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LiveNinja did not disclose the amount of money they raised in this round, which included the participation from Scout’s existing Limited Partners (LP), as well as some of the fund’s new South Florida partners. What they did disclose was that Scout Ventures was able to raise four times what they initially invested from their LPs. LiveNinja will use the funding to continue growing operations, and further expand their sales, marketing, and development teams....

Other services provided by eSale include the ability for merchants to print shipping labels right from their portal, optimized inventory management across all channels, automatic reporting and analysis of which products are selling best and which channels are driving the most sales, and simplified product posting and management. Image Credit: Hon Kim

Along with the new title, the pioneering duo was also given the opportunity to be fast tracked into talks with some of the top accelerators in the world, which resulted in their participation in Batch 19 of 500 Startups. Having spent time in California with mentors from 500 Startups and their program, we decided to check in with the team to see what has changed. ShearShare is a mobile app that services a unique B2B niche, allowing stylists and barbers to rent unused salon space on-demand....

Ugandan citizens have, since July 1, been required to pay 200 Ugandan Shillings (USh) for daily access to social media and messaging services – including Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter – in a government-imposed surcharge applied to their existing data plans. It is also indicative of the growing and worrying trend by governments and supranational authorities to gain some semblance of control over the internet – whether it’s the repeal of net neutrality laws in the USA, or online copyright reforms in the EU....

Should you use Instagram for your business? Popular Industries Using Instagram Building a solid Instagram campaign can be very beneficial for your brand as these examples show. Some of the most popular industries using Instagram include Travel and TourismRetailRestaurant, Hospitality, NightlifeHealth and FitnessSportsBeauty These types of industries provide images of their products and services to their followers to keep everyone up to date on trends and events. If a local pub is having a band play that week they may post an image of the event taking place....

LiveStories recently announced our seed round. Initially, our goal was to raise $2 million. We ended up raising $3 million. Our success occurred against the backdrop of venture capital investments generally slowing down. Going into fundraising, we received many warnings about the difficult fundraising environment. We were told to expect a long, drawn out process. In this blog post I will share some of the learnings from the process that helped us succeed....

While emails aren’t set to die out anytime soon, business chat apps appear to be growing in popularity due to their commitment to end-to-end encryption and their capacity for less-formal messaging. With a recent report revealing that 75% of cyber attacks now start with an email, it’s no surprise that business owners are leaning towards more secure communication platforms. The Way Businesses Communicate Is Changing Yesterday, the communications company Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD) released its first-quarter report on the current shape of communications in the workplace....

According to a study from the Academy of Management Learning and Education, doling out small rewards to employees and students can keep them more motivated than anything else. After studying the effects of providing credits to students taking an online human resources class, researchers found that four times as many rewarded students engaged with course work compared to their unrewarded counterparts. The reasoning behind this is surprisingly obvious. Providing no rewards obviously has its own downfalls....

However, the Israeli technology startup SoftWheel obviously thought that this was not meant to be taken seriously, so they got to work and actually reinvented the wheel – literally. Their new wheel technology promises to revolutionize the way we see and use wheelchairs, making it possible to conquer bad terrains, descend curbs and even go down stairs. SoftWheel’s patented technology is based on a flexible shock absorption system, which is built into the wheel itself....

According to a brand new study from the Pew Research Center, old people are finally getting the hang of technology. The study found that 42 percent of older adults (age 65 and older) currently own smartphones, compared to 18 percent in 2013. Additionally, 67 percent of seniors use the internet, a 55 percent point increase in less than twenty years, and for the first time in history, half of older Americans now have broadband at home....

At least, that’s the title they’ve just been handed by the tech news site CX Today in the inaugural CX Awards program, aimed at honoring the best of today CRM vendors. Here’s why SugarCRM won, along with the other winners in a few different categories — and Tech.co’s own research into the best customer relationship software out there. The CX Awards A panel composed of “veteran analysts, practitioners, and consultants” picked the winners across ten Awards categories, from a pool of entrants measuring in the hundreds....

The idea came from their first product, Pokki, which solved app access and discovery problems; Pokki brought back the Start menu on Windows devices and popularized an app store for PCs. Additionally, Pokki also opened a new distribution channel for developers. SweetLabs also realized that, unlike app developers which have a host of analytical and monetization tools, there are relatively no service providers focused on OEMs. Further, OEMs still abide by a 1990s model of preloading software onto a device, which ultimately goes ignored by the user....

WiseBanyan helps people save and invest for goals big and small, starting with their first $1 for free. WiseBanyan was also the judges’ favorite and took home the $1K check offered by LaunchKC. The company has shown amazing traction and in doing so attracted several million dollars from investors including VTF Capital and VilCap. Because WiseBanyan has attracted more than the $4M funding cap that we set forth for our Startup of the Year program, they will not be fast-tracked to compete at Innovate!...

Need more funding news? You can get the Tech.Co Deals Roundup sent directly to your inbox by subscribing here. Funding Medium Raises $57M at Estimated $400M Valuation Medium announced yesterday that it raised a whopping $57 million funding round for its content platform. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, which led a similar round last year in an investment in BuzzFeed – another rapidly growing media giant. According to people familiar with Medium, this second funding round for the company places it at a $400 million pre-money valuation....

After getting your nominations and tallying your votes, we are happy to announce the winners of the General Assembly & Tech Cocktail Chicago All-Star 2014 Awards! Best Design: Chitter – The company aggregates and expedites the business or brands evolution to using their consumers content for marketing and promotional purposes. As the connected consumer becomes more and more the norm, traditional marketing becomes less and less effective because the connected consumer is savvy....

However, you would be missing out on some areas that have only recently come to join the ranks of the top startup cities in America. Sure, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston will be on top for a long time to come, but let’s not forget about all of the smaller places that have been inspired by their startup greatness. Popular Mechanics recently released their list of the The 14 Best Startup Cities in America, and you’ll be interested to see that they left off the big hitters....

So what’s a bootstrapper to do? Make your small budget stretch as far as possible with these handy hacks: Optimize Your Blogging Expenses Blogging is technically free, but first – you need a platform to host your blog (for instance if you are launching an app-only solution). Then you’ll need someone to write those blog posts if putting words together isn’t quite your thing. Also don’t forget about adding visuals, formatting and uploading the texts, and most importantly promoting those blog posts afterwards....

However, over-dependence or reliance on these technologies can lead to a decrease in customer satisfaction and a loss in ROI. Finding a perfect balance between human and automated interactions is a necessity in today’s industry. Customer Relationship Management – Commonly referred to as CRM, this is a system of related processes used to track interactions with customers. It is an all-encompassing term that covers any kind of consumer involvement including sales, marketing, service and support....

Perhaps you’re not familiar with this, but blogging can have extraordinary psychological effects on you. Writing about anything that’s on your mind can make you feel a lot better and fill you with joy, especially when you’re writing about something that you genuinely love, such as travelling. However, you should have in mind that not many bloggers make full-time income, as the competition is becoming tougher and tougher every day....

Harness the zeitgeist The Ice Bucket Challenge spread like something much more potent than wildfire. It spread like a meme. In an environment when almost everyone in the world has their social network attached to their hip at all times, videos showing the harmless public humiliation of your friends were bound to catch fire. Active social media users were sucked in immediately, and peer pressure reeled in the reluctant souls who normally use landscapes as profile pictures....