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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Travauxlib takes care of your home renovation for you
French startup Travauxlib matches you with construction companies so that they can fix up 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
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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
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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
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Crunch Network
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
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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
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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. Read More
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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. MAIF Avenir, XAnge, Wicklow Capital, GDTRE, Libertus Capital, Digital Currency Group, The Whittemore Collection, Kima Ventures, BHB Network and Nicolas… Read More
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Looker catches the fancy of CapitalG, Goldman and Geodesic with $81.5M Series D
Business intelligence platform Looker is announcing an $81.5 million Series D today led by CapitalG. Rather than compete in segmented markets against visualization and data preparation startups, Looker wants to own the vertical of business intelligence. The company supports the adoption of enterprise machine learning by providing a source of clean and reliable data. Read More
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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. It may be hard to believe that VCs are still putting money into food delivery concepts that don’t involve self-driving cars, robots or drones. What’s new about JoyRun is not so much technology as business model innovation. Read More
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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 anticipated robots in this space was under wraps… Read More
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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. Read More
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500 Startups launches a short marketing ramp-up bootcamp for startups in Israel
500 Startups is launching a four-week program in Israel that targets pre-seed and seed companies as they get to the stage where they begin marketing their products. Read More
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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. Read More
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The Matrix Voice is an Alexa for your Raspberry Pi
Matrix Labs just completed a successful crowdfunding campaign for what amounts to an 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

















