September 2017
You can learn to build aerial taxis with Udacity’s new Flying Car Nanodegree
Online education company Udacity is growing its new Nanodegree program yet again – it’s adding two entirely new programs to the roster, including a new entry-level self-driving Nanodegree, as well…
It seems Skully, the AR helmet company that crashed and burned in July of 2016 after the former CEO Marcus Weller refused to sign a confidentiality deal with investors is…
WT2 real-time translation earpieces look to crowdfund first run
This summer the TC team took a brief trip to Shenzhen, where I met Wells Tu, whose company TimeKettle has made an earpiece that translates spoken Chinese to English and…
After reading back the preview I wrote back in June, the dominant tone was that iOS 11 is so different that it takes a while to get used to it:…
Apple has just released the final version of iOS 11. This update is packed with new features for the iPad and new core frameworks for the iPhone. The update is…
YouTube’s Twitch-like ‘Sponsorships’ open to all YouTube Gaming creators, expand to YouTube’s main app
YouTube today is taking on Twitch with the launch of a new program that will allow gamers to make money from their channels through the use of sponsorships. Like Twitch’s…
GGV’s Jenny Lee says Xiaomi doesn’t need to come to the U.S.
Xiaomi is one of the most valuable startups in the world and has become a big icon in smartphone design, sometimes suggested as an analog to Apple in China. The…
Former BBC Worldwide exec is taking the reins at mitú, a digital media company focused on the Hispanic audience
Chalk up another coup for digital media hiring as the media company mitú, focused on digitally distributed content for Hispanic audiences, has managed to score the longtime entertainment executive Herb…
Flippy, the hamburger cooking robot, gets its first restaurant gig
Today at Disrupt SF, we got our first look at Flippy in its final form. Miso Robotics has been showing off its burger-flipping “robotic kitchen assistant” for several months now, but…
Amazon now lets Hilton Honors members shop with Points
Hilton and Amazon have teamed up on a new initiative that will allow member of Hilton’s Honors loyalty program to shop Amazon using their points. This is the first time…
Watch Day 2 of Disrupt San Francisco live right here!
[tc_unified_video code=”59b82d3f8c08e025b94480d8″] The best is yet to come, and babe, won’t it be fine? Disrupt Day 2 kicks off right now, and thanks to the live stream, no one will…
Stack Overflow’s developer salary calculator tells you how much money you should be making
Stack Overflow, the popular developer community and job board, is launching a new tool today for developers that will allow them to find out how much other developers in their…
Subscription art crowdfunder Patreon confirms $60M fundraise
Patreon upgrades content creation from a passion to a profession by paying artists 95% of subscription payments from fans instead of 55% of skimpy ad revenue like Facebook and YouTube.…
Le Collectionist raises $10M to expand luxury travel platform and offices globally
There are many solutions when a traveler wants to rent a property: websites like Airbnb, local agents, hotels, private properties to name the obvious. When it comes to luxury properties,…
Google Cloud’s Natural Language API gets content classification and more granular sentiment analysis
Google Cloud announced two updates this morning to its Natural Language API. Specifically users will now have access to content classification and entity sentiment analysis. These features are particularly valuable…
Google’s search app now makes suggestions of other things to read
Google’s search app for iOS is today introducing a feature that will keep users browsing the web, instead of exiting back to their homescreen to use other mobile application. The…
Nikola and Bosch team on powertrain design for hydrogen electric long-haul trucks
Nikola Motor Company, the Utah-based company that is working on building heavy-duty transport trucks using hybrid hydrogen-electric powertrains, announced today that it’s partnering with global automotive industry supply leader Bosch…
TalkIQ raises $14 million Series A to give enterprises AI insights into voice communication
There’s no shortage of startups building their brands around AI for enterprise. And within the enterprise, few spaces are as competitive as AI-powered voice analytics. TalkIQ is the latest company…
Minio scores $20 million Series A to build a neutral object storage layer
Minio has a plan to become the neutral object storage layer, while still maintaining Amazon S3 object storage compatibility. That may seem like an odd strategy, but as CEO Anand…
Struggling with a sputtering wearables market, plummeting stock pricing and increased competition on the low-end of the market, Fitbit threw a Hail Mary. It vacuumed up a trio of startups…
8fit, a health and fitness app that offers tailored workout and meal plans, closes $7M Series A
8fit, a popular health and fitness app that offers tailored workouts and meals plan, has raised $7 million in Series A funding. Backing the round are VCs Creandum and Eight…
Real-time data analytics startup Incorta raises $15M Series B led by Kleiner Perkins
Incorta, the startup that wants to speed up big data analytics by eliminating the need for data warehouses, has raised a $15 million Series B led by new investor Kleiner…
Adobe brings paid premium features for brands to its Spark design apps
Adobe is launching a major update to its Spark graphic design apps today that brings paid premium features for companies and individuals that want to bring their own logo to…
Amazon’s new tablet doubles as a cheap Echo Show with hands-free Alexa
Amazon doesn’t really care how Alexa gets out into world, so long as it gets out there. The smart assistant has been available on the company’s Fire tablets for some…
Facebook ad optimization startup Smartly.io targets U.S. growth after $20M secondary funding
Smartly.io, a Helsinki-based company that makes automated marketing software for Facebook and Instagram advertisers, announced today that it has raised $20 million in secondary funding by selling some of its…
Hinge’s new app lets your friends play matchmaker
Hinge is launching a way for people in relationships to get in on the dating app craze alongside their single friends. No, not like that! The company today is introducing…
MealPal gobbles $20M for its restaurant meal subscription service
We’ve seen a huge wave of food-on-demand startups hit the market in the last several years: those who deliver restaurant food (like Postmates or Deliveroo), those who deliver meal kits…
Salesforce Ventures launches $50M fund to encourage AI development on Salesforce platform
Salesforce Einstein, the AI toolset for Salesforce.com, turned one today and to celebrate Salesforce Ventures announced a $50 million fund to encourage startups to build AI-fueled applications on top of Salesforce. Over the years…
Salesforce Einstein celebrates its first birthday with several new features
Salesforce launched Einstein, its artificial intelligence platform just one year ago this week. As it celebrates its first birthday, it’s worth taking a look back at the first year and…
Wikileaks releases documents it claims detail Russia mass surveillance apparatus
Wikileaks has released a new cache of documents which it claims detail surveillance apparatus used by the Russian state to spy on Internet and mobile users. It’s the first time…
