Thumbtack, a company that connects customers with local service providers, just announced that it has raised $100 million in new funding.
The round was led by Google Capital (the search giant’s later-stage investment fund), with additional investment from past backers Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital, and Javelin Venture Partners.
Thumbtack has now raised a total of $150 million. The new round comes just a few months after the company announced its $30 million Series C.
The Uberization of the world has just accelerated. Today, the company opened up its API, meaning that it is no longer just a platform for booking taxis but could also be applied to other services in the real world.
“Apps can pass a destination address to the Uber app, display pickup times, provide fare estimates, access trip history, and more,” the company said on its blog. One can also envision, over time, the platform adding other transportation functions unrelated to taxis, such as delivery services or parking-by-appointment.
The lighting and temperature of large workspaces is usually a one-size-fits-all situation, and somebody’s always unhappy.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based startup Enlighted has developed wireless sensors that gather a range of real-time environmental data such as light, heat, and movement to help companies more intelligently control lighting and temperature in workspaces. And today it’s announcing $20 million in new funding.
The ReWalk Exoskeleton is one of the most game changing and life changing technologies to come out of Israel. This incredible device allows the millions of paraplegics around the world, people paralyzed from the waist down, to walk and even run again. But believe it or not, this incredible device does have at least one notable downside—it can only be used by approximately ten percent of handicapped individuals.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed — and misdiagnosed — behavioral disorder in children in America, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unfortunately, there are currently no reliable physiological markers to diagnose ADHD. Doctors generally diagnose the disorder by recording a medical and social history of the patient and the family, discussing possible symptoms and observing the patient’s behavior. But an incorrect evaluation can lead to overmedication, which has parents everywhere concerned.
Uber is set to launch an on-demand product delivery service in Washington D.C. today, dubbed “Corner Store,” according to a company blog post that was briefly released this morning and later pulled. The re-posted announcement is available here.
Starting today, a limited set of Uber users can order convenience store goods — such as “allergy medicine, diapers, toothpaste and over 100 other items” — via Uber’s app.
Canadian startup Vantage Analytics is announcing that it has raised $1.1 million in its first round of funding.
Co-founder and President Aran Hamilton told me that the company currently integrates with Shopify’s e-commerce platform, aiming to help Shopify businesses understand and act on their data.
For example, he said the product could tell an online T-shirt store in Canada not only how many shoppers become repeat customers, but also how their numbers compare to other T-shirt stores and to other sellers in Canada. And it could help them reconnect with past customers who never came back.
With a faint electric whir, Iris Marossek pedals her bicycle through concrete apartment blocks in the heart of old East Berlin, delivering mail to 1,500 people a day.
Painted yellow and black like a bumble bee, her bicycle is a nod to both past and future. It is decorated with an image of a curving black horn, harking back to earlier centuries when German postal workers trumpeted their arrival. But the twin battery packs under her seat also reveal it is more than the average bike.
Statisticians have boasted of the benefits of big data. Now they’re discovering the weaknesses.
Earlier this year, the European Central Bank held a two-day workshop on big data and how it can be used for forecasting. The headline speaker was Hal Varian, chief economist at Google and a number cruncher of rock star status.
New Report by The Boston Consulting Group Finds That Improved Cost Competitiveness Since 2004 Is Leading to New Factory Investment in Countries Such as the UK and Mexico, Where Productivity Has Largely Offset Wage Hikes.
