Roundup of news and ideas from the world of startups – Week ending 4th Nov 2018
News you can use
Startup India’s latest Unicorn – online tutoring startup Byju’s – Indians value education and are willing to invest in educating their kids.Tuition and coaching centers have mushroomed across the country. This drive to invest in education has lead unique opportunities for digital startups like Byju’s. The online tutoring startup Byju’s expected to close an additional round of funding, valuing the company at about $3.5 billion. At this valuation, Byju’s will be ranked as India’s fourth most valuable startup (behind Paytm, ride sharing service Ola and Oyo Rooms. Byju’s started in 2008, and since then it has raised $240 million from Tencent Holdings, Verlinvest, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venutre Partners and Aarin Capital.
Corporate M&A
Expedia Acquires 2 Venture-Backed Hospitality Startups – Expedia has acquired venture-backed hospitality startups Pillow and ApartmentJet. Employees of both companies will join Expedia. Expedia Group owns several travel brands, including HomeAway, Travelocity, Trivago, Orbitz and Hotels.com. There is a new startup called Tap that wants to be the world’s first public index and global search engine for drinking water. It uses a combination of user-generated content and data from water fountain manufacturers to help you easily find clean water. Tap has more than 34,000 refill stations across 30 countries indexed on the app.
PropTech Startup OpenFrame Acquires 360-Degree Camera Pioneer Giroptic To Create Virtual Home Tours – Real estate technology (PropTech) startup OpenFrame announced on Wednesday that it acquired the asset of the now-defunct Giroptic, a pioneer of the 360-degree camera industry. “We believe that through our innovative approach we will be able to drive mass adoption of video tours across the real estate industry – from luxury properties to inexpensive short-term rentals,” said Etienne Leroy, Chief Product Officer at OpenFrame. “That’s why the acquisition of Giroptic, which was our former supplier, was a strategic imperative to offer our customers the easiest, simplest and fastest way to create virtual video tours at an affordable price.”
Lyft unveils a new self-driving car and acquires an AR startup to help it build maps – The ride-hailing company bought UK-based augmented reality startup Blue Vision Labs for a reported $72 million. On Tuesday, Lyft offered a glimpse of its brand-new self-driving car. It’s a Ford Fusion hybrid sedan with technology designed and built by the ride-hailing company’s in-house team of autonomous vehicle engineers. Lyft also announced the acquisition of Blue Vision Labs, a London-based augmented reality startup that uses computer vision to process street-level imagery.
Adzuna acquires UK’s #1 tech startup job board – Adzuna, a global job search engine, today announced its purchase of Work In Startups, a platform which connects an unrivaled community of job seekers and start ups across the UK’s growing tech scene. Under the deal, Adzuna will take over operation of Work In Startups, which will retain its independent brand and community of tens of thousands of monthly start up jobseekers and hundreds of start ups.
Failed Startups
Commercial Kitchen startup, Pilotworks shuts down – Pilotworks, a startup that offered commercial kitchen space for food entrepreneurs announced that it is shutting down. “This is a sad outcome for Pilotworks, the makers in our kitchens, and independent food in general. We wish there was another option to continue operating. Sadly, there was not. The work the independent food community is doing is amazing and inspiring. We know it will live on and we are deeply sorry it will not be with Pilotworks.”
Image from Facebook
YCombinator incubated Mobile Banking Startup Seed.co Shuts Down – This week, the online banking platform Seed sent an email to its users announcing it will be winding down its customer-facing service. Seed.co was a San Francisco-based venture-backed online banking platform for freelancers and small business owners. After the mail went out, several customers tweeted that they hadn’t received any communication. Seed tweeted back confirming the news.
Failed drone startup Airware auctions assets, Delair buys teammates – Airware desperately sought cash for 18 months before running out of money and shutting down last month, leaving about 120 employees without jobs after the startup had burned $118 million in funding. Bandaid strategic investments from construction company Caterpillar and others kept Airware alive as it looked for a $15 million round, according to a former employee.
Bak USA shuts down; 77 lose jobs – Bak USA officially closed its doors today – four years after it came to Buffalo with the vision of a socially conscious, U.S.-based technology hardware company. Bak raised tens of millions of dollars in private capital and once employed more than 100 people in Buffalo during that time, but ultimately could not solve the complex financial equation that involved competing with the world’s largest technology corporations., company sources said. Each of the company’s 77 employees were notified today of the company’s imminent shutdown.
Lenny Letter Shuts Down: Lena Dunham, Jenni Konner Post Farewell Note to Fans – It’s official: Lenny Letter, the three-year-old digital-media startup from Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, is dead. Following reports Thursday that Lenny Letter would shut down Oct. 19, the co-founders and editorial and creative director Molly Elizalde confirmed the closure in a farewell message to readers.