Investments

Reserve Snaps Up Two Rivals While Investors Drop $2.2B
April 08, 2015

When the history of the mobile revolution is written, the chapters on payments, media and small businesses will be among its richest reading. And while we anticipate that the complete history of the mobile wallet wars will be very interesting, for our part here at...

Another $921M Invested And Optimal Bets On Skrill
March 25, 2015

One of online gaming’s hottest rivalries is at an end. Yesterday, Optimal Payments – parent company of the Neteller digital wallet – announced its $1.2 billion dollar acquisition of Skrill – parent of the eponymously named mobile product. The deal will combine Neteller digital payments...

The Looming Tech Bubble Burst: Overblown Or Overdue?
March 18, 2015

Prominent tech investor Bill Gurley captured headlines coming out of SXSW last week with his rather grim predictions of things to come for the startup economy – and unusual addition to what is generally a celebration of all the potential of what’s new and now...

March Is In Like A Lion
March 11, 2015

When Sophia Amoruso’s first version of Nasty Gal launched in 2006, it was as her personal store on the eBay marketplace. That small, original venture developed a reputation for eclectic and edgy fashions combined with a young, visible and fashion-forward following. Fast forward nine years,...

Saving Dinner For Diners And Restaurants From EMV
March 04, 2015

“Uh-uh. No way. Cold cucumber mush for thirty-something bucks?” –Phoebe Buffay, “Friends,” The One With Five Steaks And An Eggplant Every year, hundreds of perfectly nice meals are ruined when it comes time to pay the bill. As it turns out, nothing alienates lifelong friends, convivial...

Another Billion Dollar Week And Credit Karma’s Billion Dollar Vision
February 25, 2015

When Credit Karma came on the scene in 2007, it entered the startup marketplace with a fairly simply goal: help consumers better manage their financial lives by giving them truly free access to their credit reports. “We’ve been handing out free credit reports since 2008,”...

Indian Micro-Finance’s $125M Pick-Up And A New Use Case For Facebook
February 18, 2015

Slacktivism: The act of participating in obviously pointless activities as an expedient alternative to actually expending effort to fix a problem. Everyone with a Facebook page or a Twitter feed knows at least one “slacktivist” – that probably well intentioned soul who seems to have...

Rubikloud Wants To Make Big Data Useful And Easy At The Same Time
February 11, 2015

What do professional baseball, Google, political forecasting and retail all have in common? A love of big data. Whether that comes in the form of Billy Beane harnessing its power to build a better baseball team, Nate Silver taking all the fun out of the...

2015 Starts Off With A Bang And Yummly Reimagines Food As A Platform
February 04, 2015

“What should I make for dinner?” It is a deceptively simple question. One that has a variety of answers – all of which are now much easier today, thanks to mobile devices, apps, data and the cloud. For instance, on one end of the spectrum,...