“Netflix for ebooks” Oyster launched on iPad and opened up to everybody Wednesday; previously it had only been available on iPhone. Rival service Scribd also released some stats showing that most of its use is coming from iPad.
The company has now facilitated over $400 million in international money transfers. And with new features such as a mobile app, payments to email addresses and an embeddable payment button, TransferWise is resembling a certain fintech giant ever more closely.
Thiel becomes the second PayPal co-founder to put money into the UK’s Transferwise, which lets users send money internationally at much lower rates than those offered by traditional banks.
2013 is turning out to be the year when entrepreneurs and investors are embracing using technology to create more sustainable food products, from plant-based egg, meat, and cheese replacements, to healthier candy and salt.
Canadian entrepreneur Louis Michaud, who has spent years trying to commercialize his “out there” technology to harness tornadoes for power, has received a small grant from PayPal co-founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel’s early stage lab Breakout Labs.
Founders Fund and Dustin Moskovitz’s Good Ventures have led a $15 million round in a company that is trying to replicate the intelligence of the human brain in software. Vicarious’ goal is to help humanity thrive by inventing the algorithm to create to intelligent machines.
Peter Thiel may be advising entrepreneurial kids to drop out of university to focus on building their ideas – but not everyone thinks the same way. Wunderkind app maker Nick D’Aloisio told me he still wanted to go to college, and explained why.
Investor Peter Thiel, who has long been bullish on cleantech investing, just announced that he’s the largest investor in a new potentially $1 billion growth fund that will back companies across sectors including in energy and those tackling resource constraints.
Peter Thiel, the tech industry magnate known for co-founding PayPal and being an early investor in Facebook, is launching a new program called Breakout Labs aimed at funding cutting edge technology research ideas. It’s a big effort, but Thiel himself is known for bold ideas.
Let’s face it: Cleantech investing doesn’t seem to be working for a whole lot of people. Yes, we’re still knee deep in these companies trying to scale, but web investors are certainly glad they haven’t jumped in. What’s going on?
Did PayPal discover some sort of magic recipe that allowed so many of its former executives and other staff to create startups like YouTube, Slide, Yelp and the newly public Tesla Motors? PayPal staffers say it was smart management, but some PayPal cash probably helped, too.