French startup OpenClassrooms is partnering with IT service company Capgemini to find and hire new people off the beaten path. This is something new for OpenClassrooms and could turn into a lucrative opportunity.Starting today, 16 people have been recruited by Capgemini to become Java J2EE experts. They’ll first start by studying full time for three months. They’ll then work at… Read More
Hey! VINA, the female-focused friend finding app, has today announced the launch of an Android app. The VINA app is almost identical to Tinder, except the end-result is to find women a new friend instead of a hot date. That said, VINA only shows one photo of the user, and instead of relying fully on swipes, it uses a matching algorithm that takes into account mutual friends, location,… Read More
In an industry that tends to concentrate its startup energy in Silicon Valley, Kryon defies convention. The robotics process automation (RPA) startup has its US headquarters in New Jersey. The location didn’t matter when it came to getting investment capital as the company announced a $12 million Series B today. The round was led by Aquiline Technology Growth (ATG) and Vertex Ventures.… Read More
According to a World Bank report, an estimated $582 billion was sent by migrants to relatives in their home countries in 2015. The remittance market is dominated by Western Union, MoneyGram, and Ria,...
___
Sramana Mitra: Very interesting. Can you sketch for us a bit of the progression of the business? How many brands did you book as customers in 2006? How many in 2007 and so on? Jared Shusterman: I...
___
We’re doing a deep dive into the current seed investment eco-system and talking to our investor friends about what they’re looking for. Here, you can hear the perspective of Ashmeet Sidana of...
___
Curve, the London fintech startup that lets you consolidate all your bank cards into a single card and track your spending, has partnered with accounting software Xero to remove much of the friction involved in filing expenses. The move is part of the newly-launched ‘Curve Connect’ feature that will see Curve connect to a growing list of third-party apps and services to make… Read More
The spleen does things in the body, real things. It filters poisons and biologists think it once did much more. But, if your spleen goes sideways you can take it out and not change your lifestyle much. It does stuff, but not enough to make it indispensable. Lose your kidneys and your life is going to start sucking real fast. You wouldn’t die with just one kidney, but you’d… Read More
It takes money to make money and right now a lot of that money is going into the development of artificial intelligence. Ray Dalio explains the importance of understanding and how he and his hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, is approaching the technological shift. Read More
Former Uber chief Travis Kalanick has appointed two more people to the ridesharing company’s board.One of the seats is going to Ursula Burns, former CEO and Chairwoman of Xerox. The other is going to John Thain, who has served as CEOs of CIT Group, Merrill Lynch and the New York Stock Exchange.A spokesperson for Kalanick provided us with the following statement:“I am happy to… Read More
Entrepreneurs are invited to the 370th FREE online 1Mby1M mentoring roundtable on Thursday, October 5, 2017, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/8:30 p.m. India IST. If you are a serious entrepreneur, register...
___
Digital streaming business Roku has soared in its public debut. After pricing its IPO Wednesday at $14 per share, Roku finished its first day of trading at $23.50, up nearly 68%. And by the end of Friday, Roku closed at $26.54, or up 90% in less than 48 hours. The company is now valued at about $2.6 billion. So this must be great news for the company, right? Well, sort of. Read More
Sramana Mitra: What prompted you to go dig into jewelry? What was the trigger for jewelry? Jared Shusterman: We had a family friend who who was a consultant for jewelry retailers. I was lucky enough...
___
In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:
___
Once upon a time, there used to be Seed and Series A as financing options for startups. Now, we have pre-seed, seed, pre-Series A, and THEN Series A. And the Series A can often be a small $1-3...
___
According to a report by Markets and Markets, the global endpoint security industry is estimated to grow from $11.62 billion in 2015 to $17.38 billion by 2020. That translates to an 8% annualized...
___
Sramana Mitra: Did you raise funds at the Techstars demo day or did you raise funds afterwards? Ryan Farley: Most of it was afterwards. We pieced together a round of a lot of individual angel...
___
The 12 startups of Techstars NYC‘s latest class are taking over tonight’s NY Tech Meetup. This “community demo day” is part of Managing Director Alex Iskold attempt to rethink the traditional accelerator demo day. (Don’t worry, the startups will get to meet with investors too, through one-on-one sessions during Techstars’ investor week.) I recently visited… Read More
Boston-based private equity shop Berkshire Partners announced this afternoon that it is acquiring Accela — a nearly 20 year old startup that sells regulatory management solutions to government clients. Accela has gone through a troika of CEOs in the last year. Previously acting CEO Mark Jung replaced Maury Blackman last October who had managed the company for about a decade. We… Read More
American Airlines and Casper are announcing a new partnership that could help passengers (like me) who have trouble sleeping on flights. They’re not going as far as putting Casper mattresses on planes. Instead, they say they worked together to create eight new sleep products designed to improve in-flight slumber. Those products include a mattress pad that fits over your seat, a… Read More