Tech Crawl: Will Twilio break the tech IPO drought?
Good morning, Austin! It's a newsy day, with the Brexit referendum finally here and continuing chaos on the House floor. Lots happening in the tech world too. Here's what's happening.
It's been a tough year for tech companies seeking to go public. But San Francisco-based Twilio has stormed through the gate, raising $150 million late Wednesday night. That's 50 percent more than initially expected.
The cloud communications startup is only the third IPO of the year, and 2016 is expected to be the worst year for technology IPOs in terms of deals and dollar amount since 2009.
As it ramps up its challenge to major Internet service providers, Google Fiber is buying a small high-speed fiber Internet player.
Google Fiber says it will acquire Webpass, a San Francisco-based company founded in 2003. So far, Webpass only serves five cities (Austin isn't one of them).
The move away from traditional passwords, which are hard to remember and easy to hack, is enabling a growing share of American banking customers to use fingerprints to log into their bank accounts through their mobile phones.
And as more phones incorporate fingerprint scans, millions more customers are expected to make the shift.
