Rebecca Grant

Hi! I am Rebecca. You may also find my name spelled as Bekah. It’s a long story. I write about startups and entrepreneurship for VentureBeat and head up the deals channel.

Before VentureBeat, I studied English and Art History at Cornell and wrote for a slew of magazines. I joined the Peace Corps in 2009 and served as an education volunteer in rural Thailand, followed by many adventures in Southeast Asia. I returned to the US to find that everyone had a smartphone and there was a thing called “The Cloud.” I moved to San Francisco and found myself in the middle of a vibrant and exciting startup scene. I love to hear about innovative ideas, interesting stories, and technology that is having an genuine and meaningful impact on the world.

In my spare time, I can generally be found gallivanting around the Mission in San Francisco. My favorite things (in no particular order) are yoga, ice cream, pandas, travel, dancing, picnics, wine, and art.

Disclosure: I fully embrace and abide by VentureBeat’s ethics statement.


stories by Rebecca Grant

Valet protects you from parking tickets with Google’s new location API (exclusive)

24 hours after Google released three location tools for its app developers, startups are already integrating the APIs into their products. The founders of Valet stayed up all night to get the brand new API into their parking app as quickly as possible.

Nevahold rallies angry customers on social media to make their voices heard (exclusive)

Nevahold is a platform where people can 'crowd source' their social media accounts put more weight behind their customer service complaints.

Skyword takes off with $6.7M for content marketing

Skyword has announced closing $6.7 million in growth financing for its content marketing solutions. This Boston-based startup provides agencies, brands, media, and retail customers with a platform to publish content and tools to distribute it effectively.

Abbey Post challenges fashion’s ‘thin’ obsession using social e-commerce (exclusive)

Abbey Post is a fashion marketplace that brings social e-commerce to the plus-size community. The company just released a totally rebuilt version of the site, which now features an internal social network and expanded inventory

Funding Daily: Into the darkness

What do Star Trek and startups have in common? Enterprise and Data play a role in both and nerds everywhere get excited about any news surrounding these topics. Here is today's round up of funding news. Nerds.

Y Combinator adds five new partners to guide its startups towards success

Y Combinator welcomed five new partners to its elite cabal today and said goodbye to one.

SAP boosts startup fund by 2.6X to stimulate big data innovation

is more than doubling its commitment to the SAP HANA Real Time Fund, going from $155 million to $405 million, to support innovation surrounding real-time applications and big data.

Twitter cofounder raises money from Jack Dorsey, Bono, Al Gore for mysterious startup Jelly

In a blog post today, Biz Stone announced closing a funding round led by Spark Capital with participation from SV Angel. An elite group of individual investors also contributed, including Jack Dorsey, Bono, Reid Hoffman, Steven Johnson, Evan Williams, Al Gore, Greg Yaitanes, and Roya Mahboob.

Marqeta raises $14M to bring ‘Starbucks-type loyalty to every merchant’

Loyalty and payments startup Marqeta has raised $14 million from Greylock IL, Granite Ventures, and Commerce Ventures. The company also announced that it will power the Facebook Card.

JOOR modernizes wholesale buying for biggest names in fashion

JOOR is using software to make the journey from runway to retail stores as smooth as walking down a catwalk. The company is on track to do more than $350 million in transactions in 2013, which is more than three times the amount from 2012.

Vend raises $6.5M for dongle-free point-of-sale solution

New Zealand based Vend raises $6.5 million for its software that integrates with existing point-of-sale systems to bring them into the cloud.

New incubator seeks startups using Google Glass ‘to push humanity forward’

Stained Glass Labs is a group of entrepreneurs, mentors, and early adopters who are forming an incubator program for companies building on wearable computing like Glass.

Andreessen Horowitz’s first investment Apptio closes $45M fifth round

Back in 2009, Apptio was famed venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz's first investment. Today Apptio announced closing a $45 million fifth round of funding, bringing the company's total to $136 million.

Versus IO pulls in $2.8M from Earlybird VC, Dave McClure to compare things

Berlin-based Versus IO has closed its first round of $2.8 million. The comparison engine represents McClure's first investment in a German startup.

Ticketfly unveils ‘first of its kind’ products to identify and reward top fans

Ticketfly unveiled its latest product Fanbase, a suite of customer analytics products that founder Andrew Dreskin said is a first of its kind. Venues and event promoters can use Fanbase to identify their top fans and offer them rewards for loyalty.

UGallery hits growth milestones as art sales move online (exclusive)

Online art gallery UGallery announced today that it now has over 500 artists in its community and 6,000 original pieces of art in its marketplace- "the biggest numbers today for an all-original art focused startup."

Collegefeed rolls out career marketplace nationwide to help students find jobs

Founded by Google's former Head of Products, Collegefeed is a social network that brings together students and employers to improve the hiring process.

Loop’s iOS app collects customer feedback, before you rant on Yelp

Loop launched today to help businesses get customer feedback in the moment using quick, five-question surveys.

Momentum debuts ‘first ever’ equity-free mobile accelerator program (exclusive)

Mobile Monday, an international organization that supports the mobile community, Momentum debuted its program today that offers a free twelve week program to support promising mobile startups.

RelayRides acquires Wheelz to zoom ahead in car-sharing race

Today, car sharing startup RelayRides announced that it has acquired competitor Wheelz to accelerate its growth.