MyJobCompany is another take on the social recruitment idea. Its platform, which expanded beyond France and Latin America to the UK last week, enables anybody to become what it calls a “social headhunter” by recommending friends and acquaintances for a job. Or, put another way, by sending their social and professional networks job adverts, which if lead to a qualified application or actual… → Read More
Breather is a new startup billed as a sort of “Zipcar for rooms”. Announced at the LeWeb conference in London and due to launch later this year, it’s closed $1.5 million in funding from Canadian VC Real Ventures, along with Gary Vaynerchuk, Loic Le Meur, Mike Walsh and others. The idea is to have a network of well-kept rooms – sort of mini business lounges – which a user can unlock with a… → Read More
Larry Harvey is the main co-founder of the Burning Man festival, while John Perry Barlow is a former lyricist for the Grateful Dead and a founding member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. We caught up with both men at Le Web London to discuss some of the intellectual underpinnings of startup entreprepreneurship have parallels with Burning Man in what might be their first ever joint interview. → Read More
London-based roboticist Evangelos Georgiou wants to offer an open-source platform for helping Arduino hobbyists take their projects mobile, thanks to a remote controlled robot called the RK-1 that combines a programmable Arduino microcontroller with apps for iPhone or Android, tank tracks, DC motors and Wi-Fi connectivity. It’s a project that could really help out with home hobbyists, or with… → Read More
Mobile e-commerce startup Shopgate announced its Series B funding round today, which it revealed to TechCrunch totals $7 million in an interview. The Germany and Palo Alto-based company offers retailers custom native app and mobile web development for their online stores, which Shopgate co-founder Andrea Anderheggen says can help retailers increase their sell-through rates on mobile by between 5… → Read More
Paris-based Internet of Things startup Netatmo, which makes personal weather station and air quality sensor devices (as seen in the video above) for use with Android and iOS apps, has just closed a €4.5M ($5.8M) funding round. It plans to use the funding to launch new connected devices in the second half of this year, including additional indoor air modules, and also rain and wind meters. → Read More
The ability to drill-down and target specific groups of people on Facebook, based on their interests or affinity with a brand or its competitor’s, is sort of a given. On Twitter, however, it’s not so easy. That’s the hole that SocialBro wants to fill, along with educating companies on how the 140 character-driven social network can be used as a tool to do business. → Read More
Payments company Adyen has published the first of a new quarterly index intended to track the evolving landscape of mobile commerce. One notable increase flagged up by the data is the increasing popularity of tablets as a commerce device. The inaugural Adyen Global Mobile Payments Index is based on 10 months of transactions conducted on its platform. → Read More
With Google dominant in so many markets, one would thing that search is kind’ve ‘done’. Of course, we have yet to really tap into social search, and Facebook Graph search is showing a clear direction. But traditional Web search could still be re-imagined. That is what Russian based search giant Yandex plans to do from today. They feel there should be way more functionality to search terms. If you… → Read More
FounderDating, the networking service that matches startup entrepreneurs with potential co-founders who have complementary skill-sets, has launched in London. The platform already spans 19 U.S. cities, including San Francisco, LA, New York, Boston, but London is only its second international city — the first being Tel Aviv in Israel. → Read More
Le Web London features, just like other tech events, lots of startups. We did an eight-minute run-through of the startups in the competition here and came up with a few gems. Here’s a run down of those competing. → Read More
Long-time analyst and noted commentator Jeremiah Owyang, partner at research company Altimeter Group, spoke at Le Web in London today about the so-called ‘sharing economy’ and had a few home truths to impart, especially to big businesses being disrupted by startups. → Read More
This is pretty neat. OpenBrand, the UK/Czech startup that provides a ‘Dropbox for designers‘ and an online space for brands and agencies to manage brand-related design assets, has added the ability to generate “Live Comps”. What is a comp? Well, in this context, it’s referring to a composition that shows what a design will look like in the real world. → Read More
mOwayduino are programmable Arduino-based robot toys designed to be used in conjunction with apps plus hardware add-ons — creating a rich environment for learning by playing with hardware and software. Or that’s the idea. At the moment, mOwayduino is at the concept/prototyping stage. The Spanish company behind the project is aiming to crowdfund it via Indiegogo. → Read More
Yplan, the London-based startup that’s building a platform for selling last-minute event-booking on mobile, has closed a $12 million (£7.9 million) Series A, led by General Catalyst Partners. Existing investors Wellington Partners and Octopus Investments also participated in the round, plus a group of co-investors, including A-Grade, Kevin Colleran and David Morin’s Slow Ventures. → Read More
Editor’s note: Matt Cohler is a General Partner at Benchmark and was the lead investor in Asana, Instagram and Quora among others.
Throw a dart at a map. There’s a pretty good chance it’ll hit near someplace hoping to become the “next Silicon Valley.” I’d bet on Berlin. I believe Berlin has the best shot in the Western world outside of Silicon Valley at becoming a place with a true tech… → Read More
Playtox, the Russian developer of free-to-play mobile browser-based games, has closed a $3 million Series A round of funding from VC firm Runa Capital. The company said it will use the funding to expand on the startup’s massively multiplayer online (MMO) titles “globally,” including the U.S., as well as in emerging markets. → Read More
Swedish startup Dexplora is on a mission. Through its GetSalesDone mobile app and supporting service it wants to dramatically improve the User Experience of CRM systems, thus making data entry less of a chore and more accurate, and in doing so improve the sales bottom line. Much easier said than done, of course, but then this team has form. → Read More
The Rhapsody-owned Napster streaming music service is expanding into 14 new European countries today, significantly ramping up its presence in the region. The Napster service was already available in Germany and the U.K. but from today it’s also live in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and The Netherlands. → Read More
Card.biz originally launched in Summer 2012 as a me-too offering along the lines of About.me. But as startups are wont to do, the Paris-based company, backed by Kima Ventures, has since pivoted to offer a service that enables companies to create an org chart and staff directory hosted in the cloud. → Read More
Shopmium has closed a $5.6 million Series B round, with backing from Ventech, Accel Partners and ISAI, to roll its product discovery apps into new markets — pushing outside its home market of France. The funding is the second swathe of external financing for the startup, with Accel and ISAI kicking in $2.1 million back in 2011. Prior to that the founders also invested undisclosed seed funding. → Read More
It seems all you tech people are obsessed with making conferences work better, perhaps because you seem to go to a lot? Thus there are numerous ‘conference startups’. There are apps to schmooze at the event itself, like Bizzabo, Presdo, Oleapark, Shpare, Schmooze, CrowdVine, Eventasaur and Omyconf, not to mention generic location-based networking apps like Highlig.ht, Sonar, Ban.jo and Intro. And… → Read More
Stamplia, launching today from French startup Kiwup, is an email templates marketplace where web designers can sell HTML templates for newsletters, transactional emails and signup forms, and in turn let companies focus on the messaging of their email campaigns rather than design. → Read More
![SMP-logo-[NEW]](http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/smp-logo-new.png?w=250){kind=logo}
Spotify community and playlist sharing site ShareMyPlaylists is rolling out a new feature today: Moods will let users select playlist based on, er, mood.
Feeling happy? The site has you covered. Feeling cool? There are playlists for hipsters, too. Feeling intimate? Ok, you get the idea. → Read More
WorldStores, a U.K.-based online retailer of home and garden products going after supplier scale to fuel its growth, has raised £10 million ($15.2 million) in Series C funding, led by Serena Capital. Existing investors Balderton Capital and Advent Venture Partners also participated in the round. The new funding brings WorldStores’ total funding to £21 million. → Read More
CBTec, the e-learning startup founded by ex-Nokians and members of the now defunct MeeGo team, has released an Android app for its Eliademy MOOC platform that’s also compatible with the widely used open source VLE Moodle. That’s because both Eliademy and Moodle are based on the same codebase, while in addition it provides CBTec with a nice new revenue stream. → Read More
As mobile gaming has exploded, it follows that startups helping to feed and in turn feed off the mobile gaming ecosystem are poised for growth. One such company is AppLift, the mobile games marketing platform co-founded and backed by games distribution incubator HitFox, which today is announcing that it’s closed a $13 million Series A round from Prime Ventures. → Read More
A new startup called Pics.io out of the Ukraine hopes to take the next big leap in the online photography workflow, by making browser-based, fully collaborative RAW image file processing a reality. The team has plenty of experience working in digital photography, and is now looking for funding to help turn its very basic prototype into a full-fledged, shipping product. → Read More
Housebites, the London, UK-based startup that enables independent chefs to sell home-cooked meals as an alternative to a take-out, has shuttered in its current form as it gears up to pivot — once again. Its website has been replaced by a holding page that apologises for the withdrawal of the service and thanks “loyal and valued” customers for their support. → Read More
Believe.in, a VC-backed U.K.-based charity donation platform that’s disrupting the cause-giving space by not charging any fees on donations, has announced a partnership with easy payments API startup Stripe — to allow charities to receive direct payments faster than would otherwise be the case. The pair claim payments will be up to one month faster than the “existing norm”, as a result. → Read More
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
Boston, MA
