Latest VatorNews stories

• Facebook goes all in on 360-degree videos

  by Steven Loeb, November 12, 2015

  Facebook debuts 360 video ads, puts them into newsfeeds on iOS and introduces developer tools

  VR is closed and fully immersive, while AR is open and partly immersive. Where VR puts users inside virtual worlds, immersing them, AR puts virtual things into users’ real worlds, augmenting them. Basically VR is something you wear on your face, like Oculus VR, while AR is like wearing something along the lines of Google Glass, where you will still be able to walk around and see the real

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• Post Seed: the most active stage in venture financing

  by Bambi Francisco Roizen, November 12, 2015

  Seed rounds expand to help startups gather proof points to land the coveted Series A

  The very first conference four years ago, called Venture Shift, covered topics such as “How angels and super angels/micro-cap VCs are changing the landscape” to “Has the traditional VC industry been forced to pivot?” By 2012, we explored questions such as “The Series A crunch” and “What’s the new venture hit?” And in 2013, we examined the newly-enacted

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• LivingSocial's Aaron Batalion joins Lightspeed as a partner

  by Steven Loeb, November 12, 2015

  Batalion has had a relationship with Lightspeed since it invested in LivingSocial in 2010

  As the daily deals craze fades into history, and companies in the space either fade away or pivot, we will be able to look back and see who was smart and got out in time, and who stayed in too long and got burned (I'm looking at you, Andrew Mason). On the former side is Aaron Batalion, co-founder and former CTO of LivingSocial. He left the company in 2013, right as the company was starting to lay p

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• Daily funding roundup - November 12, 2015

  by Mitos Suson, November 12, 2015

  TigerText raised $50M; Eyefluence secured $14M; Flexe landed $4.4M

  Flexe, provider of on-demand warehousing, today announced that it has raised $4.4 million in seed funding, which added to $1.9 million in previous investments brings the startup’s total coffers to $6.3 million. This most recent round was led by Fritz Lanman (co-founder of both Doppler Labs and DWNLD), Hank Vigil (former Senior Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships at Microsoft), Second

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• Video: Science's Peter Pham on how to win a deal

  by Mitos Suson, November 12, 2015

  At Vator Splash LA, Pham talks about why entrepreneurs select one investor over another

  Thanks to our main sponsors Wilson Sonsini, KPMG, Javelin Venture Partners, Sky Media, Wavemaker, All Good Living Collective, Bread and Butter Wine, and our co-production partner, Bixel Exchange.Editor's Note: Our annual Post Seed conference is around the corner on Dec. 1 at Ruby Skye in San Francisco. Speakers include John Doerr (Kleiner Perkins), Vinod Khosla (Khosla Ventures), Alfred Lin (Sequoia

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• Angie's List is considering selling to IAC for $500M

  IAC would combine Angie's List with HomeAdvisor, creating a $700M company

  IAC wants to get its hands on local business review website Angie's List. Like, really wants it. And while its advances may have been rebuffed at first, it looks like now Angie's List is at least considering ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Flexe raises $4.4 million for on-demand warehousing

  Airbnb for warehouse space? Uber for storage? Either way, on-demand has gone industrial

  We have on-demand cars and apartments, on-demand freelancers, and on-demand doctors, so why not have on-demand warehousing?Flexe, provider of on-demand warehousing (explanation in a moment), today announced ...
  By Ronny Kerr
  

• Equity-based crowdfunding startup CircleUp raises $30M

  The round was led by Collaborative Fund, and will be used to develop its product and data teams

  The round was led by Collaborative Fund. Other investors in the round included Jon Winkelried, former President and Co-COO of Goldman Sachs; John Powers, former president and CEO of Stanford Management ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Daily fantasy sports are more skill than chance

  Market inefficiency makes the case against gambling

  So when the recent opinion of the NY Attorney General concluded that DFS is gambling, and whose operators have intentions to "fleece sports fans", I thought it worthwhile to explain the subtleties I see ...
  By Ezra Roizen
  

• Wow: Alibaba sets a Singles' Day record with $14.3B in sales

  Over the last few years Singles' Day has become the biggest one-day shopping event of the year

  Alibaba isn't having the easiest year. The company has been fined over pricing violations, accused of selling billions worth of counterfeit goods, and it was just recently sued by one of its rivals for ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Fiverr goes beyond $5 with $60M Series D round

  Hoping to dig deeper into word-of-mouth-powered freelancing economy, Fiverr announces "Gig Packages"

  Maybe freelancers should be able to charge more than $5 for their work.Fiverr, the marketplace famous as the place where you can hire freelancers to do work for just $5 a pop, today announced that it has ...
  By Ronny Kerr
  

• Airbnb Community Compact aims to win back your love

  After Prop F debacle in San Francisco, home sharing company tries to set things right

  Airbnb wants to turn over a new leaf.In a new post on its Public Policy Blog, the company has released what it’s calling a Community Compact, a lofty-worded document that plainly seeks to restore ...
  By Ronny Kerr
  

• The Candy Crush movie arrives, courtesy of Steven Colbert

  Activision bought King for $.5.9B, before debuting its own movie and TV studio last week

  First, Activision bought Candy Crush studio King for a whopping $5.9 billion. Then, just a few days later, it announced that it was launching Activision Blizzard Studios, a new film and television studio ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Daily funding roundup - November 11, 2015

  Amplyx Pharmaceuticals bagged $40.5M; Perfecto Mobile secured $35M; EventBoard raised $6.5M funding

  Last week an article in New York Magazine outlined a growing problem in businesses: the fight over meeting space. There are now 25 million meetings a day in the U.S., which is at least double the number ...
  By Mitos Suson
  

• Video: Vator's Ezra Roizen on the Vator Investment Club

  At Vator Splash LA, Roizen shares how Vator backs and selects its startups

  Thanks to our main sponsors Wilson Sonsini, KPMG, Javelin Venture Partners, Sky Media, Wavemaker, All Good Living Collective, Bread and Butter Wine, and our co-production partner, Bixel Exchange.Editor's ...
  By Mitos Suson
  

• EventBoard raises $6.5M, debuts new dashboard

  The company also optimized its mobile app, and unveiled new floor mapping capabilities

  Last week an article in New York Magazine outlined a growing problem in businesses: the fight over meeting space. There are now 25 million meetings a day in the U.S., which is at least double the number ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• T-Mobile stops charging video streaming toward data plans

  There is a lot of money at stake, as carriers will take in $2.4B in overage charges this year

  I have to hand it to T-Mobile: while most carriers can't wait to charge you as much as possible for data, that company seems to be going out of its way to reduce those costs. It's really not every day, ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• The balloon deflates as investor devalues Snapchat by 25%

  Is the era of the sky high valuation coming to an end?

  Is the age of the unicorn coming to an end? It certainly seems like it, especially since late stage investors may have realized they aren't going to be getting much value out of companies that are worth ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Daily funding roundup - November 10, 2015

  Careem secured $60M; Transfix raised $12M; Spiro closed $1.5M

  Trucking remains the most widely used way of shipping goods, with heavy duty semi-trucks being responsible for shipping 70% of all U.S. freight.. But it's also an industry that has not taken advantage ...
  By Mitos Suson
  

• Free sales assistant Spiro raises $1.5M seed round

  Angel investors from HarbourVest Partners, Facebook, and Imprivata back joke-making sales app

  The app, which is free and available for download on Apple’s App Store, integrates with a salesperson’s Salesforce account, email account, and calendar, which it then uses to source intelligent, ...
  By Ronny Kerr
  
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