Y Combinator-backed Cardpool recently launched the ability to sell a gift card online without having to mail it in via snail mail. Cardpool launched this feature because the startup realized that many customers didn’t want to wait for cards to arrive in the mail and were impulsive buyers. Now the startup is taking this one step further with the launch of Cardpool Mobile, a web app that allows customers who have an iPhone or Android phone purchase discounted gift cards that are instantly delivered to their phone so they can use them in store or online immediately.
Customers can literally be waiting in line at the checkout counter, and can purchase gift cards at discounted rates for the value. Cardpool allows you to buy card at discounts (which vary depending on the store), users get more for their money. For example, for a $30 BestBuy card you will receive a 6 percent discount. → Read More
Yandex, one of the leading Internet companies in Russia, this morning announced that it has filed a registration statement with the SEC for a proposed initial public offering, as expected. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined, but the Wall Street Journal recently reported that the company had been given a preliminary valuation of between $6 billion and $9 billion ahead of the filing.
According to the filing, the proposed maximum aggregate offering price amounts to $1 billion, which should give you an indication of how much Yandex seeks to raise. → Read More
Two years ago, crowd-funding phenom Kickstarter launched with a handful of projects. Anyone with an idea for a film, album, art project, or product could make their pitch, say how much they needed to get started, and ask for pledges. Once the minimum amount needed was pledged, the project would get started. Today is Kickstarter’s birthday, and it is releasing some stats.
Over the past two years, $53 million has been pledged for 20,371 projects. Of that money, $40 million has been collected, going towards 7,496 successful projects (meaning they raised enough money to get off the ground). Over the same time period, 9,700 projects were unsuccessful and 3,175 are still live.
That means Kickstarter projects overall have a 43 percent success rate, and 85 percent of money that is pledged ends up being collected. The money pledged on Kickstarter is growing steeply (see chart). In March, $7 million was pledged, up from about $5 million in February, and $4 million in January. April will be even bigger. → Read More
One of the largest chemical companies in Asia, Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. in Japan, has formed a partnership with San Diego, Calif.-based Genomatica, a sustainable chemicals startup, the companies revealed today.
Genomatica converts sugar from corn wet mills, sugar cane and sugar beet — among other sources — into butanediol (BDO), a chemical used to make everything from the plastics in consumer electronics and cars, to the spandex and foam found in athletic shoes and apparel.
The chief executive and founder of Genomatic, Christophe Schilling, explained… → Read More
There is also the Sportster Saguaro Meteorite version of the watch that has a really nice Gibeon meteorite dial. I first wrote about the Bovet Sportster Saguaro Meteorite watches here. Bovet claims the space stones that make up the dial are something like 4 billion years old – that is pretty cool. These are my favorite Sportster watches because I really like how the meteorite gives a sort of organic feel to the otherwise composed case and design. You can get various meteorite stone stains such as silver, black, and gold. All the Sportster Saguaro watches are 46mm wide in really chunky looking cases. Like I said, these cases feel like hefty canisters, holding precious innards. The cases are thick and highly polished with a wide bezel. Though the design doesn’t feel massive because of the single lug style, it is a rather clever way of making a larger watch feel not as large. Read the rest here… → Read More
http://www.dorkly.com/moogaloop/noobtube.swf?clip_id=14583&use_node_id=true&fullscreen=1 See, everything is better with a Portal gun. Now let’s give the Contra commandos a Portal gun and see what happens. → Read More
Those owners that decided to ride the Xoom’s early adopter boat should see an update later today. The patch should fix some of the issues with WiFi connectivity as it address proxy supports well as WPA Pre-Shared Key passphrases for mobile hotspots. The Xoom will play nicely with SSL-encrypted websites and Google Widevine video DRM. The update also allows the Xoom to see and use any ol’ Bluetooth mouse and adds Bluetooth headset support to Google Talk. Sadly, there’s no mention of adding LTE support just yet. Verizon previously stated that it was coming this spring, which makes the deadline ’bout a month a way. [Verizon via DroidLife] → Read More
Where there are startups, there are great investors backing them up. The resurgence of New York City as a startup capital the past few years has witnessed the rise in prominence of several East Coast investors across the spectrum from super angels to super VCs. Today, we are incredibly pleased to announce that Fred Wilson, John Borthwick and Josh Kopelman will all join us for this year’s Disrupt in NYC.
All three invest early and often, and represent a new breed of founder-friendly investors who contribute more than just capital. Speaking of money, if you still haven’t purchased a ticket and would like to do so, tickets are available here.
On the super VC end of the spectrum, it’s hard to compete with Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures. He was an early investor in Twitter, Zynga, Foursquare, Tumblr, and Etsy, Wilson is also a proficient blogger and an avid user of Web products, which is why founders like Jack Dorsey and Dennis Crowley seek him out. → Read More
Back in October 2008, KillerStartups acquired the domain name Startups.com for roughly $500,000 in cash. About a year later, Startups.com was relaunched as a Q&A site for business questions. Today, KillerStartups is launching a new initiative: a daily deals site for Internet entrepreneurs and online business owners.
The new site, which will be hosted at Startups.com (the Q&A section moved to answers.startups.com) will feature a 50% to 80% discount on useful Web applications, software, ebooks, gadgets and other resources entrepreneurs might need. → Read More
Toshiba yesterday announced [JP] an SD card that has a very special feature: it allows users to store up to 1GB of content, but following that, the content can not be erased or modified in any way. Other than that, the so-called Write-Once Card (which, needless to say, can’t be formatted either) looks like any other SD card and can be used just like a conventional card, too. → Read More
Crisp Media, a cross-platform rich media advertising company, today announced that it has raised a $6 million round of growth capital from Meritage Funds, Intel Capital, and EDBI. The round brings Crisp’s total investment to $17 million.
VP of Marketing Tom Limongello says that Crisp will use its new funding to expand into international markets, specifically Asia, and will be establishing a second headquarters in Singapore. The use of cell phones and tablets in Asia is exploding, Limongello said, so building a second home in Singapore, along with partnering with EDBI, one of Singapore’s leading investment firms, will assist the company in its plans to roll out its advertising solutions across Asia. → Read More
Flash sales site Ideeli, which was founded in 2007, has raised $41 million in Series C funding led by Next World Capital with Cue Ball Capital, StarVest Partners, Constellation Growth Capital and Kodiak Venture Partner participating in the round. This bring’s Ideeli’s total funding to nearly $70 million
With over 4 million members, ideeli offers 50 to 70 percent discounts on clothing and accessories over a several day period. The sales are private, available only to members, with upcoming sales from brands announced via emails. Products include clothing for men, women and children as well as jewelry, handbags and home accessories. → Read More
Even though I am living in Japan, I have never made it to Nagasaki. But the Huis Ten Bosch theme park might make me go one day: Sharp has created a kind of 360-degree video room inside the park, which surrounds visitors in the front, above, below, and on both sides (“5D”) with a total of 156 AQUOS 60-inch LCD displays. → Read More
Flattr, the social micropayment startup founded by ex-Pirate Bay associates, is announcing a significant change today.
In a move that represents less altruism and more capitalism, from May 1st onwards Flattr will no longer require new users to add credit to their accounts in order to run the Flattr button on their sites and start receiving payments. In other words, users won’t be required to give to receive. → Read More
Clarizen, provider of online work and project management software, has raised $12 million in venture funding led by Opus Capital Ventures with Benchmark Capital, Carmel Ventures and DAG Ventures participating. The total amount of venture capital invested in the company, which was founded in 2005, now totals $36 million.
The company provides collaborative project management software that allows businesses to easily manage all of their projects and resources. Work and project details for all employees are managed and maintained in one centralized, online platform. → Read More
Sedo will announce shortly that it has sold the most expensive domain name of this year so far in its third biggest public sale ever handled behind sex.com ($13 million) and vodka.com ($3 million). The company has brokered the sale of gambling.com for $2.5 million in cash.
UK-based Media Corpporation sold the domain to an unnamed company also based in the United Kingdom for £1.5 million in cash. According to the seller, the transaction formally completed on 27 April, with the receipt of funds and transfer of the domain name. → Read More
BMC Software this morning announced that it has acquired Coradiant, a privately-held provider of web application performance monitoring solutions.
BMC pitches the purchase as a way to enhance its ability to offer businesses a 360-degree view of service performance (‘from end-user experience and behavior to infrastructure’). The company says an ‘aggressive product integration plan’ is already underway. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. → Read More
Om Malik got a tip from an unidentified source who told him that Apple purchased the domain name icloud.com from a Swedish company called Xcerion (which recently renamed its iCloud service to CloudMe) for about $4.5 million. This is most certainly a possibility.
Last week, we also received a tip that Apple purchased iCloud.com. I immediately followed up with Xcerion and asked the company whether they changed their name because Apple had purchased the domain name / trademark from them and why they changed their service’s name to CloudMe if that weren’t the case. → Read More
Social gaming developer the Casual Collective is rebranding today as Kixeye and debuting a new game, Battle Pirates, today on Facebook. Battle Pirates is a real time strategy game featuring base building, exploration, and player vs. player combat.
Kixeye’s games are targeted towards hardcore gamers and is betting that Facebook is a platform where these types of gamers will continue to flock to. Kixete games are all free-to-play and monetizes via virtual goods. In addition to Facebook, KIXEYE’s games are also published on the company’s own platform. → Read More
