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TechCrunch Meetup And Pitch-Off In Beirut Tonight
I'm doing a TechCrunch Meetup and Pitch-off in Beirut tonight, featuring some of Beirut's most exciting start-up founders under one roof. Startups will have to impress the judges in a 3min pitch-off. The winner will get tickets for Disrupt NYC. Read More
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Polish Marketing Automation Platform SALESmanago Raises $1.7M
SALESmanago, a cloud based online marketing automation platform based out of Poland, has raised a $1.7 million round of funding -- money it will use to for R&D, product development, and marketing, including further international expansion. The investment was led by Rafał Brzoska, the founder of InPost, the parcel lockers network for e-Stores that operates in 17 countries. Read More
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Ensygnia Sues Paddle Over Alleged Mobile Payment Patent Infringement
In a move that isn't very, well, startup-y, two London-based mobile payment startups look set to meet each other in the UK's High Court. TechCrunch has learned that Wayra-accelerated Ensygnia is suing Paddle for alleged patent infringement -- an infringement that Paddle disputes and believes will be dismissed. The patents relate to log-in and payments. Read More
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With $96.7M In Funding, PowaTag Launches Its Mobile And Audio-Triggered Commerce App
Powa Technologies, a UK-based e-commerce startup that has raised nearly $100 million in outside funding in the last seven months, is today finally taking the wraps off its flagship product: PowaTag, an e-commerce app that combines elements of mobile payments, QR Codes and audio recognition to provide an all-in-one solution for brands and retailers to target customers in different physical and… Read More
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After Media Storm Over User Safety, Q&A Site Ask.fm Surpasses 100 Million Signups, 60% “Active”
Ask.fm, the personal Q&A site that's been steeped in controversy over safety concerns for its predominantly teen user base, shows little sign of growth slowing. It's now surpassed 100 million signups to its web and mobile apps -- up from 65 million in June last year -- and is adding between 180-200,000 new users per day, although that's down from a peak last summer. Read More
Europe Writers
TCTV
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TVShow Time Lets You Stream All Your Favorite TV Shows Thanks To Put.io
French startup TVShow Time just added a major new feature for its social platform for TV show enthusiasts. Not only can you keep track of your progress in your favorite TV shows, you can now play new episodes directly from the website as well, without having to leave the site. All of this was made possible thanks to a deep Put.io integration. “When you reach the last 10 percent of your… Read More
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Gartner: 195M Tablets Sold In 2013, Android Grabs Top Spot From iPad With 62% Share
A new tipping point in the world of tablets: today the analysts at Gartner have released their tablet sales numbers for 2013, and Android has topped the list for the most popular platform for the first time, outselling Apple's range of iPad tablets nearly twofold. Of the 195 million tablets sold in 2013, Android took nearly 62% of sales on 121 million tablets, while Apple sold 70 million iPad… Read More
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Softgarden And 1000jobboersen Merge To Create European Recruiting-as-a-Service Powerhouse
Two Berlin-based startups are merging: softgarden, which provides web-based recruiting software to handle the entire recruitment process, is joining forces with 1000jobboersen.de, a job ad media planning service. The new entity -- softgarden E-Recruiting -- claims to be Europe’s largest Recruiting-as-a-Service provider, with more than 5,000 clients. Read More
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Company Data Disruptor DueDil Raises $17M To Go Global
Four years ago the founder pitched at a small event I was at, amid what can only be described as a fit of nerves. But now DueDil founder and CEO Damian Kimmelman is a fully-rounded, confident founder who has today raised a $17 million Series B financing round, led by previous investor Oak Investment Partners. The funding round was also supported by existing investors Notion Capital and… Read More
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Hotel Metasearch Top10.com Closes $8M Series B, Led By Balderton, To Expand In Europe
Hotel metasearch startup, Top10.com, has closed an $8 million Series B funding round, led by Balderton Capital, following what it describes as rapid growth over the past 12 months. Its total funding raised to date is now $12.5 million, including this latest chunk. Read More
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Raspberry Pi Chalks Up Sales Of 2.5M+ As It Turns Two — $10K Bounty Offered For Opening Its Blob
Happy Birthday Raspberry Pi! The low-cost Linux microcomputer has just turned two years old. And boy how it's grown. Read More
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Indian Business Angel Network Makes First Investment In UK’s SwiftShift
India’s largest business angels group has made its first investment in a UK startup, investing in London-based company SwiftShift. The amount was not disclosed. The Indian Angel Network (IAN) is Asia’s largest angel network of over 250 investors spread across 10 countries. Effectively, this is an Indian angel network investing in a UK company run by an Israeli in London. SwiftShift… Read More
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Dattch, The Dating App For Gay Women, Launches in San Francisco
Aimed exclusively at lesbians, bisexual and/or bi-curious women, the Dattch dating app ought to be a shoe-in for the large San Francisco market. So it's no surprise that the startup - after raising money and honing its product in London - has now launched into the California city. You can download it for iOS here. Read More
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Sailfish OS Maker, Jolla, On Questing For Scale In The Age Of Android
"It's not every day that a new mobile operating system is born," says Jolla's Marc Dillon preaching to a congregation of the curious from atop a stool at Jolla's booth at the 2014 Mobile World Congress. This is the world's largest mobile device-focused gathering. The show which annually transforms Barcelona into a city of suits and queues and shiny things. Read More
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Uber Wants To Take Over The French Market With Aggressive Bonus Tactics
Urban transportation company Uber is fighting very hard to conquer France. It doesn’t hesitate to redistribute bonuses of up to $1,100 a week to its drivers — these bonuses are higher than Uber’s revenue from these drivers. In other words, Uber is willing to operate at a loss for some drivers to lure drivers. Under-funded French startups can’t compete financially with… Read More
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How Capitaine Train Is Disrupting Train Ticket Booking Through Engineering
French startup Capitaine Train wants to improve the cumbersome process of booking train tickets online and on your phone. It’s not yet another travel agency, it’s an alternative to popular European ticket booking services with an emphasis on efficiency. “We want our clients to leave the site as soon as possible,” co-founder and CEO Jean-Daniel Guyot told me in an interview. Read More
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Prezi And Adobe Join Obama’s ConnectED Tech Initiative For US Classrooms
Prezi, the cloud-based startup which competes with Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynote, and Adobe are the latest technology companies to join President Obama’s ConnectED Initiative to help the US education system move forward into a more technology-centred world. Read More
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WePopp Adds Restaurant Booking Via OpenTable
WePopp, an iOS and Android app to help you plan events with friends, had added restaurant booking via integration with OpenTable. The new feature adds the ability to book a restaurant as an optional an extra step within the app. Read More
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Google Moves In On Publishing, Launches Global Exchange With Time Inc. To Merge Ad Sales In The U.S. And UK
A big move today for Google in its bid to play a larger role in how publishers sell online advertising. Today it has announced the launch of the Time Inc. Global Exchange, a new ad exchange, powered by DoubleClick, that will let advertisers buy ad placements across not just Time's online publications in the U.S. but in other countries, too, and across multiple platforms (mainly desktop and… Read More
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Tradeshift Secures $75M To Expand Its Invoicing Platform Globally
Tradeshift, the SF-based enterprise invoicing startup that originally emerged from Copenhagen, has now closed $75 million in Series C growth funding from Singapore’s Scentan Ventures. The company will use the new funds for global expansion, including developing and growing a new partnership with Scentan, initially in Japan. Tradeshift will also open offices in Tokyo. Tradeshift has raised $112… Read More
