Author: Thomas Crown

 MyMusicTaste, a Seoul-headquartered service that lets fans campaign to bring their favorite artists to their city, plans to double the concerts it organizes next year after raising an $11 million Series C. Read More

from TechCrunch

 Airbnb continues to be an ecosystem in its own right, with a number of startups building a business by making the lives of hosts easier and potentially more lucrative. One such company is London-based Hostmaker, an upmarket Airbnb management service, which today is announcing $15 million in Series B funding.
The round is led by Sansiri, one of Thailand’s largest premium real estate… Read More

from TechCrunch

 Tencent’s China Literature, an Amazon-like e-book business, is continuing the trend of Asian tech IPOs after it announced its public listing in Hong Kong will raise $1.06 billion on Wednesday. The company set the price for its 151,371,800 share offering at HK$55, the top end of its range, and it could sell an additional 22.7 million through a greenshoe option with underwriters. The… Read More

from TechCrunch

 Mojiworks, the U.K. startup building games for messaging apps, has raised £2.1 million in Series A funding. The round is led by Balderton Capital, with participation from previous backers Lifeline Ventures and Sunstone Capital, and will be used by the company to increase headcount as it double-downs on developing multiple titles for Facebook Messenger. Read More

from TechCrunch

 One of Southeast Asia’s lesser-known startups has come out from under the radar today after ShopBack, a cash back-focused e-commerce service, announced it has raised $25 million. Founded in 2014, the Singapore-based startup helps users shop ‘smarter’ using a selection of curated deals and cashback offers through partner merchants across seven countries in Southeast Asia… Read More

from TechCrunch

 Computer vision and clever imaging technology remain hot areas in consumer and enterprise apps, and today Microsoft is picking up a startup called Swng Technologies to give it some IP and talent in this department.
Swng Technologies had developed a cinemagraph app called Swng (originally called Polaroid Swing) that lets you take impressionistic, GIF-like short videos that you can then… Read More

from TechCrunch

 Monzo, one of a number of “challenger” banks in the U.K. aiming to re-invent the current account, continues to be on a roll, both in terms of user numbers and now a significant new funding round. Read More

from TechCrunch

 Bootstrapping Barcelona-based visual commerce startup Photoslurp has taken its first external funding: Announcing €750,000 (~$870k) in pre-Series A financing, led by Spanish VC Inveready Technology Investment Group, with participation from Bankinter VC, Caixa Capital Risc and ICF. Read More

from TechCrunch

 Ink, a Nebraska-based startup focused on revamping on-campus printing, has raised $7M from VTF Capital, SQN Venture Partners, Invest Nebraska and NE Angeles. This brings total funding to $15M, with previous participation from advisors Tony Hsieh of Zappos and Greg Silverman of Warner Brothers. If you’re a college student or recent graduate, you already understand exactly how frustrating… Read More

from TechCrunch

 Following rumors over the weekend, chipmaker Broadcom has today confirmed it has approached wireless chipmaker Qualcomm with an acquisition offer that values the company at $130BN (including $25BN of net debt).  Read More

from TechCrunch