Crowdstar, a veteran among companies that have combined computer games with social media sharing, says it has crafted its biggest hit so far and made the transition to mobile. That’s surely a business story, but what interested me most was the personal transition made by the Burlingame, CA-based company’s CEO, Jeffrey Tseng. Tseng grew up … Continue reading “Crowdstar CEO: From War Game Thrasher To Fashion Game Maker”
Author: Bernadette Tansey
Bernadette Tansey is a former editor of Xconomy San Francisco. She has covered information technology, biotechnology, business, law, environment, and government as a Bay area journalist. She has written about edtech, mobile apps, social media startups, and life sciences companies for Xconomy, and tracked the adoption of Web tools by small businesses for CNBC. She was a biotechnology reporter for the business section of the San Francisco Chronicle, where she also wrote about software developers and early commercial companies in nanotechnology and synthetic biology.
Rock Health Backs Chrono Therapeutics’ Anti-Smoking Wearable
Chrono Therapeutics, a startup whose wearable device called SmartStop delivers nicotine doses through the skin to help smokers quit, now has the backing of Rock Health, a noted seed stage investor in the growing digital health field. Hayward, CA-based Chrono, which raised $32 million in a Series A financing round in June, will get another … Continue reading “Rock Health Backs Chrono Therapeutics’ Anti-Smoking Wearable”
3D Robotics Raises $50M To Develop Mobile-Enhanced Drones
Berkeley, CA-based 3D Robotics has raised $50 million in a Series C funding round led by Qualcomm, the San Diego wireless industry giant. The two companies plan to work together to combine 3D Robotics’ drones with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors, which power sensors, wireless communication, and cameras. “By working with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., we can bring … Continue reading “3D Robotics Raises $50M To Develop Mobile-Enhanced Drones”
Dtex Lands $15M To Expand Cybersecurity Shield to US
Mohan Koo, CEO and founder of cybersecurity company Dtex Systems, has spent 15 years battling the most insidious kind of cyber enemy a company can have—one of its own employees. And he has globe-spanning tales to tell. In Australia, where Dtex was founded in 2000, Koo helped the government track officials suspected of leaking sensitive … Continue reading “Dtex Lands $15M To Expand Cybersecurity Shield to US”
Chute: Tracking Underground Oscar Winners By Photo-Sharing Buzz
Two respected characters actors, Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne, won the top acting honors at the Academy Awards show Sunday night. But the award for biggest buzz, according to the social media bounce on Instagram during the broadcast, goes to actress and singer Jennifer Lopez for a full-length photo of herself in a sweeping Elie Saab gown. … Continue reading “Chute: Tracking Underground Oscar Winners By Photo-Sharing Buzz”
Edtech Companies Weigh In On Obama’s Free Community College Plan
Two years of community college for free? Education watchers and politicos have been debating about that proposal from President Obama since he announced it early this year. Is it worth the estimated $60 billion that would be spent over 10 years by the federal government? Will the America’s College Promise program really help students break … Continue reading “Edtech Companies Weigh In On Obama’s Free Community College Plan”
As California Drought Lingers, Tule’s Sensors Guide Crop Irrigation
Californians have been using their garden hoses sparingly to help conserve water during one of the state’s driest years in history. But what if you’re a farmer with acres of crops that need irrigation to grow, and you learn that the state may curtail water supplies for agriculture? Tom Shapland has been thinking about the … Continue reading “As California Drought Lingers, Tule’s Sensors Guide Crop Irrigation”
Disqus: Testing the Targeted Ad Market for Web Comments
Free e-mail accounts, conference calls, search engines, social media networks—companies offer these Web tools to us at no charge so they can build up a critical mass of users. Once that’s done, they try to figure out how to make their services pay. The trick is to do that without driving users away. Like many … Continue reading “Disqus: Testing the Targeted Ad Market for Web Comments”
Cloud Commerce Service AppDirect Raises $50M for Global Expansion
San Francisco-based AppDirect, which helps companies buy and manage their subscriptions to Web-based software, has raised $50 million in a Series D round led by Mithril Capital Management, a global firm co-founded by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. The new financing round, AppDirect’s second in less than a year, brings the company’s total fundraising to $110 … Continue reading “Cloud Commerce Service AppDirect Raises $50M for Global Expansion”
Breakout Labs Funds Lab Screening Startups and Stress Tracker System
[Corrected 2/11/15, 10:50 am. See below.] “The Art of Detection” could be the theme for the three new companies just awarded funding by Breakout Labs, the San Francisco seed-stage investing unit supported by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Two of the new recipients announced today are Bay area companies that have developed lab methods to detect … Continue reading “Breakout Labs Funds Lab Screening Startups and Stress Tracker System”
Top Bay Area Kickstarter Campaigns: Inkblot Tests for Local Culture
Entrepreneurs probably scan the top Kickstarter campaigns to gauge how much their own tech projects might raise on the selective crowdfunding site. But an anthropologist might look at the top fundraisers in each region to get a bead on the local culture. Guess which metropolitan area’s top Kickstarter projects were all about high-fidelity digital music, … Continue reading “Top Bay Area Kickstarter Campaigns: Inkblot Tests for Local Culture”
Instagram Backer Sequoia Capital Bets $10M on PicsArt
PicsArt, a growing mobile photo-editing system that claims almost 60 million active users a month, is moving its top brass to San Francisco so it can tap into the area’s tech talent pool and venture community. The results so far: The company announced today that Silicon Valley venture firm Sequoia Capital is investing $10 million … Continue reading “Instagram Backer Sequoia Capital Bets $10M on PicsArt”
TrueVault: Helping Digital Health Apps Grapple With HIPAA
Look on Apple’s app store, and you’ll find endless columns of exercise counters, baby trackers, cardio monitors, personal medication diaries…and many, many butt workout regimens. Consumers use these digital health apps to stay fit, but there are pitfalls both for their users and their developers, says Jason Wang, CEO of San Francisco-based TrueVault. For one … Continue reading “TrueVault: Helping Digital Health Apps Grapple With HIPAA”
Tech Pup of the Day: Airbnb’s Nutmeg
Toiling among the elite technology specialists of Silicon Valley and San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood is a class of workers whose pay is low, and who are often barred from company dining areas and kitchens. However, their standing among their co-workers sometimes approaches adulation, and their perks may far exceed those granted to their colleagues. We celebrate … Continue reading “Tech Pup of the Day: Airbnb’s Nutmeg”
As Box IPOs, a Competitor Previews the Market Share Battle
[Corrected 1/23/15, 10:20 am. See below] The Bay Area is ground zero for the hotly contested market in Web-based data storage and file sharing for businesses, and local competitors have been closely watching Los Altos, CA-based Box’s long run-up to its IPO. Box made its trading debut today on the New York Stock Exchange, where … Continue reading “As Box IPOs, a Competitor Previews the Market Share Battle”
Invention & Re-Invention: Newcomers Explain Silicon Valley’s Allure
It’s always good to see things through fresh eyes. If you’re part of the Bay Area tech community, you can take for granted the constant news about clever inventions, flush financing rounds, and intriguing jobs rising from this concentrated region of innovation. My antidote to that ho-hum mood was talking to three of the 30 … Continue reading “Invention & Re-Invention: Newcomers Explain Silicon Valley’s Allure”
Ministry of Supply Flight-Tests SF Store: Dress Clothes à la NASA
You’re a Bay Area tech worker who thinks every problem can be solved by science. So why are you sitting in a sweaty shirt? Ministry of Supply, the menswear outfit founded in Boston by former MIT students, is betting you want your next shirt to have laser-drilled perforations in its armpits to, er…ventilate you. So … Continue reading “Ministry of Supply Flight-Tests SF Store: Dress Clothes à la NASA”
Index Ventures Leads $20M Round for Data Analytics Startup Interana
Interana, a two-year-old data analytics company that emerged from stealth mode in October, has raised $20 million in a Series B round led by international venture firm Index Ventures. The mission of Menlo Park, CA-based Interana might be called “bringing big data analysis to the masses.” Interana designed its data exploration tools to make it … Continue reading “Index Ventures Leads $20M Round for Data Analytics Startup Interana”
Watching A Cyberattack Bloom: vArmour Visualizes The Data Breach
Financial firm Morgan Stanley is the latest big company forced to acknowledge a data breach, after finding to its horror early this month that the names and account numbers of thousands of its wealthy investment clients had been posted on the Internet. The New York firm follows entertainment giant Sony and a long list of … Continue reading “Watching A Cyberattack Bloom: vArmour Visualizes The Data Breach”
Box Steps Back Onto IPO Runway
Web-based data storage provider Box, which retreated from plans to go public last spring, is now preparing to make another run at an initial public offering. In an amended filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, Los Altos, CA-based Box says it seeks to raise as much as $162.5 million from an offering of … Continue reading “Box Steps Back Onto IPO Runway”
As Turner Suspends Media Camp, Its Founder Yearns To Duplicate It
For a consumer or a reporter, the International Consumer Electronics Show would be an exhilarating tour of the latest gadgets and tools, as well as a preview of marvelous technologies of the future. For established companies, the annual CES event might be a sobering catalog of technological changes they must either master or allow to … Continue reading “As Turner Suspends Media Camp, Its Founder Yearns To Duplicate It”
2014: The Bay Area Innovator’s Year In Review
[Updated 1/1/15, 1:37 pm. See below.] When you’re looking back on a year that’s winding up, it’s tempting to try to name the one new product that’s going to change the world. Our stories from the San Francisco Bay region have certainly turned up some candidates—from the Apple Watch to a potential new method of … Continue reading “2014: The Bay Area Innovator’s Year In Review”
Upstart’s CEO Sees Boom and Shakeout in Online Lending in 2015
Dave Girouard may have changed his business model at the right time. The company he co-founded in 2012, Upstart, became a new entry early this year in the rising field of online lending. That field enjoyed a huge visibility boost in mid-December when San Francisco-based Lending Club (NYSE: [[ticker:LC]]) became the first online loan marketplace … Continue reading “Upstart’s CEO Sees Boom and Shakeout in Online Lending in 2015”
Cybersecurity Startup Area 1 Aims to Stop Attacks Like Sony’s
If venture firms still had any doubt about the cybersecurity field as a good prospect for investors, the ongoing wreckage inflicted by hackers on entertainment giant Sony over the past month may put those doubts to rest. Sony has seen everything from corporate salaries to its executives’ snide e-mail comments about President Obama and Angelina … Continue reading “Cybersecurity Startup Area 1 Aims to Stop Attacks Like Sony’s”
Lending Club Shares Soar 56 Percent In Market Debut
[Corrected 12/12/14, 12:10 pm. See below] Venture investor Rebecca Lynn says people thought she was crazy back in early 2009 when the she led an early stage financing round for San Francisco-based Lending Club, an online loan marketplace for consumers and small businesses. At the time, the U.S. financial system was in crisis, banking titans had … Continue reading “Lending Club Shares Soar 56 Percent In Market Debut”
Huddle Raises $51 Million To Compete In Online Collaboration Market
Huddle, a company that offers Web-based workspaces to businesses for collaboration and document storage, announced today it has raised $51 million in a financing round to arm it for competition with rivals, such as Los Altos, CA-based Box Inc. A significant percentage of the new capital will be spent on building up the San Francisco … Continue reading “Huddle Raises $51 Million To Compete In Online Collaboration Market”
I Spy: Will High-Tech Holiday Gifts Fuel Family Feuds?
This is the time of year when marketers bombard us with holiday gift lists to promote their products—and foremost among them are technology-enhanced gizmos to dazzle the family as they tear off the wrappings and ribbons. But do these electronic device makers ever wonder how such gifts might alter the atmosphere at the annual family … Continue reading “I Spy: Will High-Tech Holiday Gifts Fuel Family Feuds?”
Norwest’s Edtech Play: Aim Straight For Consumers Needing Skills
Palo Alto, CA-based Norwest Venture Partners is one of the investment firms that are placing bets on educational technology, a fast-growing field that is transforming the way students learn, from kindergarten through college and beyond. I talked recently with Sergio Monsalve, one of the Norwest partners who is shepherding the firm’s edtech investments. In the … Continue reading “Norwest’s Edtech Play: Aim Straight For Consumers Needing Skills”
Web Companies Create Marketing Hubs for Indie Writers, Artists
The Bay area is a hotbed for creative types, and it’s also home to a number of Web-based companies that connect writers, book authors, and photographers with potential readers and customers. A flurry of news came out about these companies early this week. San Francisco-based Scripted announced that it has raised a $9 million Series … Continue reading “Web Companies Create Marketing Hubs for Indie Writers, Artists”
Intel’s Year-End Holiday Push Wraps Up Big Bet On Tablets
The start of the holiday season, which celebrates generosity and selflessness, also kicks off a frenzy of TV ad campaigns that combine the merciless combat of business competitors with a cheery soundtrack of festive music. Tablet makers seem to have snapped up a hefty share of the prime-time TV spots as they vie for the … Continue reading “Intel’s Year-End Holiday Push Wraps Up Big Bet On Tablets”
Data Companies Carve Out Niche In DNA Test Interpretation
For more than a decade researchers have been unleashing a deluge of information about the role of genes in disease, based on automated sequencing of DNA. Genetic tests on individual patients are slowly becoming more common, more detailed, and less costly. But patients won’t benefit if their doctors don’t know what to make of those … Continue reading “Data Companies Carve Out Niche In DNA Test Interpretation”
EdCast CEO: The University as Record Album In An MP3 Era
At first glance, Karl Mehta seems to have executed a sharp U-Turn when he founded an edtech company, Mountain View, CA-based EdCast, in 2013. He’d made his name in e-commerce and financial technology when the payment software company he co-founded, PlaySpan, was snapped up by credit card giant VISA for $190 million in 2011. Look … Continue reading “EdCast CEO: The University as Record Album In An MP3 Era”
AppDirect Buys Y Combinator Grad Leftronic for Data Dashboards
AppDirect, whose technology helps run online marketplaces where companies such as Staples and Samsung sell Web-based services, said today it has acquired San Francisco-based data visualization company Leftronic. No price was disclosed for the purchase of Leftronic, which provides data dashboards on which businesses can monitor their progress. A 2010 graduate of Y Combinator’s venture … Continue reading “AppDirect Buys Y Combinator Grad Leftronic for Data Dashboards”
Nixie’s $500K Winner: Flying Camera, Safety Tool or Medieval Pigeon?
[Updated 11/5/14, 2:07 pm. See below] Imagine you’re given a box containing some wires, some propellers, a lens, some plastic, some flexible straps, and a new Intel chip a bit bigger than a postage stamp. What would you make? The co-founders of Los Altos, CA-based Nixie assembled these ingredients to invent a wristband camera that … Continue reading “Nixie’s $500K Winner: Flying Camera, Safety Tool or Medieval Pigeon?”
Nitro Raises $15M from Battery Ventures
[Corrected 11/4/14, 8:45 am. See below.] Nitro Software, a San Francisco-based startup competitor to digital media giant Adobe (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ADBE]]), has raised $15 million from Battery Ventures to expand the market for its document creation and sharing products. [The term “PDF” has been omitted from the lead sentence in an earlier version of this story. Although Nitro’s software … Continue reading “Nitro Raises $15M from Battery Ventures”
Code School Runner Galvanize Offers Data Science Degree in San Francisco
San Francisco is becoming a spawning ground for new institutions of higher learning that don’t feel bound by the traditional organizational structures of academia. The first freshman students of the baked-from-scratch college founded by the Minerva Project moved into their Nob Hill residence hall this fall, and now the city’s South of Market neighborhood is … Continue reading “Code School Runner Galvanize Offers Data Science Degree in San Francisco”
Stamen Design and the “Hippie Geeks” of Data Visualization
Aziz Cami saw the immense potential of data visualization six years ago, when he became creative director for Kantar, an international consortium of companies that advise business clients on their strategic moves and brand identities. A hum-drum element of design that used to be called “charts and graphs” has now evolved into a powerful means … Continue reading “Stamen Design and the “Hippie Geeks” of Data Visualization”
Recurly Raises Another $12M to Grow Subscription Billing Platform
San Francisco-based Recurly, which untangles problems that arise with subscription revenue streams for companies including DishDigital, Groupon, and Zillow, said today it has raised $12 million in a Series B round from new and existing investors. Recurly launched its service in 2010 to troubleshoot for the growing number of businesses that receive recurring payments by … Continue reading “Recurly Raises Another $12M to Grow Subscription Billing Platform”
Minerva’s Virtual College Scores Backing to Grow
The Minerva Project, a San Francisco-based for-profit that aims to provide an Ivy League-caliber college degree for $10,000 a year, says it has closed on the bulk of a $70 million Series B round that will allow it to scale up its freshman class next year. While many online education companies are grafting themselves to … Continue reading “Minerva’s Virtual College Scores Backing to Grow”
With New VC Bucks, Product Hunt Taps the Wisdom of the In-Crowd
What if you could eavesdrop as a select group of venture capitalists, early adopters, and startup founders hashed over the merits of hot new tech products every day? That’s the experience San Francisco-based Product Hunt aims to offer, and the young enterprise, part of the Y Combinator summer 2014 class, just raised $6.1 million in … Continue reading “With New VC Bucks, Product Hunt Taps the Wisdom of the In-Crowd”
Y Combinator, Move Over For IndieBio: A Second Biotech Accelerator
Y Combinator, which set off a whirlwind of skeptical commentary when it opened its highly ranked tech accelerator program to biotechnology startups last spring, now has some company. SOS Ventures, the international VC firm that already holds accelerator programs for software and hardware company founders, is launching a separate accelerator called IndieBio in San Francisco … Continue reading “Y Combinator, Move Over For IndieBio: A Second Biotech Accelerator”
Thync Adds Brain Electrodes to the Mix in Mobile Health Wearables
Khosla Ventures has been staking out a notable claim in the mobile health field by investing in companies that track physical activity, vital signs, social interactions, eye functioning, and even the chemicals released in a user’s breath. Now, another one of the VC firm’s companies is hoping to take things a little further. Rather than … Continue reading “Thync Adds Brain Electrodes to the Mix in Mobile Health Wearables”
University of California Incubators Eager to Scout Startups, Co-Investors for UC Ventures
Fledgling companies at the 20 or so incubators clustered around UC Berkeley, UCSF, and other University of California campuses are well-placed to benefit from the new $250 million venture fund the university system plans to set up next year. But leaders at the incubators say they also plan to be on the giving side, helping … Continue reading “University of California Incubators Eager to Scout Startups, Co-Investors for UC Ventures”
Soon a Spinout, PayPal Faces Threats From Stripe, Big Mobile Players
PayPal was a startup trailblazer of online payments back when it was acquired by eBay in 2002. Now the digital payments giant is slated to operate again as an independent company next year under a spinoff plan eBay announced Tuesday. But after a dozen years under the eBay umbrella, the new PayPal will emerge into … Continue reading “Soon a Spinout, PayPal Faces Threats From Stripe, Big Mobile Players”
Bay Area Tech: The Soviet Connection
In a story now typical among math and computer science students, Alexei Stoliartchouk formed a software startup company during his final year in college. He and his friends launched it for fun, but then they started making some decent money. Next thing they knew, a group of what Stoliartchouk calls “bandits” visited the startup, demanding … Continue reading “Bay Area Tech: The Soviet Connection”
Adobe Buys Aviary To Speed Push Into Mobile
Adobe, maker of the widely used Photoshop digital photo-editing software, has acquired New York-based Aviary, a private company that offers its own photo editing apps for mobile devices. The new unit will advance Adobe’s moves toward the use of mobile devices as creative workstations, on par with the desktop computers now used by most design … Continue reading “Adobe Buys Aviary To Speed Push Into Mobile”
Forum Highlights Innovators Working in Global Public Interest
Turning a valuable technology invention into a successful product is a lot like solving what public transit experts call the “last mile problem.” No matter how good your network of buses and trains, people won’t ride them if the bus stop or station isn’t a reasonable distance from their homes. The same goes for information … Continue reading “Forum Highlights Innovators Working in Global Public Interest”
TranscribeMe, Nuance Fine-Tuning Audio Transcription For Hot Market
In 1999, the futurist and speech recognition technology pioneer Ray Kurzweil predicted that by 2009, deafness would be a mere inconvenience rather than a disability. That’s because deaf people would be carrying small machines that would listen to their companions and display real-time text transcripts of their conversations, Kurzweil imagined in his book The Age … Continue reading “TranscribeMe, Nuance Fine-Tuning Audio Transcription For Hot Market”
Weddington Way’s Ambition: Become the Amazon of Nuptials
When people weep at weddings, they’re mostly overcome with joy. But a few secret tears may also be shed by the bridesmaid who has shelled out $300 from her first-job wages for a dress that makes her look like a stuffed sausage—and a shiny, chartreuse one at that. As a Stanford MBA student in 2010, … Continue reading “Weddington Way’s Ambition: Become the Amazon of Nuptials”
Glowing Plants To Nanodiamonds: Y Combinator’s Biotechs Debut
Silicon Valley’s hottest tech accelerator, Y Combinator, is about to show off its first class of biotech startups. The five companies, some of which have already raised significant funding, or controversy—or both—will come under the scrutiny of hundreds of venture capital investors on Tuesday, Aug 19, as the Mountain View, CA-based accelerator holds its Demo … Continue reading “Glowing Plants To Nanodiamonds: Y Combinator’s Biotechs Debut”