Quikr, which claims to be India’s largest classifieds site, is in talks to acquire Commonfloor, a property listings portal. A source says the deal will be worth roughly $200 million and help Quikr build its real-estate listings vertical into an industry leader. Read More
There are many reasons why you could use Slack as your messaging platform of choice for a public or semi-public project. It can be an open source project, a local community project or just an interest-based project. But chances are your community is getting big and you want to get unlimited searchable chat history. Read More
When we first met the team building the LucidCam, they aimed to raise $100,000 on Indiegogo. They found their 264 backers to get them there. Their goal remains to bring the ability to shoot immersive virtual reality content with a camera that fits in your pocket. And at a reasonable price ($299). I caught up with Lucid’s CEO, Han Jin, to see what’s next. TC: You hit your goal.… Read More
Meet Sylaps, a voice-over-IP startup that lets you start phone calls without giving out your phone number. Sylaps is all about making it as seamless as possible to start a phone call with people you don’t know. Read More
Say Kids is a new online service aimed at millennial parents, offering a membership model for buying young children’s clothing. The company was founded by husband-and-wife team Carl Ng and Jennifer Hong. The basic model is to charge a $5 monthly fee, which gives parents access to products designed by Say Kids — the price tag should only cover the cost of producing and… Read More
Dash, an driving app we’ve previously described as a “Fitbit for cars”, has announced it is expanding beyond consumer-facing products with Dash XL and Dash IQ, two new products designed for enterprise customers. As a refresher, the company is a combination of a hardware dongle and software app that provides drivers with real-time analytics on your driving habits, car health,… Read More
Earlier today I had a call with Rahul Parekh, co-founder and CEO of EatFirst, the London and Berlin-based online restaurant. We discussed how the startup came about, what exactly an online restaurant is, and being incubated by e-commerce behemoth and ‘startup factory’ Rocket Internet. In addition I asked Rahul about EatFirst’s recent €8 million Series A round. Read More
Australian financial tech company Tyro Payments plans to challenge the country’s leading retail banks after scoring AUD $100 million (about $72 million) in funding from Tiger Global, TDM Asset Management, and Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes. Read More
ZenRooms, a hotel booking platform for price-conscious travelers, is the newest startup from Rocket Internet. Like other Rocket Internet companies, ZenRooms replicates a proven business model—in this case, OYO’s—in new marketplaces. Read More
I’ve been so well entrenched in the journalistic world of entrepreneurship that I haven’t lifted my head out of the mess of funding stories and launch posts to actually pay attention to what is happening in the world of startups. Here’s the rub: when you’re starting a company it’s almost impossible to get good people. You can ask your cousin to make a few PSDs… Read More
GoTenna co-founder Daniela Perdomo knows that her startup has been “quiet for a long time,” but she said it’s for a good reason — the team has been busy turning its prototype into something that could be “manufactured at scale.” The company aims to help users to communicate even when they don’t have any cell signal, whether it’s because… Read More
Not every new idea is destined to be great. Sometimes even the most promising concepts end up in the scrap pile. You probably never heard about Google Here, but the project was so big that Alphabet CEO Larry Page himself made the final decision to abandon it. Aimed at smartphone users, Here would have allowed companies to interact with users by location. For instance, someone in a Gap… Read More
While a lot of the US was out and about shopping for themselves or others for the holidays, Cards Against Humanity ran their own Black Friday campaign, asking for $5 and in return the buyer would get nothing. Nada. Zip. And the buyers LIKED it. Today, the team shared that they’d made a grand total of $71,145 in one day and let us in on what they would be buying with their hard-earned cash. Read More
Founders soliciting venture funds quickly get comfortable revealing details about their operations, vision and finances. They may also need to be willing to step on a scale and get a blood draw. Investors try to ensure that the startups they’re funding are healthy, and, strange as it might seem, they like to know that critical founders are in good shape, too. Read More
I often hear VCs say that they don’t back products, they back platforms. I find that logic backwards and in many ways dangerous for founders. Platforms can provide a durable competitive advantage, and it’s easy to understand why startups would want to create one, but great platforms are nearly always born from companies first creating great products with narrow, but compelling… Read More
Last week we brought you the 20 highest paying unicorns, based on median annual salary for all employees. This time around, we centered our search on the unicorns paying best for programmers. Read More
DJI made its name building high-end consumer drones, but its latest model shows where the future may lie for the Shenzhen-based company and its competitors. Read More
The media we use to tell stories has evolved considerably in the millennia since our ancestors swapped their first campfire tales. Regardless of the form stories take, the storyteller always has the same goal: transport an audience — get people to stop thinking about the here and now and focus on the world of the story. And despite all advances in storytelling media, there has only been… Read More
In the past few years, I’ve been laser-focused on machine intelligence. I’ve talked to hundreds of entrepreneurs, researchers and investors about helping machines make us smarter. And in the months since I shared my landscape of machine intelligence companies, folks keep asking me what I think of them — as if they’re all doing more or less the same thing. (I’m… Read More
Meet Get, a new French startup that wants to be the Shopify for small retailers on mobile among many other things. With Get, local shops like your favorite bakery can effortlessly have an app for iOS and Android. Get also provides a same-hour delivery service like Stuart. Read More
To be honest, I had never heard of EAT Club until about a month ago, when its public relations team reached out to me, and I’m glad that they did. EAT Club, which launched in 2010, is almost three years into its move from a consumer-focused company to a business-to-business one that focuses on corporate food catering. EAT Club’s ideal customer has always been the office… Read More
I’m fortunate in my day to day. I have the privilege of hearing new and exciting ideas, both by seasoned and budding entrepreneurs. I remind myself that not too many moons ago, I was in their shoes pitching for money, product and development support and, at times, attention. Being that much of my job is hearing, seeing and experiencing pitches, it seems appropriate that I share… Read More
We count 7 on-demand delivery startups currently battling it out in London (although there are doubtless more) as entrepreneurs and VCs make big bets on smartphone-driven convenience and the promise of getting you food or just about anything delivered to your door within minutes. Read More
Wearable fitness trackers are becoming increasingly popular, but a lot of them are quickly abandoned after the novelty of tracking exercise and sleep wears off. GOQii, however, believes it has landed on the winning formula for long-term success. The Menlo Park, California and Mumbai-based company just raised a $13.4 million Series A, which it will use to expand in the U.S. and China. Read More
Attention all you investors out there. We’re excited to unveil the companies that will be participating in the Startup Alley at Disrupt London 2015, and you can catch a glimpse of all of them by visiting our new Startup Alley Hub. In addition to being generally awesome, the site is also mobile friendly so you can easily view info on all of your favorite Alley companies right from your… Read More
