Raising a $32M Series A, Knock seeks to standout with new model for selling homes

 Online real estate service Knock is finishing up a $32 million Series A round led by RRE Ventures. The new company, founded by former Trulia executives, promises to handle the details of home sales in exchange for the traditional six percent commissions. Unlike legacy sellers, though, Knock promises you market-rate returns on your house in advance. And if, for whatever reason, your… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Silicon Valley is making plans to move foreign-born workers to Canada

 For many U.S. startups and their foreign-born employees, a kind of back-up plan may be starting to sound like a good idea right about now. Yesterday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer confirmed that administration officials have drafted a new executive order aimed at overhauling, among other things, the H-1B work-visa program that U.S.-based tech companies have long relied on to bring… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

French government to promote gender equality in the tech ecosystem

 The French government announced a new initiative today in order to promote gender equality in the tech ecosystem in France with the help of 15 organizations. Like in many other countries, there are less women working in French startups than men. This is a key issue when it comes to recruiting the best talent and addressing the right market. I’m glad to see that the French government… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Today is the last day to save on Crunchies tickets

 TechCrunch is getting ready to celebrate some of the most compelling startups and innovations of 2016 at the 10th Annual Crunchies Awards. Will you be joining us? The Crunchies are just one short week away, and if you want to party in style for the cheapest possible price at the event best described as the Oscars of Tech, the time to act is now. Today is the last day to save 10 percent on… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

ACLU enrolls in startup school Y Combinator

 The American Civil Liberties Union will learn how to turn the $24 million it raised over the weekend into growth and progress with help from top Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator. The ACLU will be part of the winter batch of companies in YC, where it will receive mentorship, a network of powerful connections in tech, and a chance to present itself to investors on Demo Day. Y… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Zenefits launches new tools for employee compliance and looks to simplify pricing

 Zenefits today said it would be introducing new pricing tiers in an effort to simplify them, as well as add new tools for HR managers to ensure that employees are getting their documents in and they are compliant with regulations. The new tools — and pricing — are another way that Zenefits is trying to differentiate itself as an all-in-one platform for managing employee records… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Qvivr raises $5M to move beyond its all-in-one credit card

 Qvivr, a Silicon Valley-based FinTech startup originally known for building the SWYP programmable credit card, has raised $5M in Series A funding. The funding was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from a large multinational Asian bank. The startup was founded in 2014 and originally launched with a pre-order campaign for a hardware product that would let users program all of their… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Juniper Square launches its all-in-one real estate investment management platform

 Juniper Square is a new web-based service for commercial real estate investment managers and the individual investors they work with. The service, which the company worked on for the last two years and trialed with major firms like Beacon Capital, The Reliant Group, and Cortland Partners, is now generally available. The idea behind Juniper Square is to give the investment managers an easier,… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Carnegie Mellon creates a poker playing AI that can beat the pros

 To be great at poker you gotta know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, and know when to core dump. That’s only part of the technique a new AI system created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon used to beat four of the “world’s best professional poker players” – Dong Kim, Jimmy Chou, Daniel McAulay and Jason Les. The AI played the… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

CB Insights: 3,358 tech exits in 2016, ‘unicorn births’ down 68%

 We’ve kicked off 2017 with a surprise acquisition of what was planned to be the first big IPO of the year — Cisco snapping up AppDynamics for $3.7 billion, just days before its public listing — and what many believe will be an IPO filing for Snapchat’s parent Snap. But in contrast, it appears that 2016 represented a shift less frothy times. CB Insights has published… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Backed by author Amy Tan, mobile fiction startup Radish raises $3M

 Radish is officially launching its mobile apps for reading bite-sized chunks of serialized fiction — and it’s announcing that it has raised $3 million in seed funding. This isn’t the first startup to experiment with new ways to deliver fiction via e-readers and mobile devices. In fact, I wrote about one of them in my very first piece for TechCrunch five years ago. But… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

SoundHound raises $75M to bring its voice-enabled AI everywhere

 SoundHound has been around for 10 years and, before today, had raised around $40 million in financing as its worked to build a massive conversational AI platform. But today, the company is adding an even more cash to that pile, nearly doubling the amount that it’s already raised with a $75 million round including strategic investors like NVIDIA and Samsung Catalyst Fund, among others. Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Seedcamp sells part of its stake in European unicorn TransferWise

 Seedcamp, an early backer of TransferWise, has sold part of its stake in the London-based money transfer startup, in a Secondary dealing that may well represent one of the best European seed exits in recent years that wasn’t an acquisition or IPO. Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

We need startups to build democracy tech

 It’s time to actually make the world a better place. Silicon Valley was birthed from an existential threat to the world. Nazi radar defense technology was decimating the Allied air forces. But American engineers heeded the call, and in a Harvard lab led by Stanford professor Fredrick Terman, invented radar jammers that helped win the war. Terman brought the engineering talent back to… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Trump’s immigration order send ripples of dismay through UK tech community

 Reactions to President Trump’s Executive Order placing a three-month ban on entry to the U.S. from seven majority Muslim countries have been rippling out across the Atlantic over the past 48 hours — with figures from the UK tech industry adding their voices to a general chorus of dismay. Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Instagram Stories is stealing Snapchat’s users

 Good enough and convenient. That’s proved a winning strategy for Instagram’s clone, according to a dozen analytics providers, social media celebrities, and talent managers who told TechCrunch they’ve seen a decline in Snapchat Stories usage since Instagram Stories launched on August 2nd. Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Dropbox’s Smart Sync lets users open a file stored only in the cloud like any normal file

 Dropbox today released Smart Sync, its tool that allows users to access files stored online in Dropbox accounts automatically on a desktop without having the file stored locally. Previously dubbed Dropbox Infinite, Smart Sync gives businesses a way to share and access files without needing to have massive ones stored on their desktop. The idea is that businesses regularly deal with piles… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Square encourages Apple Pay payments with processing credit

 Square partnered with Apple for a promotion when customers use Apple Pay. Starting today, Square merchants won’t pay any processing fee for the first $12,000 in Apple Pay transactions — that represents around $350 in fees. In addition to this promotion, sellers can also get a free marketing kit with Apple Pay stickers and training materials to tell employees how Apple Pay works. Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Cafe X opens in San Francisco, bringing robots to the coffee shop

 The world’s first coffee shop opened in Constantinople in 1555. But Cafe X, opening today, wants to give the world a twist on the centuries old barista model, opting instead to have a large robotic arm craft your caffeinated potions. Founder Henry Hu noticed that baristas spent a majority of their time moving cups around while making espresso drinks. So, much like anyone’s… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Flower delivery startup The Bouqs raises $24 million to grow past its many competitors

 There’s a field full of flower delivery services to choose from these days from the old school 1-800-flowers and FTD to startups popping up over the last few years like BloomThat, Farmgirl Flowers, UrbanStems and The Bouqs. That last one just raised $24 million in Series C financing, bringing the total now to $43 million. The Bouqs doesn’t quite roll off the tongue but that fresh… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

UberEATS launching breakfast service in London

 UberEATS, Uber’s on-demand food delivery service, is launching a breakfast offering in London, as it continues to compete with the likes of Deliveroo and Amazon, and ‘buy and deliver anything’ services such as Jinn and Quiqup. Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Some tech executives are matching ACLU donations amid immigration ban protests

 Tech executives are offering to match donations to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) following the enactment of an executive order banning entry to refugees and visa holders from seven countries. As multiple executives and CEOs of technology companies have come out in opposition of what’s essentially being called an immigration ban, some have chosen to do so by offering to… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Uber apologizes for “confusion” at JFK during immigration protest

Uber issued an apology following backlash over a decision to saying that Uber passengers could ride to and from JFK international airport in New York without surge pricing amid calls immigration protests. After the enactment of an executive order barring refugees and visa holders from seven countries from entering the U.S., protests gathered at JFK International and the NY Taxi Workers… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Echo Health Ventures Rob Coppedge talks about the coming reckoning to health tech investments

 Health tech investments have been red hot the last few years, but Rob Coppedge, the CEO of Echo Health Ventures says while the industry isn’t going to pop, it is a slowly deflating bubble. Echo Health is the recent creation of Cambia Health and Mosaic Health, the investment arm of Blue Cross Blue Shield and has a long-term strategy in the health investment space. Coppedge has been in… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

The sound of impending failure

 If we can find a way to automate listening itself, we would be able to more intelligently monitor our world and its machines day and night. We could predict the failure of engines, rail infrastructure, oil drills and power plants in real time — notifying humans the moment of an acoustical anomaly. This has the potential to save lives, but despite advances in machine learning, we… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Delete your account

 We love to Tweet. We love to share. It appears to be a strategy for change but it isn’t. And we have to accept that. These are strange times. We are able to reach millions with a single Medium post but each day a new post supplants the last. Today’s impassioned jeremiad – like this one – is tomorrow’s digital fish wrapper. A CEO can Tweet something noble today and… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com