“When I was 17, I experienced erectile dysfunction.” My interviews with startup founders rarely start so candid. But to destigmatize the business of his new company Roman and empathize with customers, Zachariah Reitano is getting vulnerable. “I think in a good way I’ve become numb to the embarrassment” says 26-year-old Reitano. “I remember the embarrassment… Read More
Cardlytics filed for marketing analytics IPO
Cardlytics has been on file for IPO, multiple sources tell TechCrunch. The Atlanta-based marketing analytics business filed its confidential S-1 last year and has been trying to determine the best time to go public. One source with knowledge of the business says that part of the delay is related to potential partnerships that would put the company in a better position for a market debut,… Read More
ForeScout Technologies pops 16% in first day of trading
ForeScout Technologies saw its shares spike 16 percent during intraday trading after going public on Friday. After pricing at the top of the range at $22 per share, the stock was hovering above $25 midday. The Internet of Things security company also increased the size of its IPO and raised about $116 million after selling 5.3 million shares. Read More
Southeast Asian e-commerce startup Carousell closes $70-$80M Series C round
Singapore-based startup Carousell is in the money this week after it closed a Series C round of between $70-$80 million, two sources with knowledge of the deal told TechCrunch. Started by three graduates from the National University of Singapore in 2012, Carousell operates a mobile-first listings service for second-hand goods and services in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Prior to this… Read More
LG’s mobile business can’t stop losing money
Korea electronics giant LG continues to show the world that making a profit, or even breaking even, from selling smartphones is no easy thing. LG Mobile has posted just one quarter of profitability over the last two years, that was six months ago during the first quarter of sales of its new flagship, the LG G6, when it eked out a $3.2 million profit. Previous to that, you have to go way back… Read More
Predictive marketing startup Reflektion raises $12M for international expansion
Reflektion, a marketing startup that uses predictive analytics to increase conversion rates on e-commerce sites, has raised $12 million to support its international expansion plans. The new funding is an extended Series B round led by Hasso Plattner, with participation from returning investors Battery Ventures and Clear Ventures. Read More
HashiCorp raises $40M for its cloud infrastructure automation services
HashiCorp is probably best known for Terraform, its open source tool for automatically provisioning infrastructure by describing it as code. But the company also offers a whole range of additional open source security tools and products that enable multi-cloud deployments, as well as enterprise versions of these tools that add features for larger teams on top of these free version. Today,… Read More
Singapore-based Zuzu gets $2M seed to help small hotels compete with big chains
Independently-owned hotels sometimes fall through the cracks of the hospitality industry because they struggle to compete with major chains, but don’t belong on Airbnb or HomeAway. Zuzu Hospitality Solutions bridges the gap in Asia by providing essential revenue management and marketing services to small hotels while allowing them preserve their own brands. The Singapore-based startup… Read More
GitHub’s scandalized ex-CEO returns with Chatterbug
Translation earbuds might eliminate some utilitarian reasons to know a language, but if you want to understand jokes, read poetry, or fall in love in a foreign tongue, you’ll have to actually learn it. Unfortunately, products like Rosetta Stone leave people feeling burned after claiming the process should be easy while never helping you practice talking with a real native speaker. You… Read More
Grab raises $700M in debt to add more drivers to its ride-hailing service in Southeast Asia
Grab is in the process of raising $2.5 billion for it ride hailing service in Southeast Asia, but that hasn’t stopped the Uber rival from tapping banks for $700 million in debt facilities to develop its business. The Singapore-based company said it had pulled in the financing from “leading global and regional banks” to expand its car rental fleet in Singapore and Indonesia,… Read More