The founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most famous flameouts, anonymous social app Secret, is the new product lead for Postmates’ app. After Secret shut down and gave investors back their money, David Byttow went on to raise a $1 million seed round from Index to launch a blog publishing tool for enterprises called Bold.
Today Bold was acqhired by Postmates, Byttow confirmed to… Read More
from TechCrunch
In a slightly surprising move, Pinterest raised $150 million from private investors this week. Why the firm may have wanted the cash isn’t too hard to understand. When the markets offer you lots of cash on good terms, you tend to say yes. But let’s explore the round for a minute. Read More
from TechCrunch
SiriusXM just announced they will be investing $480M in cash into Pandora, which will give them a ~16% stake in the company on an as-converted basis. The investment will come in the form of newly-issued Series A convertible preferred Pandora stock. $172.5M of the preferred stock was purchased upon execution of the deal, and the balance will be bought at a second closing. Separately,… Read More
from TechCrunch
Milk deliveries may not sound like an industry in need of disruption, but that’s exactly what one startup in India is working to do. Supr Daily — the company in question — graduated the Y Combinator accelerator program this year and now it has raised $1.5 million from a range of investors to expand its service. The Supr Daily service is designed to bring formality and order… Read More
from TechCrunch
Here’s a surprise turn of events: Softbank — maker of the friendly Pepper robot and a major M&A player in the tech world — has just announced that it is acquiring two more robotics companies from Google owner Alphabet as part of its own deeper move into the field: it is buying Big Dog developer Boston Dynamics and the secretive bipedal robotics firm Schaft. A spokesperson… Read More
from TechCrunch
Beauty parlors manage a lot of appointments, but about half of them are still using pen and paper, estimates Shedul. The startup is trying to change that, by offering scheduling software for the the salon and spa industry. And it’s been catching on because it’s free. Now they’re raising $6 million. Read More
from TechCrunch
Hype hasn’t been an issue for Andy Rubin’s new hardware startup, Essential. Speculation has been circling the Android founder’s next move since he unceremoniously parted ways with Google.
Funding, it seems, hasn’t really been a problem, either. Bloomberg is reporting that the nascent smartphone maker has raised $300 million to bring its technology to the masses.
A… Read More
from TechCrunch
The augmented reality acquisition space is hot — Facebook, Snap, Apple and others are throwing money at teams and technologies that promise to increase user engagement. Spektral, a Danish startup, is the latest venture-backed visual effects company setting its sights on the massive space. Spektral is announcing a $2.8 million round today from Litecap and Amp Ventures to continue… Read More
from TechCrunch
For most of the history of blockchain-based currencies and assets, the story has been all about Bitcoin. At a market capitalization of around $40 billion, it remains the most valuable cryptocurrency. But with the rise of a new ‘chain on the — ahem — block, namely Ethereum, and new ways to fund the development of new crypto-platforms with ICOs, the narrative is shifting somewhat. Read More
from TechCrunch
Yubico, the company behind the increasingly popular YubiKey two-factor authentication key, has raised a $30 million funding round. This marks the first major institutional funding round for Yubico, which had previously only raised $4.5 million from angel investors. New investors include New Enterprise Associates, the Valley Fund and Bure, a major growth equity firm from Sweden. Existing… Read More
from TechCrunch