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Varsavsky Bets On The Gramofon As A New Take On Social Music
Today, crowd-sourced Wifi network operator Fon launched its new Gramofon device on Kickstarter. This offers a simple Fon-like Wi-Fi sharing functionality via a simple Facebook log-in, can be plugged into any music speakers and comes with a year’s subscription to Spotify. With such a mash-up of services, it’s quite a new concept on the market. The device could be a game-changer for Fon… Read More
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Fon Launches Gramofon, A Router With Facebook And Spotify Built-In
Today, crowd-sourced Wifi network operator Fon launches its rumoured new product, the Gramofon. But unusually for a large tech company with healthy revenues, it’s launched the product with 30-day crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter at a discounted price, starting at $30. This device offers simple Fon-like Wi-Fi sharing functionality after you log in via Facebook, an audio out to speakers… Read More
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Amid Reports Facebook Is Eyeing Up Financial Services, TransferWise Hits £1 Billion In Transfers
In the midst of reports that Facebook could be about to get into financial services, one of the startups it's rumoured to have talked to, the European P2P money transfer service TransferWise, has hit a major milestone today: Its platform has processed £1 billion of customers' money. Read More
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Lifesum Health Tracker App Gets $6.7M Series A To Outgrow Its Nordics Base
Health and fitness app Lifesum (formerly known as ShapeUp Club) which lets users track the food they eat and count calories, has closed a $6.7 million Series A funding round led by German multinational media company Bauer Media Group and SparkLabs Global Ventures. It's the Swedish startup's first external funding -- with the 21-strong startup bootstrapping its way to profitability, prior to… Read More
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Biometric Startup Quixter Demos Pay-By-Palm Tech
Quixter has built a biometric pay-by-palm technology system that's up and running at Lund University in Sweden. The idea is the brainchild of Fredrik Leifland, an engineering student at the university, who wanted to come up with a quicker system for making card payments. (And clearly didn't think much of NFC.) Read More
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Sportsetter Is A Fitness Experiences App That Helps Tackle Gym Apathy
Sportsetter is an iPhone app launched in New York and Helsinki today that lets you subscribe to and discover new fitness experiences matched to your personal preference, fitness goals and locality. Read More
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Rocket Internet’s Real-Estate Classifieds Platform, Lamudi, Bags $7M To Grow In Asia
Rocket Internet‘s real-estate classifieds platform, Lamudi, which operates in 21 markets in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America, has closed a $7 million funding round aimed at beefing up its operations in Asia. Currently Lamudi operates in five Asia markets — Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan and Bangladesh — and it’s those markets the new funding will… Read More
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Entrepreneur First Thinks It Can Grab The Talent Long Before YC
The world of tech startup accelerators has become an ocean of choices. “Batches”, “programmes”, “mentor networks” are thrown around from one organisation to the other. What sets them apart has become difficult to define. Perhaps it’s geography, such as proximity to investors in a big city? Or perhaps its a programme in a vertical, like fashion or fintech? Read More
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Team Management App Weekdone Now Reports To Android
I'm a big fan of the consumerization of the enterprise, which is seeing a host of startups crop up and build apps for the corporate world that take a consumer approach in terms of design, simplicity, social-esque features and a single-use focus. One product that falls squarely into this camp is the team management app Weekdone. Read More
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Enterprise File-sharer Egnyte Opens London HQ To Meet Euro Security Demand
Egnyte, the Valley firm specialising in an enterprise file-sharing platform, has expanded in Europe, opening a London HQ. This will compliment its existing Amsterdam data center and design office in Poland. It aims to hire 100 new staff in London over the next 5 years. The company says there is growing customer demand for enterprise-grade file sharing which also addresses data security concerns. Read More
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TCTV
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Native Advertising Startup Adyoulike Acquires Content Amp For $2.5M
French native advertising company Adyoulike acquired Content Amp. According to Rude Baguette, the British company was acquired for $2.5 million. Adyoulike appears to be at the same time an advertising technology company and a more traditional advertising network for native content. An ad-tech company in native advertising seems counterintuitive — native ads are blog posts, articles and… Read More
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Landbay Brings The P2P Finance Model To Buy-To-Let In The UK
P2P lenders have sprung up in recent years online. Zopa in the UK pioneered the model, and has raised significant funding. And the P2P finance model has even spread to insurance. Now the model is spreading again, in a rather specific vertical. In the UK, property is no longer mere property. It has morphed into a form of money. This has seen an explosion in the ‘buy to let’ boom where… Read More
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Station 12 Is Raising $250M To Fund European Media Tech Startups’ Growth Rounds
Add a new VC to the ranks in Europe: Station 12 is raising £150 million ($250 million), which it plans to invest in Series A and B rounds in the future Netflixes and Maker Studios of the world -- in other words, startups in Europe that straddle the media, entertainment and technology verticals. Average initial investments will be around £10 million. Read More
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TapTalk Is A New Video Messaging App That Adds Location
My TechCrunch colleague Natasha Lomas recently argued – quite convincingly – that startups should stop trying to make proximity-based social networking “happen” — that most attempts had failed, and even ongoing ventures like Foursquare have had to tone down the idea. And yet these apps still keep appearing. And who can blame them — we might as well do something… Read More
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Criteo Buys AdQuantic, A Startup That Applies Quantum Physics To Search Marketing
We have discovered that Criteo, the French ad tech company that raised $250 million in an IPO on NASDAQ last October, has quietly made an acquisition. It's bought AdQuantic, another ad tech startup from France co-founded by two doctors of statistical physics, which has developed a bid management tool for search marketing based on game theory, quantum physics and related mathematical models. Read More
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Following Spotify, Deezer Goes Freemium On Mobile
Music streaming startup Deezer just revamped its free offering across the board in order to become more competitive with Spotify, Rdio and others. Mobile users will now be able to listen to smart radios for free. Like on the web, your music will be interrupted by audio ads every now and then. The company also dropped its listening cap of 10 hours per month on all platforms. Deezer presented a beta… Read More
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Snupps Wants You To Organise And Share Your Real-Life Stuff On Its Virtual Shelves
London-based startup Snupps wants to appeal to the amateur collector in all of us. Whether your secret passion is hoarding fine wines or Pokemon figurines, it's built the virtual shelf space where you can catalogue your collection by uploading photos and details of your stuff. Read More
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Free Will Sell SIM Cards Using Vending Machines In France
How do you compete with well-established mobile carriers in France, such as Orange, SFR and Bouygues? You automate everything. Free is proving once again that it can remain much leaner than its competitors by replacing brick and mortar stores with vending machines. Clients will be able to subscribe to one of Free’s plans, pay with their credit cards and get a SIM card. The best part is that… Read More
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TinkerBots Want To Make Modular Robotics Child’s Play
TinkerBots is a modular robotics building set with the aim of encouraging children to learn about electronics through play. The Berlin-based makers behind the project are seeking to raise $100,000 over the next 46 days via the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform to get their kits to market. Read More
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U.K. Healthcare E-booking Platform, Zesty, Adds Another $2M+ To Its Seed Funding
U.K. healthcare startup Zesty, which much like ZocDoc in the U.S. offers an online platform to locate and book healthcare appointments at short notice, has topped up its seed investment with more than $2 million in new funding coming from two new VC firms, TA Ventures and ABRT Fund. Read More
