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All posts by Akinyemi Ogunsanya

Akin is a writer at Technesstivity since June 2011 covering the use of technology in everyday life ranging from entertainment to business. A native of Lagos, Nigeria, he is a business economics student at the University of Liverpool. He has a knack for the role of venture-capital in funding innovative companies. He aspires to one day be a venture capitalist and investor. When in his spare time, the could be seen writing articles, reading books, listening to music, working on student radio and socialising with friends.

Uber

Posted On July 25, 2014By Akinyemi OgunsanyaIn Business, Top Stories

Uber Launches in Lagos

Silicon Valley car service company, Uber launched in Lagos this week.  Lagos is the fourth African city and the 145th city in the world where the startup is launching in since its founding in 2009. This follows the recent launch of the company in Hong Kong earlier in the week. Initially, the service will be available on the Island and will have limited cars running for the meantime. Ice Prince became their first customer, and with that launched Uber in Lagos. Lagos — the commercial capital of Nigeria, and one of the biggest cities in the worldRead More
Google Ventures logo

Posted On July 14, 2014By Akinyemi OgunsanyaIn Business, Top Stories

Google Ventures launches in London with $100 million

Google Ventures, the venture capital arm of Google has announced its expansion into London. The firm which was launched in 2009 in order to expose Google to some of the technology world’s hottest startups. The fund will have an initial funding of $100 million with the aim of investing in European startups that criss-cross Western Europe – London, Paris, Berlin and the Nordics. The fund will have 4 general partners with Eze Vidra, Google Campus’ manager in London leading the pack. He will be supported by  Tom Hulme, a serial entrepreneur,Read More
TKR-Blog

Posted On June 10, 2014By Akinyemi OgunsanyaIn Business

Transferwise raises $25M; Thiel and Branson Invest

Transferwise, a London-based money transfer startup has landed $25M from a consortium of investors. The investors include Peter Thiel’s internationally focused venture fund, Valar Ventures, Sir Richard Branson, Index Ventures and IA Ventures. The money transfer startup established by one of the co-founders of Skype was founded in 2011. It plans to use the investment to further improve its service and expand its low-cost international transfer offering to to new countries. Transferwise bills itself as the cheapest way to send money abroad. The investment is a seal of approval on theRead More
Etsy

Posted On April 24, 2014By Akinyemi OgunsanyaIn Business, Fashion

Etsy acquires Grand Street

Etsy – the New York based online marketplace for independent businesses and the maker movement, has made a move into indie electronics. It has just announced the acquisition of Grand Street, a Brooklyn-based startup. Grand Street bills itself as the marketplace for creative technology. The terms of the deal are “subject to closing conditions.” Grand Street states that: Simply put: the rise of the individual, small-batch maker is changing product development, production and commerce. The process of making physical goods is shifting as consumers are more interested in unique and personalizedRead More
Carousel

Posted On April 14, 2014By Akinyemi OgunsanyaIn Business, Mobile, Top Stories

Dropbox Launches Carousel For Photo Storage

Fresh off its funding round and new investors, the red-hot online storage Dropbox has launched a new app named Carousel. Carousel is a photo-oriented app which makes it easy to store, save and share pictures with friends and family. Dropbox describes Carousel as: a gallery for all the photos and videos from your life. It combines the photos in your Dropbox with the photos on your phone, and automatically backs up new ones as you take them. Carousel sorts all these memories by event so you can easily travel backRead More
Windows 8.1

Posted On April 3, 2014By Akinyemi OgunsanyaIn Design, Top Stories

Microsoft Unveils Windows 8.1 Updates

  After suffering widespread consumer backlash regarding the sudden change in the design of the new Windows 8, Microsoft has finally succumbed. Recently appointed CEO, Satya Nadella unveiled the updates at Microsoft’s Build Developer conference. First impressions of the updates on Twitter seem mixed as highlighted by users: Microsoft is doing many of the right things to prep itself for the future. But the future is arriving faster than it’s doing some of them. — Harry McCracken (@harrymccracken) April 2, 2014 Windows update aimed at keyboard and mouse users: MicrosoftRead More
Airbnb

Posted On March 23, 2014By Akinyemi OgunsanyaIn Business

Airbnb Seeks $400M In Funding At Valuation Close To $10B

Popular San Francisco based company Airbnb is reported to be raising over $400M according to the WSJ in late stage funding. The website, which enables users to rent and occupy rooms and houses has experienced tremendous growth in the past two years with over 600,000 properties of which over 600 are castles, available in over 34,000 cities and 192 countries. The late stage venture round is reportedly spearheaded by the the private equity firm TPG capital  could value the company as high as $10B. Putting it in context, the companyRead More

Posted On March 14, 2014By Akinyemi OgunsanyaIn Business, Top Stories

Eventbrite Raises $50 Million; joins $1 Billion Club

Popular San Francisco-based reservation site, Eventbrite has raised $60 million at a valuation of $1 billion according to Fortune Magazine. Headed by Julia and Kevin Hartz, the company aims to be the largest marketplace for tickets is . The funding was raised from Tiger Global Management, one of the most successful hedge funds in the world, and T. Rowe Price – a large mutual fund. The company has hit a growth spurt with gross ticket sales of $1 billion last year. The 8 year-old firm has recently made big changesRead More
Bing Logo

Posted On February 12, 2014By Akinyemi OgunsanyaIn Business

Bing Adds Bitcoin Conversion To Search Results

In an apparent boost for crypto-currency, Bitcoin, Microsoft has included the functionality for the value conversion of Bitcoin to other currencies. This comes at a crossroad for the currency with the recent arrest of Charlie Shrem, a prominent person in the community and Apple’s recent removal of the popular Bitcoin wallet Blockchain. As for now, the functionality is limited to the US, UK, Australia, Canada and India. The conversion functionality is available in 50 currencies from dollars to euros. Microsoft further states that: As Bitcoin (the peer-to-peer payment system and digitalRead More
dropbox-logos_dropbox-logotype-blue

Posted On January 20, 2014By Akinyemi OgunsanyaIn Business, Top Stories

Dropbox Raises Series C Funding, Worth $10 Billion

Things have got a little better for Silicon Valley online storage company, Dropbox. It recently raised $250 million from outside investors valuing the firm at a cool $10 billion. The deal was led by a division of BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest investor with over $4 trillion (yes, $4 trillion) in assets under management. The funds from the Series C round go towards their on-going product development in enterprise software which promises to be a money maker for the firm. According to the Wall Street Journal,  Dropbox made about $200Read More