Palo Alto-based ScaleIO is one of a new generation of startup storage providers that’s using intelligent software to help big companies streamline and converge their data storage operations at scale, across thousands of servers. On a mission to re-imagine the very operations of enterprise data centers, the startup’s tech takes aim at the core business of storage giants like EMC and IBM. In fact… → Read More
In spite of the recent layoffs, Zynga is still picking up talent in strategic areas like social casino gaming. The company bought a roughly 40-person team called Spooky Cool Labs full of real-money gaming talent. Based in Chicago, the Spooky Cool Labs team is made up of social and real money gaming veterans from companies such as Aristocrat, and slot machine makers like IGT (International Game… → Read More
If you thought the “ambient location” craze has passed, prepare to be surprised. A company called SocialRadar is announcing today that it has raised $12.75 million in Series A funding from NEA, Grotech Ventures, and others including Steve Case, Ted Leonsis, Dave Morin and Kevin Colleran for a mobile, location-based people discovery app arriving first on the iPhone. → Read More
In today’s tech industry, if you ask a startup founder to describe the biggest hurdles that stand between them and total world domination (or at least market penetration), it won’t be long before they begin grumbling about recruiting and the challenging process of hiring top-tier technical talent. → Read More
ScribbleLive, from Toronto-based Scribble Media, was once nearly synonymous with the term “live blogging,” but you’d be hard-pressed to find reference to that term on its site now. The company has matured and expanded considerably in the five years since its original founding, and with a new $8 million raise, it hopes to continue that maturation, to become the engine powering real-time content at… → Read More
Travel portal TripAdvisor continues to push ahead with its mobile and social acquisitions: today the company announced that it has acquired GateGuru, a mobile app that provides real-time information on airports, weather, and flights. Much of that is picked up from crowdsourcing, not unlike Waze — acquired by Google last week — does with road travel. Terms of the deal between GateGuru and… → Read More
Filepicker.io, the Y Combinator-backed “filesystem as a service,” is today rebranding itself as “Ink File Picker,” a name which, explains CEO Brett van Zuiden, stands for something much larger than the former, more product-focused title. In addition, the company is announcing a $1.8 million seed round of funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz and Highland Capital Partners. → Read More
Ebay is generally credited with being the first company to bring auctions — a system that, for nearly 2,500 years, had exclusively taken place live in noisy, public (and offline) forums — into the Digital Era. But, today, in spite of the fact that eCommerce has become a thriving global industry, with online marketplaces collectively topping $1 trillion in sales last year, one market in… → Read More
Plum District, the hyperlocal deals site built by moms, for moms, has just acquired Spotivate, a startup led by ex-Googler Anthony Lee and former Telenav engineer Jorge Chang that launched out of AngelPad to offer local experiences to parents. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.
For those of us who don’t have miniature terrors traipsing through our lives, here’s a little background on Plum… → Read More
Today Boatbound, the Airbnb for boats, launches its service to help boat owners offset the cost of ownership and let more people experience the joys of the water. With over $1 million in funding led by Benjamin Ling and 500 Startups, Boatbound’s listings website lets pre-screened captains rent fully insured vessels across the country ranging from basic motorboats to sailboats to yachts. → Read More
As high-profile sites like Twitter, Google, and most recently Evernote and LinkedIn turn to two-factor authentication to help their users protect themselves from malicious hackers and security breaches, Encap, a startup based out of Norway, has created an alternative it says is better and safer, using an app on a person’s mobile device. The company today announced a round of funding — we… → Read More
Thought Yahoo’s acquisition spree would culminate with its $1.1 billion Tumblr purchase? Well, not so much. In fact, the buy-happy company just quietly made its second acquisition in 24 hours — in two completely different verticals, no less. Yes, Yahoo followed this morning’s purchase of iOS photo app maker, GhostBird Software, by making a play into the enterprise conference calling space. Wait… → Read More
Last summer, word started to trickle out about a young, stealth startup called RelateIQ that was rumored to be one of the more ambitious players among the new (and expanding) class of Big Data startups. Adam Evans and Steve Loughlin had founded RelateIQ the summer before to tackle some enduring problems in the way we manage our professional relationships — the same ones that led to the birth of … → Read More
Parse, the other big acquisition outside of Instagram that Facebook has given a fair bit of autonomy to, has grown about 25 percent month-over-month and now services 100,000 apps. Around when the deal closed for roughly $85 million excluding retention and bonuses at the end of April, Parse had about 80,000 apps. (In fact, on the day the deal was announced, the company said it had 60,000 apps.) The… → Read More
Hublished is still in private beta, so details are sparse on what the new content distribution platform (which reportedly helps content producers market their work through a webinar, e-book, podcast marketplace/network) is up to. However, we do know that the company has received over $150k in funding before its forthcoming beta launch next month.
So where did this cash come from? → Read More
After months of speculation, the fate of Waze, the social-mapping-location-data startup, is finally decided: Google is buying the company, giving the search giant a social boost to its already-strong mapping and mobile businesses. Speculation has had the sale at $1 billion to $1.3 billion, and so far there is no price on the deal, but a source tells TechCrunch that it was done for $1.1 billion. → Read More
Just about eight weeks ago or so, I was on a call with Zynga’s COO David Ko following the company’s first quarter earnings report. Zynga was trying to manage expectations for the coming two quarters by saying it had paused its game slate to re-evaluate every upcoming title on the table. I can’t remember the exact question I asked, but it was something like, “Finland’s… → Read More
Lamoda, the Russian online fashion site incubated by the Samwer Brothers’ Rocket Internet, is upgrading its wardrobe. On Tuesday, the company is announcing a new injection of $130 million — understood to be a record round of funding for a Russian ecommerce site, passing the $100 million that Ozon, Russia’s Amazon, picked up in 2011. This latest round was led by Access Industries, the VC and… → Read More
A new real-time web analytics platform Spinnakr is launching out of its closed beta today, accompanied by a seed round of just under a million from Andreessen Horowitz, 500 Startups, Point Nine Capital, Sand Hill Angels, and others. Though analytics is already a crowded space, Spinnakr’s product is offering something different – it’s bringing the intelligence of a data scientist to all web… → Read More
According to the Globes, an Israel-based publication, Google is reportedly set to acquire the Israeli transit and navigation company Waze for $1.3 billion, making it one of the larger Google acquisitions in recent memory. This news comes amid swirling rumors that Waze would be bought up by one of the big guys, Facebook, Google, or Apple. → Read More
If you keep up with all the tech startup news, it’s easy to develop the impression that money is just sloshing around the Valley and even the worst products and ideas curry investors’ interests. Thankfully, this is far from the truth. As many of you know, raising institutional funding is quite hard and the process takes a long time, sometimes years. Years ago, Pandora suffered through brutal… → Read More
Snapchat is aggressively recruiting sales people from Stanford as well as USC for its impending debut of a monetization scheme, we’ve discovered. Meanwhile it’s raising $100 million at a valuation as high as $1 billion to pay them, as well as buy more servers and hire other talent to power its rapidly growing self-destructing messaging app, sources say. → Read More
With more commerce moving online every day, the shipping industry is in need of innovation. And one of the bigger pain points developers face when trying to integrate postage and shipping into their applications involves the antiquated technology major carriers like FedEx, UPS and USPS provide – complex SOAP or XML APIs that most developers would say are a nightmare to work with. San… → 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
Yes, it’s become exceedingly clear that the Internet has entered into a prodigious, lascivious (and hilarious) relationship with cats. But, at the end of the day, when it comes to the title of “Man/Woman/Child’s Best Friend,” it’s the friendly neighborhood pooch that takes the cake. In my own experience, even when The World thinks you’re an idiot, life gets you down and you’ve forgotten to feed… → Read More
Brooklyn-based custom-made goods marketplace Makeably launched this past fall as a way to connect buyers with makers and other artisans who can craft unique, one-of-a-kind items ranging from apparel to household goods and more. Today, the company is announcing a slight tweak to that earlier business model, as well as $650,000 in seed funding led by Great Oaks, with participation from 500… → Read More
The Learning Management System market is a wild and wooly place — relatively speaking, of course. “LMSes,” as they are known, are software applications and platforms that allow educational institutions and businesses to deliver courses, training, content and, really, manage every aspect of the learning process. Over time, the market has bifurcated, with one side catering to corporate clients with… → 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
Ijad Madisch started ResearchGate in 2008 to change the scientific method, and depending on where you sit, that either is or isn’t as ambitious as it sounds. Madisch isn’t on a crusade to overturn the techniques scientists use to investigate and systematically observe phenomena, so much as the tools. Today, there’s an incredible amount of scientific research taking place, whether it’s in… → Read More
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