Latest VatorNews stories

• When Duolingo was young: the early years

  by Steven Loeb, June 22, 2018

  Duolingo started as an academic project at Carnegie Mellon, had 3 million users a year after launch

  Initial company description: "The whole thing started as an academic project at Carnegie Mellon between me and my PhD student Severin Hacker. I had just sold my second company to Google, and we both wanted to work on something related to education. Education is very general, so we decided to concentrate on one kind that is in huge demand everywhere (except the US): language education," von Ahn writes

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• Accelerators targeting foodtech companies

  by Steven Loeb, June 21, 2018

  They include Good Food Business Accelerator, Land O’Lakes’ Dairy Accelerator and H-Farm

  For startups, there are numerous paths for getting their name out there. One way, which Vator has been covering recently, are startup competitions, but another popular method to get a foot in the door, as well as some funding and traction, are accelerators. These are programs that provide companies advice, guidance and various forms of support for startups in their early stages. They also often invest

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• WalkMe acquires machine learning company DeepUI

  by Steven Loeb, June 20, 2018

  The digital adoption platform has its sights set on an initial public offering sometime in 2019

  "Think about digital platforms that are using enterprises that are coming in a SaaS model. They have very frequent changes, sometimes even continuous development, so there isn’t really a version, you keep on getting new instances. If you customized on the user level, so, for example, you can go on a platform like Salesforce and, on top of what your organization has done, you can further do customization

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• Dynepic raises $675k to safely allow children to create a digital footprint

  by Steven Loeb, June 19, 2018

  The company was co-founded by a former United States Air Force and NASA security expert

  "I was in the aerospace world, launching stuff into space and building stuff, designing stuff, to dock with the Space Station, and I really wanted to make an impact on this Earth. I thought that IoT was going to make a really big change to how we interact in the world. This was back 2011 or 2012 and I started looking at the entire ecosystem and you had the new players that were unfolding, you saw a

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• Stigma of mental illness? Or stigma of flaws and inadequacy

  by Bambi Francisco Roizen, June 18, 2018

  Mental and behavioral health week 5: As a community, let's start asking the 'right' questions

  Fortunately for me, I have such a strong community and support system of friends and family. The immediate response to my despair wasn't, "Do you feel lack of energy?" "Are you getting sleep?" "Do you have a tough time concentrating?" "Do you feel hopeless?" Nor was it, "Just move on and think positively." "There is so much to be happy for, why don't you think of happy thoughts?" "Let's do something

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• 2018 on track to be record-breaking year for mental and wellness startups

  The amount of funding into these companies doubled from 2014 to 2017

  One was the rise of school shootings, which, along with the ensuing debate over gun control, also led to a debate about the underlying cause of such behavior. Everyone seems to agree that it's no longer ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• FaceMetrics secures $2 million in funding to flesh out their parental control app

  The company is combining AI and gamification to provide a better experience for parents and children

  Unlike many of us that grew up without many of the connected tech devices growing up, parents now have to find a balance between letting kids by kids, letting them use the tech devices and apps that heavily ...
  By Josiah Motley
  

• Startup competitions seeking sports tech companies

  They include Sports Tank, 1st and Future, Leaders Tech Startup Competition and Sports Tech World Cup

  Vator has been holding its own competitions, using VatorX, to find and filter for the best startups. We've had some very successful and notable winners in the past that have gone on to raise big funding ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Virtual credit card provider, Privacy, is now offering cash-back for online transactions

  Virtual cards continue to grow in popularity and now we're starting to see incentives baked in

  In a time where we're constantly worried about data breaches and hacks, virtual credit cards continue to find a place in both business applications and consumer ecommerce. Businesses can use virtual cards ...
  By Josiah Motley
  

• HUNGRY raises $1.5M to build out its marketplace connecting chefs with offices that need catering

  The service is available in the DC region, and will expand to Philadelphia and New York City next

  As more companies offer food to their employees as a company perk, they are running into three problems that make it difficult to sustain. First is the variety of food that they can offer, the second is ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• StockPitch partners with S&P Global Market Intelligence to provide stock market analytic tools

  Will cater to both casual and serious investors looking to keep up with an ever-changing market

  As trading becomes more democratized, platforms continue to pop up that give both casual and serious investors a convenient and easy way to invest. With that comes a need for investment tools that give ...
  By Josiah Motley
  

• AI-powered workplace team member Jane.ai launches with $8.4 million

  Jane also has a human element that will answer questions and help the AI learn quicker

  There's a fundamental problem in the workplace: a lack of access to basic information for employees, causing them waste a big chunk of their time trying to find answers to that they should have immediately ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Cloud Apps Capital Partners raises $87M second fund

  The firm focuses exclusively on investing in the global cloud business application market

  The cloud has had a profound effect on the business and technology sectors. By cutting down the cost of hardware, and giving companies a simpler, more effective way to store their data, it has led to an ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• How does Adyen make money?

  Adyen, which recently signed as primary payments partner for eBay, makes money from transaction fees

  Earlier this year, it was announced that the Amsterdam-based global payments company had signed a deal with eBay "to become its primary payments processing partner," essentially replacing PayPal, following ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Now that the GDPR is in effect, companies are having to change some of their processes

  With the new rules on tracking, email services are having to adapt to those in the EU

  The new implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that went into effect across the European Union has many widespread implications across the globe. Not only did it cause some major ...
  By Josiah Motley
  

• Accelerators targeting sports tech companies

  They include leAD Sports Accelerator, Global Sports Venture Studio and Hype Lab Accelerators

  For startups, there are numerous paths for getting their name out there. One way, which Vator has been covering recently, are startup competitions, but another popular method to get a foot in the door, ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Why mental disorders are a cultural problem more than a biological one

  Future of mental and behavioral health: biological underpinnings; how to boost serotonin levels

  These numbers are on the rise. The World Health Organization says that depression spiked 18 percent worldwide in 2017. Non-profit group Mental Health America shows that 7 percent of Americans will suffer ...
  By Bambi Francisco Roizen
  

• iBeat extends seed round with a $2.5M investment from SCOR and Transamerica

  The two life insurance companies have also entered into an enterprise partnership with iBeat

  The funding came from SCOR Life & Health Ventures and Transamerica Ventures, the venture arms of what Ryan Howard, founder and CEO of iBeat, calls "two of the top 10 largest life insurers in the United ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Qumulo raises $93M in Series D funding to build out its cloud-based file storage

  The company has now raised over $230 million as it plans to expand further into Europe

  There's a ton of data being created in everything we do now. From the car we drive, which has an anti-lock brake system or adaptive cruise control system, to the x-rays we get at the doctor, all of that ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Interview with Robert Leshner, CEO and co-founder of Compound

  A look into crypto markets, interest rates, and potential crypto regulations

  The crypto sphere is growing quickly, but it is still very unknown to many people. Even those that understand the basic idea behind blockchain and digital currencies can find it difficult to actually participate ...
  By Josiah Motley
  
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