Spotify acquires blockchain startup Mediachain to solve music’s attribution problem

spotify Spotify has acquired the Brooklyn-based blockchain startup Mediachain Labs, whose team will join the company’s office in New York where they will work on developing better technology for connecting artists and other rights holders with the tracks hosted on Spotify’s service. Prior to its acquisition, the startup had developed several technologies that could aid in these… Read More

Huddly raises $10M to “reinvent the camera” with a computer-vision platform for video meetings

 Huddly, a Norway-based startup that sells a camera targeting remote company meetings (or huddles) and is building out what it describes as a “computer-vision” platform to help managers glean better data from those meetings, has raised $10 million in Series B funding. It brings total raised to $20 million, not including a $3 million research grant. Read More

Robinhood stock trading app confirms $110M raise at $1.3B valuation

 Zero-fee stock trading app Robinhood has joined the unicorn club thanks to reaching 2 million users and 17% month-over-month growth of its revenue-driving Robinhood Gold subscription product. The startup confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s raised a $110 million Series C at a $1.3 billion valuation led by DST Global, with participation by existing investors NEA, Index Ventures and Ribbit… Read More

OverOps scores $30 million led by Lightspeed Ventures

 OverOps, a startup that wants to help companies find software bugs more efficiently than by pouring over log files, announced a $30 million Series C round led by Lightspeed Ventures with participation from Menlo Ventures. Both are existing investors. In a nutshell, OverOps delivers a cloud or on-prem solution that helps developers and operations teams nail down bugs in a more automated… Read More

Paktor, a major rival to Tinder in Asia, moves into live-streaming via merger deal

 Dating app Paktor, often dubbed ‘The Tinder of Southeast Asia,’ just sealed up its move into live-streaming and media content after it announced a merger deal with Taiwanese startup 17 Media.
Under the deal, a new company called M17 Entertainment has been created with shares from both Paktor and 17 Media, company representatives confirmed. They didn’t, however, reveal a… Read More

AIDoc Medical raises $7M to bring AI to medical imaging analysis

 We are probably still quite some way off from seeing Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace doctors, but there are already lots of proven use-cases where AI is being used to augment the medical profession. One proven area is in medical imaging where AI and computer vision is helping with medical scan and imaging analysis to help support radiologists and other clinicians. One startup operating… Read More

Dave wants to save you from expensive overdraft fees

 Meet Dave: an AI dressed up in a bearsuit that’s just launched to save you from the evils of expensive overdraft fees. Hand Dave access to your checking account and the app’s machine learning algorithms will get busy crunching your spending data so the bear can warn you about pending transactions which might push you into the red and incur an expensive bank penalty. Read More

SeedPlus closes $18M early-stage fund backed by Cisco, Eight Roads and others

 SeedPlus, the early-stage investment firm backed by Singapore’s Jungle Ventures, has closed its debut fund at a total of SG$25 million, or approximately $18 million. The firm also announced that Cisco and Eight Roads Ventures, the investment arm of Fidelty, have joined IFC and Indian business magnate Ratan Tata among the fund’s LPs. It added that the fund was over-subscribed.… Read More