Laundryheap, a London-based laundry startup bootstrapped for three years, raises £2M
Laundryheap is a London-headquartered laundry on-demand startup that has taken a different path to competitors such as Laundrapp and Rocket Internet’s Zipjet. Rather than raise VC funding, the company, which claims to already be break even and is operational in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Dublin and Dubai, has been entirely bootstrapped over the last three years. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/EQ7o5Bedv8w/
Cruise acquires Strobe to help dramatically reduce LiDAR costs
Cruise, the self-driving car startup GM acquired last year, has acquired a startup of its own – Strobe, a LiDAR sensor maker that reduces an entire LiDAR array down to just one chip, which Cruise says will be instrumental in helping it reduce the cost of LiDAR on a per vehicle basis by nearly 100 percent. The cost issue is a big one: LiDAR remains one of the single most expensive… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/zVP2eQxwV7k/
GitLab raises $20M Series C round led by GV
GitLab, a collaboration and DevOps platform for developers that’s currently in use by more than 100,000 organizations, today announced that it has raised a $20 million Series C round led by GV (the fund you may still remember under its former name of Google Ventures). This brings GitLab’s total funding to date to just over $45.5 million. In addition to the new funding, the… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/o9n3Q4D-aeY/
Should VCs be investing in beauty brands?
In the last two years, Unilever acquired Carver Korea for $2.7 billion. Estee Lauder purchased Too Faced Cosmetics for $1.45 billion. CVC Capital Brands bought PDC Brands for $1.43 billion. L’Oreal purchased a trio of skincare brands for $1.3 billion, and also IT Cosmetics for $1.2 billion. E.l.f. Beauty did an IPO.
Venture capitalists didn’t invest in any of these beauty… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/nf9p4CvKy-U/
Switch finishes up 22% in data center IPO
Las Vegas-based data center operator Switch went public on the New York Stock Exchange today, under the ticker “SWCH.”
After pricing its IPO above the proposed range at $17, the company closed at $20.73, up almost 22 percent. The company raised $531 million in its offering. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/1deLC4OJie4/
Flexport’s epic plan to build a freight empire with its $110M raise
“We’re actually out here trying to create value, not just give venture capital money away” says Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen. “It’s counterintuitive. The more the business works, the more cash it needs.” That’s because Flexport doesn’t ship bits, it ships atoms. Lots of them. Flexport is a freight forwarding logistics network. If you produce a… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/gcELIUj5lQ8/
Butterfly nabs $2.4M seed round to improve managers with targeted tips
One of life’s puzzles that eludes me most is how a person could enjoy corporate trainings enough to spend their time designing and running them. Perhaps only with disdain for the status quo can a startup create something that people not only don’t hate, but find helpful. The idea for Butterfly originated from poor experiences the founders had when receiving leadership training. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/YGKVWlFblvU/
Digital wealth manager Moneyfarm acquires tech behind fintech chatbot Ernest
Moneyfarm, the U.K.-headquartered “digital wealth manager,” has acquired the technology behind personal finance chatbot Ernest. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, though I understand that, along with the tech, this is an acqui-hire of sorts, seeing London-based Ernest’s CTO Lorenzo Sicilia join Moneyfarm to oversee technology integration. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/CmRaq03h14M/
Honest Company may be raising a down round
The Honest Company, the five-year-old natural body and home care products company co-founded by the actress Jessica Alba, looks to be raising $75 million in new venture capital funding at $19.60 per share, according to a Delaware filing first spied by CBInsights and reported by Axios. The amount is a far cry from the $45.75 per share price point of the company’s $100 million Series… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/-MBpR0EMsJM/
Meal kit startup Gobble has raised $15 million in Series B financing from Khosla
Gobble, a 15-minute meal kit delivery service, has raised $15 million in Series B growth financing from Khosla Ventures, TechCrunch has confirmed. Khosla Ventures led the round, along with participation from previous investors A16z, Trinity Ventures and Initialized Capital. Gobble came out of Y Combinator in 2015, around the same time many DIY meal kit services started to falter. For a while,… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/rl8byMt6u60/
Cardiologs raises $6.4M to bring image recognition to EKG analysis
You’ll find image recognition technology in almost every kind of consumer service you would use today — like Facebook, Google, or any number of other apps — but Yann Fleureau is hoping that he can build a whole business off of its increasing success in healthcare.
Fleureau hopes that his startup, Cardiologs, can use image recognition to analyze an EKG and detect potential… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/XqkpjP4YKXY/
Secret Escapes, the members-only travel club, closing in on £50M Series D
Secret Escapes, the members-only travel club offering discounted rates on luxury hand-picked hotels and holidays, is closing in on Series D funding. According to sources, the London-headquartered company is on the verge of announcing a £50 million plus funding round. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/E777XBeFuaw/
Aviva is taking a majority stake in robo investment startup Wealthify
UK-based insurance giant Aviva has announced it’s buying a majority stake in robo investment startup, Wealthify. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/brl9gY_kNq0/
Nick D’Aloisio, who sold startup to Yahoo aged 17, has raised funding for a new app
Nick D’Aloisio, who previously founded news summary app Summly, which he famously sold to Yahoo aged 17 for a reported $30 million, has raised funding for a new stealthy startup that promises to help you find and instantly chat to an expert on a range of topics. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/uHJcJAoE-d0/
Zefo, an online store for secondhand goods, gets $9.2M Series B led by Sequoia India
Zefo, which bills itself as “India’s fastest growing used goods marketplace,” said today that it has raised $9.2 million in Series B funding. The round was led by returning investors Sequoia India and Helion Venture Partners, with participation by Beenext. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/aQ0-gfskM-k/
21Buttons, a social-commerce app dedicated to fashion, closes $10M Series A
21Buttons, a social-commerce app that lets fashion influencers share their wardrobe, has closed $10 million in Series A funding. The round is led by Kibo Ventures, and JME VC. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/V9nXkwAxFvU/
Apple acqui-hired the team from messaging assistant Init.ai to work on Siri
Earlier this week, a small startup called Init.ai announced that it soon would be discontinuing its service — a smart assistant for customer representatives to parse and get better insights from their interactions with users, as well as automate some of the interactions — because the team was (according to a notice on the site) “joining a project that touches the lives of… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/e-77yOxNAYQ/
Bluecore marketing automation platform raises $35 million in Series C
Bluecore, the automated marketing platform for ecommerce brands, has today announced the close of a $35 million Series C round of funding. Norwest Venture Partners led the round, with participation from existing investors including Georgian Partners, FirstMark Capital, and Felicis Ventures. As part of the deal, NVP’s Scott Beechuk will join the board of directors at Bluecore. When… Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/8j4UkJJ-rNk/
European on-demand delivery startup Glovo raises €30 million Series B
Late last month, Spanish media got wind that the Barcelona-based on-demand delivery app Glovo had closed Series B funding, but now the company is making the news official. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/CwvI-AOeyjQ/
The new age of ICOs is here, and it’s not based on Ethereum
ICOs are said to be the new way to raise money. We’ve seen companies raising millions by selling tokens. Against the money raised, the tokens they gave were created and sold on the Ethereum blockchain — meaning that all the trade happened on the Ethereum blockchain and the tokens created are tracked on the Ethereum blockchain. But that is changing. Read More Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/fundings-exits/~3/-UBizQamfWY/ Source: https://techcrunch.com/
