Prolific investment firm Naspers is making a push into bitcoin and financial services after it backed Philippines-based startup Coins.ph to the tune of $5 million. Coins is focused on offering financial services for the unbanked in the Philippines and Thailand. It uses the blockchain as its underlying technology to facilitate transfers and remittances. It announced the new funding —… Read More

 DocPlanner, the European online booking platform for healthcare appointments, has raised €15 million in Series D funding, just ten months after announcing a larger Series C round of $20 million (~€18m). Leading the round is existing investors Enern Investments, and Target Global, in addition to London-based One Peak Partners. Read More

 Founded as an enterprise alternative to accelerator stalwarts like Y Combinator, Alchemist Accelerator has managed to assemble a solid track record in its five years of operation.  Going into batch 15, 159 companies have graduated from Alchemist, of which 89 have closed institutional rounds and 15 have been acquired.
The latest batch of 19 companies surely hopes to push those numbers even higher. Read More

 Quiqup, a London-based delivery startup that operates a ‘shop on your behalf’ app similar to Jinn in Europe or Postmates in the U.S., in addition to a growing B2B business, has raised £20 million in Series B funding.
Leading the round is Jobi Capital, a New York-based fund, with participation from Transmed, a leading distributor of fast-moving consumer goods, and existing investors. Read More

 The Minibrew is a little keg with a big brain. When we first met the company in 2015 they offered a whiff of high tech to the brewing process, adding a monitored brew vessel and mobile app to the age-old technique of slopping a bunch of wheat, yeast and hops together until something tasty came out. Read More

 A newly famous transaction type we need to understand is called the “Initial Coin Offering.” An ICO is akin to an IPO, but in temporal reverse (sort of). Although confusing, it has recently acquired prominence as a favored way to launch a new cryptocurrency. Read More

 OpenDoor, Oscar Health, Palantir and now Merlon Intelligence. Bradford Cross, founder of the venture capital firm Data Collective is joining the ranks of VCs who have caught the entrepreneurship bug, abandoning a cushy lifestyle for one with considerably more volatility. His latest startup, Merlon Intelligence, services banks, helping them cut down on risk and put a stop to money laundering. Read More

 After years of development and flickering just outside of mainstream consciousness and acceptance, record high prices for the most popular blockchain-based cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and newcomer Ethereum and an embrace of the technology’s core principles by some of the world’s largest institutions may mean that blockchain technology is ready for its close up. Read More

 If you’re looking to buy something, but don’t want to pay for it yet, Blispay thinks it has the solution for you. The startup works with small and mid-sized businesses to help retail customers defer payments for six months. Baltimore-based Blispay has been gaining traction and raised an additional $12 million in funding after raising about the same amount last year. FirstMark… Read More

 You know it’s spring when VC funds start to announce their new fund raises. But it’s buoying to see a new mid-sized fund appear, which over the years has been highly geared toward early-stage startups just starting out on their journey. Pentech has closed its third fund, saying it was oversubscribed at £88 million, surpassing the original target fund size of £70 million. Read More