It’s that time of year again: more than 40 500 Startups companies presented and launched in Mountain View this afternoon. From acne consultations by dermatologists through your smartphone, to selling sewing patterns, today’s Demo Day hit quite a few pretty interesting areas. Here are a couple of our favorite ones from the batch. Read More
from TechCrunch
It has been a terrible year for tech IPOs. Until now, only SecureWorks braved the market and it didn’t go well.
But Acacia Communications braved the public markets today and outperformed expectations. After pricing its offering at the top of the range at $23 per share, the company soared to above $30 in its first day of trading, yielding a market cap of above $1 billion. Read More
from TechCrunch
Apple made the bombshell announcement today that it has invested $1 billion in China’s top ride hailing app. Didi Chuxing (formerly called Didi Kuaidi) is often described in U.S. media as Uber’s Chinese rival, but it already dominates the market by far. The company claims it fulfilled one billion rides last year and holds 87 percent of the country’s private ride-hailing market. Read More
from TechCrunch
Evaneos, the European travel marketplace, has beefed up its coffers once again. The French startup has raised a further $21 million in funding, money it will use to continue developing the product and for international expansion, including a planned U.S. launch. Read More
from TechCrunch
Capital Float, an online lending platform for small businesses in India, announced today that it has closed a $25 million Series B. Read More
from TechCrunch
Agrilyst, the winner of our Disrupt SF 2015 Battlefield competition, today announced that it has raised a $1 million seed round for its indoor agriculture analytics service. The round was led by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures with participation from Metamorphic Ventures and a number of angel investors and seed funds, including the co-founders of QuickFire, another Battlefield company that was… Read More
from TechCrunch
uBeam could be vaporware, according to a blogger claiming to be uBeam’s former VP of Engineering. They accuse the startup of being unable to fulfill promises made about its technology. uBeam says it’s building a device that could wirelessly charge your phone or other electronics from several meters away. But in a series of blog posts about the startup, the author asserts that… Read More
from TechCrunch
DoorDash CEO Tony Xu says the company is cash flow positive in some of its early markets — but the company still has to invest in its growth. That’s the reason that the company raised $127 million in a new venture financing round. But it wasn’t without hiccups: DoorDash reportedly wasn’t able to get the $1 billion valuation it was looking for, and had to settle for a… Read More
from TechCrunch
I can finally tick this one off my ‘European VCs that are raising a new fund’ list. Cherry Ventures, the Berlin-based VC, has raised a new €150 million early-stage fund, its second fund since coming into existence. Read More
from TechCrunch
Soracom, a Tokyo-based startup that provides a communication platform for developers of connected devices, announced today that it has raised a 2.4 billion yen (about $22 million) Series B from World Innovation Lab, Infinity Venture Partners, and other investors, to enter the United States and other markets. Read More
from TechCrunch