Of Los Alamos National Lab
After being incubated in a government lab for seven years, Descartes Labs — a deep-learning image analysis startup — has raised $3.3 million of its own funding and spun off as a private company. Descartes Labs is focused on taking satellite imagery, turning it into something coherent and analyzing it for useful data. Descartes Labs formally spun out of Los Alamos National Labs… Read MoreStart-Up Chile SCALE Fund Makes Its First 9 Investments
Start-Up Chile SCALE, the follow-on fund backed by the Chilean government to boost local startup growth, is making its first nine investments. The nine companies, all graduates of Start-Up Chile’s past three classes, will receive $100K each in equity-free funding. In exchange, the founders agree to keep their companies in Chile for at least a year and serve as mentors to three… Read MoreAfter Exiting Markco Media, Mark Pearson Launches New London-Based VC Fund And Startup Studio
Aside from a bout of self-diagnosed “man flu” and being mildly irritated that the exit of one of his portfolio companies wouldn’t now close before the end of the tax year, Mark Pearson was in high spirits during our call a few weeks ago. And perhaps he has every reason to be. After selling Markco Media, the parent company of MyVoucherCodes, last year, the U.K entrepreneur… Read MoreWarby Parker Now Worth $1.2 Billion, Focusing On Building More Brick-And-Mortar Stores
The e-commerce eyeglasses retailer Warby Parker has raised $100 million to expand physical store locations from 12 to 20 by year’s end and to work on technology that will allow customers to conduct eye exams on their mobile phones. Global investment management firm T. Rowe Price led the round, along with participation from Wellington Management and from previous investors Tiger… Read MoreNeonMob Is A Platform For Creating, Trading, And Collecting Digital Art
Digital art is gaining popularity, with companies like Curioos dedicating entire marketplaces to the medium, but the idea of scarcity when it comes to the Internet is relatively new. NeonMob is looking to change the way we think about that with a platform dedicated to digital art collectibles. The company offers tools to creators so they can build out a collection of art — perhaps… Read MoreZero’s New Email App Can Help You Reach “Inbox Zero”
A new mobile email application called Zero is launching today to help users power through their inboxes on the go to achieve the often sought-after state of “inbox zero.” Aimed at heavy email users who receive a lot of inbound email, an app that promises to speed up email processing by 30 percent or more sounds too good to be true. But while still far from perfect in its present… Read MoreAirtable Launches Its API And Embedded Databases
Two months after launching its unique organizational tool, Airtable is rolling out two new features that’ll make it easier to share your personal spreadsheet/database hybrids with others in a way they’ll find useful. In addition to sharing direct read or edit access to the relational databases you create in its app, Airtable is today letting you draw from the underlying data using… Read More
Mobile Action Raises $2 Million To Help App Makers Attract More Users
Getting apps discovered in an increasingly packed app store is a challenge. This is why a number of firms have launched services to help app publishers figure out how to better optimize their app’s search result ranking when users type in various keywords, as well as gain other competitive intelligence. One such firm, San Francisco-based Mobile Action, has now closed on $2 million in… Read MoreDufl, A Service That Packs And Ships Your Suitcase, Is A Traveler’s Dream
The absolute worst part of traveling, whether it’s for business or for pleasure, is packing and unpacking a suitcase. The work it takes to pack a bag is negligible, but having a clean inventory of clothes each time you pack takes far more planning. Dufl, a service that launches today, is looking to change all that. Read MoreCampus Job, Connecting College Students With Employers, Raises $7.8 Million In Series A
Nearly eight months after launching a platform to connect college students with local job opportunities, Campus Job has raised a $7.8 million Series A round of funding led by General Catalyst Partners, with participation from Index Ventures, Box Group, SV Angel, Slow Ventures, Lerer Hippeau Ventures and others. Read MoreReal Estate Startup Suitey Rebrands As TripleMint, Raises $1.65M
TripleMint, a New York City startup aiming to take the pain out of buying, selling and renting an apartment, has raised $1.65 million in seed funding. Investors include Dominion Capital, Winklevoss Capital (yes, those Winklevoss twins), Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, Kima Ventures, Archangel Ventures, Fabrice Grinda, Tom Falus (former president of Cushman & Wakefield) and Mike… Read MoreJeremy Allaire’s Bitcoin Startup Circle Takes $50M From Goldman Sachs, IDG
Circle, the Bitcoin startup that veteran entrepreneur Jeremy Allaire started, just raised $50 million from Goldman Sachs and IDG Capital Partners. It’s another sign that the finance industry’s most powerful players are starting to take the crypto-currency and its ecosystem seriously. All of Circle’s existing investors including Breyer Capital, General Catalyst Partners… Read MoreDroneBase Lets Any Business Rent A Drone And Pilot
You don’t want to own a drone. Or learn to fly a drone. Or hire someone full-time to fly a drone. And you definitely don’t want to pay for a helicopter, plane or satellite. You just want some aerial photos or videos of your work site, real estate or infrastructure. Now, thanks to DroneBase, you can get the benefits of unmanned aerial vehicles without the hassle. Read MoreSecret Shuts Down
[Update: Secret has confirmed it will shut down and give investors back their money] Anonymous sharing app Secret will shut down soon, according to sources close to the company. The announcement could be made as soon as today or tomorrow, and there’s some talk of current employees receiving modest severance packages. Having raised $35 million, it’s unlikely that the company is out… Read MoreEvernote’s New Pricing Includes A Cheaper, Middle Tier And A Pricier Top Plan
As promised late last year, Evernote today has rolled out new pricing plans for its note-taking service in order to introduce a more affordable, middle tier that now falls in between the company’s free option and the full-featured premium plan, which is now $5.99 per month, up from the earlier $5 per month. The new plans, Basic, Evernote Plus and Evernote Premium, are differentiated… Read MoreGreenRush Wants To Be The GrubHub, Not The Uber, Of Pot Delivery
The pot delivery space is heating up: Canary and Dave have combined forces in Seattle and Eaze just raised $10 million to deliver Mary Jane to San Francisco. But very few pot delivery startups focus on the actual product. GreenRush focuses on dispensaries and their products, giving those vendors the opportunity to list their own inventory. It offers an online portal for both new and… Read MorePlateJoy Raises $1.7 Million In Seed Funding To Find Its Place At The Meal Delivery Table
Meal-kit delivery startup PlateJoy has raised $1.7 million in seed money to get into bigger markets and take on competitors like Blue Apron in the recipes-for-delivery segment. The funding comes from Foundation Capital, Sherpa Ventures, HealthBox, 500 Startups, VaynerRSE, Bassett Investments, Gotham Gal Ventures’ Joanne Wilson and celebrity investor Jared Leto. Read MoreWire, The Communications App Backed By Skype’s Co-Founder, Arrives On The Web
Wire, the communications app backed by Skype co-founder Janus Friis which launched late last year, is now expanding its service to the web with the launch of Wire for Web. Envisioned as a modern-day take on Skype, had it been built today, the new addition to Wire will allow users on Chrome, Firefox and Opera web browsers to both make and receive calls, while IE and Safari users will only be… Read More
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