Automakers are continuing to ramp up their holdings in the world of on-demand transportation services, and in the latest development, Germany’s Daimler is closing in on a deal to acquire Taxibeat, a profitable ride-hailing app based out of Athens, for a price of around €40 million ($43 million). The deal — which would roll Taxibeat into the same Daimler division that includes… Read More
from TechCrunch
Alibaba is taking a big step into the U.S. — but it isn’t necessarily what you might think. Its affiliate Ant Financial has revealed it is buying U.S. payments firm MoneyGram for $880 million. Ant Financial is paying $13.25 per share for NASDAQ-listed MoneyGram, a jump on the $11.88 price it held at the beginning of trading on Wednesday. The deal is subject to regulatory… Read More
from TechCrunch
PayPal reported fourth quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday, and they were just what investors were expecting. The stock was flat in initial after-hours trading. Revenue came in at $2.98 billion, which is on par with analyst estimates and a 17% increase from last year. Adjusted earnings per share was 42 cents, which is also what Wall Street was forecasting. PayPal separated from eBay… Read More
from TechCrunch
In spite of my aversion to the word “ideation,” I can’t argue against software designed to help an organisation solicit ideas from its people. The best ideas can — and often do — come from anyone, regardless of job title or hierarchy. Enter Idea Drop, a London-headquartered startup that offers what it calls an “idea management” platform. Read More
from TechCrunch
Chicago startup Jiobit wants to use wireless technology to bring parents peace of mind whenever and wherever their kids may roam. Its flagship product is a location tracker that can stand up to the rough and tumble activities of a toddler or a tween, with a long battery life, and mobile app that sends alerts to parents when a kid has gone outside an expected range. Jiobit CEO and founder… Read More
from TechCrunch
Now that the holidays are over, many companies are about to make their employees go through the most dreadful exercise of the year: the annual performance review. Reflektive aims to replace the typically painful review process with a far more lightweight and less demotivating real-time feedback system that integrates into an employee’s daily workflow. In 2015, the company raised a… Read More
from TechCrunch
Messaging company Kik has made its second acquisition to date after it scooped up Israel-based mobile video app maker Rounds in an undisclosed deal.
Though neither side is giving a price, you would imagine that it is more than what Kik payed for GIF Relay, its first acquisition from 2014, given that Rounds had raised over $20 million from investors and claimed 40 million users.
Kik CEO Ted… Read More
from TechCrunch
Dalia, a Berlin-based startup that gathers real-time market and opinion data by pushing micro-surveys to smartphone users, has raised $7 million in Series A funding. The round is led by Balderton Capital, with participation from existing investors Wellington Partners, and IBB-Bet. Read More
from TechCrunch
Education tech startup Teachable (formerly known as Fedora) has raised $4 million in a Series A round of funding according to CEO and founder Ankur Nagpal. The company provides a platform that’s like a Shopify or a SquareSpace for tutors or teachers. Its platform allows subject matter experts to quickly construct online courses and sell or give them away to their followers, setting their… Read More
from TechCrunch
As the first planned public offering of 2017, AppDynamics was supposed to be a bellwether for other upcoming tech IPOs. If it went public and performed well, the “IPO window” would have been wide open, as bankers like to say. That’s because the performance of a big tech IPO is often seen as indicative of investor appetite, and can set expectations for future offerings.… Read More
from TechCrunch