Here are the frontier startups that presented at Singularity University’s third demo day

 The nine startups participating in Singularity University’s accelerator program presented this afternoon at Moffett Federal Airfield just outside Mountain View, CA. Singularity University, founded in 2008 by Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil, aims to make it more feasible for people to address hard science problems and those that require a global reach. Startups backed by… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Moodelizer helps add epic soundtracks to your video efforts

 When it comes to video, the audio is pretty damn important. Hell, they even give out some sort of award for them on occasion. Moodelizer wants to put the power of suitable soundtracks in the hands of amateur filmmakers, by letting you add a delightfully over-the-top soundtrack to the most mundane of tasks at the touch of a button. Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Robinhood stock trading app valued at $1.3 billion with big raise from DST

 Zero-fee stock trading app Robinhood has added to its coffers, raising another big round of funding. According to sources, the round was led by Yuri Milner investment vehicle DST Global and values the company at $1.3 billion dollars. Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

On-demand dog walking startup Wag quietly raised funding from General Catalyst and Sherpa Ventures

 Earlier this week we wrote about how two big players in the pet-care business, Rover and DogVacay, decided to merge. Well, sources tell us that over the past two years Wag, another player in the dog-walking space, raised two rounds of funding to support expansion into new markets. Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Stealthy gaming company Wonder is ready to tease its new mystery hardware

 Wonder, the incredibly stealthy new gaming company, has quietly created a signup page for information and perks related to its plans for global domination of the gaming market from its Los Angeles headquarters. The company is calling its new campaign the “Alpha Program”, and folks that are interested can get updates on Wonder’s product, provide feedback, and get perks and… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Travauxlib takes care of your home renovation for you

 French startup Travauxlib matches you with construction companies so that they can take care of your home. The company raised $1.9 million (€1.8 million) from Xavier Niel, Breega Capital and Bpifrance. Travauxlib usually works on complete home renovation, kitchen remodeling, bathroom work and home extensions. In other words, if you want to change something about your home and it costs… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Matternet cleared to fly blood samples in delivery drones over Swiss cities

 The Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation (FOCA) has granted Matternet a certification allowing their delivery drones to fly autonomously over cities at any time of day or night. Clearing this regulatory hurdle means that by early next year, Matternet partner Swiss Post plans to use the drones to deliver blood samples and other small parcels between hospitals in Lugano, a smaller city with… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Blue Apron could deliver an IPO in 2017, but should it?

 Meal kit makers Blue Apron may be preparing to file for a 2017 IPO, according to Reuters. The report says that the food startup has hired bankers from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup to this end. The whole thing has stirred up quite the conversation over here at TechCrunch, and we’ve been arguing amongst ourselves about the likelihood that the Blue Apron IPO happens soon, or… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Booze investors favor apps, gadgets and biotech

 Archaeological records show humans have been making alcohol since at least 7000 BC. We figured out wine more than 6,000 years ago. By the time the ancient Egyptians entered the scene, brewers were making at least 17 types of beer. Nonetheless, it appears we are not done innovating: Booze-related startups continued to rack up funding in the past year. Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Scheduled is a new app that lets you schedule your text messages

 Want to remember to tell a friend happy birthday, good luck or congratulations? Had a follow-up question for a client that just occurred to you at 1 AM? Want to write a heartfelt thank you to be texted at a later date? Unfortunately, neither SMS nor most messaging apps – including iMessage – allow you to draft a text in advance and schedule it to be sent out on a later date. But… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Nuzzel launches a ‘Newswire’ for sponsored content

 For the first time, news aggregator Nuzzel will include advertising. That doesn’t mean you’re going to see banner ads popping up all over the startup’s app and website. Instead, the Nuzzel Newswire consists of sponsored links in Nuzzel’s email newsletter, pointing to a blog post, press release or news article of the advertiser’s choosing. So why call it a… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Ledger grabs $7 million for its cryptocurrency hardware wallets

 Things are going incredibly well for Ledger these days. People find bitcoins, ethers and other cryptocurrencies exciting again. And the French startup just raised a $7 million Series A round to make hardware security devices ubiquitous. XAnge, Wicklow Capital, GDTRE, Libertus Capital, Digital Currency Group, The Whittemore Collection, Kima Ventures, BHB Network and Nicolas Pinto participated… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Looker catches the fancy of CapitalG, Goldman and Geodesic with $81.5M Series D

 Business intelligence platform Looker is announcing a wholesome $81.5 million Series D today led by CapitalG, Alphabet’s cleverly named growth investment arm. Goldman Sachs and Geodesic Capital helped fill out the round, joining existing investors, KPCB, Meritech Capital Partners, Redpoint and Sapphire Ventures. Rather than compete in segmented markets against visualization and data… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

JoyRun, a food delivery app with a twist, raises $8.5 million

 A Santa Clara, Calif. startup called JoyRun has raised about $10 million in Series A and seed funding for its peer-to-peer food and drinks delivery app. Floodgate led the $8.5 million Series A round in JoyRun, and Norwest Venture Partners led the company’s earlier $1.3 million seed round. Other investors joining both rounds included: Visionnaire Ventures, Morado Ventures, CrunchFund… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

6 River Systems unveils warehouse robots that show workers the way

 When Amazon acquired Kiva Systems in 2012, other retailers and third-party fulfillment centers panicked. The e-commerce giants took Kiva’s robots off the market, leaving their competitors without an important productivity tool. Lots of newcomers have cropped up to help warehouses keep up with demand since then. But one of the most hotly anticipated robots in this space was under… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

AdSemble launches a self-serve platform for buying digital billboard ads

 AdSemble has launched a new way for businesses to buy ads on digital billboards. To use the company’s new Open Display product, advertisers just set their weekly budget, choose the region where they want their ad to be displayed and upload their creative assets. Then AdSemble will automatically serve the ad to different billboards across its network, optimized to deliver the most… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Rover and DogVacay merge to dominate the pet-sitting market

 Putting an end to a fierce competition to dominate the pet-sitting business, Rover and DogVacay have agreed to join forces. Rover will be acquiring DogVacay in an all-stock deal. DogVacay’s investors, including Benchmark, Andreessen Horowitz, First Round and Foundation Capital, will now become Rover shareholders. Further terms of the deal were not disclosed, but “all of our… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

500 Startups launches a short marketing ramp-up bootcamp for startups in Israel

 As competition to get the best startups into incubators gets increasingly challenging, many firms may find themselves looking earlier and earlier into the life of a company in order to get their attention — and part of the company through an investment. That also includes looking internationally, and 500 Startups is looking to tap into that by now getting Israeli startups into a short… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Aiden closes $750,000 seed round in its quest to amplify marketers

 Aiden, a London-based startup building a machine learning-powered personal assistant to save mobile marketers time and money, closed a $750,000 seed round today from Kima Ventures and a number of angels including Nicolas Pinto, Pierre Valade and Jonathan Wolf. The team first demoed the capabilities of its service on the stage of TechCrunch Disrupt as a Battlefield finalist.  In recent… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

The Martix Voice is an Alexa for your Raspberry Pi

 Matrix Labs just completed a successful crowdfunding campaign for what amounts to a AI voice recognition system for the Raspberry Pi which allows you, a mere mortal, to make your own Alexa in your basement. Created by Rodolfo Saccoman and Brian Sanchez their first board, the Creator, fits right on top of a standard RaspPi and gives you an 8 microphone array, a temperature sensor,… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Introducing the Startup Spotlight at TC Disrupt NY

 TechCrunch Disrupt NY is around the corner, and with it we’re introducing a brand new content type for the main stage. You’re probably familiar with our fireside chats — last year we spoke one-on-one with USV’s Fred Wilson, Uber’s David Plouffe, Facebook’s Stan Chudnovsky, Soledad O’Brien, Carmelo Anthony and Jessica Alba. We also host panels, like… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

See you tonight at the Boulder Micro-Meetup

 A reminder that I’ll be holding a micro-meetup at Boomtown on Broadway in Boulder, Colorado on today, March 29th, at 7pm. You’ll have 2 minutes to pitch in front of two local judges and then 2 minutes of questions. No slides, no props, no costumes (Ok, maybe costumes.) Boomtown is at 2060 Broadway B1 in the basement. To get there, park around Spruce and Broadway and it’s in… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

GE invests $2 million in Alchemist Accelerator to back industrial IoT startups

 Alchemist Accelerator has raised $2 million from GE Digital to start a new program for industrial IoT startups. Stanford lecturer Timothy Chou, formerly President of Oracle On Demand, will chair Alchemist’s new IIoT accelerator along with GE Digital’s West Coast group. In the past, enterprise hardware and software startups were seen as capital intensive, with the challenge of… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Readdle hires Apple Mail engineering manager to work on Spark

 Third-party app developer Readdle has developed some of the most successful productivity apps on iOS and macOS. And email client Spark in particular is going to be Readdle’s next big bet. Readdle just hired Terry Blanchard, an engineering manager for Apple Mail for six years. He’s going to build a new team in Silicon Valley. Readdle has built an entire company on the App Store… Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com

Logistics startup Freightos lands $25 million in funding from GE Ventures

 Freightos, a startup that wants to digitize more of the international logistics process, announced today that it has raised a $25 million Series B extension round led by GE Ventures, General Electrics’ venture capital arm. Read More Post by startupsnows.blogspot.com