Blog

 One of the more unexpected sights within the United States Capitol lies just outside the Old Supreme Court Chamber. There you can find a plaque marking the first ever long-distance communication by electronic telegraph, which took place inside the Capitol in 1844, when Samuel Morse sent and received messages from Baltimore. Morse’s first experimental line was made possible thanks to a… Read More

 One of the most prominent seed investors in Utah, Kickstart Seed Fund, has closed on its fourth fund at $74 million — nearly doubling from the last funding of $39 million and toppling Peak Ventures as the fund with the mostest raised in the region. The large increase was driven by several institutional investors as well as several notable Utah entrepreneurs including Aaron Skonnard… Read More

 Anomali, a threat detection and mitigation company, announced a hefty $40 million Series D investment today led by Lumia Capital. The company was previously known as ThreatStream. New investors Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners (DTCP), Telstra and Sozo Ventures along with returning investors GV, General Catalyst, IVP and Paladin Capital Group also participated in the round. The company would… Read More

 Content, as they say, is king — but these days, that may be true only for as long as you can figure out a good business model to deliver it. And today, a startup based out of Toronto, Canada is re-upping its coffers to fill out its ambition to do just that. Wattpad, a storytelling and reading/viewing app that combines crowdsourced content with professionally produced material, has picked… Read More

 China’s Didi Chuxing unveiled its bike-sharing platform today and, as expected, it looks like a very aggressive move to protect its position. When Didi first announced its plans to offer rides from Ofo and Bluegogo inside its app, I argued that this was far from a positive gesture since the ultimate goal is control. By introducing its own service inside its own app to its own… Read More

 Swedish startup Natural Cycles, which offers an app-based product which it bills as a ‘digital contraceptive’, has been reported to Sweden’s Medical Products Agency (MPA) by a local hospital after it recorded 37 unwanted pregnancies among women who said they had been using the app as their contraception method. Read More

 Grab, Uber’s main rival in Southeast Asia, is continuing to develop its mobile payment strategy after it announced the acquisition of India-based startup iKaaz. The deal — which is undisclosed — will see iKaaz’s engineering team join the Bangalore-based engineering office which Grab opened last year. The firm declined to say how many new recruits are moving over… Read More

 How do you compete with the world’s largest chat app in its strongest market? Hike, the Indian messaging app valued at more than $1 billion, is taking a unique approach to battling WhatsApp which involves dismantling its service, layering it on budget Android phones and offering free connectivity. The company, which is backed by the likes of Tencent and Foxconn, today unveiled… Read More

 Fintech startup Revolut is launching international medical and dental insurance. You can subscribe using the company’s app for £1 per day or more depending on the options. But the best part is that you can set it up and forget about it as Revolut uses your device’s location data to automatically turn insurance coverage on and off. By default, insurance coverage costs £1 per day… Read More

 Bitconnect, the lending and exchange platform that was long suspected by many in the crypto community of being a Ponzi scheme, has announced it’s shutting down. In a release on its website the platform said the shutdown is attributed to “continuous bad press” surrounding the platform, two cease and desist letters from both Texas and North Carolina’s securities boards,… Read More