Flying a drone is kind of like driving a car that only has a windshield. You can only look in one direction at a time, and when the drone gets out of visual range, the user is left with one a single view through the lens of a camera. HiveMapper, a company that just raised a $3 million Series A led by Spark Capital, is looking to make that a bit safer. You can think of Hivemapper as a Waze… Read More
from TechCrunch
It seems like only yesterday that we were introducing you to 500’s Batch 14, but Summer is gone, the demos have been done, we’ve picked our favs and it’s time to introduce you to the next group going through 500’s accelerator — 500 Startups’ Batch 15. 500 Startups has a thesis of investing in many startups, some that they consider “unsexy,”… Read More
from TechCrunch
While online traffic measurement firm comScore moves ahead on its $732 million deal to acquire Rentrak, it’s selling another part of its business as it continues to streamline: today comScore announced that Adobe would buy comScore’s Digital Analytix big data business intelligence service, in a deal Adobe says will close in December. The moves underscore how comScore is… Read More
from TechCrunch
OfferUp, a four-year-old, Bellevue, Washington-based mobile-first marketplace that’s trying to take on stodgy – albeit stubbornly successful – Craigslist, is making a big media push right now. The reason, in part: so reporters will stop calling to ask how much the company has raised. Recode reported back in March that OfferUp was raising between $60 million and $100 million at… Read More
from TechCrunch
Ron Conway, Tencent, and Paul Graham aren’t getting their money back, and that’s the point. They’re part of today’s $3.5 million round that’s actually a donation to fund the operations of Watsi, Y Combinator’s first non-profit that hosts crowfunding of medical treatment for people in need around the world. Rather than constantly hitting up donors for money… Read More
from TechCrunch
Jet, looking to go toe-to-toe with Amazon, is reportedly raising $500 million on a $1 billion pre-money valuation. Fortune reports that Fidelity is leading the round, which has been rumored for quite a while and which Jet has previously confirmed was in the works. Jet is an ecommerce platform that was founded by Marc Lore, who sold his last ecommerce business Quidsi to Amazon for $545 million… Read More
from TechCrunch
Wireless router startup eero had several announcements for its supporters this morning, including an official FCC approval, and a delay in shipment of its product to early next year. The company also disclosed it had raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $35 million in funding from Playground Global, Redpoint Ventures and Shasta Ventures. The startup didn’t want to talk… Read More
from TechCrunch
French startup Zenchef helps restaurants build out their online presence, including website creation tools and the ability to take bookings direct. The latter offers an alternative to relying purely on online reservation platforms such as Opentable or Lafourchette, which, incidentally, have also ventured out into the B2B space. Read More
from TechCrunch
Outerwall, the automated kiosk operator that runs Redbox, Coinstar and ecoATM machines, has made a move into e-commerce with the acquisition of Gazelle.com – an online site that buys and sells pre-owned consumer electronics, including smartphones, tablets, desktop and laptop computers. The company announced the deal in its most recent earnings, noting that Outerwall had agreed to… Read More
from TechCrunch
Short videos, looping videos and GIFs are some of the hottest types of user-generated content on the web today, and have everyone from Instagram to Twitter and even Facebook and Google getting involved in offering support and tools for creators. Today, a new app called SPUN wants to capitalize on this growing trend by allowing users to mash up videos from their phone along with topical… Read More
from TechCrunch