Victor Basta hit a nerve with his article on TechCrunch last week describing the “implosion” of venture capital over the past 36 months. Using PitchBook data, he found that the total number of VC rounds committed to startups has declined, even while dollars invested has remained mostly static. Silicon Valley is no longer making it rain so much as it is making it trickle. Read More
Source: TechCrunch
Disrupt is back in Berlin, where 15 teams have just taken the stage as part of the Startup Battlefield. Each startup demonstrated their product and answered questions from our expert judges. Afterwards, we narrowed it down to five companies that will be competing tomorrow to take home €42,000 and the Battlefield Cup. Tune in tomorrow at 3:10pm Berlin time to watch the finals. Read More
Source: Startups
Today in a press conference, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman elaborated on his office’s efforts to investigate the FCC’s flood of fake anti-net neutrality comments while calling for a delay of the agency’s vital net neutrality vote until the source of the fraudulent comments is identified. Schneiderman joined a group of 27 senators who are also calling for a… Read More
Source: TechCrunch
As promised earlier, Target today launched its own mobile payments system with the introduction of “Wallet” in the Target app. Wallet, as the name implies, allows Target shoppers in-store to both check out using their smartphone as well as take advantage of their Cartwheel digital coupons and discounts with only one scan of their barcode. Already, Cartwheel savings in… Read More
Source: TechCrunch
Facebook and Instagram have begun testing a feature that allows you to more easily bring your Instagram contacts into Messenger. The experience, which is entirely opt-in for the app’s users, is the latest in a series of integrations between Instagram and Facebook’s properties, which has earlier included the cross-posting of Instagram Stories to Facebook as well as the ability to… Read More
Source: TechCrunch
A scant three months after its launch, the $50 million ConsenSys Ventures fund that was created to back companies developing applications on Ethereum (by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin’s ConsenSys Systems) has made its first four investments. Read More
Source: TechCrunch