Jay Donovan

Verifone, FIS and digital payments startup Modo announced a new system that will enable customers to pay for any merchandise they want using only accrued credit/debit loyalty points. The novel…

The main IP of a startup called Cognovi Labs is a tool called Twitris. Twitris uses both human and machine learning to interpret Twitter traffic to predict sentiment. The tool…

TechCrunch first reported on Cognovi Labs back in June when the Dayton, Ohio-based analytics startup correctly predicted the Brexit outcome hours ahead of the final vote. Tonight, the company has…

At its minimalist worst, the Balldur is a cool looking lamp. Smooth wood and ceramic with a bulb that would make Thomas Edison proud, the Balldur (whatever that means) feels…

No, Auto-Trash does not mean wrappers and french fries lingering on the floor of your car. Auto-Trash is a Raspberry Pi-powered trashcan that can automatically sort items by type. It works…

Kinetise, an app building platform and Disrupt hackathon favorite, aims to democratize the the the process of creating native mobile apps for iOS and Android in the enterprise. Using a…

A startup from Columbus called BYLINED is aiming to make it a bit easier for brands and people to come together in a win/win situation resulting in more unique photography.…

This morning, visual learning platform Lifeliqe announced a strategic partnership with HTC to become their provider of educational virtual reality (VR) content for the Vive. Lifeliqe already has many other…

Cognovi Labs is a new analytics startup that relies on Twitris to take a sample of social media chatter to deduce real-time, large-scale, automated sentiment about specific topics. As a…

With the Columbus Dispatch (and many possible runner-up cities) reporting two days ago that Columbus was the winner of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge, official word was…

Dorsal is a mobile app that lets anyone who sees a shark in the ocean file a report (complete with geolocation). The same app can also provide alerts for sightings.…

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting this afternoon that Columbus OH is the winner of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge beating out San Francisco, Austin, Portland, Kansas City,…

I first tried on a prototype of the Basslet wearable subwoofer at SXSW 2016. Built by a Berlin startup called Lofelt and headed by CEO/cofounder Daniel Büttner and CTO/cofounder Gwydion…

I’m usually cautious about Kickstarter campaigns, but when the data looks right I’m encouraged to peer deeper. Haruumi Shiode reached out to me with his CleanTech concept for a product called…

Communication service TextMe is partnering with sponsored wireless data rewards company Aquto to offer a new data loyalty program to TextMe users. According to TextMe’s Chief Revenue Officer Julien Decot…

Lumus—makers of transparent near-to-eye displays for augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR)—announced this morning that they have secured $15 million in a Series B round, led by global private…

Minneapolis-based startup When I Work, secured $15 million in a Series B round led by Drive Capital. Arthur Ventures and High Alpha also participated. This follows a $9 million Series…

Today, Movidius announced that electronics behemoth Lenovo is the latest company to adopt their tiny, low-power (sub-one-watt) Myriad 2 visual processing unit (VPU) “to provide advanced vision processing technology to…

San Francisco-based startup Lifeliqe (pronounced “life like”) debuted and demoed its new virtual reality, educational content experience from the floor of the Augmented World Expo 2016 this week. According to…

Today Magic Leap founder/CEO Rony Abovitz made a new announcement—strangely via remote video feed at Twilio’s SIGNAL developer conference. Magic Leap are planning to integrate Twilio’s tools and services into…

This week I ended up with an advance copy of Influence Central’s new report called Kids & Tech: The Evolution of Today’s Digital Natives. The report details the way kids are using…

Jifiti, the startup attempting to reinvent digital gift-giving, announced this morning that their new chatbot API was approved by Facebook Messenger. It’s a big deal for the Columbus, OH startup,…

The team who brought you gifyoutube.com is back. Having been part of gifs.com for a while, their new tool still lets you convert many video formats into gifs but adds a host of functions…

Movidius has incorporated their Myriad 2 processor into a new USB device called the Fathom Neural Compute Stick. You can plug the Fathom into any USB-capable device and that device…

This morning FLIR Systems announced a new product—the Boson Thermal Core Camera. Regardless of product features, two things interest me about the launch of the Boson. One is the continued…

Healthcare identity startup CrossChx announced this morning that they raised a $15 million Series C financing round from Khosla Ventures, Drive Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, NCT Ventures and Moonshots Capital.…

Unicorn eCommerce startup Klarna and digital payments startup Modo announced a new strategic partnership this morning at Money20/20 Europe. Under the terms of this new partnership Modo will provide Klarna…

F6S, the community and deal platform for startups, announces today that they are launching a new, invite-only membership for select startup founders. Dubbed the Alpha Card, membership includes VIP access…

As lucrative as they may be, I normally find ad tech/marketing tech companies to be pretty boring. However, Clarivoy’s interesting concept catches my attention amidst a sea of marketing tech…

Perlstein Lab, or PLab as it is also known, continues to hone its automated drug discovery platform and presents its latest iteration Wednesday March 23rd at Y Combinator Demo Day.…