Fortune is reporting that Snapchat, the ephemeral messaging platform that has today become the number one free app on the App Store, has agreed to acquire Bitstrips, the folks behind popular emoji-creation service Bitmoji. Though we haven’t received confirmation from Bitstrips or Snapchat, Fortune’s sources say that the deal is “in the ballpark” of $100 million. The… Read More
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It was already on public record that Andrey Andreev, the low-profile Russian founder of European dating behemoth Badoo, is an investor in female-led dating app Bumble, the Tinder competitor founded by ex-Tinder employee Whitney Wolfe. However, TechCrunch can now reveal a number of previously unreported details of Wolfe and Andreev’s partnership. Read More
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June, a countertop “smart” oven designed by former Google, Apple and GoPro employees has closed a Series A round of financing for $22.5 million today, led by early stage combination hardware and software investor Eclipse. Previous investors also participated in this round, including Foundry Group, First Round Capital, and Lerer Hippeau Ventures. June is sort of like an… Read More
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We hear a lot about the Internet of Things on the consumer side. The oft trotted out example of the ‘smart’ refrigerator that tells consumers when they’ve run out of the milk, and so on. But more serious potential for IoT — and potentially seriously big wins — are likely to be on the enterprise side where connected sensors can be deployed to automate at scale. Read More
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Gobi Partners has partnered with Malaysia Venture Capital Management Berhard (MAVCAP), which claims to be the country’s largest venture capital firm, to launch a $14.5 million fund dedicated to seed-stage companies in Southeast Asian. Read More
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Investor, entrepreneur, billionaire and Bill Gates’ other half in the founding of Microsoft Paul Allen has announced a $100 million investment in the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a fund focusing on the future of biotech research. Allen, who is worth about $15.3 billion, announced the investment today at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. The purpose of this… Read More
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CurrencyFair, one of a number of so-called peer-to-peer currency exchanges, has scored a further €8 million in funding. The round was led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from Proxy Ventures. It brings total raised by the 2010-founded company to around €20 million — a figure that is dwarfed by noisy rival TransferWise, which closed $58 million in Series C funding last year alone. Read More
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AppDirect, a company that helps customers manage multiple cloud vendors, announced today it was buying former TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield participant Xendo for an undisclosed amount. Xendo, which actually launched at my first TechCrunch Disrupt in September, 2014 enables users to conduct federated searches across cloud services, a function that could prove quite useful for AppDirect. In… Read More
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Research marketplace Science Exchange is now $25 million richer. The startup hooking researchers up with service providers just pulled in that amount in Series B funding, putting the total raised at $40 million. Maverick Capital led the round, with participation from Union Square Ventures, Index Ventures, OATV, Collaborative Fund, YC Continuity Fund, TEDMED CEO Jose Suarez, Sam Altman, Steve… Read More
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Cherubic Ventures, an early-stage VC firm with a focus on the U.S. and Asia, has announced a new fund targeted at $120 million. Read More
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