Because cryptocurrency prices are almost comically volatile owing to challenges involved in valuing them, it’s hard to know when or why to sell. Enter crypto-asset backed loans, around which a small but growing number of startups is beginning to spring up. The idea is to lend money to cryptocurrency holders who don’t want to offload…
Josh Mohrer (pictured above) and William Barnes, two former Uber executives, are working on an investor syndicate to invest in startups led by fellow former Uber employees, Axios reported and TechCrunch has confirmed. “We believe that people who help build transformative companies will go on to do other awesome things,” Mohrer told TechCrunch about the…
Kano has been an undeniable success story. The company, which began life as a Kickstarter project, had shipped north of 200,000 of its Raspberry Pi coding kits by the end of last year. 2017 also saw the company raise a $28 million round and get backing from Sesame Street’s Sesame Ventures. Today, the company is announcing…
It was revealed at E3 last month that Microsoft was building a cloud gaming system. A report today calls that system Scarlett Cloud and it’s only part of Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox strategy. And it makes a lot of sense, too. According to Thurrott.com, noted site for all things Microsoft, the next Xbox will come in…
Doughbies should have been a bakery, not a venture-backed startup. Founded in the frothy days of 2013 and funded with $670,000 by investors, including 500 Startups, Doughbies built a same-day cookie delivery service. But it was never destined to be capable of delivering the returns required by the VC model that depends on massive successes…
Why do I write about tech? For James Ball, it’s because I want to write “soap-bubble light coverage” and “glossy coverage” “to counterbalance the ‘serious’ news of the day.” Ball, a former editor at The Guardian and the author of “Post-Truth: How Bullshit Conquered the World,” has a few choice words to say to reporters,…
The model of building vertical market-specific accelerators is now well known, but in the UK, Founders Factory, which has emerged from Lastminute founder Brent Hoberman’s stable of projects, is poised to take it to another level. Today it launches Founders Factory Retail, a joint venture with UK retail giant Marks & Spencer’s, focused on investing…
Don’t look now, but July 25 is sneaking up mighty fast. Why should you care? That’s the day prices go up on all passes to Disrupt San Francisco 2018, which takes place on September 5-7. If you want to attend one of the best tech conferences for all-things startup and — depending on the type…
Snapcash ended up as a way to pay adult performers for private content over Snapchat, not just a way to split bills with friends. But Snapchat will abandon the peer-to-peer payment space on August 30th. Code buried in Snapchat’s Android app includes a “Snapcash deprecation message” that displays “Snapcash will no longer be available after…
Trill Project, founded by three high school girls, recently launched out of private beta to help people safely express themselves online. For those unfamiliar with the word “trill,” it’s a combination of “true” and “real.” An investor described it to me as a positive Yik Yak . Trill Project began as a community for teenagers,…
