PayPal has agreed to buy bill payment management company TIO Networks for $233 million in cash. The deal will allow PayPal to gain access to a market of customers who pay their utility and cable bills at kiosks in locations like Rite Aid. This will help the company reach the “underserved” chunk of North Americans who are living paycheck-to-paycheck. “There’s a chance… Read More
from TechCrunch
There’s nothing quite like the atmosphere of a college hackathon. Amidst the free t-shirts and apps to help you find parties on campus always lie a few hidden gems for those with the patience to hunt. ThirdEye, one of those gems forged out of PennApps, UPenn’s hackathon, is being acquired today by TheBlindGuide for an undisclosed sum. Started by three current Penn… Read More
from TechCrunch
Entoro Group today announced that it has acquired OfferBoard, a company that removes barriers from the process of raising capital. OfferBoard isn’t Angellist nor FundersClub. It’s a platform designed to make crowd funding work for growth capital. But instead of tech startups, the company supports general solicitation for multimillion dollar financing projects in spaces like… Read More
from TechCrunch
An early stage fund that’s becoming a major player in India’s burgeoning tech scene, Blume Ventures, has joined the Draper Venture Network, the investors announced on Monday. Members of the DVN collaborate on investments, share business intelligence and syndicate their deals to firms in Silicon Valley, with portfolio services provided by a local team there.
DVN claims that… Read More
from TechCrunch
For the celebrity-obsessed, AR may offer the bizarre opportunity to get closer than ever to pop culture’s most recognizable stars and performers. For the last several years, 8i has been embracing a technology called volumetric capture that trains several cameras on a figure and stitches the feeds together to create a three-dimensional model that can seamlessly be placed in any environment. Read More
from TechCrunch
For better or worse, drones are about to become a lot more prevalent in US airspace. The FAA expects sales of drones to spike domestically from 2.5 million last year to 7 million by 2020. Now, a startup that detects drones and helps prevent unwanted aerial intrusions, Dedrone, has closed a $15 million Series B round of venture funding.
Investors in San Francisco-based Dedrone included Cisco… Read More
from TechCrunch
We tried out a prototype of Nura’s custom headphones over the summer and liked what we heard. Apparently we weren’t alone in that, as the Australian startup scored a massive $1.8 million on Kickstarter soon after – doubly impressive when you consider that, for those who didn’t get a chance to try the things on, backing the project was a bit of a crapshoot. Apparently… Read More
from TechCrunch
Uber Grab is in the process of buying up Indonesia-based online payment startup Kudo in its first major acquisition. A source close to discussions confirmed to TechCrunch that talks are ongoing and a deal could be announced as soon this week. Reuters first reported the deal, which it said would be over $100 million however our source suggested that the figure is in fact lower. Grab… Read More
from TechCrunch
Some very big brands outside the tech space have been stepping in to acquire technology companies as the pressure to keep up with consumer-powered digital trends touches more industries. Add in a deregulating President Trump and the mercury could keep rising for tech company valuations this year, suggests John Stiffler, senior M&A director at business and technology consulting firm West… Read More
from TechCrunch
In a world defined by trends, we’ve been beset by a highly worrying one: There is an undeniable lack of IPOs. In 2015, 164 companies entered the public markets, which is just over half the 2014 number, when 261 took the plunge. In 2016 there were only 107. This is a big deal. Why? Because the public market is the single-most objective judge of company formation and success. Read More
from TechCrunch