Digital Startup News 4th Dec 2016


A weekly roundup of top news for Startups and Entrepreneurs

  • Banks reportedly seek to invest $59 million in blockchain startup R3  – Banks involved in the blockchain consortium R3 CEV have expressed interest in investing $59 million in the company’s first funding round, less than half its overall target, a person close to the deal said on Friday. (Reuters)
  • Digital payments startup Stripe valued at $9 billion – San Francisco startup Stripe has raised new financing that values the startup at about $9 billion, cementing its status as a major company in the crowded digital payments space and heralding a possible initial public offering. CapitalG, the late-stage investment arm of Mountain View’s Alphabet, and venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners, which has offices in Palo Alto, led the $150 million round, with participation from existing investors including Menlo Park’s Sequoia Capital. Stripe was previously valued at $5 billion and has raised more than $450 million to date. (SF Chronicle)

virtualreality

Image source: Virtual Reality Demonstrations

  • This program will pay you $6000 a month to build a startup: What’s the catch? In a bid to reinvent Australia’s finance sector, startup incubator Pollenizer is launching a program that will pay founders $6000 a month to build new fintech solutions.The joint initiative with Sydney-founded global lending platform Pepper Money will take selected participants through a 12-week incubator. – mydigitalstartup.net
  • VR Is Totally Changing How Architects Dream Up Buildings– FROM THE LOWER Manhattan offices of New York architecture firm SHoP, you can explore buildings around the world—including ones that don’t yet exist.  You can walk along the edges of an under-construction building in Botswana, then toggle over  to the torpedo hold of the USS Intrepid on Manhattan’s West Side. But be careful, when you reach out to touch a missile you might just poke an architect, standing just beyond you and your VR goggles. – Wired
  • Blockchain startup Bitmark releases whitepaper on digital property – Taiwan-based blockchain startup Bitmark Inc. announced the release of a new whitepaper on digital property that addresses internet challenges of privacy violations, online piracy and inability to own digital assets. The paper titled ‘Defining Property in the Digital Environment’ briefs on blockchain-based property system to offer the technology to all internet-based creators and social platform users in order to claim ownership over their digital assets and data. The whitepaper analyzes the underlying reasons of present issues and outlines a blockchain-based property system that is capable of addressing topics including principles of property, piracy and rights, privacy in the digital environment, blockchain technologies, and decentralization, among others. – econotimes.com
  • AngelList Acquires Popular Tech Discovery Site Product Hunt To Go After Startup Jobs Search – When startups launch new products or declare themselves to the tech community, a rite of passage is to post the news on Product Hunt, a popular site for app discovery and discussion. But for one day at least, Product Hunt’s biggest news is about the future of its own company. Product Hunt revealed on Thursday it has been acquired by AngelList, a site and community for investing in startups. The value of the deal was not disclosed, but Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover and employees and investors will receive a mix of cash and stock. Product Hunt will remain an independent brand under Hoover after the transition, with the two sites looking to eventually collaborate on new tools initially centered around jobs. – Forbes

Leave a Reply