FlyCleaners, a startup that picks up your laundry, cleans it, and drops it off on-demand, is announcing that it has raised about $2 million in seed funding from Zelkova Ventures and undisclosed angel investors.
There are a number of variations on the “Uber for laundry” idea already on the market, including Wash.io and Prim. As far as I know, all of them are limited geographically (FlyCleaners is only available in North Brooklyn), but I assume they all have hopes for expansion.
When I asked how FlyCleaners is different, CEO David Salama told me via email:
Metail, the UK-based virtual fitting room startup, has raised £2.6 million in “growth funding”, as it gets ready to move into a new 6,000 square foot converted warehouse on the periphery of “Tech City” in East London. The new investment — its first institutional funding — was led by New World Private Equity Partners, with participation from Stefano D’Anna and John Gleasure, co-founders of Perform. It brings total funding for Metail to £5.4 million, having previously raised £2.8 million from friends and family, angel investors, and via a TSB R&D grant.
Back in 2006, two enterpreneurs called Kraig Swensrud and Sean Whiteley started a business based around the idea that Salesforce could be used for more than just helping salespeople organise their accounts and targets. Kieden, as the startup was called, created an add-on for Salesforce that let users create and manage Google AdWords advertising campaigns, and in that same year, it was acquired by Salesforce itself, where the two held various roles and Swensrud eventually became the CMO. Now the pair have left the mothership to forge out into the startup world again.
Chile government run accelerator Startup Chile has inducted 100 startups into the ninth generation of its accelerator program. The accelerator noted that these startups were selected from more than 28 countries and India accounted for 9% of the startups in the current batch.
The program offers $40,000 equity free seed capital, a one-year resident visa for any three team members mentioned during the application process and shared office space. The program will run for 24 weeks (around four months).
If we’re going to prepare future generations for an increasingly technical world (and workforce) ahead, then we need to teach them computer science and engineering. To some, that may sound like a no-brainer, but to the American educational system, where nine out of ten schools don’t offer programming courses, it not. Of course, to really get students engaged and inspire that lifelong love of computer science and technology — just as it is with learning a new language — education has to start early. And it has to be fun.
Venture investors are betting big on the promise of the "Connected Home." While early-stage deal activity is heating up, the bulk of funding thus far has been piled into huge financing rounds.
From smart locks to WiFi-enabled doorbells, a range of new technologies are ushering in the rise of the “The Connected Home.” Like the movement to “quantify” the physical body using Internet-enabled sensors, startups focused on the connected home are providing services for your home ranging from security, temperature management and lighting controls and are doing in ways that leverages data, hardware and internet and mobile software.
El pasado 22 de noviembre, en la ciudad de Rotterdam, se celebró la Grande Finale de la competición de startups Get in The Ring. Smadex se alzó finalmente con el segundo puesto, en una final internacional a la que sólo llegaron las 8 mejores startups en un torneo que reunió emprendedores de 32 países.
”la Caixa”, a través de su gestora de capital riesgo, Caixa Capital Risc, y Bonsai Venture Capital han participado en una ronda de inversión de un millón de euros en la startup From the Bench. La ronda va destinada a consolidar el crecimiento de la compañía y posicionarla como líder en el desarrollo de videojuegos deportivos para todas las plataformas de móviles (iPhone, iPad, Android y Amazon).
Does anyone dispute that 2013 has been the year of the tech company? LinkedIn has surged over 100%. Twitter and Zulily popped more than 70% and 80% respectively on the day of their recent IPOs. Even Facebook’s stock, once completely out of favor, has doubled in value over the past six months.
