Latest VatorNews stories

• Twitter launches global retargeted ads product

  by Steven Loeb, December 5, 2013

  Tailored audiences will use cookies to display promoted tweets to users who have visited a website

  (Updated to reflect comment from Twitter) You know how sometimes you visit a website and then go onto a site like Facebook and you see an ad for that website you just visited? You know how that is kind of creepy and you feel vaguely unsettled, like someone is spying on you and can see everything you do? Get ready for the same thing to now happen to you on Twitter. Twitter's retargeted ads product

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• Twitter finally adds a woman to its board of directors

  by Steven Loeb, December 5, 2013

  Company hopes that the appointment of ex-Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino will shed its boys club image

  There has been a long running controversy over the perception, and probable reality, of institutionalized sexism at Twitter, due to a lack of women in high ranking positions. And now the company has finally, FINALLY, decided to actually do something about it. In an effort to shed the image that it is running a boys club, Twitter has appointed former Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino to its board of dir

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• AmazonFresh coming to SF December 10?

  by Faith Merino, December 5, 2013

  Signs are pointing to an expansion of Amazon's grocery delivery service to the Bay Area

  AmazonFresh has been slow to expand and currently only delivers in select zip codes in Seattle and Los Angeles. The service, which costs $299 a year, allows users to order everything from organic produce and grass fed beef to milk and free-range eggs for same-day or next-day delivery. Users can even narrow down their search to only include items that are gluten free, dairy free, vegan, soy-free, high

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• Splash SF Oct 2013 Finalist - PandaDoc

  by Kristin Karaoglu, December 5, 2013

  Check out PandaDoc's presentation at Splash SF Oct 2013

  "The process of inviting everyone one we knew to vote for us, even before the event, was a fantastic way to build support for our company. Then presenting at Vator Splash was a blast. The short presentation style ensured the audience was engaged and the follow-up questions from the judges were on-point and constructive. At Vator Splash, I made great

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• Tony Hsieh leads $800k round in Swapbox

  by Bambi Francisco Roizen, December 5, 2013

  An Amazon Locker for all your online retail purchases

  Are lockers for rent a big deal? Apparently, Tony Hsieh of Zappos thinks so. He and another entrepreneur, Trevor Blackwell, best known for creating humanoid robots, have led an $800,000 round in Swapbox, a San Francisco-based Y Combinator startup that is building rental lockers in San Francisco. Other notable investors include Erik Moore (who recently started his own fund, called Base Ventures), as

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• China Mobile gets 4G license and signs deal with Apple

  After months of rumors, China Mobile is now officially selling the iPhone to its 759M subscribers

  It’s official: Apple and China Mobile are besties now. China Mobile, China’s largest mobile carrier and one of the last major global carriers to hold out on the iPhone, has signed a deal to ...
  By Faith Merino
  

• Big data analysis company Trifacta raises $12 million

  Trifacta helps its customers get the most out of their data by making it visual and useful

  There are a lot of big data companies out there now, who are able to take more and more information than ever before and give it to their customers. But that doesn't solve the next part of the equation: ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Peter Thiel's Breakout Labs sees first exit validation

  Chalk one up for Peter Thiel's two-year-old accelerator for tough science problems

  Breakout Labs, which is a wholly-owned and funded division of the Thiel Foundation, saw its first major exit since it launched as an accelerator for radical technologies (namely technologies at the intersection ...
  By Bambi Francisco Roizen
  

• Industry Ventures closes $425 million Secondary Fund

  The new round comes as secondary offerings available jump 28% for the SF-based firm

  Industry Ventures, an investment firm focused on providing liquidity for owners of shares in privately-held venture-backed businesses, raised its 7th fund and its largest - $425 million, plus $200 million ...
  By Bambi Francisco Roizen
  

• HomeAway buys Australian rental co Stayz for $198M

  The purchase continues HomeAway's investment in the Asia Pacific region

  HomeAway, an online marketplace for vacation rentals, has been on a mission to expand the company in the Asia Pacific region over the last few years, investing and purchasing companies in that corner of ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• YouTube reportedly delaying its music streaming service

  YouTube's streaming service would be the second one launched by Google in less than a year

  The issue is not licensing, as YouTube reportedly has all the licenses necessary to launch, but rather a matter of product. The company is apparently unhappy with certain aspects and features of the service, ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Booking.com acquires messaging service eBuddy

  Deal was an acqui-hire, but it is unclear what the eBuddy team will be working on at the company

  No financial terms of the deal were disclosed, but eBuddy clearly stated in a blog post Wednesday that this was "acqui-hire agreement" so I think it is safe to assume that eBuddy will be shutting down ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Shoppers spent $1.74B on Cyber Monday, up 18% over 2012

  ComScore had predicted $2B in sales

  It looks like Cyber Monday didn’t quite hit the lofty $2 billion mark comScore had originally projected, but it still reached record highs. ComScore reported late Tuesday that consumers spent $1.74 ...
  By Faith Merino
  

• EducationSuperHighway raises $9M from Zuckerberg, Gates

  Zuckerberg's Startup:Education and The Gates Foundation pump millions into education non-profit

  Despite the little spat they had last month over what’s more important, connectivity or a malaria vaccine, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates have more in common than the fact that they’re super ...
  By Faith Merino
  

• Yahoo's latest buy: photo and video sharing app Ptch

  With this latest acquisition, Yahoo has now purchased 25 start ups in 2013

  Yahoo has been on an incredible start up tear over the past 12 months, buying up companies left and right. It has made so many purchases that, incredibly, it has just acquired its 25th start up of 2013. ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Square acquired Viewfinder, who could be next?

  Other photo sharing apps that have recently raised money could be the next to be acquired

  The photo sharing app enabled its users to share exactly what they wanted with whom they wanted. That meant only giving complete control to the user, allowing them to give, and revoke, the ability for ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• UPS also reportedly working on drone technology

  Drone deliveries are the future of our stale, overly structured suburban lives

  Driverless cars are out. Drones are in. At least that seems to be the takeaway from all the news this week about Amazon Prime Air drones—and now a report from The Verge that UPS is also working on ...
  By Faith Merino
  

• Square picks up photo sharing platform Viewfinder

  Viewfinder team will join Square's seller initiatives, including Square Market and Square Retailer

  Mobile payments company Square has recently begun expanding to become a platform for people to sell goods as well. But selling online, and connecting merchants with customers, requires something that Square ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• BootstrapLabs Accelerator opens in Seoul

  Calling all Korean-born entrepreneurs! BootstrapLabs Korea to start taking applications in January

  Six months after the South Korean government announced a program to invest 3.31 trillion won ($2.9 billion) to help startups, particularly high-tech ones, Silicon Valley-based BootstrapLabs has partnered ...
  By Bambi Francisco Roizen
  

• Social data platform DataSift raises $42 million

  Funding will be used to expand internationally, and to expand to data types other than social

  The funding was led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Scale Venture Partners, Upfront Ventures, IA Ventures, Northgate Capital, Daher Capital and Cendana Capital. ...
  By Steven Loeb
  
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