FanDuel Raised An Additional $275 Million
Only days after Yahoo officially launched its long awaited daily fantasy component, one of the original powerhouses in the growing "daily" market has made a move of its own. FanDuel, a New York-based company that has been a dominant force in the daily fantasy conversation since its inception, announced that it has closed $275 million in Series E financing. Private equity firm KKR, Google Capital, Time Warner Investments and Turner Sports led the round, along with a crowded field of re-investors. The company, who has been a chief rival for Boston-based daily fantasy giant DraftKings, has now raised $363 million in total. >>> Read more here - Hayden Bird
InsightSquared Relocates From Cambridge to Boston
Yet another tech company is moving across the river: Sales analytics provider InsightSquared (HubSpot Mafia) just announced it’s relocating from Cambridge to Boston this September. The new two-floor open-layout office, which is located at 4 Copley Place, is 45,000 square feet—triple the size of the company’s existing location, which it moved into just over a year ago. Apparently, the move is being made to accommodate the company’s continued growth: InsightSquared has more than doubled its headcount in the past 12 months. The company is currently hiring across all departments. — Rebecca Strong
Boston-Based Pavlok Wins a Week on Richard Branson’s Private Island
Over the course of the past eight months, a slew of companies have been selling their products on the Shopify platform to compete in the firm’s Build a Business Competition—and now, the top six stores that sold the most over a two-month period have been named the winners. Among them is Pavlok, a wearable tech startup trying to help people break bad habits by delivering subtle shocks. The grand prize? A trip on a private jet to Necker Island in the Caribbean. There, they’ll be getting mentoring from none other than Sir Richard Branson, Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, Daymond John and Marie Forleo, among others. — Rebecca Strong
Steep Road in 2015 Remains Balanced Against the Future
How true are the prognostications of doom? Avoiding, if only for a moment, the short term news cycle that all-too-often engulfs many regular Boston baseball observers, it becomes clear that the Red Sox are actually not in terrible shape. Still, it probably means that this season is going to be a wash (an infuriating notion for local fans who watched a similar spectacle only a year ago). >>> Read more on BostInno – Hayden Bird
Rue La La's New Chief Technology Officer
Rue La La is bringing in a new CTO—Anthony Accardi—according to a source with knowledge of the hire. Accardi comes from the Providence-based restaurant analytics company Swipely (he was the first employee), which just did some layoffs in May. Rue La La's former CTO, Susan Standiford, left in May to join London-based Zeal, a company specializing in online lottery. It's worth noting that GSI Commerce—which has held onto a 30 percent stake in Rue La La—is up for sale. This time last year, Rue was reportedly considering a potential merger with Gilt Groupe, another online flash deal site. (For more of this kind of news, you'll want to be a Beat subscriber) – Rebecca Strong
Bridj Expands to Cover More of Brighton
According to Bridj, the pop-up bus service that uses big data to determine the most efficient ways to pick people up and drop them off at certain locations, "on August 3, Bridj will be expanding to cover a much larger portion of Brighton due to the success of our initial expansion into the neighborhood a little more than a month ago. Brighton has been one of our fastest growing neighborhoods." Bridj has also been welcomed warmly in its second home, Washington D.C., which has led the city to identify itself as a transit hub. – Nick DeLuca
