Fundings & Exits – TechCrunch

ICO startups band together to create $100M+ grant fund for Ethereum projects

In a first of its kind, half a dozen ICO companies have come together to collaborate on a new fund that promises to pay out more than $100 million to promising projects in the Ethereum crypto space. The vehicle — called the Ethereum Community Fund — will be supported by crypto projects Omise Go, Cosmos, Golem, Maker, and Raiden, with Japanese VC Global Brain also in tow. The door… Read More

Equity podcast: Uber’s losing billions, Amazon lays off hundreds and somehow Instacart gets more money

Welcome to “Equity,” TechCrunch’s venture capital and tech business podcast. On this week, we were joined by Mike Ghaffary from Social Capital, who was the perfect guest because he used to run Eat24, when it was Yelp’s food delivery business. Food delivery is highly relevant to this week’s news. First up, we talked about Uber, which is losing lots of money in Asia… Read More

Bynder acquires digital asset management service Webdam from Shutterstock for $49.1M

Bynder, one of the leading companies in the digital asset management space, today announced that it has acquired Shutterstock‘s Webdam. The Amsterdam-based company tells us that it paid $49.1 million for Webdam, which Shutterstock itself acquired back in 2014. Like Bynder, Webdam’s focus is on helping enterprises and agencies manage their digital assets. Currently Webdam… Read More

India’s Zoomcar raises $40M led by automotive giant Mahindra & Mahindra

India’s Zoomcar — which operates an on-demand car rental service — has raised a $40 million Series C round led by Mahindra & Mahindra, the 70-year-old Indian corporation that specializes in automotive. Ford and other existing investors also took part in the round, Zoomcar confirmed. CEO and co-founder Greg Moran added that the round is still open and may be extended… Read More

The Rise of the Rest seed fund announces its first group of investments

The Rise of the Rest seed fund’s first round of startup investments cover eight states that are usually overlooked by tech investors, including Kentucky, South Carolina and Ohio. The $150 million fund was launched in December by Steve Case and J.D. Vance, with backing from many of America’s most influential businesspeople, to support tech ecosystems outside of Silicon Valley, New… Read More

Google to acquire Xively IoT platform from LogMeIn for $50M

Google announced today that it intends to buy Xively from LogMeIn, giving Google Cloud an established IoT platform to add to their product portfolio. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Google indicated it wants to use this purchase as a springboard into the growing IoT market, which it believes will reach 20 billion connected things by 2020. Read More