Technology

French startup Skello just raised a $6.9 million funding round (€6 million) from Aglaé Ventures, XAnge, Jean-Baptiste Rudelle and existing investors Thomas Landais, Guillaume le Dieu de Ville and Gilles Blanchard.

The startup is helping bar, restaurant and hotel managers keep track of all the shifts and staffing issues. Skello uses a software-as-a-service approach to help you save time on pesky admin tasks.

After setting up your rules, you can easily generate shifts. Waiters, receptionists and other staff members receive their schedule via email and SMS. Employees can also request shift changes, say when they&re unavailable and make sure everything is taken into account.

At the end of the month, Skello can generate detailed reports with bonuses, leaves, etc. Everything is then exported to payroll solutions. And of course, Skello helps you visualize how much you&re spending on staff, if you&re keeping costs under control and more.

There are many companies trying to do the same thing. But in reality many bars and restaurants still rely on Excel. Chances are it works quite well if you&re running a small business. But it doesn&t scale well. 30,000 employees are now using Skello every day. Alain Ducasse, Planet Sushi and AccorHotels& Ibis are using Skello.

With todayfunding round, the company first wants to expand to new categories, such as retail and healthcare. Skello then plans to expand to other European countries.

The latest Razer Blade, while impressive and gorgeous, is nevertheless an expensive gaming laptop. That’s why Razer has just announced a more affordable, baseline version of the 15-inch Blade laptop with new features for a more palatable $1,599 (about £1,215, AU$2,250) and is available right now.

This version of the Razer Blade looks nearly

The gaming-centric Razer Phone 2 is official, and it brings a range of minor upgrades over the original Razer Phone.

Razer doesn't want you thinking about its new handset as a gaming phone though. Rather, it claims this is a flagship smartphone that also happens to be an excellent gaming machine.

With a 5.7-inch UltraMotion display with a 120Hz