Internet access is as essential as electricity. It empowers entrepreneurs to start and grow small businesses, farmers to implement precision agriculture, doctors to improve community health and students to do better in school. Microsoft announced eight early-stage startups from the U.S., Africa and Asia selected its third annual Airband Grant Fund. According to Microsoft, these start-ups… Read More »
Aussie-founded blockchain email startup Sendy, which rewards people for engaging with marketing emails, has raised $500,000 in its initial coin offering (ICO) pre-sale. The pre-sale has been led by two crypto funds, New Zealand based Techemy Capital and Australian Apollo Capital, in the lead up to Sendy’s public ICO, planned to open later this year…. Read More »
Hyas, an information security startup that identifies and helps take down cybercriminals has raised $6.2 million in a series A round of funding. The funding round was led by Microsoft through its venture capital arm, M12. Other participants include Startup Capital Ventures, 205 Capital, Wesley Clover, and cybersecurity veterans Tim Eades, cofounder of network security firm vArmour,… Read More »
Hostmaker, a home rental management services company, has raised $5 million in venture debt. Silicon Valley Bank led the investment in the startup, which has raised $25 million in total since its founding in 2014. Hostmaker helps to run rentals, such as with housekeeping services, and to market them across platforms such as Airbnb and… Read More »
HR & Payroll solution startup Gusto has raised $140 million in a Series C funding round. The new investment values the company at about $2 billion, twice its valuation from three years ago. The funding round was led by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., Y Combinator Continuity Fund and General Catalyst. MSD Capital (Michael Dell), Dragoneer… Read More »
London-based AI startup Hazy has raised an additional $1.8 million seed funding.This brings Hazy’s total seed funding to $2.8 million following a $1 million investment from M12 and Notion in May, after Hazy was declared the European winner of global startup competition Innovate.AI. The round was led by UCL Technology Fund, alongside Nationwide Building Society, Pentland, Amadeus Capital Partners, AI Seed and other investors. Hazy, founded… Read More »
Gurugram-based urban mobility startup Shuttl raised $11 million in its series B financing. The round was led by Amazon India, Amazon Alexa Fund, and Dentsu Ventures. The company’s existing investors Sequoia Capital, Times Internet, and Lightspeed Ventures, also participated in the round. The company plans to use the funds to strengthen its position in the technology-enabled seat-based… Read More »
Microsoft’s two-year-old venture fund, M12, is running a competition for business-focused women-led tech startups and will give two winners $2 million each in funding. According to Microsoft, companies founded solely by women represented just 2.2 percent of all venture capital funding in the US last year, according to data from industry tracker Pitchbook. Yet, research consistently shows… Read More »
According to TechCrunch, mental health startup Lantern, which raised more than $20 million in funding, is winding down its commercial operations after a couple of acquisition deals fell through. As part of the wind-down, Lantern is laying off about 25 people, which is the majority of the staff, with a handful of former team members to focus… Read More »
Knock Knock, a gaming startup founded by Zynga, TinyCo, and EA alumni, announced today that it has raised $2 million in seed funding towards developing mobile chat games that are playable through messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WeChat. The funding round was led by Raine Ventures, with London Venture Partners (Supercell, Unity), Ludlow Ventures (Product Hunt), and… Read More »
