Startups
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Circle acquires cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex
Circle just announced that it is acquiring U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex. According to Fortune, Circle is paying $400 million for the acquisition. Poloniex has been around for years and used to be one of the biggest exchanges out there — there are now many exchanges competing with Poloniex.
Circle is an interesting startup because it’s hard to keep track of what it does. Read More
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Why investor Jalak Jobanputra is betting big on crypto
When investor and entrepreneur Jalak Jobanputra first visited a blockchain conference five years ago she got goosebumps. The experienced investor had heard of cryptocurrencies but now that they had truly come into maturity she was excited. Now, five years later, she’s building her entire VC practice around blockchain and sees bright days ahead for the technology. Join us Jobanputra,… Read More
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ZenBusiness raises $4.5m to help launch one million small businesses by 2023
Starting a small business can involve a remarkable amount of red tape. Certificate of incorporations, sales tax licenses, publication requirements, annual franchise taxes, the list goes on. Even worse, every state in America has its own unique peculiarities. Failure to follow instructions perfectly can result in fines and possibly expropriation. And all you wanted to do was create a simple… Read More
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Menswear startup InStitchu raises $2.5M from Chinese manufacturer Dayang
Chinese clothing manufacturer Dayang Group is making a strategic investment in InStitchu, a startup selling custom tailored suits and other menswear. At $2.5 million, the round is relatively small, but InStitchu co-CEO James Wakefield said the real reason for taking the money is to deepen the relationship with Dayang. Apparently the manufacturer was already making half of the… Read More
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Triple, the marketplace for local travel experiences, acquires competitor Local Guddy
Triple, the Stockholm-headquartered marketplace for local travel experiences, has acquired competitor Local Guddy for an undisclosed sum. The deal sees Local Guddy founder Emre Semercioğlu become part of the Triple team as Head of Market Growth, while I understand it was part cash, part stock. Read More
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Revolut broke even in December, now has 1.5 million customers
Fintech startup Revolut can’t stop and won’t stop growing. The company has had an amazing month of December with a huge increase in the total volume of transactions and signups. Because of that, Revolut broke even in December for the first time ever. The company told me that it wasn’t just a lucky month and January is looking good as well. Revolut announced that it had reached… Read More
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The rise and rise of supergiant rounds
With more money flowing into a shrinking number of deals, the average startup funding round is getting bigger. And it’s not by a small margin, either. Supergiant funding rounds are coming to dominate the funding landscape at all stages. Here we take a look at this growing phenomenon, what it means and what might be happening “under the hood” in supergiant seed rounds. Read More
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GoBee Bike throws in the towel in France
Bike-sharing startup GoBee Bike is giving up and shutting down in all French cities where it operates. GoBee Bike operates just like Chinese giants Ofo and Mobike. You open the app, you find a bike on the map and you unlock it by scanning a QR code. Once you’re done, you lock it again and leave it there — there’s no dock. And yet, the startup is blaming vandalism and says… Read More
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What does it take to be a startup that raises huge sums quickly?
Some founders toil for years to secure a meager seed round. Others seem to go from launch to a massive fundraise in no time. Why is that, and how does one get into that second group? There’s no single formula, of course. But data indicates it helps to be famous, involved in a hot technology sector or working to cure cancer. Read More
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The intensifying battle for Africa’s burgeoning tech landscape
Long gone are the days when Africa was disparagingly regarded as the White Man’s Burden. Today, Africa is the continent with the youngest demographic in the world, on the brink of a technical renaissance — yet the world’s tech titans are floundering to understand and gain a foothold in this market. Read More
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