A consolidation in the advance movie ticketing space is happening today, with Fandango’s announcement that it’s acquiring rival MovieTickets.com for an undisclosed sum. The deal, which is expected to close before year-end, will help Fandango expand its international footprint, particularly in Latin America, as well as bring new cinemas to its ticketing platform. Headquartered in… Read More
from TechCrunch
While most of the attention paid to India’s e-commerce boom focuses on big players like Flipkart, there’s another fast-growing sector: people, mostly women, who resell items on social media. Several startups now exist to serve the so-called “housewife reseller” market. One of them, Y Combinator alum Meesho, announced today that it has raised a $3.4 million Series A led… Read More
from TechCrunch
The sharing economy continues to bear fruit. CarHopper, a platform for luxury car rental, has raised a $1.5 million seed round to expand to new markets. CarHopper started as a peer-to-peer platform for luxury car owners to rent their rides to others. But in its infancy, the company realized there was a much bigger opportunity with small, local rental agencies that don’t have a strong… Read More
from TechCrunch
Used-car marketplace CarGurus spiked more than 72 percent during its first day of trading. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company had raised more than $150 million after pricing its IPO at $16. By the end of trading Thursday, shares had gone up more than 72 percent, closing at $27.58. Read More
from TechCrunch
More people than ever before are listening to podcasts, but as they soon find out, discovering new ones is a cumbersome process that lacks the serendipity users take for granted in other apps. CastBox wants to fix that by becoming “the YouTube of audio.” The podcast player for iOS and Android, which has raised $16 million in funding so far, is launching a new audio search… Read More
from TechCrunch
When he was still at Google Ventures, Bill Maris led a round of funding into music royalty collecting startup Kobalt, to make one of the VC arms bigger bets in the world of digital music. Now that he’s moved on to start another firm, he’s taking a step to re-up his interests in the company. Today, Kobalt announced that Maris’ Section 32 has invested $14 million into Kobalt,… Read More
from TechCrunch
BuffaloGrid, a London and New Delhi startup that recently picked up backing from LocalGlobe and Kima Ventures, offers something akin to mobile phone charging as a service in remote parts of the world that are either without electricity or where power supply is sporadic. Read More
from TechCrunch
Funds have been ballooning in size as more money continues to flood into Silicon Valley, looking for higher returns than can be found elsewhere. VCs also like raising progressively bigger funds because doing so gives them bragging rights. Now Icon Ventures has closed its sixth fund with $265 million in commitments — its largest fund to date. Read More
from TechCrunch
Armed with an understanding of machine learning, Ross Intelligence is going after LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters for ownership of legal research. The startup, founded in 2015 by Andrew Arruda, Jimoh Ovbiagele and Pargles Dall’Oglio at the University of Toronto, is announcing an $8.7 million Series A today led by iNovia Capital with participation from Comcast Ventures Catalyst Fund,… Read More
from TechCrunch
MioTech, a financial tech startup with offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai, has raised $7 million in Series A funding to develop artificial intelligence based software for investment managers. The round was led by Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm of Hong Kong business tycoon Li Ka-shing, with participation from returning investor Zhenfund. Read More
from TechCrunch