Dawn Capital has invested a “substantial” but undisclosed amount in Optimalprint, the European online printing company. Optimalprint says it will use the new capital to expand its existing technology and distribution platform, initially in Europe but eventually globally.
The company, founded in 2007, offers premium quality, low cost printed materials for residential and business customers, such as greeting and business cards, office stationery, invitations and calendars, targeting 50 countries worldwide. → Read More
Social learning startup Koofers today announced that it has scored $5 million in Series A equity funding. This round includes Revolution, created by AOL (yes, our new parent company) co-founder Steve Case, and Nigel Morris‘ QED Investors with participation of the company’s existing investors, New Atlantic Ventures and Altos Ventures.
Koofers aims to empower students to help each other learn by providing open and free access to course materials, class and professor ratings, study aids and more. → Read More
Looks like Jaiku founder and former Googler Jyri Engeström is up to something new. According to an SEC filing, a startup listing Engeström as chief executive officer called Pingpin has just raised $775,000 in financing.
Backers are BetaWorks (the startup’s address matches that of the early-stage investment firm) and True Ventures, as founder and managing partner Jon Callaghan is listed as a director as well. → Read More
I was in Amsterdam late last week to sit on the jury for Vodafone’s Mobile Clicks startup competition, and I saw four genuinely great fledgling companies strut their stuff.
In the end, plastic card-killing startup Cardmobili came out victorious – they won both the €100,000 1st place prize and the public voting award – more on them below.
Runner-up and winner of €50,000 was the UK’s RouletteCricket, a so-called ‘2nd screen gaming’ service provider that gives fans a new way to engage with cricket games. → Read More
As we just posted, Nintendo revealed at its 3DS press conference in Tokyo today (which is now over) that the new system will hit stores in Japan on February 26 (price: $300, including a 2GB SD card), followed by the US and Europe one month later (price yet unknown). But that wasn’t all, as big N also showed the final design of the hardware, listed up quite a few cool game titles and made some other interesting announcements.
And if what Nintendo revealed today at the press conference is any indication, the 3DS looks like another home run for the company – although it’s pricey. But what did they say? → Read More
Own Tony Stark’s Iron Man Briefcase But Of Course Without The Iron Man Suit Part Seagate Stuffs 12TB Into The 4-Bay BlackArmor NAS 440 From The Google Developer Day Tokyo: “Life-Size” Android Robot (Video) Review: Powertel 500 Cordless Phone For The Hearing Impaired Tim Armstrong: We Got TechCrunch! → Read More
Two months ago, Nintendo announced it will announce the release date and price for the Nintendo 3DS today, and that is what just happened. During a press conference here in Tokyo, big N said Japanese gamers will be able to lay their hands on the new system on February 26 next year, which is later than expected/rumored. The retail price: 25,000 Yen ($300). → Read More
Chamillionaire admitting his love for Mafia Wars, Steve Streit recounting his first meeting with Michael Moritz, Tim Armstrong and Erick Schonfeld discussing office arrangements in New York, and Mayor Gavin Newsom’s thoughts on baring a striking resemblance to Batman— that’s all the action you may have missed if you only watched the stage during day two of TechCrunch Disrupt.
Check out our backstage interviews with Chamillionaire, Streit, Armstrong, Newsom, Bill Gurley and Twitter’s Jason Goldman. We’ll be back with our live feed for the final day of Disrupt at 8:45 AM PST. → Read More
I thought things started off pretty well today at TechCrunch Disrupt with surprise visitor Tim Armstrong, AOL’s CEO.
But the day ended on a perfect, perfect note: MC Hammer, who most definitely still has it, did a full performance at 1015 Folsom in San Francisco. 2,000 people packed in to the club and were immediately rewarded with MC Hammer and his dancers doing things that made every single person wildly happy. Not one person wasn’t dancing. It was, as I occasionally say, awesomeness in a bottle. → Read More
In July, product development software company Atlassian said that it would be putting its recently raised $60 million investment towards M&A in the enterprise space. It looks like the company is moving fast—Atlassian has just acquired Bitbucket.org, a hosted service for code collaboration. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Bitbucket, which hosts over 60,000 accounts, is the premier hosted code collaboration provider for the Mercurial distributed version control system and provides a service for developers wanting to share and collaborate on projects. Bitbucket, which is similar to GitHub or Google Code, hosts code for Adium, MailChimp, Opera and other great opensource projects. → Read More
Lucasfilm has been teasing us for years about a 3D release of the Star Wars saga, and apparently Lucas has decided to come back to the trough one more time. All six movies are due to get their time in the theater, starting with The Phantom Menace, due in early 2012. → Read More
Onkyo (yes, that Onkyo) just announced that they are producing three different Windows 7 tablet computers for Japan. The bad news is there’s no word on if they will ever show up in the US. → Read More
Meet GameCrush, a startup that manages to sound both ridiculous and very promising at once. The gist: take the millions of male gamers out there and offer to hook them up online with a gaming buddy of the opposite sex for a fee. Or, as founder Eric Strasser put it, “if you can buy a girl a drink in a sports bar, why not buy her a game online?”
The site looks like the fusion of a social network, a casual gaming portal, and a porny cam site. But, as the founders make clear, this isn’t a place for porn — though there are photos of attractive women abound. After signing up, a gamer (usually a male over the age of 18) browses the profiles of “PlayDates”, which is the term used to refer to the women on the site. Each profile includes the woman’s interests and commonly played games, and of course a gallery of photos are featured front-and-center. → Read More
I absolutely hate carrying around both my phone and my wallet in my pocket. What if I could just carry around my phone and my driver’s license? That would be awesome. If MobilePay USA takes off, my wish will come true.
The company, which was the TechCrunch Disrupt attendee pick to come out of the Startup Alley today seems fairly amazing. It’s an iPhone app (right now, but they will expand it to many mobile platforms) that replaces your credit cards and loyalty cards. You simply enter in your credit card data (but don’t worry, it isn’t stored on your device, it’s securely stored in the cloud) and you can pay for things with the click of a button rather than fumbling around for and carrying all your credit cards. → Read More
If navigating the murky waters of credit scores and debt leaves you scratching your head and wishing someone would just tell you what to do, you’re in luck. Credit Sesame is a new startup launching in private beta today at TechCrunch Disrupt that’s looking to help do just that — give the site access to your financial data, and it will present you with a handful of options, along with bulletpoints explaining why they work for you. If you’d like to try the site out for yourself, head to CreditSesame.com/TechCrunch and use the password OpenSesame.
Credit Sesame doesn’t take long to set up — the company says it takes a couple of minutes — but it does require sensitive information including your social security number (which the site needs in order to access your credit history). → Read More
If your partner has an erratic sleeping schedule, an annoying alarm, or is a perpetual snoozer, you can understand how hard it can be to woken up several times during the night or the morning. Often time after being woken up early or in the middle of a deep sleep, it can be difficult to get back to sleep. Lark, which is launching at TechCrunch Disrupt today, promises to help couples sleep better in the same bed.
Lark’s flagship product, Lark Up, is a revolutionary silent waking system that wakes you silently and naturally. The system involves an iPhone app and a small band that you wear across your wrist while sleeping. You set the iPhone app to the time you need to wake up and the app will transform your phone into a night time alarm clock. The band includes a small device and sensor with blue tooth technology that will vibrate at the time you are supposed to wake up. Plus there’s no more jarring, loud alarms; so your boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, or husband won’t be woken up by your alarm. → Read More
Voxy is a multi-platform way to learn a language, currently using both the web and mobile text messaging to teach ESL to Spanish speakers.
Perhaps the best part about Voxy is that it uses game mechanics to drive a language learners progress and commitment, engaging users who would otherwise be bored and get distracted from the task at hand. Founder Paul Gollash refers to the importance of breaking down language learning into “small bits everyday” so that users can “learn from life” hence Voxy’s personalized curriculum. → Read More
The New York-based startup ADstruc — an online marketplace for outdoor advertising — closed a $1.1 million series a investment led by DFJ Gotham, with participation from RRE, Founder Collective, Jeff Clavier, David Cohen, Kal Vepuri, David Tisch and Social Leverage (Howard Lindzon) today.
The 26-year-old founder and chief executive of ADstruc, John Laramie, developed his auction and listing-based platform through TechStars Colorado, but relocated and incorporated in New York this year. → Read More
People are obsessed with airline mileage, but it’s really difficult to keep track of what programs you should be a part of let alone which ones are advantageous. A Mint for travel, Superfly collects user data like rewards balance, elite status, travel expenses, analyzes travel patterns and compares them to already existing mileage program. → Read More
