Like bizzaro Facebooks, Tagged and Hi5 launched in 2004 to help you meet new people instead of connecting you with friends you already know. Through social games and paid dating features, they earned a surprising amount of revenue despite being relatively unknown. Tagged bought Hi5 in 2011 before branching out into standalone social app development and renamed the parent company If(we). But… Read More
from TechCrunch
It looks like Amazon’s AWS has made another acquisition to add more productivity tools for its customers beyond basic cloud-computing services. It has picked up Thinkbox Software, which develops and sells solutions for media design and content creation aimed at people in the video and wider visual media industries. Examples of services that Thinkbox already offers include systems… Read More
from TechCrunch
Chicago-based Hazel Technologies is on a mission to reduce food waste. The company has developed packaging inserts that, through the magic of basic chemistry, can ward off fungus, mold and slow the spoilage of fruits and vegetables. How big a problem is food waste? The most recent available reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have found that each year we waste more than 25… Read More
from TechCrunch
Jay Z’s new venture capital firm Arrive, has arrived – the rap and business mogul has been planning the launch for awhile, according to reports that surfaced in February, but a press release from parent company Roc Nation made it official on Monday. The investment platform will work with early-stage startups, and offer investment of capital as well as assistance with business… Read More
from TechCrunch
Okta, the $1.2 billion identity management startup for enterprises that some tip for an IPO this year, has made an acquisition of sorts to expand one of its newer lines of business: managing IDs across APIs and apps. Today the San Francisco-based company announced that it has picked up the team from Stormpath, an early mover in providing a way for developers to implement authentication… Read More
from TechCrunch
Atom Bank, a startup out of the U.K. that has built a mobile-only bank targeting consumers between the ages of 18 and 34, has raised another £83 million ($102 million) in funding led by BBVA, the Spanish bank and owner of Simple in the U.S. The funding gives Atom a post-money valuation of £261 million ($320 million), TechCrunch has confirmed with the company. BBVA also led… Read More
from TechCrunch
Snap Inc., the parent of Snapchat, has been off to the races with its debut on the stock market.
Yesterday, the stock closed at $24.48, a 44% gain from the IPO price of $17. And today it’s gone up a bit further, surpassing $29 at one point, an almost 20% increase from the close of yesterday. Shares later fell to $27, but it’s still on track for a 10% gain for day two.
This is… Read More
from TechCrunch
NBCUniversal is now the only U.S. media company that has an official stake in Snap. Today, NBC Universal (which is a unit of Comcast) revealed that it invested $500 million in Snap as a strategic investment partnership during yesterday’s IPO.
Snap shares popped 44 percent in the first day of trading.
NBCUniversal has been pursuing digital media aggressively in the past year, including… Read More
from TechCrunch
OpenRent, one of a number of online letting agents (or realtor, as it might be described in the U.S.), has picked up £4.4 million in backing from Rocket Internet’s venture arm Global Founders Capital. Read More
from TechCrunch
Snapchat priced its IPO at $17 per share on Wednesday, raising $3.4 billion dollars. Then it opened Thursday at $24 per share and closed at $24.48. That’s a 44% gain, for the select investors who bought into the IPO. And that gain looks great…for new investors. But it also means that Snapchat could have sold its shares for a higher price! If Snapchat priced its shares just a… Read More
from TechCrunch