Poncho, the betaworks-backed weather service, has raised $2.4 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed Ventures. Poncho launched out of betaworks the same year as Giphy and Dots, and uses SMS and email to bring the news to you in an entertaining way. The premise is simple.

If you don’t care too much about loyalty programs, chances are that you’ve been relying on platforms like Booking.com and Expedia to find the cheapest flights and hotel rooms. Moneytis wants to do the exact same thing, but for foreign exchange services. TransferWise is arguably the biggest consumer brand in international transfers. Instead of telling your bank to send money to your bank account, you send money to TransferWise first.

Ulysses is one of the most popular apps for writers. It lets you write, edit, organize, sync and export all your writing in a single, unified interface. That’s why it’s interesting to see that it is switching to a subscription-only business model. I’ve already written about Ulysses a few times. It’s a rock-solid, well-designed writing app for iOS and macOS. It relies on Markdown formatting and lets your export your writing to WordPress and Medium — among other things.

Nextdoor, the social media platform for neighborhoods, is rolling out a real estate listings feature, showcasing housing for sale in local communities. The idea is to formalize behavior that’s been happening organically, suggests CEO Nirav Tolia. “These real estate conversations are already happening,” he said, so NextDoor wanted to devote a section to it. The feature isn’t just for those looking to buy homes.

Swarm has been through a lot of changes since it launched in May 2014. The app, which originally debuted as a social utility to let people check-in to locations and meet up with their friends, has since shifted to a gamified location-sharing app. Today, the company is looking to revamp the app once again, with a new focus on lifelogging. So much of our lives is now contained within searchable data.

The war between Airbnb and the hotel industry rages on, and it’s reaching new lows here in New York. A campaign, backed by the Hotel Association of New York City Inc. and the union that represents hotel workers, launched a 10-day, 30-second ad that links Airbnb’s short-term rentals to public security threats.

Calling for room service is kind of annoying, though it’s one of the most first world-type of problems one could have. But that’s just to say the hotel industry is behind, technologically speaking. Startup AavGo is trying to fix that by bringing iPads into hotels to enable hotel staff to communicate among themselves, as well as enable hotel guests to easily communicate with staff — therefore getting rid of the need for room service phone calls and trips to the front desk.

The cicadas rev up as the summer sun bakes the carefully tended lawns of suburban Dublin, Ohio. Houses sit exposed like cattle in the heat, the trees too small to offer a shaded window or cool spot on the driveway so everything is shut tight. The only ones outside for any length of time are the folks cutting grass, fixing awnings, installing cable.

Mystro hopes to put 33 percent more money per year in the pockets of Uber and Lyft drivers through an app. It’s tough out there for on-demand drivers and every second and route counts if they want to hit that bonus or just bring enough home to make the rent. But there’s a bit of an art to maximizing earnings and it takes a while for newbies to get the hang of how it all works.

Fintech startup N26 is trying to build the bank of the future. It is slowly but surely adding features to provide everything you’d expect from a bank. N26 already offers consumer credit loans in Germany if you’re a creditworthy employee. And starting today, N26 users who are self-employed, freelancers, students and more can also request a loan thanks to Auxmoney. If you’re not familiar with Auxmoney, the startup matches individual lenders with individual borrowers.