It’s become a meme in tech circles, “IPOs are the new down round,” venture capitalists quip. The dreaded “down round,” when a startup raises capital beneath its prior valuation, is getting pushed back to the public markets. While most companies grow their value in the stock market, Square, Box and Hortonworks went public at market caps that were lower than what… Read More
from TechCrunch
SportPursuit, the flash sales site for ‘premium’ outdoor and sports gear, has raised £9.5 million in Series C funding. Investors this time around are Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), Grafton Capital, and existing backer Draper Esprit, bringing total funding for the London-based company to just shy of £16 million since launching in 2012. SportPursuit, which currently ships to over… Read More
from TechCrunch
Shares of Tesla, an electric car company and Silicon Valley darling, are down several points today on news that the company will recall every Model S sedan over a seatbelt issue uncovered in a single incident in Europe.
The recall includes nearly 90,000 cars. Tesla stressed in an email to customers — pasted below — that it does not know of any other Model S cars with the same issue. Read More
from TechCrunch
Cisco announced today it plans to buy video conferencing firm Acano for the widely reported price of $700 million. The company, which is based in the UK, has developed video infrastructure and collaboration software. You’re probably thinking that Cisco already offers that same time of service and you would be right. It bought WebEx in 2007 for $3.2 billion and has been positioning it as… Read More
from TechCrunch
Chatbooks, a subscription service for printed photo books, has acquired Guesterly, a company that creates pocket-sized printed event guides. Founded in 2014, Chatbooks has raised $2.1M in seed funding, and will sell its one millionth photo book by the end of 2015. Here’s how service works: For $8 dollars each, the startup will automatically collate photographs from across your… Read More
from TechCrunch
“People should be focused on the business, not hanging out and getting high” insists Carter Laren, co-founder of marijuana startup funder and incubator Gateway, which launches today in Oakland, CA. But even if you’re stoned, you should be able to see the opportunity here. Marijuana prohibition is coming to an end, and massive businesses will grow in its place. Gateway wants… Read More
from TechCrunch
Razer, the high-end gaming hardware firm headquartered in the U.S., made waves last year when it entered the billion dollar unicorn club courtesy of an undisclosed investment from Intel. Now it’s time to share the wealth — quite literally — which the company is planning to do via a corporate venture capital fund that is slated to launch next year. Read More
from TechCrunch
Avenida is set on cementing its leadership position Argentina’s e-commerce market after a $30 million Series C led by Naspers with participation from Tiger Global (both firms are returning investors). Read More
from TechCrunch
WaHome, a Seoul-based on-demand home cleaning service, has landed $1 million in seed funding, which it will use to hire more engineers, build features for its Android and iOS apps, and launch in more Korean cities before tackling expansion in Hong Kong and Japan. Read More
from TechCrunch
Tubi TV, a company offering a free alternative to paid subscription video services like Netflix, is announcing today new investments from two major Hollywood studios, MGM and Lionsgate, who have joined in the San Francisco-based startup’s $6 million Series B round of financing. The round was led by new investor Cota Capital, and included participation from existing investor… Read More
from TechCrunch