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Look, this is the last post I’m writing in 2019 and I’m tired. But I can’t let the year close without taking stock of how well tech stocks did this year. It was bonkers. So let’s mark the year’s conclusion with some notes for our future selves. Yes, we know that the Nasdaq has been setting new records and SaaS had a good year . But we need to dig in and get the numbers out so that we can look back and remember. Let’s cap off this year the way it deserves to be remembered, as a kick-ass trip ’round the sun for your local, public technology company. Keeping score We’ll start with the indices that we care about: The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 35% in 2019 The SaaS-heavy Bessemer Cloud Index rose 41% this year Next, the highest-value U.S.-based technology companies: Microsoft was up around 55% in 2019 Apple managed an 86% gain in the year Not be left out, Facebook rose 57% Amazon posted its own gain of 23% in 2019 Alphabet managed to grow by 29%, as well Now let’s tu

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today, the last day of 2019, we’re taking a second look at Boston. Regular readers of this column will recall that we recently took a peek at Boston’s startup ecosystem , and that we compiled a short countdown of the largest rounds that took place this year in Utah . Today we’re doing the latter with the former. What follows is a countdown of Boston’s seven largest venture rounds from the year, including details concerning what the company does and who backed it. We’re also taking a shot after each entry at where we think the companies are on the path to going public. As before, we’re using Crunchbase data for this project ( here ). And we’re only looking at venture rounds, so no post-IPO action, no grants, no secondaries, no debt, and no private equity-style buyouts. Ready? Let’s have some fun. Countdown Boston has produced a number of big exits in recent years,

InsightFinder , a startup from North Carolina based on 15 years of academic research, wants to bring machine learning to system monitoring to automatically identify and fix common issues. Today, the company announced a $2 million seed round. ​ IDEA Fund Partners, a VC out of Durham, North Carolina,​ led the round with participation from ​Eight Roads Ventures​ and Acadia Woods Partners. The company was founded by North Carolina State professor Helen Gu, who spent 15 years researching this problem before launching the startup in 2015. Gu also announced that she had brought on former Distil Networks co-founder and CEO Rami Essaid to be Chief Operating Officer. Essaid, who sold his company earlier this year, says his new company focuses on taking a proactive approach to application and infrastructure monitoring. “We found that these problems happen to be repeatable, and the signals are there. We use artificial intelligence to predict and get out ahead of these issues,” he said. He add

Shipfix , a relatively new startup aiming to drag the dry cargo shipping industry into the digital age, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding. Leading the round is Idinvest Partners, with participation from Kima Ventures, The Family, Bpifrance and strategic business angels. The company was founded in December 2018 by Serge Alleyne (CEO) and Antoine Grisay (COO), and launched just two months ago. “We’re trying to fix the email overload for everybody involved in the process of fixing a dry cargo ship by providing a comprehensive market monitor,” Alleyne tells TechCrunch. “We’re also producing data-driven insights that are profoundly missing in the bulk/break-bulk space. Actually the last revolution of the dry cargo industry was email, and so far people still rely on indices based on a panel of brokers while all the data is available in emails”. To solve this, Alleyne says that Shipfix connects to its clients’ email to extract and anonymously aggregate “billions of data points using

It follows pressure from LGBTQ groups and health organisations. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2Qf6r3M

The tech giant has filed a copyright infringement claim against software company Corellium. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/358hVdz

Customers who recycle old speakers qualify for a 30% discount on new products but there is a catch. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/39ulQ7S

By BY NELLIE BOWLES AND NOAM SCHEIBER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/368GacK

By BY NOAM SCHEIBER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2ZB7BcG

Social media scandals dominate the list of the most-read news stories by the Tech desk this year. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/359u169

Venture capital investment exploded across a number of geographies in 2019 despite the constant threat of an economic downturn. San Francisco, of course, remains the startup epicenter of the world, shutting out all other geographies when it comes to capital invested. Still, other regions continue to grow, raking in more capital this year than ever. In Utah, a new hotbed for startups , companies like Weave, Divvy and MX Technology raised a collective $370 million from private market investors. In the Northeast , New York City experienced record-breaking deal volume with median deal sizes climbing steadily. Boston is closing out the decade with at least 10 deals larger than $100 million announced this year alone. And in the lovely Pacific Northwest, home to tech heavyweights Amazon and Microsoft, Seattle is experiencing an uptick in VC interest in what could be a sign the town is finally reaching its full potential. Seattle startups raised a total of $3.5 billion in VC funding across

Companies sold a lot of wireless headphone in 2019. You already knew that though, right? What you probably didn’t know was precisely how many constitutes the aforementioned “lot.” New numbers from Canalys shed a light on those successes. The research firm’s classification of audio products is a little wonky, but it drives the point home nonetheless. In their terms, we’re talking specifically about “true wireless stereo” products under the umbrella of “smart personal audio devices” — in other words, wireless headphones. Taken as a whole, the category (which also includes tethered wireless earbuds and over/on ear wireless headphones) hit 96.7 million shipments in Q3, making a 53 percent year over year growth. For the fourth quarter (including the holidays), the number is expected to break 100 million, pushing things to around 350 million for the full year. The “true wireless stereo” segment (fully wireless earbuds) saw a 183% growth for the quarter, overtaking wireless earphones and

2019 brought more global attention to Africa’s tech scene than perhaps any previous year. A high-profile IPO, visits by both Jacks (Ma and Dorsey) and big Chinese startup investment energized that. The last 12 months served as a grande finale to 10 years that saw triple-digit increases in startup formation and VC on the continent. Here’s an overview of the 2019 market events that captured attention and capped off a decade of rapid growth in African tech. IPOs The story of the year is the April IPO on the NYSE of Pan-African e-commerce company Jumia. This was the first listing of a VC-backed tech company operating in Africa on a major global exchange —  which brought its own unpredictability. Founded in 2012, Jumia pioneered much of its infrastructure to sell goods to consumers online in Africa. With Nigeria as its base market, the Rocket Internet-backed company created accompanying delivery and payments services and went on to expand online verticals into 14 African countries

We love parties almost as much as we love startups, but we go absolutely bonkers for a hot startup/party mashup. That’s why we’re returning to host our 3rd Annual TechCrunch Winter Party in San Francisco on Friday, February 7. Even better news, party-goers — additional (the second batch) coveted tickets to this wild winter romp are available now . Better get your tickets while you can . Last year’s inaugural event was a huge success, as nearly 1,000 of Silicon Valley’s brightest minds came to relax, connect and celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit of the startup community — and cast a keen eye over some promising startups. This year’s soiree takes place at Galvanize and features tasty libations, delicious hors d’oeuvres and engaging conversation. That sounds so very civilized, right? Well, don’t dry clean your stuffed shirt just yet, because we’ll have plenty of party games and activities, giveaways and fun surprises. And, of course, plenty of photo ops, baby! Galvanize may be a mul

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. It’s the second to last day of 2019, meaning we’re very nearly out of time this year; our space for repretrospection is quickly coming to a close. Before we do run out of hours, however, I wanted to peek at some data that former Kleiner Perkins investor and Packagd founder Eric Feng recently compiled. Feng dug into the changing ratio between enterprise-focused Seed deals and consumer-oriented Seed investments over the past decade or so, including 2019. The consumer-enterprise split, a loose divide that cleaves the startup world into two somewhat-neat buckets, has flipped. Feng’s data details a change in the majority, with startups selling to other companies raising more Seed deals than upstarts trying to build a customer base amongst folks like ourselves in 2019. The change matters. As we continue to explore new unicorn creation ( quick ) and the pace of unicorn

By BY KEVIN ROOSE from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2MHjTv7

A masterplan to put Scotland "at the forefront of driverless vehicle technology" has been revealed. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2MGcZG9

Thousands of people are reporting issues receiving digital TV channels via Freeview from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2ZBBR7d

The bikes are designed to be locked and unlocked by members of the public via an app. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2tiW45D

Bumble told her it had received several reports that her profile was fake. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/35aqHYp

The move by the electric car maker comes as the US-China trade war forces firms to rethink supply chains. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2F5cWQa

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith calls the breach "concerning" for police officers affected. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/354eQen

The government says a new online service will offer graduates more up-to-date balance information. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2MGQDV5

The pope cited Jesus, Mary and Joseph as an example of a family with good communication skills. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/37j7WDx

Hydrogen-powered drones have several advantages to lithium ion-powered ones, says Dr Enass Abo-Hamed. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2Qyv76b

On the trail of almost half a billion dollars lost when the Wex exchange collapsed in 2018. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2QtHsIO

Grab and Singtel, one of the largest telecoms in Singapore, announced today that they are applying for a digital full bank license together. If approved, the license will allow them to offer simple credit and investment products, before progressing to a full-functioning bank if they meet the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) criteria. Grab will hold a 60% stake in the consortium, with Singtel holding the other 40%. A joint statement said the companies are “committed to contributing to the financial services sector with a differentiated offering that addresses the unmet and underserved needs of consumer and enterprise segments in Singapore,” including SMEs that need access to credit. Securing working capital is a major pain point across Southeast Asia, with several startup and financial institutions working on new tools to gauge creditworthiness and manage loans. Grab launched in 2012 as a ride-sharing company, but now bills itself as “Southeast Asia’s leading super app,” w

Indian tech startups have never had it so good. Local tech startups in the nation raised $14.5 billion in 2019, beating their previous best of $10.5 billion last year, according to research firm Tracxn . Tech startups in India this year participated in 1,185 financing rounds — 459 of those were Series A or later rounds — from 817 investors. Early stage startups — those participating in angel or pre-Series A financing round — raised $6.9 billion this year, easily surpassing last year’s $3.3 billion figure, according to a report by venture debt firm InnoVen Capital. According to InnoVen’s report, early stage startups that have typically struggled to attract investors saw a 22% year-over-year increase in the number of financing deals they took part in this year. Cumulatively, at $2.6 million, their valuation also increased by 15% from last year. Also in 2019, 128 startups in India got acquired, four got publicly listed, and nine became unicorns. This year, Indian tech startups also a

By BY NATASHA SINGER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2ta71GM

Over the weekend, media and digital brand holding company IAC announced that it had agreed to buy Care.com, which describes itself as “the world’s largest online family care platform,” in a deal valued at about $500 million. Despite being the best-known marketplace in the United States for finding child and senior caregivers, Care.com has spent the past nine months dealing with the fallout from a Wall Street Journal investigative article that detailed potentially dangerous gaps in its vetting process. The company’s issues not only highlight the problems with scaling a marketplace created to find caregivers for the most vulnerable members of society, but also the United States’ childcare crisis. Childcare in the United States is weighed down with many issues and arguably no one platform can fix it, no matter how large or well-known. Over the past year and a half, however, several startups dedicated to fixing specific challenges have raised funding, including Wonderschool, Kinside and