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Crunch Network
Latin America’s Groupon Mafia
The founders of PayPal and its employees have produced many highly successful companies over the years. Often referred to as the “PayPal Mafia” because they’ve had such an impact on the startup ecosystem, this serial entrepreneur success story is reminiscent of a similar phenomenon taking place in Latin America. The story starts with another U.S. company, Groupon. Read More
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The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on all of Amazon this holiday season
The holiday shopping season is finally over, and that means Amazon has some shopping data for us. This holiday season, Amazon’s Echo Dot was the top-selling Amazon device, as well as the top-selling product available from any manufacturer across all categories on Amazon.com, with millions sold. Read More
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A look at 42 women in tech who crushed it in 2017
What a challenging, exhilarating year it has been for women everywhere, starting from the women’s March on Washington to former Uber engineer Susan Fowler’s eye-opening and now famous blog post to the #metoo movement that has swept the country, washing dozens of sexual predators out of their powerful roles in the process. All the while, women in tech have been driving their… Read More
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LIKEtoKNOW.it’s influencer shopping app hits 1M users
Launched just 9 months ago on iOS and last month on Android, LIKEtoKNOW.it has just hit 1M registered users on their mobile app, bringing total users to 2.8M. As a refresher, LIKEtoKNOW.it is a service that lets you “like” pictures from Instagram influencers and automatically get links to buy their outfits sent to your inbox. And their recently launched mobile app lets you… Read More
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Walmart is developing personal shopping services and cashier-free stores
Walmart’s Code Eight, led by Rent the Runway co-founder Jennifer Fleiss, has started testing personal shopping services for moms in New York City, Recode reports. Code Eight is part of Walmart’s startup incubator Store No. 8. The idea with Code Eight’s service, according to Recode, is for “busy NYC moms” to get product recommendations and buy them via text message. Read More
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Teabox raises $7M for its global tea-commerce business
Teabox, the company pioneered the concept of selling tea to direct to consumers online, has served up $7 million in fresh funding to grow its five-year-old business. This new infusion of capital — last tea joke, I promise — is a Series B round that takes Teabox, which has head offices in India and Singapore, to just shy of $15 million in funding to date. The round was led by… Read More
Latest Crunch Report
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Here are the deadlines for all your online holiday shopping orders
While some folks still head to the stores on Black Friday and throughout December, many of us are turning to the web for Christmas shopping. Just one complication: shipping tends to bottleneck during the holidays and some gifts simply don’t arrive on time. But we’ve sorted all that out for you. Here are the order deadlines for folks buying their gifts online who want them delivered… Read More
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Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso just raised venture funding for her new company
Sophia Amoruso famously founded the retailer Nasty Gal, growing it from an eBay store that sold vintage items to a darling of the fashion world that was seeing more than $300 million in sales at one point. Somewhere along the way, however, Nasty Gal lost its way. In the meantime, Amoruso is on to a new business, and now it’s venture-backed. Read More
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Why content crowdfunder Patreon is halting its hated fee change
Overhauling the creative economy turns out to be tricky. Following massive backlash, Patreon is at least temporarily pausing its plan to change its payment processing fee structure from charging creators 2-10% on the first of the next month to charging patrons 2.9 percent plus $0.35 per transaction upfront and on the monthly anniversary of their first pledge beyond the 5% Patreon takes. Read More
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Lily raises $2M from NEA and others for a personal stylist service that considers feelings, not just fit
One of the reasons recently IPO’d Stitch Fix became so popular among female shoppers is because of how it pairs the convenience of home try-on for clothing and accessories with a personal styling service that adapts to your tastes over time. But often, personal stylists bring their own subjective takes on fashion to their customers. A new startup called Lily aims to offer a more… Read More
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Amazon expands same-day delivery and one-day shipping to thousands more cities
Amazon announced today it has expanded its same-day delivery and one-day shipping service to thousands more markets across the U.S., just in time for last-minute holiday shopping. Before, these services were available to Prime members in 5,000 cities and towns, the retailer tells us. Now, they’re available in over 8,000. The market expansion is not just focused on serving major metros… Read More
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To fix SoundCloud, it must become the anti-Spotify
Startups die by suicide, not competition. It wasn’t that anyone was stealing SoundCloud’s underground rappers, bedroom remixers and garage bands. SoundCloud stumbled because it neglected these hardcore loyalists as it wrongly strove to usurp Spotify as the streaming home of music’s superstars. Read More
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Target adds an e-gifting option to its website
Target today unveiled a new e-gifting feature designed for those who think gift cards are too impersonal, but who are just too busy (or too lazy) to actually shop for and mail gifts themselves. The retailer is announcing the launch of a feature called “GiftNow” which lets you browse its site, then pick out an item to be sent via email to your gift recipient. The recipient can choose… Read More
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ThredUP launches Stitch Fix competitor for try-before-you-buy clothes
Consignment startup thredUP is launching Goody Boxes, for people who want to try on clothes at home before making purchases. Customers will be able to order on-demand shipments, with personalized items sent to their home. If it sounds familiar, it’s because Stitch Fix, Le Tote, Trunk Club and others have similar offerings. ThredUP hopes to differentiate itself with lower cost… Read More
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India’s Vahdam Teas raises $1.4M to bring fresher tea to your door faster
Vahdam Teas, an e-commerce that’s focused on selling the freshest brews on the planet, has closed a Series A funding round worth $1.4 million to grow its business. The funding was led by new backers Fireside Venture, Mumbai Angels, Singapore Angel Network and undisclosed existing investors. The two-year-old company previously raised a $500,000 seed round from angels in January of… Read More
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Babierge might just be the answer to your baby gear travel nightmares
Traveling with a baby for the holidays? First you’ve got your own gear to worry about, then a stroller, something for the baby to sleep in, a baby carrier, toys, snacks, a diaper bag, possibly a car seat and whatever else the plane might allow you to shove into the overhead compartment or check at the gate. Then you’ve got to soothe and entertain the little one. the struggle. is. real. Read More
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Burrow raises $4.3M for its modular sofa
Burrow, a startup bringing a Casper-style approach to manufacturing and delivering sofas, is announcing that it has raised $4.3 million in seed funding. This might not sound like the most obvious area for a startup to tackle — unless you’ve had the experience of trying to carry a couch up a twisty flight of stairs, or attempting to squeeze it through a narrow… Read More
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