Startups
myTomorrows Raises $2.2M For Platform To Give Patients Access To Development-Stage Drugs
3:17 am PST • February 19, 2014
myTomorrows is a Dutch startup that wants to disrupt the way patients with unmet medical needs currently have (very limited) access to development-stage treatments — drugs that are still undergoing…
Startups
SuperAwesome Crosses Pond Via Acquisition Of MobiGirl Media, A U.S. Mobile Ad Network For Girls
8:00 am PST • February 18, 2014
SuperAwesome, the European kids and teen-focused ad network and marketing platform, has crossed the pond via an acquisition. It’s bought L.A.-based MobiGirl Media, a mobile ad network for girls.
Europe has gotten itself another hardware-based startup accelerator; this time Estonia is flying the hardware flag. Focusing on hardware in combination with software, Buildit is a new 3 month accelerator program…
Startups
Curated Shopping Service Outfittery Raises €13M To Improve Men’s Fashion Sense
4:12 am PST • February 17, 2014
Outfittery, a curated shopping service for men’s clothing, has raised €13 million in new funding to expand into other European markets beyond Germany, Austria and Switzerland where it currently operates.
Startups
A First Look At Echobox, An Analytics Tool For News Sites That Actually Helps Drive Traffic
3:23 am PST • February 17, 2014
Instead of simply displaying tons of stats and fancy charts, Echobox looks at a site’s visitor data and, using its own algorithms and machine learning, actually recommends actions to take,…
Startups
Swisscom Ventures Backs Lemoptix To Put Micro-Projection Tech In Mobile Phones, HUDs And Wearables
1:30 am PST • February 13, 2014
Switzerland-based Lemoptix — which develops technology that enables micro-projectors to be embedded in mobile phones, automotive heads-up-displays, and low-powered wearable displays — has raised an undisclosed new round of funding…
Based in California, with an R&D office in Russia, AppScotch has developed technology to enable advertisers to offer a new kind of interactive ad unit that turns the humble banner…
Startups
SalesGossip Raises £600K To Help UK Shoppers Hear About Fashion & Beauty Sales First
1:30 am PST • February 11, 2014
SalesGossip, a UK site that offers members exclusive access to fashion and beauty product sales, events and promotions, has closed a second angel round — the majority of which is…
Startups
Kantox, The London-Based P2P Currency Exchange For Businesses, Raises €6.5M Series A
5:12 am PST • February 10, 2014
More fintech news coming out of London. Kantox, a peer-to-peer foreign currency exchange for businesses, has raised €6.5 million in a series A investment. The round was led by Partech…
Startups
TrekkSoft, The SaaS For Tour & Activity Providers, Raises Further $800,000
2:45 am PST • February 10, 2014
Hot on the heels of Silicon Valley competitor Xola raising $1.8 million last week, Swiss startup TrekkSoft, which offers a SaaS for tour and activity providers, has raised $800,000 in follow-on…
Startups
Shopgate Acquires MagCorp To Bolster M-Commerce Magento Integration
1:30 am PST • February 10, 2014
Germany and Palo Alto-based m-commerce platform Shopgate has made its first acquisition: The Creathor Ventures and Northcap-backed company has acquired Magento developer MagCorp for an undisclosed fee.
Startups
SportPursuit, A Flash Sales Site For Sporty Types, Raises £5M Series B For European Expansion
4:01 pm PST • February 9, 2014
Today, the UK’s SportPursuit, a 1 million member-strong flash sales site for sports enthusiasts, is announcing a series B round of funding.
Startups
Birdback Raises $2.4M To Replace Wallet-Bulging Vouchers & Loyalty Cards With Card-Linked Fintech
1:00 am PST • February 6, 2014
Fintech startup Birdback reckons we already carry one loyalty card to rule them all: our existing credit or debit card. The London-based company has created technology to link online to…
Startups
BleepBleeps Kickstarts Its First Connected Device For Parents, “Sammy Screamer” Motion Detector
9:32 am PST • February 5, 2014
Founded by ad agency man Tom Evans, BleepBleeps is a new London-based startup that’s creating a range of cute, kid-friendly, connected (or IoT-styled) devices to help with the job of…
Startups
Mileways, The Social App For Frequent Flyers, Adds Flight Compensation Through Partnership With AirHelp
3:32 am PST • February 5, 2014
Mileways, the Munich-based social app for frequent flyers, just got a little more useful. The iOS app has added integration with AirHelp, the flight compensation startup co-founded by Morten Lund,…
Startups
Kicksend, The Mobile-First Photo Printing App, Crosses Pond To UK, France And Germany
9:29 am PST • February 4, 2014
Mobile-first photo printing app Kicksend launches in the U.K., France, and Germany. However, for the time being, Kicksend is providing the print-to-home service only. I’m told that in-store partnerships are…
Website building platform BaseKit, a Seedcamp winner from all the way back in 2008, has raised a further £4.5m in funding. The round was led by Angel CoFund, with participation…
Startups
Future Ad Labs Turns CAPTCHAs Into Mini-Games (And Ad Revenue)
3:41 am PST • February 4, 2014
We all hate CAPTCHAs, right? Those pesky additions to web forms that try to determine if you are a human and not a computer bot with nefarious intentions. A necessary…
Media & Entertainment
GoSquared Adds E-Commerce Analytics To Help Smaller Online Stores Take The Data-Driven Fight To Amazon
6:02 am PST • February 3, 2014
GoSquared, the feisty UK startup that competes with Chartbeat, Google Analytics and other companies in the real-time analytics space, is rolling out a new e-commerce offering today.
Media & Entertainment
Telenav Held Talks With Navmii Before Acquiring Rival Navigation App Skobbler
7:23 am PST • January 31, 2014
TechCrunch understands that Skobbler wasn’t the only OpenStreepMap-powered startup to be on Telenav’s radar. We’re hearing that the U.K.’s Navmii, maker of Navfree, the free mapping and navigation app for…
Startups
Intel & Alpine Back Speaktoit To Put Natural Language Personal Assistant In Cars, Robots, And Wearables
6:09 am PST • January 30, 2014
Speaktoit, the Russian startup behind Speaktoit Assistant, a Siri alternative for Android, iOS and Windows Phone that also competes with a host of other AI and natural language-driven ‘personal assistants’,…
Media & Entertainment
Verdict Is An Anonymous ‘Hot Or Not’ For Anything
1:30 am PST • January 29, 2014
Now, admittedly, Verdict doesn’t feel like the most original app idea. Users snap a photo, upload it to Verdict, add a short description and category, and begin soliciting a thumbs…
Startups
Google’s Acquisition Of DeepMind Could Shine A Light On Other British AI Startups
4:27 am PST • January 28, 2014
Most headlines surrounding Google’s acquisition of DeepMind focused on the $500 million+ price tag, what its new owner may or may not be planning to do with the AI talent…
Startups
European Carpooling Site BlaBlaCar Rides Into Russia And Ukraine Via Acquisition
12:00 am PST • January 28, 2014
The carpooling race in Europe has yet to produce a definitive winner, as Germany’s Carpooling.com and France’s BlaBlaCar continue to go head-to-head. Today, the latter is making its next move:…
Media & Entertainment
Vint, The P2P Marketplace For Training And Fitness Instructors, Raises $1.8M Led By Creandum
11:32 am PST • January 27, 2014
Hoping to pick up the slack left by people who want to get fit but find gym memberships too expensive or unproductive, Sweden’s Vint is an iPhone app that lets…
Enterprise
As Software Eats The World, Agile Tool Provider Hansoft Raises $8.4M To Steal Competitors’ Lunch
11:04 am PST • January 27, 2014
Hansoft provides tools to help teams collaborate and manage the development of products and services using “Agile software development” — the umbrella term for a group of software development methods…
One of our favourite things about Twitter is that if you follow the right people, its conversational nature can feel like you’re hanging out at Starbucks eavesdropping on other people’s…
Startups
As Investor Interest Heats Up In Turkey, Pan-European Accelerator Startupbootcamp Launches In Istanbul
1:59 am PST • January 23, 2014
With news earlier this week that Earlybird, the Berlin-based VC, has launched a new $130 million fund targeting early-stage startups in Turkey and Central and Eastern Europe, it seems apt…
Startups
Tok Tok Tok, The European Local Delivery Platform Similar To Postmates, Raises $2M To Expand To London
6:19 am PST • January 22, 2014
Tok Tok Tok, a French startup that’s tackling a similar problem to U.S.-based Postmates — having somebody shop on your behalf and deliver the item within the same day or…
Enterprise
Online Booking Platform BookingBug Raises Further $1M, Plans To Open Up Protocol To Developers
6:34 am PST • January 21, 2014
The UK startup BookingBug, which provides an online booking and reservation platform for businesses — SMEs right up to larger enterprise outfits — has raised a further $1 million in…
