This post covers new startups funded during Week 52 of 2017 (December 25th – 31st), and Week 1 of 2018 (January 1st -7th).

A whopping $2,173,997,144 in funding was raised by 102 startups on our list. Suning Finance,  one of the top leading financial groups in China, led the rounds by raising almost $827M in venture funding. Seventy four (74) of the 102 startups on this list chose to use a .com domain name, representing almost 72% of the list; a percentage greater than we’ve seen in past weeks. We have 1 .net and 1 .org domain each, while 24 startups chose a ccTLd. Two new gTLD domains also graced our list: 1 .events and 1 .tech.

First up, we’ll highlight the 20-year old one-word domain, Handful.com. Though not super premium, the domain is decent. Given the comparative prices of similar domains, I won’t be surprised if this company paid 4-5 figures to upgrade from their initial Handfulinc.com. The company, Handful, is an activewear company “that supports you grabbing life by the handful.” However, in my opinion, the correlation between the name ‘Handfu’l and activewear is a little blurred. Next up, we have Akiri.com. The name itself makes a really nice 5L brandable domain name. And, the company works on building trusted networks for health data.

Here is our list:

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Happy New Year! I didn’t post for the past two weeks as I went on vacation. The new year met my family and I on the sandy beaches of Aruba. We loved it! It’s a lovely place to visit. But, for this reason, this post will cover new startups funded during Week 51 of 2017 (December 18th – 24th).

More than 82 startups raised a sum greater than $551,659,726 in funding. The funding rounds was led by Niido, who raised $200M in venture funding. Niido by Airbnb is a brand of residential complexes that will be built as a result of a collaboration between Airbnb and a Florida-based development group. Of the 82 startups on today’s list, 54 of them chose to launch with a dot-com domain name, accounting for about 66%. Twenty (20) startups chose a ccTLd, while we have 1 dot-net, and 1 dot-org domain. As for new gTLDs, we have one domain each of the following: .bio, .care, .exchange, .marketing, .pro, and .solutions.

First up, we’ll highlight the 20-year old domain, EMQ.com. Wholesale, LLL.com domain names sell in the low to mid 5 figures; while retail they can go from mid 5 to low 6 figures. Although there is no recorded information about EMQ.com in Namebio.com, I won’t be surprised if the price paid for the domain fell somewhere in these ranges. EMQ is an app to make sending money internationally easier. Next up, we have ScaleFast.com. This verb-adjective combination makes a decent brandable. ScaleFast provides ecommerce solutions that allow businesses to grow globally. Finally, we have OutboundWorks.com, a domain that was first registered in 2017. Simply put, OutboundWorks provides outbound solutions for sales teams. 

Here is our list:

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More than 108 startups raised north of $762,327,614 in funding last week. Chinese AI chip maker, Think Force, led the funding round by raising just over $68M in Series A funding. Eighty (80) of the 108 startups on our list chose to launch with dot-com domain names, 2 startups chose dot-net domain names, while we have 1 dot-org domain. Moreover, 21 companies launched with a ccTLD, and we have four ngTLD domains; a dot-farm, a dot-systems, a dot-tech, and a dot-works.

By far the best domain on this week’s list is Loot.com, belonging to a British-based online publications company. The domain has a 1997 creation date, and might have been purchased by the current company in 2016. Next up, we have Descript.com, which definitely isn’t the greatest single word dot-com domain, but it works for the company. Descript is an audio processing platform. This is another domain that may have been acquired by the company’s founder in 2016.  Finally, we have Friss.com, which sold for $10K on Uniregistry back in July. For some reason, this 5L domain name attracted me. And although the word has no relationship with any English words (other than being one letter away from ‘frisk’), the word does have some meaning in some western European languages. Since the Dutch-based “fraud, risk and compliance” company just raised a cool €15M in Series A funding, I’d say that they bought their matching dot-com domain for a very nice price.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Here’s this weeks list:

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At least 85 startups raised more than $599,349,113 in funding last week. Altus Power raised a signifiant $150M in Venture funding. As the name suggests, the company is an energy company, but with a specific focus on renewable energy and solar power projects. Surprisingly, of the 84 startups, only 48 of the companies launched with a dot-com domain name, that is only 57%.  Thirty two (32) startups launched with a ccTLD, and we have one domain each of the following categories: dot-biz, dot-org, dot-car, dot-tech.

We’ve finally stumbled upon a week with multiple startups using single word dot-com domain names. Granted, they are not the most popular single words on the block, but we’ll take it. First up, we have Cedar.com, a domain first registered in 1997, and is being used by the company, Cedar, who helps hospital systems improve their patient payment/billing systems. Next up, we have Burrow.com, another well-aged domain with a 1996 creation date. Burrow is an innovative couch company, setting trends for creating customizable couches that are delivered directly to homes. The company seemed to have purchased the domain in the last 1-3 years. Finally, we have Inflect.com, which is a “platform for buying and selling internet infrastructure.”

Here’s this weeks list:

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