Oh, how we love Fridays! Have a great weekend, everyone. See you Monday morning. —– Top News in the A.M. Last week, French police reportedly raided Uber‘s offices in Paris. Yesterday, it was Dutch authorities barreling their way into the Amsterdam offices of the mobile car-booking company. More here. BlackBerry just reported a surprise profit for […]
Rakuten
A Startup Takes on Rakuten
Industry watchers are well-aware that Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce giant, has made a wave of investments in U.S. startups in recent years as it looks to enhance its portfolio of technologies, acquiring Buy.com, Slice and eBates and making big bets on Pinterest and Lyft, among other companies. According to Ryan Koonce, the founder and CEO of […]
StrictlyVC: March 12, 2015
Hi, happy Thursday, everyone! (If you aren’t a subscriber yet, here’s an easier-to-read version of this emailed newsletter.) —– Top News in the A.M. The Guardian has effectively retracted much of its widely circulated reporting about the anonymous messaging app Whisper. More here. Twitter just changed its rules to prohibit users from publicly posting intimate, […]
With $150 Million in Fresh Funding, Can the Amazon of Russia Deliver?
Dipping into a flourless cake at a French bistro in San Francisco, Maelle Gavet has reason to be in a celebratory mood. The French-born CEO of Ozon, considered the Amazon of Russia, has in the last few weeks sealed up $150 million in fresh backing from investors — money that helped Ozon secure a minority stake last week in LitRes, […]