Mattress Startup Casper Plans To Open Pop-Up Stores In San Francisco, Austin and Washington, D.C.
Casper is known for bringing the mattress buying experience online, but it’s also trying out new approaches to brick-and-mortar retail. In fact, co-founder and CEO Philip Krim said that over the next two months, the startup will be opening pop-up stores in San Francisco, Austin and Washington, D.C. Krim revealed his plans while on-stage our Disrupt NY conference — and yes, the… Read MoreFitbit Files For $100M IPO
Fitbit just filed an S-1 declaring its plans to go public. The filing states that the fitness-tracking company aims to raise $100 million in its initial public offering (that number could change). It also says the company will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FIT”. Read MoreFormer YC Partner Harj Taggar Is Building The New Technical Hiring Pipeline With TripleByte
Harj Taggar, one of Y Combinator’s earliest partners, is very familiar with the pain of hiring for new CEOs. “When founders start companies, they’re not really sure how to put hiring practices in place. They’re not sure which questions to ask or how to handle technical interviews,” he said. So while he was at the early-stage firm, he started building out systems… Read MoreFormer ExactTarget Execs Back Millennial-Focused Media Startup The Odyssey
The Odyssey, the site that popularized the idea of “The Dad Bod,” is announcing that it has raised $3 million in seed funding. A number of executives from ExactTarget (a marketing company acquired by Salesforce.com for $2.5 billion) participated in the round — investors include founder and former CEO Scott Dorsey, former CFO Traci Dolan and former CMO Tim Kopp. Read More500 Startups Accelerator Announces Its Thirteenth Batch Of Companies
With their twelfth batch of companies set to demo to investors and the press next week, 500 Startups is announcing the thirteenth batch of companies to go through its accelerator. Read MoreRetail Expert Francine Della Badia Joins Bonobos As New CEO
Former Bonobos CEO Andy Dunn is “stepping up” to Executive Chairman of the company and will be replaced by retail expert Francine Della Badia. Dunn will become a brand ambassador and media face for the company while Della Badia will handle day-to-day business and manage the company’s Bonobos, AYR, and Maide lines. “It was a huge decision,” said Dunn. “I… Read MoreZero-Fee Stock Trading App Robinhood Nabs $50M From NEA To Go Global
In case you thought paying $7 to $10 to trade a stock in the US was bad, it costs $65 in Australia. So now that its zero-fee stock trading app is thriving stateside with hundreds of thousands of users, Robinhood is planning to go international, starting in Australia. A $50 million Series B cash infusion from NEA will fuel that expansion, as well as hiring and development of… Read MoreToppr.com Grabs $10M To Help Indian Students Prepare For Entrance Exams
Toppr.com, a Mumbai-based startup that helps students prepare for entrance exams, has raised $10 million from Fidelity Growth Partners India, SAIF Partners, and Helion Ventures. Founded in 2013, Toppr.com helps students study for entrance exams to engineering and medical schools, including the Indian Institutes of Technology (public universities that are considered the most prestigious… Read MoreEx-Skypers Launch Virtual Whiteboard Deekit
Deekit, which exits private beta today, is a virtual and collaborative whiteboard to help remote teams work smarter. Read More
Banjo Scores $100M Series C Led By Softbank To Analyze Events As They Happen
Banjo, a startup that analyzes data about events and breaking news in real-time, has pulled in a $100 million series C led by Softbank with participation from returning investor BlueRun Ventures. The deal marks one of Japan-based Softbank’s largest investments in a U.S. startup. Read MoreAnd The Winner Of TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2015 Is… Liquidity
This year’s Disrupt NY Startup Battlefield was amazing. At the very beginning, there were 24 great companies presenting in front of multiple groups of industry leaders serving as judges. The startups were competing for $50,000 and the highly coveted Disrupt Cup. After hours of deliberations, TechCrunch editors pored over the judges’ notes and narrowed the list down to seven… Read MoreRockYou Buys Mobile Ad Network PlayHaven
Gaming and advertising company RockYou has acquired mobile ad network PlayHaven from startup studio Science Inc. PlayHaven actually changed hands last fall, when Science bought it from Upsight, the company created from the merger of PlayHaven and Kontagent. By acquiring a mobile ad network, CEO Lisa Marino said RockYou can do a better job of making money from mobile games like Kitchen Scramble… Read MoreMeerkat Launches Developer Platform To Differentiate From Periscope
How did it feel getting cut off by Twitter with just 2 hours notice? “It sucked” says Meerkat founder Ben Rubin. That’s why it’s determined to treat developers with more respect. In the nine weeks since Meerkat launched, 37 developers have built companion experiences to the livestreaming apps on its unofficial, private API, including stream discovery, automatic uploads… Read MoreHow Tristan Walker Plans To Reach 5,000 Minority Students In Tech This Year
This morning at TechCrunch Disrupt NY, Walker & Co. founder Tristan Walker spoke about bringing more diversity to Silicon Valley and his plan to reach 5,000 black and Latina/o students this next year through his Code2040 program. The former Foursquare exec and co-founder of Code2040 also runs the aforementioned Walker & Co., a health and beauty startup with a focus on people of color. Read MoreWinklevoss Twins Eat, Sleep, Breathe Bitcoin
The twin Harvard graduates of Facebook fame Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss just took the stage at Disrupt NY to update everyone on their recent bitcoin projects. As a reminder, the twins have been working on an exchange traded fund (ETF) under the symbol ‘COIN’ so that old-school traders can trade bitcoins on the NASDAQ OMX. The two brothers also recently announced a new bitcoin… Read MoreChartbeat Raises $15.5 Million To Save Publishers From The “Viewpocalypse”
ChartBeat today said it raised $15.5 million in its latest round of funding — and that money is going toward helping publishers improve their advertising businesses. Recently the Interactive Advertising Bureau called for ads to be considered “viewable” if 50% of the ad is shown for at least one second — a new standard that has caused many sites to lose inventory… Read MoreJetbay, Which Arranges Offbeat Tours To China, Gets $1.6M Seed Funding
Jetbay wants to save travelers to China from boring tour packages. Launched by the founders of Wowo (also known as 55Tuan), one of the country’s largest group deals sites, Jetbay offers private itineraries that cover popular destinations, like the Great Wall of China, as well as more obscure places. The Beijing-based startup just grabbed $1.6 million in seed funding led by ChinaRock… Read MoreCEO Kevin Gibbon Says Shyp Still Isn’t An On-Demand Company
Shyp still isn’t explicitly an on-demand service, according to company CEO Kevin Gibbon. Despite having a service that allows users to summon someone who will ship something for them, Gibbon still said onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt NY the company is still more comparable to FedEx and UPS, rather than on-demand companies like Postmates or Sprig. Read MoreAutomile Scores $5M To Connect Your Car To The Cloud
Automile, which offers a device and platform that connects your car to the cloud so you can track various kinds of data, has closed a $5 million Series A round. The investment was led by Dawn Capital and Point Nine Capital — money that will be used by the Swedish startup to expand globally and continue developing new services for car owners. Read MoreZenefits Just Raised $500 Million At A $4.5 Billion Valuation
Zenefits today said it has raised $500 million in a round led by Fidelity and TPG at a whopping $4.5 billion valuation. The company, which allows small- and medium-sized businesses to manage human resources services in a much simpler fashion, is one of the fastest-growing SaaS businesses ever, and in an interview, Zenefits CEO Parker Conrad said the big round was raised to keep the company… Read More
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