Facebook may have the generalist social network on lockdown, but when it comes to communities based around special interests, the playing field remains full of promise. Today, a U.K. startup called LoveCrafts, aimed at knitters and other home craft makers with a platform that is part social network and part e-commerce marketplace, is announcing a significant growth round to seize that opportunity. Read More
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Make way for another juggernaut amongst enterprise startups: Rubrik, a data backup company that only emerged from stealth in 2015, is in the process of raising between $150 million and $200 million on a valuation of $1 billion as the company enters a period of strong demand for its storage and data management products, according to sources. TechCrunch first learned of the new fundraise via… Read More
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Grocery delivery startup Instacart recently closed a $400 million Series D round of funding at a valuation of $3.4 billion. Now, the company is putting that capital to work by accelerating its expansion across the US, and offering free Instacart Express memberships to entice new users wherever it goes. According to the company’s Vice President of Product, Elliot Shmukler, the company… Read More
from TechCrunch
Ofo, the Chinese bike-sharing startup that recently claimed unicorn status, announced this weekend that it has added Ant Financial as an investor. In a statement posted to its Weibo account, Ofo said that it will work with Ant Financial, an Alibaba unit, on Internet and credit card payments and its international expansion plan. Read More
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Farmdrop, a farmer-friendly online grocery platform based in the U.K., has raised £7 million in Series A funding. Leading the round is Atomico, the London VC fund founded by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström. Read More
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Quora just became the unicorn of subjective human knowledge. After eight years carefully cultivating an ntelligent question and answer community, it’s just raised an $85 million Series D round co-led by Collaborative Fund and Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund. Quora tells me it’s “roughly doubled its valuation since our last fundraise” of $80 million in 2014 that… Read More
from TechCrunch
There’s no shortage of customer service startups trying to meet the changing expectations of consumers, who want to Tweet, phone, text and use Facebook Messenger, among other newer ways to get their points across. That hasn’t deterred Joseph Ansanelli, who joined Greylock Partners in 2012 but who’d first started and sold three companies and was itching to do it again. Read More
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Human resources paperwork is never fun to take care of—especially if it’s literally on paper. Swingvy co-founder Jin Choeh says that in Southeast Asia, many small businesses are still stuck with physical spreadsheets and piles of forms. Swingvy wants to help them with affordable cloud-based software. The South Korea and Malaysia-based startup just raised $1.1 million in seed funding… Read More
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Car sharing service Getaround has raised $45 million in Series C funding, led by a new investor Braemar Energy Ventures, and with participating from Toyota Motor Corp and China’s SAIC Motor. The round also includes existing investors Menlo Ventures and Triangle Peak Partners, and is all about helping Getaround continue its new strategy of partnering with big transportation players… Read More
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If Black Mirror is anything to go by, rating everyone around you isn’t always a great idea, but Completed wants to make it easier to rate and rank the business professionals around you. It’s kind of like Yelp, but instead of rating companies, you’re rating the people within the businesses. The San Francisco-based company wants to use these ratings to shake up both hiring… Read More
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