Startup Shutdown: RIP

Startup shutdown: In a case of crowdfunding disaster, Kanoa shuts after startup taking customers’ money – Kanoa, a Silicon Valley based startup promised a crowdfunded campaign to give music lovers state-of-the-art wireless earphones. However, it is shutting shop, joining the ranks of crowd-funded companies that took customers’ money and shut down without shipping a product.

Fin-tech startup Finomena shuts down after failing to raise funding – Finomena, a startup which provided small ticket loans to students and young professionals, has shut down after failing to raise pre-Series A funding round.Finomena, a finance technology startup which provided micro loans to students and young professionals, has shut down its operations. The company has shut down as it was not able to attract investors for its pre-Series A funding round. The company is now no longer accepting new users on its website. In March 2016, the company had raised its seed funding round from notable private equity firm Matrix Partners. Apart from Matrix Partners, it was backed by angel investors from industries like banking, NBFC, MFI and global hedge funds.



Startup shutdown: Virtual Hangouts Startup AltspaceVR faces Slow VR Growth – The technologies behind Virtual and Augmented reality are advancing at a fast pace and there is a lot of hype in the sector. However, the business models to leverage the emerging technologies are yet to mature. Despite advances in virtual reality technology and plenty of hype, the medium has yet to take off in the way its advocates envision.



DVR Startup Simple TV Shuts Down – Really Simple Software, the Bay Area-based startup best known for making Simple TV , a DVR that catered to cord cutters, is shutting down. The company informed Simple TV owners with an email Saturday that it will wind down the service by August 4.”Unfortunately, we are unable to move the company forward or continue to operate the services required to keep our systems online,” the email reads in part. “This means that you will no longer be able to record or play content using your Simple.TV device.”

Music sharing site Lisn shutdown – In a recent medium blog post, Abhinav Chhikara, Designer and co-founder of @LisnApp announced that the venture was shutting down too.Lisn went from a hackathon ‘side-project’ to a full-time gig when friends – Abheyraj Singh, Vibhas Jain, Abhinav Chhikara, and Bhargav Sosale – realized its potential. The idea was rather simple: Music recommendation on mobile apps requires sending URL links and jumping between apps.

Funding shut

Kleiner Perkins Shuts Down Its Seed Venture Fund – Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers shut its seed investing program, a two year-old effort to get the venture capital firm back into the potentially lucrative field of early-stage startup investing. All three partners who ran the $4 million KPCB Edge program, Anjney Midha, Roneil Rumburg and Ruby Lee, departed in recent weeks, a spokeswoman for the firm said. There are no immediate plans to hire new early-stage experts to replace the trio. Instead, existing partners at Kleiner Perkins will evaluate and invest in seed deals as part of their daily duties, she said.

500 Canada to shut down fund investments following Dave McClure scandal – The letter, obtained by BetaKit, states that 500 Canada was in the process of securing $25 million in “imminent commitments” from Canadian institutional LPs. However, the recent allegations of 500 Startups founder Dave McClure’s sexual misconduct, and subsequent resignation, essentially torpedoed the fund’s investment goals. BetaKit has received confirmation of the decision by 500 Canada but no official comment.