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The Markforged Mark X lets you teleport precision custom parts from designer to printer
The promise of 3D printing has been kind of a dud. Aside from a few cool Yoda heads and some small plastic pieces, there have been no “indie” players doing much interesting in the space except Markforged. Markforged is a Boston company we featured last year that makes carbon-fiber reinforced plastic parts using traditional 3D-printing techniques. This means the objects they print… Read More
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Facebook, Twitter cut off data access for Geofeedia, a social media surveillance startup
According to a new study published today from the American Civil Liberties Union, major social networks including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have recently provided user data access to Geofeedia, the location-based, social media surveillance system used by government offices, private security firms, marketers and others. As TechCrunch previously reported, Geofeedia is one of a bevy of… Read More
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Google acquires FameBit to connect YouTube creators with marketers
Google just announced that it has acquired FameBit, a marketplace that connects video creators with marketers who want to sponsor their content. This could be an important step for Google’s YouTube, where monetization has been a big concern — not just for YouTube as a whole, but also for individual creators. YouTube has been working to provide more support on this front through… Read More
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Dropbox rolls out PDF signing, iMessage integrations and picture-in-picture on iOS
Dropbox is still working its way through the enterprise world in order to show the world it isn’t just dumb online storage — which, given as simple as it was to use, was one of the tool’s original top selling points. So it’s had to shift gears in order to focus on larger companies, and that means consistently rolling out new tools that companies need as they start… Read More
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Remote Year raises $12 million to combine remote work and global travel
Remote Year should be a pretty appealing idea to anyone with a serious case of wanderlust: Participants spend a whole year working abroad, moving to a different city and country each month. But is it just a fun, one-time experiment, or the seed of a big business? The team at Highland Capital Partners is betting on the latter — it just led a $12 million Series A in the company. Read More
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Breakout Labs backs 4 startups that are “reprogramming nature”
A venture fund that backs very early-stage advanced tech and science startups, Breakout Labs, has invested in 4 new deals, according to founder and Managing Partner Lindy Fishburne. The fund, which is part of the Thiel Foundation, typically invests $350,000 in each startup, with no strings attached. If a startup’s research and development does not lead to commercialization as hoped… Read More
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Kindly Care launches with $3.1M to help loved ones access vetted caregivers
Despite massive structural changes in the American healthcare system, proper care for the nation’s aging baby boomers remains out of reach for many people. Assisted living centers for our parents and grandparents suffering from dementia and Alzheimers can cost upwards of $5,000 per month and personal caregivers signed through agencies can easily cost considerably more. A new… Read More
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Netatmo launches an indoor climate monitor
Netatmo’s first device was a sophisticated weather station. But it’s not for everyone. Chances are you don’t need to know the historical trend when it comes to the humidity in your house. That’s why the company is releasing the Healthy Home Coach, an indoor device that lets you see stats about your home at a glance. In many ways, the Healthy Home Coach looks similar to… Read More
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The new Hinge, focused exclusively on real relationships, now costs $7/month
Hinge, the newly pivoted “relationship app”, has today unleashed an app that it believes is the solution to the “dating apocalypse.” The whole idea is to ensure that users are all on the app for the same general reason: to find an actual relationship. In order to do that, the company has totally rejiggered the app’s UI and protocol, as well as adding a… Read More
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VenueNext raises $15 million to take its app beyond U.S. sports stadiums
VenueNext Inc. has raised $15 million in Series B funding to bring its venue management technology to Europe, and beyond the live entertainment industry. Among other things, using VenueNext apps, people can wave their mobile tickets at the gate to get into a game or concert, order food, drinks or merchandise to be delivered to their seats, and get information and amenities that they need when… Read More
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Payfit grabs $5.6 million to manage French payrolls
French startup Payfit wants to modernize the good old paychecks in France. After just a few months, the company just raised $5.6 million (€5 million) from Otium Venture and Xavier Niel. Payfit officially started in April 2016. And it looks like many companies were waiting for a product like this one given today’s funding round. Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, Jean-Daniel Guyot, Oleg… Read More
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Biotech startup Zymergen nabs $130 million from Softbank
Zymergen, a Bay Area startup creating all sorts of materials from genetically altered microbes, just raised $130 million in Series B funding from Softbank. For those unfamiliar, the company makes crazy new materials out of genetically altered microbes. It was busy buying up a bunch of robots to make these microbes for mass production of various materials during its last round of funding. CEO… Read More
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Duolingo’s new chatbots help you brush up on your foreign language conversation skills
A lot of startups are talking about the possibilities of chatbots, but Duolingo recently launched one of the most interesting uses so far — practicing a new language. The Duolingo chatbots allow users to hold text message conversations in French, Spanish or German, with the chatbots taking on different personas to discuss different topics. You probably won’t mistake them for… Read More
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Journy tells you what you should do during your next vacation
It’s easy to feel like you’re missing out on a great restaurant or a nice museum when you’re walking around an unknown city. Journy wants to help you get the most out of your next vacation by planning the best itinerary for you. Unlike many startups out there, Journy isn’t a concierge app to book flights and hotels. Journy is (mostly) about all the other… Read More
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StreetTeam locks down $10M to power ambassador programs for brands
Millennials hate advertising and don’t respect brands – so what is a self-respecting 21st century marketer to do? Callum Negus-Fancey and his company StreetTeam would have you leverage the power of the upwardly mobile ambitious twenty-somethings themselves. StreetTeam helps brands build, deploy, and manage large decentralized ambassador programs to sell more goods. The… Read More
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Deepgram’s speech search engine is now free for journalists until Election Day
During a contentious election filled with accusations of lies and denials, not to mention overworked fact-checkers, a company that can help journalists more easily find soundbites in audio recordings, Deepgram, is making its service free to journalists. The audio search technology relies on artificial intelligence, and has been likened to a “Google for sound” – meaning that… Read More
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Disney builds a jolly, one-legged hopping robot
Researchers at Disney Research in Pittsburgh have built a single-legged hopping robot that can currently bounce around 19 times without falling over. The project by Zachary Batts, Joohyung Kim, and Katsu Yamane began as a computer simulation and finally a hardware product. The researchers based their system on Marc Raibert’s hopping controller and it’s controlled by a linear… Read More
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Online music and audio recording studio Soundtrap scores $6M Series A
Soundtrap, a cloud-based music and audio recording platform, has raised $6 million in Series A funding. Nordic VC firm Industrifonden led the round, with participation from an array of existing investors and other new backers, including Peter Sterky, former CFO and COO of Spotify. It brings total funding to $8.5 million. Read More
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These chatbots want to help you manage your money
Can a chatbot help you manage your money? Three London-based fintech startups are betting on the answer being yes and have jumped aboard the messaging gravy train as they seek to entice millennials to their respective platforms. Read More
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