Quiq acquires Snaps to create a combined customer messaging platform
At first glance, Quiq and Snaps might sound like similar startups — they both help businesses talk to their customers via text messaging and other messaging apps. But Snaps CEO Christian Brucculeri said “there’s almost no overlap in what we do” and that the companies are...
Holler raises $36M to power ‘conversational media’ in your favorite apps
Holler, described by founder and CEO Travis Montaque as “a conversational media company,” just announced that it’s raised $36 million in Series B funding. You may not know what conversational media is, but there’s a decent chance you’ve used Holler’s technology. For example, if you’ve...
Songclip raises $11M to bring more licensed music to social media
The team behind Songclip thinks that social media could use more music. Yes, music is a big part of the experience on a handful of apps like TikTok and Triller, but Songclip co-founder and COO John vanSuchtelen told me, “That is not the end of...
Square buys majority of Tidal, adds Jay Z to its board in bid to shake up the artist economy
This morning Square, a fintech company that serves both individuals and companies, announced that it has purchased a majority stake in Tidal, a music streaming service. The deal, worth some $297 million, will Tidal allow artist-partners to keep their ownership in the music company. Square...
Emotive raises $50M to make text marketing more conversational
While more businesses are turning to text messages as a marketing channel, Emotive CEO Brain Zatulove argued that most marketers are just treating it as another “newsletter blast.” “The reason the channel performs so well is it’s not saturated,” Zatulove said. But that’s changing, and...
IronSource acquires video and playable ad platform Luna Labs
Mobile advertising company ironSource is announcing its second acquisition of the year — Luna Labs, a startup that that’s built a platform allowing app developers to create and manage video and playable ads. When I first wrote about the startup in 2019, its main selling...
With $20M A round, Promise brings financial flexibility to outdated government and utility payment systems
The last year has been one of financial hardship for billions, and among the specific hardships is the elementary one of paying for utilities, taxes and other government fees — the systems for which are rarely set up for easy or flexible payment. Promise aims...
Acast acquires podcasting startup RadioPublic
Podcast advertising company Acast is announcing that it has acquired RadioPublic, the startup that spun out of public radio marketplace PRX in 2016. At first, RadioPublic’s main product was a mobile app for podcast listening, and it still supports the app. But co-founder and Chief...
Math learning app Photomath raises $23 million as it reaches 220 million downloads
Photomath, the popular mobile app that helps you solve equations, has raised a $23 million Series B funding round led by Menlo Ventures. The app is a massive consumer success, and chances are you might already know about it if you have a teenager in...
Artie raises $10M for app-less mobile games
Artie, a startup looking to rethink the distribution of mobile games, announced today that it has raised $10 million in funding. There are some big names backing the company — its latest investors include Zynga founder Mark Pincus, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s Thirty Five...
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