Startups
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Cross River Bank gets unconventional validation with a $28M VC round
In a rare move, Battery Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Ribbit Capital, investors in a number of Silicon Valley’s fintech startups, have backed the bank enabling many of their investments to lurch forward. Cross River Bank, the obscure financial institution that seemingly everyone in fintech has heard of but doesn’t really know, originated more than $2.4 billion in loans for… Read More
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Otonomo raises $12 million to make data from connected cars useful
Even if self-driving cars aren’t part of our daily lives yet, vehicles are becoming internet-connected at a rapid pace. Gartner predicts that one-fifth of all autos on the road, and a great majority of new vehicles being produced worldwide, will have wireless network connectivity by 2020. Yet, few organizations have access to use the data generated by these vehicles today. That’s… Read More
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Gigster’s crafty plan to give freelance developers equity
Gigster is launching the Gigster Fund, comprised of $700,000 raised from Bloomberg, Felicis and China’s CSC as LPs, plus 1 percent of Gigster’s own equity. Each month it will invest $50,000 cash in one of Gigster’s top clients in exchange for 1 percent of that company at a $5 million valuation. Gigster will also provide them with advice, connections, fundraising help,… Read More
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Axonify raises $27M to gamify employee training without wasting your time
Think back to the last time you had to do a corporate training. More likely than not it was a frustrating experience that you simply tried to survive rather than learn from. (If you feel otherwise, I’m genuinely worried about you). With $27 million in fresh funding led by JMI Equity and BDC Capital, Axonify, wants to hack your brain to help everyone get away with doing less while taking… Read More
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Post-App Store developer platform Blackstorm launches a games studio
Whenever a new developer and compute platform comes along — whether that’s the mobile phone or a VR headset — games are quick to follow as one of the first ever use cases. That’s the case now with Blackstorm, a development platform that’s geared toward different platforms like Messengers and the browser that can easily be accessed without having to download a… Read More
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Hello launches a voice-enabled Sense bedside sleep tracker for $149
With Alexa and Google Assistant are gunning for control over the general voice-driven experience with technology, that might open doors for some more targeted verticals that are centered around voice. It’s not an unheard of strategy — building services and tools around specific experiences rather than trying to do it all at once has been an effective approach for many startups… Read More
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Instapaper premium goes free for all users
Following its acquisition by Pinterest in August, Instapaper’s premium version will now be to all users, the company said today. As part of the acquisition, Instapaper’s team would begin working on Pinterest’s core experience. But the company also said that the app would live on as a separate entity and continue to get updates from the Instapaper team at Pinterest. Now, under… Read More
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Classy raises $30 million to help nonprofits raise donations, make a greater impact
A San Diego startup called Classy has raised $30 million for software-as-a-service that helps nonprofits raise donations online, and keep supporters engaged in a good cause for the long run. Specifically, Classy helps 501c3 or other nonprofit organizations to run crowdfunding, online and mobile campaigns, awareness and fundraising events all under one roof. This makes it possible for nonprofits… Read More
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Marc Andreessen joins board of Dialpad, the desk phone killer
Silicon Valley’s most talkative investor will bring his enterprise experience and connections to the makers of UberConference. Office cloud communications startup Dialpad today announced that Marc Andreessen is joining its board of directors. “The company’s hit its stride” Andreessen tells TechCrunch. He calls DialPad “A complete cloud, mobile business… Read More
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Brad Garlinghouse takes over as CEO of payments startup Ripple
After running Ripple for around four years and overseeing the company’s growth through around $94 million in financing, CEO Chris Larsen will be stepping down. Larsen will become executive chairman of the company — a common move in CEO transitions. But COO Brad Garlinghouse, previously CEO of Hightail as well as a former AOL and Yahoo senior executive, will be taking over the role… Read More
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