Startups
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Fly Or Die: Yo
You might have heard of Yo. It’s a new app that has one singular function: it sends the word “Yo” to your friends. The app saw 50k downloads before ever officially launching and has received $1 million in funding. The idea here is that the sender, and the time of day, and the circumstances surrounding the Yo provide enough context to not need anything else. The company… Read More
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Dasher Takes Messaging Apps Up A Notch With Support For Rich Content, Location Sharing, GIFs And More
Do you need another messaging app? One that does GIFs? Sure, why not?! You have room on page 10 of your “chat apps” folder of your iPhone, right? Great! Introducing the latest contender vying for the messaging app throne: Dasher, a new social app backed by $1.25 million in seed funding from Lerer Ventures, Venrock and other angel investors. Read More
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Spark Labs Raises $4.9 Million For An Internet Of Things OS
Spark Labs, the same folks who made this open-source Nest-like thermostat, has raised $4.9 million in Series A funding led by Lion Wells Capital, and with participation from O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, SOSventures, and Collaborative Fund, as well as a host of angel investors. Read More
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General Harmonics Is Basically Pied Piper From “Silicon Valley”
General Harmonics is a small startup from Canada that’s looking to revolutionize the way we stream media. Rather than risk sounding like I’m writing some kind of self-parody, I’ll be blunt about it: they’re basically Pied Piper from HBO’s Silicon Valley, only with a few decades more experience and technology that’s way farther along. Read More
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Airbnb Showdown On San Francisco’s November Ballot Averted For The Time Being
It looks like Airbnb is going to get a reprieve on facing a huge regulatory showdown on November’s ballot in San Francisco. A former planning commissioner and affordable housing activists had paired up to put new regulation on the ballot that would have clarified rules on short-term rentals throughout the city. It would have been far stricter than a set of rules supervisor David Chiu… Read More
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Keith Rabois’ Homebuying Startup OpenDoor Raises $9.95M From Everyone
Well.
It seems like a lot of Valley investors want to see the process of buying homes become a lot more efficient.
After Khosla Ventures VC and former Square COO Keith Rabois teased that he was working on a project to make buying homes as simple as clicking a few buttons, a horde of Valley angels and VCs started circling. Read More
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Blek Comes To Android, And I Get Stuck On Level 23
Earlier this year, iOS game Blek drew critical cheers and enthusiastic reviews from gamers. Android fans who watched from the sidelines but haven’t yet actually Blekked can now try out the puzzler for themselves. The game uses a curious drawing mechanic as its only moving part basically, allowing the player to sketch a line with their finger that then becomes an animated in-game… Read More
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Adtile Raises $4.5M To Create A Marketplace For Interactive Mobile Ads
Adtile, a startup that says it’s bringing an “app store”-style approach to mobile ads, is announcing that it has raised $4.5 million in Series A funding. Earlier this year, I wrote about the company’s Motion Ads format, which asks users to interact with their ads by shaking, turning, and otherwise playing with them. For example, a coffee shop ad could ask users to… Read More
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LokLok’s New Messaging App Lets You Draw On Your Friend’s Lock Screen
Another experimentation in mobile messaging arrives today, this time from a company innovating on the Android platform first. Yes, Android. LokLok, as this latest app is called, replaces the Android phone’s lock screen with a “synchronized whiteboard” that allows you to leave notes and drawings directly on your friends’ lock screens. That means, unlike traditional… Read More
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Crowdfunding Platform Seedrs Begins Offering ‘Convertible’ Equity Option
Proof there’s still room for innovation in the equity crowdfunding space yet, if Seedrs‘ claims of a first hold true. The “pan-European” equity crowdfunding platform is adding ‘convertible’ equity as an option for startups wanting to raise funding via the site, with the UK’s Future Ad Labs being the first to use the new investment mechanism. Read More
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