Even Financial raises $18.8M Series A funding round
On Tuesday, Even Financial announced it had secured its Series A round to the tune of $18.8 million. Even Financial, founded in 2015, helps financial institutions connect consumers with personalized products and financial recommendations. GreatPoint Ventures led the round, with Goldman Sachs, Canaan Partners, F-Prime Capital and Lerer Hippeau Ventures, among others, contributing. This latest funding continues an exciting year for Even: the company received a $3 million investment earlier this year, and expanded its partnership with Credit.com shortly after. This latest funding round will be used to continue expanding these types of partnerships, particularly with credit card companies. [Read More]
MoviePass says they are here to stay — but there’s a catch
The past few weeks have been filled with evident turmoil for startup MoviePass — the fan-favorite service that allows subscribers to see a movie a day for just $10 a month. After borrowing emergency funds and facing large-scale stock losses, many were concerned that the subscription service was nearing its end of days. Now, the company has assured consumers that it will remain up and running — with a few new rules in place. Rather than change the monthly fee, MoviePass is setting a limit of three movies a month per user. The company reports that 85 percent of users see three or fewer movies month, so in theory this shouldn’t affect too many people — now we’ll just have to see how it affects MoviePass’s bottom line. [Read More]
Ride-sharing companies drop millions on lobbying efforts ahead of City Hall vote
In an effort to curb the congestion caused by ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, New York City Council is slated to approve a measure that would create a cap on the number of new ride-sharing licenses issued each year. Needless to say, ride-sharing companies aren’t taking this news lightly, and are opening their wallets in an effort to change City Hall’s mind. Originally, Uber and Lyft offered the city a $100 million “hardship fund” to be split among NYC taxi drivers, in exchange for the regulatory measures to be dropped. City council firmly rejected the proposition, but the New York Post reports that the ride-sharing companies have spent millions on lobbying efforts — including consultants, lawyers and more — in an effort to sway the hearts of City Hall. [Read More]
Dynamic Yield raises $32M Series D funding round
Dynamic Yield, the NYC tech firm that helps marketers around the world personalize their campaigns, announced the closure of a $32 million Series D round earlier this week. Viola Growth led the round, with Union Tech Ventures also participating. Since Dynamic Yield’s founding in 2011, the company has raised more than $77 million in total funding and has shown a consistent pattern of growth. In a statement to Crunchbase News, CEO Liad Agmon said of his company, “When we built Dynamic Yield, we built it from the very get-go to be a technology that will be used by product teams and engineering teams to create a better framework for their marketers to be able to launch campaign at scale. Our technology can support very sophisticated use cases in a much more elegant way.” [Read More]
Letgo receives $500M commitment from investor Naspers
Since its launch in 2015, Letgo has shown no signs of slowing down. Now, the mobile marketplace for buying and selling clothes, furniture and more just announced a commitment from Naspers worth $500 million. Firms on both side of the deal sound incredibly excited, with Naspers citing Legto’s extreme potential and Letgo indicating plans to accelerate growth. In a statement on the funding, Legto co-founder Alec Oxenford said, “We are fueling unprecedented growth in the secondhand economy through meaningful innovation. Our app makes it simple for tens of millions of buyers and sellers to connect in their own neighborhoods so they can put more money in their pockets, declutter their lives and put their space to better use.” [Read More]
