The latest from TechCrunch
- Collaborative Gifting Startup Giftiki Raises $1M From Tim Draper, Others
- Exclusive: MarketSharing Raises $1 Million For Daily B2B Deals Site (Bonus: Invites)
- Facebook Acq-hires Data Organization Startup Daytum
- Yahoo Sells Delicious To YouTube Founders
| Collaborative Gifting Startup Giftiki Raises $1M From Tim Draper, Others | Top |
| Like a Charity Water plus Kickstarter for everything, collaborative gifting startup Giftiki has raised just under one million in Series A financing today, led by investor Tim Draper and including VC firms Crosslink Capital, GoldHill Capital and Transmedia Capital. Elaborating on payment platforms like Venmo and Wepay , Giftiki lets users send small amounts of money as gifts, allowing recipients join a pool in order to gift their friends the more substantial things that they actually want, like the perfect Lanvin ballet slippers or a Frieda and Nellie bracelet , instead of individually buying less expensive (and less treasured) items from Forever 21, for example. I think this is an amazing idea. Like Charity Water, Giftiki leverages social ties and game mechanics to get users to contribute to the gifting process and add more money to the pool (anyone who’s every felt the Charity Water peer pressure knows what I mean here). But the concept expands beyond birthdays to any gifting situation, holidays, graduations, fundraising and weddings and baby showers and it isn’t just for charitable causes. Woo hoo! Says CEO Justin Stanislaw, “There was a big inefficiency in the gifting marketplace. People are receiving unwanted gifts and others don’t know what to buy someone. We wanted to solve the problem and create anengine for collaborative gifting, and in a sense collaborative social commerce.” A The Brandery accelerator graduate, Giftiki recently moved to San Francisco from Cincinnati and will be using its new funding to hire more engineers. iOS and Android apps are currently in development and Giftiki plans on launching in alpha in the next couple of months. CrunchBase Information Giftiki Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Exclusive: MarketSharing Raises $1 Million For Daily B2B Deals Site (Bonus: Invites) | Top |
| Now that companies offering digital coupons for essentially any consumer product or service you can possibly think of are starting to make up an online industry of their own, it’s apparently time for SMB-targeting local deal sites to emerge. The first startup I’ve come across that will try its hand on a ‘Groupon for local business-to-business offers’ is NYC-based MarketSharing . The company may be brand new, but its management team certainly bursts with experience, and the startup has just secured over $1 million from K2 Media and App Fund . The latter, in case you didn’t know, is the investment firm founded by Kevin Wendle , co-founder of companies like CNET, FOX Network (yeah, so this man developed ‘The Simpsons’), E! Online and IFILM and Daniel Klaus , founder of Music Nation and Original Signal. MarketSharing’s chief executive officer, John Amato , is the co-founder and former CEO of Show Media , a leading provider of taxi advertising in New York City. He also participated in the early-stage venture round. The daily B2B deals site aims to one day become the ‘cultural marketplace for business’, which means they’re trying to assure that offers won’t only include discounted material such as laptops or ink cartridges, but also services that ‘make companies great to work for’ (think hand massages, gym memberships for employees, and so on). I’m not so sure there’s demand for that, specifically, but I have to admit I’m curious to see if a daily deals marketplace focused exclusively on helping local businesses sell their discounted products and services to other businesses will work in the long run. Some of the deals during the service’s private beta phase (get your invites below) include a discount for the design of a logo, invitation or business card at Kate’ss Graphics ($100 instead of $400) and five hours of office cleaning by Green Pro Cleaning ($75 instead of $150). The site will be publicly launched in New York in the coming weeks, and will expand to other markets quickly, I’m told. The site is currently in private beta, but 250 TechCrunch readers can sign up here with the code techcrunch25 . They will receive $25 worth of non-expiring credit too, so don’t hesitate if daily deals for SMBs sounds intriguing to you too. CrunchBase Information MarketSharing Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Facebook Acq-hires Data Organization Startup Daytum | Top |
| Facebook has just made a talent acquisition out of Daytum , a two-person New York-based data collection and organization startup. The app itself will remain live , but founders Ryan Case and Nicholas Felton will be joining the product design team at Facebook. From the Daytum blog : We're thrilled to announce today that we just started a new phase of our careers: we've moved to California to join the product design team at Facebook. Building Daytum — and seeing how people use it — has been one of the most satisfying things we've done. We're excited to start the next chapter, working with the rest of the design team at Facebook to help people express themselves and share experiences with friends. While we'll be working full time at Facebook, Daytum will live on and will continue to work the same way as it does today. All the best, and happy counting. Ryan and Nicholas. Facebook has a particularly aggressive talent acquisition strategy, snapping up small companies for engineering talent over technology. Daytum marks its sixth purchase this year after Snaptu, RecRec , Rel8tion, Pursuit and Beluga. Of the latter four, Snaptu was probably the largest buy at an estimated $60 – $70 million. CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Yahoo Sells Delicious To YouTube Founders | Top |
| Yahoo has finally found a buyer for long suffering Delicious . YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen have acquired the company, says Yahoo, via a “new Internet company, AVOS .” We’re still gathering details, but here’s the official stuff: Yahoo’s statement: Today YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen announced they have acquired the Delicious technology from Yahoo!. They plan to continue the service that users have come to know and love and make the site even easier and more fun to save, share and discover the web's "tastiest" content. Providing a smooth transition for users is important to both companies. There will be a transition period where users can elect to sign up for a new account. Users' public and private bookmarks will be maintained through the transition period and transferred as they are today when it is complete. As we have said, part of our product strategy involves shifting our investment with off-strategy products to put better focus on our core strengths and fund new innovation. We believe this is the right move for the service, our users and our shareholders and look forward to watching the Delicious technology develop. Delicious blog : YouTube Founders Acquire Delicious Today, we're pleased to announce that Delicious has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest online video platform, they have firsthand experience enabling millions of users to share their experiences with the world. They are committed to running and improving Delicious going forward. Providing a seamless transition for users is incredibly important for both companies. Yahoo! will continue to operate Delicious until approximately July 2011. When the transition period is complete, your information will be moved over to Delicious' new owner. Starting today, we will ask you to login to Delicious again and agree to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks to the new owner. That way, you'll enjoy uninterrupted use of the service and will keep your account and all of your bookmarks when we make the transition. For more information on the Delicious transition, please refer to this FAQ. Thank you for your patience in this time of transition and thank you for using Delicious! FAQ : Frequently Asked Questions The answers to frequently asked questions about the AVOS transition Whoa, what’s happening? Sorry if we’ve caught you by surprise. Delicious has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen and will become part of their new Internet company, AVOS. Here are a few links to catch you up to date on the latest news regarding Delicious (blog post, press release). Why has Yahoo! chosen to transition Delicious to AVOS? While we love Delicious (and our users love Delicious), we wanted to find a home for the product where it can receive more love and attention. We think AVOS is that place. When will AVOS officially start running Delicious? We anticipate Delicious in its current form will be available until approximately July 2011. By agreeing to AVOS’s terms of service upfront, you will allow us to move your data when the time comes to transfer control to AVOS. What does AVOS plan to do with Delicious? AVOS plans to continue the service that users have come to know and love and by working with the community, make the site even easier and more fun to save, share and discover the web’s “tastiest” content. Will AVOS maintain the Delicious service with all of its functionality? Yes, that’s the plan. There may be a time of adjustment as AVOS re-launches Delicious, but the company’s intention is to add new features and grow the service overall. Where can I find the AVOS Terms of Service and Privacy Policy? Right here. AVOS Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. How do I transfer my bookmarks? To transfer your bookmarks, you need to “opt-in” to allow your account and all associated data to be moved. You can do this from the opt-in page. What will happen to my public and private bookmarks? By agreeing to the AVOS terms of service, you will allow us to send your account information, bookmarks, and all the data associated with your Delicious account to AVOS when they re-launch Delicious. Your public and private bookmarks will be maintained as they are today. The information transferred would include: Delicious username Delicious password Email address First Name Last Name Bookmarks, Tags and Notes Inbox items Tag Bundles Tag Descriptions Network Members Subscriptions Blogpost jobs Twitter Auth credentials (if supplied) What if I don’t opt-in to migrate my bookmarks to AVOS? You will no longer be able to use Delicious or access your bookmarks after the transition is complete. Is AVOS going to build a Delicious extension that is compatible with Firefox 4.0? Yes. This is a top priority. AVOS plans to release a new extension as soon as possible. For information on workarounds, please see here. Please visit blog.delicious.com for the latest news on upcoming product releases. Can I export my data from Delicious? Yes. Please use our export tool. Who can I contact for more information? If you require assistance, our support team can help you. Press Release: YOUTUBE FOUNDERS ACQUIRE DELICIOUS FROM YAHOO! Promise Users the Same Great Service And Even Easier & More Fun Ways To Save, Share, and Discover the Web's "Tastiest" Content. San Francisco, CA., – April 26, 2011 – Delicious.com, the leading social bookmarking service, has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest online video platform, they have firsthand experience enabling millions of users to share their experiences with the world. Their vision for Delicious is to continue to provide the same great service users love and to make the site even easier and more fun to save, share, and discover the web's "tastiest" content. Delicious will become part of AVOS, a new Internet company. "We're excited to work with this fantastic community and take Delicious to the next level," said Chad Hurley, CEO of AVOS. "We see a tremendous opportunity to simplify the way users save and share content they discover anywhere on the web." "We spoke with numerous parties interested in acquiring the site, and chose Chad and Steve based on their passion and unique vision for Delicious," said John Matheny, SVP of Communications and Communities at Yahoo!. The YouTube founders plan to work closely with the community over the next few months to develop innovative features to help solve the problem of information overload. "We see this problem not just in the world of video, but also cutting across every information-intensive media type," said Chen. Going back to their roots, Hurley and Chen located Delicious in downtown San Mateo, California, blocks away from where they started YouTube. They're aggressively hiring to build a world-class team to take on the challenge of building the best information discovery service on the web. About Delicious Delicious is the leading social bookmarking service for saving, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. Started in 2003 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005, Delicious has built a passionate, worldwide community of millions of users. In 2011, Delicious was acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. Previously, they co-founded YouTube, the world's largest video site in 2005, which was acquired by Google 18 months later for $1.76B. Delicious is part of AVOS, a new Internet company based in San Mateo, California. CrunchBase Information Yahoo! delicious Information provided by CrunchBase | |
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