Laurence ‘Lo’ Toney has been named the new CEO of LearnStreet, a learn-to-code startup supported by Khosla Ventures. Previously, Toney was a general manager at Zynga, overseeing Poker and mobile publishing. Read more »
The push messaging specialist has now raised a total of $46.6 million, giving it the capital it needs to expand internationally and possibly continue its recent acquisition spree. Read more »
For the past few years, Palo Alto-based ImagineK12 has run a startup accelerator exclusively for education technology entrepreneurs. But Socratic Labs and LearnLaunchX are bringing similar models east. Read more »
TechStars, the national startup accelerator program based in Boulder, Colo., is partnering with Chicago’s Excelerate Labs to create the rebranded TechStars Chicago. Read more »
Dave McClure’s 500 Startups accelerator program will begin accepting applications for the spring class on Thursday, for the first time opening the entire application process to applicants via AngelList. The application process will stay open until March 1. Read more »
Eugene Chung, a former venture capitalist with New Enterprise Associates, is the new managing director of TechStars NYC. In a blog post Thursday, TechStars founder and CEO David Cohen said Chung had been selected to replace David Tisch, who stepped down last August. Read more »
Israeli mobile networking startups are on a hot streak right now. Sprint wants to tap into that talent pool so it’s launching a new LTE acceleration lab project in Tel Aviv. Read more »
GAIN Fitness, a San Francisco-based startup backed by InterWest Partners, former Square COO Keith Rabois and Practice Fusion co-founder Matthew Douglass, is launching a new marketplace of workout apps from top trainers. Read more »
A new program launched by the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Health 2.0 aims to play matchmaker for digital health startups and key healthcare organizations in the city. Read more »
Open Garden needs scale, TextMe needs a means for its customers to reach the Internet. These two might just be a match made in heaven. Read more »
Google Ventures-backed MindSumo, a marketplace that helps companies recruit college students and generate new ideas through real-world competitions, has launched in public beta with clients including Facebook, Chegg and Microsoft. Read more »
According to venture capital database, CB Insights, education technology companies raised a total of $1.1 billion in 2012, with about one-third of the funding going to about ten companies. Read more »
After an $8 million Series A round in July, Toronto-based education startup Top Hat Monocle said it has accepted $1.1 million in funding from Felicis Ventures. Read more »
Mobile diabetes-management startup Glooko has hired its first CEO, former Intuit Health executive Rick Altinger, launched a new product in the U.S. and recently received FDA clearance to sell its products to patients over the counter. Read more »
Speed is important when you’re building a new company. But don’t think it’s the only thing that matters, says Philipp Moehring, one of the faces behind leading European accelerator Seedcamp. Read more »
Corporate giant GE appears to be taking a greater interest in early stage digital health startups. On Tuesday, the company’s $6 billion health care initiative, Healthymagination, announced a three-year program with Startup Health to support health entrepreneurs. Read more »
According to health tech accelerator Rock Health, investors poured $1.4 billion into digital health companies last year, which is up 45 percent from 2011. The major areas of interest include healthcare purchasing tools for consumers, personal health tracking, Electronic Medical records and hospital administration. Read more »
Startups and enterprises alike face barriers when it comes to cloud adoption. This includes security, speed of access to cloud resources, and runaway network costs. However, multiple solutions for direct access are being provided to address this issue for companies big and small. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With more than a dozen projects raising more than $1 million (some in less than a day), 2012 was a banner year for Kickstarter. Here are GigaOM’s favorite campaigns from the worlds of connected devices, open-source technology and publishing. Read more »
SecondMarket, the New York-based online platform for trading shares in privately-held companies, on Wednesday announced that it is partnering with AngelList to enable qualified investors on its site to invest amounts starting at $5,000 or less in early stage tech startups. Read more »
Transcriptic is a startup that’s trying to let grad students and researchers conduct their experiments over the web. The company offers a lab-as-a-service product and hopes to take some of the economics from the cloud and apply them to scientific research. Read more »
Four years ago developer Matt Biddulph jokingly coined ‘Silicon Roundabout’ as a description of East London’s small but growing startup scene — now it’s become the de facto term for the area around Old Street. Here he recounts how a moment of mirth turned into a meme. Read more »
SecondMarket, the online platform for trading shares in privately-held companies, is partnering with Startup Health to educate investors about digital health and allow them to invest in health tech companies and funds. Read more »
On Monday, Nike announced the launch of a new Nike+ Accelerator, powered by TechStars. Through the program, ten startups that use Nike+ technology will received mentorship, coaching, office space and other benefits. Read more »
With its new employer-matching service, Coursera has opened up a key revenue stream in which it receives payment from employers in exchange for information about students who may be good job candidates. Read more »
Y Combinator-backed Leaky on Wednesday said it had raised $670,000 in seed funding and opened its site to users across the country. The company initially launched in 2011 but had to rethink its approach after cease-and-desist letters from insurance companies caused it to shut down. Read more »
Many publishers seem to assume that the best way to publish their content online is to try and recreate the look and feel of the printed product they are trying to replace, but a better approach is to strip away everything that isn’t absolutely necessary. Read more »
The Parisian MailChimp competitor, which focuses on the startup scene, says it will use the money to shore up its support services and ISP relations – a useful route when deliverability is key. Read more »
New York-based data analytics startup SumAll announced that it has raised $6 million in a Series A round led by Battery Ventures and including Wellington Partners. Launched last year, SumAll helps smaller businesses analyze and visualize a comprehensive set of their data. Read more »
According to a new report from Startup Genome, a company that provides benchmarking tools to startups and investors, New York ranked fifth on a list of the world’s top startup ecosystems. Silicon Valley led the pack, followed by Tel Aviv, Los Angeles and Seattle. Read more »
42Floors, a Y Combinator-backed startup, on Friday announced an expansion to New York and a $5 million Series A round of funding. The company, which launched in San Francisco in May, provides businesses with a search engine for finding office space to lease and sublease. Read more »
Kickstarter-funded science and technology journalism startup Matter is releasing its first story Wednesday for $0.99. It’s available as a Kindle Single and can also be downloaded from Matter’s website. Matter was cofounded by former GigaOM European correspondent Bobbie Johnson. Read more at paidContent »
Duolingo, the language learning and crowdsourced translation platform from Recaptcha founder Luis von Ahn, launched its mobile app for the iPhone on Tuesday. The startup, which has raised more than $18 million, said it currently has about 300,000 active users on its website. Read more »
A survey conducted by venture capital firm Interwest Partners found that 100 digital health entrepreneurs think Practice Fusion, Castlight or ZocDoc could be the next health tech IPO. The entrepreneurs also shared their biggest challenges and the companies they wished they had founded. Read more »
Jobs in traditional industries have been streaming away from Europe for years — and startups now offer the best chance of future employment. But the situation still needs improvement, says the man in charge of Northern Europe’s most high profile accelerator. Read more »
USEED is like a Kickstarter for education that helps students raise money for research and philanthropic programs, but also provides guidane and encouragement for skills like idea pitching and social media marketing. Read more »
As companies eye longer paths to the public markets, SecondMarket said more startups are incentivizing employees through liquidity programs that let them cash out pre-IPO. In a quarterly report released Friday, it also listed some of the startups attracting the most attention on its platform. Read more »
Many startups like Tumblr and Airbnb have become successful because they focused on filling a need that their founders had, and then turned that into a business, and there are a number of important lessons in that kind of approach for traditional media companies. Read more »
Consumer tech startups may live by the “lean startup” mantra but serial education entrepreneur John Katzman said education startups might want to consider a slightly bulkier model that includes a team with deeper backgrounds in business and education. Read more »
When companies such as Google and Facebook design their own servers, switches and data centers, it’s more a business decision than it is a test of their hardware-hacking skills. Custom gear means lower power bills, better performance and the flexibility to adapt to unforeseen situations. Read more »
