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Venture firm Accel just raised a new $500 million European fund
Accel is on a roll. Shortly after announcing a $500 million seed fund and a $1.5 billion growth fund for U.S.-focused investments, the venture firm has yet another fund. This time, Accel raised $500 million for Accel London V, a fund focused on Series A and B investments in Europe and Israel. Read More
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Legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin lays out his hopes for colonizing Mars
When I met with Buzz Aldrin to discuss his new book No Dream Is Too High: Life Lessons From a Man Who Walked on the Moon, he described himself as possibly “among the luckiest guys.” After all, his mother was born in 1903, the same year the Wright brothers made their first flight, and Aldrin himself was born less than three decades later. Yet in the span of his own life… Read More
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Lady Gaga’s startup Backplane burns out and sells assets
“Why do you need money from me when you have every great investor on earth?” That’s the question that caused Backplane to buckle under the weight of its own early buzz. Lady Gaga’s social network builder startup has run out of money, gone out of business and sold its assets to a group of previous and new investors who will try to restart it. That’s according to… Read More
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Slidebox brings its Tinder-like photo management app to Android
A new application called Slidebox aims to help Android users clean up their photo library by swiping to delete unwanted photos, as well as use other tools to more easily organize photos into albums. It’s sort of like a “Tinder for Photos” with a few extra features, in fact.
The app is now one of many utilities arriving to address a longtime challenge smartphone users face… Read More
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DocSend raises $8M for smarter document sharing
Document analytics startup DocSend has raised $8 million in new funding. Naturally, co-founder and CEO Russ Heddleston said he used his company’s tools to make the deal. DocSend launched at our Disrupt NY conference two years ago, offering users a different way to send email attachments. The attachments are presented in a web viewer, meaning that you get notifications whenever someone… Read More
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As on-demand startups fizzle, Zirx moves cars for other companies, not individuals
Zirx was originally created as an app that let individuals order valet parking service, on-demand. But facing crushing costs, the San Francisco startup recently shifted its focus to the “mobility” needs of businesses. Now, Zirx gives companies free-to-use software, called the Zirx Mobility Services platform, that they can use to have their vehicles moved around in time to get any… Read More
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Luka, with $4.42 million in Series A, releases AI-powered chat bots
Just in time for the chat bot craze, Startup Battlefield alum Luka is enhancing its AI-powered messaging service with a variety of smart bots to help users get whatever they desire. Luka originally launched as a Yelp competitor, all done over text. Users could ask Luka, via chat, about where they should go to eat, whether reservations were available, and recommended dishes. The company has… Read More
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Hands on with Reddit’s new smartphone app
“Finally” is one of those words that gets overused in tech news stories, but I think it’s fair to say that it’s taken a pretty long time for Reddit to release its first official, native apps for iOS and Android. Until now, the company has made do with Alien Blue, which started out as a third-party app before being acquired by Reddit in 2014. But as Sarah Perez… Read More
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Litsy is a book-focused social network that goes beyond reviews
If you’re a book lover, Litsy might be the social app for you.
The startup was founded by Todd Lawton and Jeff LeBlanc, who previously launched the book-themed clothing company Out of Print. Lawton told me the idea for Litsy came from connecting with Out of Print fans at events like book festivals and comic book conventions.
“We realized that there’s a really passionate… Read More
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Chatty fiction app Hooked gets an update where readers can write stories, too
Fiction app Hooked launched last fall, aiming to reinvent fiction with short stories modeled on text message conversations. Next up: Letting readers write their own stories. That arrives today with the launch of Hooked 2.0. Any Hooked reader can now create characters and then write their story one message at a time. They can also include photos and videos. The idea of typing out a full story… Read More
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