Out of all the how-to guides ever written about pitching journalists, I’ve never seen one address the truth—that most are simply too busy trying not to get murdered by their inboxes to even open emails. Upbeat wants to use data science to create PR pitches that don’t automatically end up in the Trash folder. The San Francisco-based startup (formerly called PRX.co) launched… Read More
from TechCrunch
As the cost of in-class education continue to rise, and the cost for computing continues to fall, we’re seeing a flourishing of startups that target the market for online learning. As one mark of the trend, one of the leaders in this space, Coursera, is today announcing $64 million in a Series D round of funding. Coursera’s CEO Rick Levin (who notably joined the company after a… Read More
from TechCrunch
Roll up, roll up, there’s a new fintech VC fund in Southeast Asia town. Today, Thailand-based Kasikorn Bank announced its inaugural tech fund which is 1 billion THB, just shy of $30 million, in size. Kasikorn, which was founded in 1945 and is one of Thailand’s major banks, is calling the fund Beacon — think lights on top of lighthouses — and it is aimed at giving the… Read More
from TechCrunch
I have an aversion to karaoke after the band I used to play in was entirely upstaged at a gig by a karaoke machine, but, as pastimes go, it remains a huge market. And where markets are big, startups like to go. Enter Finland’s Singa, which is building a digital karaoke service that, in its own words, wants to do for karaoke what Spotify has done for music. The Helsinki-based company… Read More
from TechCrunch
While shop floors at large OEMs are embracing the beginning of the robotics and automation eras, the actual humans working in these shops have been mostly forgotten by technology. But Tulip, a software platform for shop engineers, operators and managers, is looking to change all that. To that end, Tulip has raised $13 million in Series A led by NEA, with participation from Pitango Venture… Read More
from TechCrunch
Mercadoni, a grocery delivery app and service operating in Colombia, Argentina and Mexico, has raised $6.2 million in Series A funding, one of the largest Series A rounds in the region. Read More
from TechCrunch
In most businesses, managing freelancers still mostly happens in Excel spreadsheets that are shared across the company. Shortlist wants to make this process more efficient by offering a single platform for managing and paying freelancers and independent contractors. The company, which was founded in 2015 by Martin Konrad (CEO) and Joey Fraiser (COO), today announced that it has raised a… Read More
from TechCrunch
MediaMath, a company offering tools and data for automated ad-buying, announced today that it has secured a $175 million credit facility. The deal was led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from Santander Bank. The company says this financing will fund its continued growth and allow it to refinance existing debt. (MediaMath’s 2014 funding round included $105 million in debt.) In a note… Read More
from TechCrunch
As enterprises continue to move more of their computing to the cloud, and across an ever-expanding range of devices from computers to phones and tablets and more, hackers continue to find ways to break into those systems — resulting an unprecedented number of breaches globally. Now, one of the more prominent security startups has raised a significant round of funding to help tackle… Read More
from TechCrunch
For religious Muslims looking to get started with investing, the options are limited. Average Muslim investors can’t afford the kind of nuanced advice that a high end financial advisor can provide, but they can’t just throw money at a random fund that might not be Sharia-compliant either. Wahed CEO Junaid Wahedna believes there’s a better way — and with a new $5… Read More
from TechCrunch