TaskRabbit, the on-demand platform for hiring people to do everything from build furniture to stand in line for you at the Apple Store, has sold itself to Ikea, Recode reports. Financial terms of the deal are unknown, but the plan is for TaskRabbit to be operate as an independent subsidiary within Ikea, according to Recode. Back in April, word on the street was that TaskRabbit was looking to… Read More
from TechCrunch
A quarter of Americans listen to podcasts each month, but far fewer make them. Anchor is a startup that is looking to change that with its app that makes it easy to record and distribute content. Anchor also has a discovery platform, which allows users to find audio across categories like news, sports, music and tech. The New York-based team is announcing $10 million in Series A funding, led by… Read More
from TechCrunch
LetGo, a startup that has built a marketplace for people to buy and sell used goods, is one of the fastest growing apps in the U.S. at the moment according to comScore, with some 75 million downloads, “tens of millions” of active users, and 200 million listings in the last two years. Now it is gearing up for another stage of expansion. TechCrunch has learned from a source that… Read More
from TechCrunch
Daimler — the German car giant that owns Mercedes Benz among other brands — has made one more acquisition to further its reach in ridesharing and what it sees as the next generation of how cars are owned and used. It has acquired Flinc, a startup also out of Germany that has built a platform and app for peer-to-peer-style carpooling. People who are driving in one direction find… Read More
from TechCrunch
The parent company of games giant Nexon has confirmed that it acquired Korea’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange, Korbit, in a deal that values it at just over $120 million. A spokesperson from NXC, the corporation which owns $11.5 billion-valued Nexon, confirmed to TechCrunch that it paid 91.3 billion KRW (approximately $79.5 million) for 65.19 percent of Korbit. South Korean… Read More
from TechCrunch
Japanese news app Gunosy, which listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange two years ago, has put its weight and money behind ambitious ad tech startup AdAsia.
Singapore-based AdAsia, founded in April 2016 by Japanese ad execs Kosuke Sogo and Otohiko Kozutsumi, announced that it has raised a further $2.5 million in addition to the $12 million Series A it closed in April.
The additional capital… Read More
from TechCrunch
Earlier this year Thailand-based Omise held a $25 million ICO to develop a next-generation decentralized payment network, and now the company has closed an undisclosed investment from Thai bank Krungsri (Bank of Ayudhya).
Omise has raised over $20 million in VC money — the ICO was for its Omise Go (OMG) division — but this new financing is strategic in nature. The deal itself… Read More
from TechCrunch
Grab, Uber’s main rival in Southeast Asia, has made a move into dock-less bikes after the company quietly backed oBike. Singapore-based Grab invested in oBike — which was started in Singapore by Chinese founders and is present in 30 cities — as part of a $45 million Series B round that was announced in August, a source with knowledge of the deal told TechCrunch.… Read More
from TechCrunch
Malicious hackers and security breaches that have exposed personal information of millions of people have pushed the issue of online security into the spotlight, not just for individuals but for organizations that do business with them. Now a company called Onfido, which has built a way to help websites verify people’s identities using a photo-based identity document, a selfie and… Read More
from TechCrunch
It’s a bank account and credit card built for the digital age. Chime is raising $18 million in Series B financing for its mobile-first approach to banking. Cathay Innovation led the round with participation from Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Forerunner Ventures, Homebrew and others. Without monthly fees or overdraft charges, Chime tries to appeal to the… Read More
from TechCrunch