Category: Tech news

 Founders are often puzzled by how VCs derive valuations for competitive Series A rounds. A competitive Series A round is an equity round where a company generally raises greater than $5 million led by a top-quartile venture capital firm. During these Series A rounds, it is not uncommon for founders to receive multiple term sheets from lead investors at different valuations, and to feel… Read More

 Yahoo bought Polyvore in what we’ve heard could be a $60 million deal today. Both Polyvore and Yahoo were mum on those details, but Polyvore co-founder Jess Lee did tell TechCrunch her company will continue to do the same thing as it’s been doing before – now on a larger scale and with more resources from the tech giant run by Marissa Mayer. Read More

 The World Bank says that farmers need to produce 50% more food to feed the 9 billion people who will inhabit the earth by 2050. While farmers are facing higher demand, they have fewer resources to work with thanks to a growing water crisis and the availability of arable land. Join us at SF Disrupt 2015 as FarmLogs CEO Jesse Vollmar walks us through tech’s possible solutions. Read More

 500 Startups has unveiled its 14th batch of companies going through its accelerator. While Y Combinator is starting to roll out its own class in an upcoming Demo Day, a new one from 500 Startups is emerging — and increasingly, so is the race to be the earliest to invest in companies. Of course, that means that accelerators like 500 Startups — which has a portfolio of more than… Read More

 It’s time for CrunchWeek again!
What a week it was.
The Twitter soap opera continues with earnings, no new CEO, hashtags and more. Uber keeps raising money until we lose count. Ouya gets put out of its misery bought.
As Alex would say: It’s Friday, it’s CrunchWeek, it’s time to throw down and talk some smack. Read More

 The FDA is currently considering clinical trials for a drug that would delay aging. The idea of extending human longevity is a controversial one, with some arguing for immortality and others arguing that a lifespan into the mid-70s is perfectly adequate. So is the drug good or bad? As an investor in science and technology, this is a non-trivial question for me. Read More

 Yahoo just announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire style-focused community Polyvore. In a blog post about the deal, Yahoo’s senior vice president of publisher products Simon Khalaf highlighted “Polyvore’s expertise on community-driven experiences and retailer-supported commerce” and wrote that the deal “will accelerate Yahoo’s digital… Read More

 We’ve been promised a flying car for as long as I can remember. From The Jetsons to Back To The Future, we’ve been sold this dream for years and years. Owning something that starts out on the ground and ends up flying through the air is something I want to experience before I kick the bucket. Read More

 Well, that was embarrassing. Following months of piss-poor communication and a chaotic planning process, Boston’s bid to be the U.S. entry for the 2024 Olympics finally died this week like Britain’s rule over the colonies. The city that once brought the Industrial Revolution to the people now finds itself unable to build a venue for beach volleyball, or you know, housing or… Read More

 Given the massive influx of capital that we are currently enduring in Silicon Valley, TechCrunch has decided to take another crack at the lexicon of the moment to help everyone understand just what people mean when they say things that make you want to snag them by the hair and give them a noogie. Following our previous entry, this list is an expansion — we are here to help, after all.… Read More

 August is nearly upon us, which means news is slowing.
But that hasn’t stopped car companies from racing away with the news, including Tesla’s introduction of Ludicrous Mode (which we haven’t stopped talking about), and the old Top Gear crew signing with Amazon for a new show. Meanwhile, Microsoft launched Windows 10, and Razer bought OUYA out in an all-cash deal.
This… Read More

 Launching out of the Summer 2015 Y Combinator batch, Locent is an e-commerce platform powered entirely by text messages. One of the biggest challenges for online retailers is shepherding customers through a lengthy checkout process. By providing businesses with a custom, text-enabled phone number, Locent turns the checkout process into just a text message. Read More

 Asana, the team productivity software that’s raised $38.2 million from high-profile investors like Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz, just got called out on Twitter for its lack of diversity. Asana CEO Dustin Moskovitz (pictured above) was quick to respond and he handled it well. In fact, he says Asana is actively working to create a more diverse workforce. Here’s the tweet… Read More

 Partner programs can be a big source of revenue — for example, channel sales account for 80 percent of Cisco’s revenue. Now a startup called GrowSumo is working to make those programs easier to manage, particularly for businesses that don’t have Cisco’s resources. GrowSumo is part of the current batch of startups at incubator Y Combinator. Co-founder Bryn Jones told me… Read More

 Communications apps that strike a chord with users across different markets are hot property these days, and it looks like another one of them may soon enter the so-called unicorn club. TechCrunch has learned that Truecaller — a caller ID app that now has 150 million users — is looking to raise around $100 million at a $1 billion valuation. We’re hearing that Truecaller… Read More