“A database that replicates itself and is meant to survive” — that was the connection that Cockroach Labs CEO Spencer Kimball made between the startup’s memorable name and its value proposition. Despite entering a crowded market, Cockroach has been able to gain the favor of some of the most well known VCs in tech. Today’s $27 million Series B is being led by… Read More
Ceres Imaging raises $5 million to pinpoint crop stress for farmers
Oakland, Calif.-based Ceres Imaging has raised $5 million in a Series A investment led by Romulus Capital. The startup uses cameras, sensors and software to pinpoint crop stress in the field for farmers, so that they can apply herbicides, pesticides and irrigation just where it’s needed. Ceres, like several other startups, started out with the notion to build a drone just for… Read More
Mya raises $11.4M Series A to streamline recruiting for retail, warehouse and call center jobs
Recruiting is miserable. The experience lacks so many things: transparency, fairness, timeliness and so on that solutions to date have only addressed part of the problem. LinkedIn made the resume digital and put people in (mostly) one place. Others have created labor marketplaces and educational resources to “fix” hiring, but last time I checked hiring was still broken. With… Read More
Kreditech raises €110M from Naspers’ PayU in strategic financing partnership
Kreditech, the German startup backed by Peter Thiel, Rakuten and the IFC that creates credit ratings and provides finance to people who may not otherwise have credit histories, has raised another round of funding from one of its strategic partners. PayU, the payments company owned by Naspers that is known by some as the “PayPal of emerging markets” — its business is mainly… Read More
Softbank confirms it’s putting $5BN into Didi Chuxing, the ‘Uber of China’
Japanese telco giant Softbank has confirmed the size of its investment into Didi Chuxing, aka the Uber of China, and the figure is $5 billion (~¥550,000M). Read More
Startups, you must raise this much to join the 1%
Joining the exclusive club of one-percenters is hard, and, by definition, nearly every company fails to gain entry. For founders and investors alike, the heartening thing is that, in most cases, even a small seed and Series A round puts your company in the top half of startups founded in or after 2003. And there’s one good thing about being middle of the pack — you have plenty… Read More
Guesty raises $3M to be a Salesforce for property managers
Companies like Guesty, which just raised $3 million, are building tech to help property managers optimize their listings. Read More
500 Startups closes $15M fund to back founders in the Middle East and North Africa
Fresh off closing a $10 million fund earlier this year for Latin American startups, 500 Startups has pulled together capital for a new $15 million fund that will exclusively target startups in the Middle East and North Africa. Read More
Free streaming service Tubi TV grabs $20 million in new funding
San Francisco-based Tubi TV has raised an additional $20 million for its advertising supported streaming service for TV and movies. Investors in the round are betting on the fact that the next big streaming competitor won’t be a direct rival to Netflix and others with a subscription-based business model, but rather a free service that offers a wide variety of titles for free viewing.… Read More
Cover raises $1.6 million to make in-law units easy to add to any back yard
Whether you call them granny units, in-laws or backyard studios, accessory dwelling units are rising in popularity in the US, in part due to new regulations that make it easier to obtain permits to build them in California.
Now, a startup called Cover Technologies Inc. has raised $1.6 million in seed funding to give accessory dwelling units a high-tech makeover. General Catalyst and Khosla… Read More