French Funded and Founded, US Based iPhone “Hood” App Launched
Enquire, an innovative new “local community” or “hood” Q&A app is now being rolled out in eighteen US cities and Paris. Enquire helps visitors and local users alike get “human” answers to questions such as “where’s the best place to take a photo of the skyline” or...
Logistics Company aCommerce Raises $10.7M Series A To Serve Southeast Asia’s Booming E-Commerce Market
TechCrunch June 9, 2014 aCommerce, a regional end-to-end e-commerce logistics and service provider for Southeast Asia, has closed a Series A funding round of $10.7 million. According to the company, this is the largest Series A for a Thailand-based startup and one of...
Apple Acquires Spotsetter, A Social Search Engine For Places
TechCrunch Spotsetter, a social search engine using big data to offer personalized recommendations as to places to go, has been quietly snapped up by Apple, TechCrunch has learned. The technology, which involves layering social data on top of a maps interface could be...
Eye Hospital In Jordan
The proposed Eye Hospital is a specialized ophthalmic hospital to be located on a 2,000sqm land plot in a prime location in the heart of Amma, Jordan. The proposed hospital, with a total cost of around $15mn, is expected to be one of the leading hospitals in the...
Dropbox Acquires Stealth Messaging Startup Droptalk
TechCrunch June 5, 2014 Dropbox has swallowed up another early stage startup, this one a stealthy company called Droptalk which was developing a tool that allowed you to share links privately with friends via a Chrome extension, to be followed by both iOS and Android...
Chris Boardman sells cycle business to Halfords for £20m
Telegraph Bikes and car parts firm Halfords buys Boardman Bikes in deal to expand the brand. Tour de France racing cyclist Chris Boardman and his business partners have received a pay day of around £20m from Halfords for the sale of the bicycle brand he created. Mr...
Alternative Investing Startup Wikifolio Raises €6M For International Expansion
Alternative investing startup Wikifolio has closed a €6 million funding round led by European early stage venture fund Speedinvest. The fresh capital will be used by the Austrian company, which I’m told broke-even in the first quarter of 2014, to expand beyond its...
Alibaba buys half of Guangzhou Evergrande football club
China's biggest e-commerce firm Alibaba has bought a 50% stake in Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club for a reported 1.2 billion yuan ($192m; £114m). Guangzhou Evergrande is one of China's most successful football clubs. It was the first Chinese team to win the Asian...
Profitero Raises $8M From Polaris Partners To Scale E-Commerce Intelligence
TechCrunch June 4, 2014 Profitero, a SaaS provider of online insights and e-commerce intelligence for retailers and brands, has raised $8 million from Polaris Partners. It will use the funds to double its 40-strong engineering team and expand its presence in North...
Gild, The Service For Finding And Hiring Engineers, Raises $13.5M Series B Funding
TechCrunch June 4, 2014 Gild, the startup that has built a service that helps companies find and hire software engineers, has closed on $13.5 million in a new round of funding. The new round, which is Gild’s Series B, brings the company’s total funding to around $27...
Sequoia Invests $15M In Indian Mobile Multiplayer Games Maker, Octro
TechCrunch June 4, 2014 Sequoia Capital has invested $15 million in Series A funding in Indian mobile multiplayer gaming company Octro, which makes digital versions of popular local classics, such as card game Indian Rummy or the bingo-style Tambola. Octro’s...
Kickstarter Simplifies Its Rules And Lowers The Barrier For Project Acceptance
Crowdfunding site Kickstarter, which has almost become the ‘Kleenex’ of the crowd-sourced funding world in terms of brand recognition, today unveiled two changes to its business model (via The Verge) that will have a huge impact on non-equity crowdfunding in general...