Latest news with #Pelion
The Guardian
09-05-2025
- The Guardian
‘The softest white sand and crystal-clear water': readers' favourite beaches in Europe
While staying on the northern Pelion peninsula in Greece we made our way by foot along the coast path to Paralia Fakistra beach, which is only accessible via a walk in from local villages along the coast. The white pebble beach is backed by a freezing cold waterfall, which cools you down after the dusty, challenging coast path route. The crystal-blue water is home to lots of sea life and snorkelling was joyous. One of the attractions that keeps visitor numbers down is that there are no cafes or bars or even shade, so I recommend taking a light parasol and some cool drinks, but keep your load light as the walk can get hot, especially along the coast path from nearby Damouchari, another great beach spot on the Astley Our favourite beach in Europe is Plage de Péru in Corsica. It can be reached by a pleasant downhill walk from the Greek village of Cargèse. However, we were lucky enough to have direct access from the Hotel Thalassa, a simple and sleepy hotel with balconies and a leafy garden facing the turquoise waters. There may be better beaches in Corsica but we love this one as it's perfect for swimming and never seems to get busy. You can spend a day walking from the beach to the local Genoese tower, then return and grab a seat at one of the beach pailottes where you can eat or drink watching the Guardian Travel readers' tips Every week we ask our readers for recommendations from their travels. A selection of tips will be featured online and may appear in print. To enter the latest competition visit the readers' tips homepage - The Cyclades island of Naxos has stunning beaches everywhere but there's nothing like Kastraki. It has the softest white sand, which extends under the stunning, crystal-clear water that sometimes is the lightest blue, and sometimes turquoise. Perfect for swimming as it's never too still to be boring, rarely too wavy to be dangerous. The best thing about Kastraki is that depending on where you want to be, you can have wild and deserted or you can have busy. Go towards the south - but this applies to most of the beach really - for several miles of glorious peacefulness, where you'll hear nothing but the sea. If you like good low-key services, go to the north bit, right next to the little headland. You'll find some sunbeds and a great taverna right on the sand. The whole place is pure bliss; the only way you can top it is if you stay to watch the sunset, then catch some cocktail vibes in the beach bar 100 metres back next to the marsh, then dinner in the beach's little We had a wonderful week in Les Sables d'Olonne in the Vendée last year. The town has plenty of sites to see - the shell museum was well worth a trip – and there are many seafood restaurants to choose from and everything you'd expect from a well-loved, mainly French-visited seaside resort. The main beach (La Grande Plage) is extremely popular with everyone, and has beignet- and glace-sellers and beach volleyball. However, we found ourselves gravitating to the less busy Plage de la Paracou, smaller and more rugged with no tourist trappings and the most wonderful sunsets where we were at times one of only a handful of people on the sands as far as could be seen. There was also a fantastic small open-air bar just over the dune, which had great live acoustic music and drinks a few nights a week. Dolly From the classic hilltop town of Motovun in the beautiful Istrian countryside it's a relaxed 40-mile (60km) drive to Brestova and the winding, sloping road to the slipway. Sea-spray on the brief ferry-ride across to Porozina on Cres island gives way to a heat-hazy road-cruise down the island, crossing on to Lošinj over the rotating bridge at the impossibly pretty village of Osor (population 26). Heading south another 12 miles or so we reached pine-shaded Mali Lošinj for basking on rocks and plunging from them into deep, clear de Brunner Either side of Ystad (of Wallander fame) on the southern tip of Sweden, you'll find several unspoiled stretches of soft white sand. To the east is Sandhammaren, a seemingly endless ribbon of gold fringed by forest. To the west, there are shorter stretches of sand punctuated by the odd restaurant or cafe for fika and separated from civilisation by grassy dunes. One day last August, my boyfriend and I cycled (along dedicated cycle paths) from Ystad to the wonderful Skateholm Strand, stopping off at several more beautiful beaches along the way. As the Swedish school holidays had finished, we practically had the place to Sign up to The Traveller Get travel inspiration, featured trips and local tips for your next break, as well as the latest deals from Guardian Holidays after newsletter promotion One of the best beaches for adventurous souls has to be Playa de Güigüí on the west coast of Gran Canaria. It has wild, remote beauty and is only reached by a long, invigorating hike through steep, rocky terrain. Be sure to set off early with lunch and plenty of water packed as there is nothing close by at all. After the trek with stunning views, you will be rewarded with clear, gentle waves for a much-needed swim and stretches of secluded sand all to The beaches of the town of Tropea are framed by the Sanctuary Santa Maria dell Isola and cliffs and houses high above. The turquoise water is the clearest I've seen in Calabria. Tropea is so friendly, beautiful, delicious, affordable – what a delight. The B&Bs we've stayed in there all are full of warm Italian hospitality. Eating out is reasonably priced and restaurants offer superb menus, as always. David innes-wilkin I've been lucky enough to spend several summers at Kadikalesi beach, tucked away on the Bodrum peninsula. Easy to reach by dolmuş (minibus), it's a peaceful hideaway. Mornings drift by with gentle swims and coffee sips by the water's edge, and I like to spend afternoons lounging under olive trees to the lull of soft waves. Local cafes serve fresh lahmacun and pide (a kind of Turkish pizza), kofte (meatballs) and frothy ayran (yoghurt drink). Best of all are the evenings, when the sky blushes pink and orange over the Aegean, and the whole world seems to slow down – I can't imagine a summer without Ann The train from Barcelona deposits its passengers right on the shore of Sant Pol de Mar's harbour. The sound of gently bobbing rigging and the whiff of seafood drifts somewhere from the village, where the promise of a splendid lunch awaits. The Playa el Morer is reached on foot along a curving bay after which frazzled city-dwellers dig their heels in that hot, inviting amber sand and bliss out with siestas and the occasional dip. Sant Pol, it seems, exists to mend broken hearts, heal the soul and is a place where all is well in the
TechCrunch
06-05-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Agree.com raises $7.2M to take on Docusign, Bill.com with AI
says its AI-powered e-signature platform is different from competitors because it includes invoicing and payment processing. That's why the company might have a shot at tackling the industry goliath, Docusign. Because the startup makes its money from transaction fees for any money movement facilitated by its platform, has made e-signatures free to all users. And now it's raised a $7.2 million seed round, the company tells TechCrunch exclusively. Founded in February 2024, Agree also raised $3 million in a pre-seed round of funding last year led by Sheel Mohnot, general partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures. This latest financing was oversubscribed and led by Tyler Hogge at Pelion Venture Partners, according to co-founder CEO Marty Ringlein. Funding for the raise only took two weeks, according to a source familiar with the transaction. uses AI on top of optimal character recognition (OCR) software so that it can auto-detect and label all of a contract's input fields and signature blocks. Its technology can also identify and extract 'any and all' payment terms to dynamically generate invoices. 'At the end of almost every signature, someone has to pay someone money,' Ringlein told TechCrunch. 'We combine what has historically been a disjointed and fragmented workflow to make signing better and payments faster.' Because of its multitasking approach, Ringlein believes that can potentially replace traditional e-signature software and invoicing and accounts receivable tools such as Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | BOOK NOW 'Agree extracts every character, indentation, semi-colon, and hyphen to not only understand the type of contract being signed, but make it fully editable and collaborative with commenting, redlining, and version control,' Ringlein told TechCrunch. Although it primarily competes with Docusign, Agree's business model is a fintech company through B2B payments. So far, its trajectory seems promising. In its first three months, after launching in early September 2024, it hit 10,000 users. Seven weeks later, it doubled to over 20,000 users. Today, it has over 25,000 users, including ad networks such as Beehiv and Product Hunt, B2B SaaS startups such as Rho and TaxGPT, and enterprise sales teams like Brico and Thoropass, it says. Agree offers a premium offering for larger teams that charges a traditional monthly SaaS fee per seat. It also will monetize invoicing and billing logic on transaction volume. Presently, Agree has seven employees, including co-founders Will Hubbard (COO) and Evan Dudla (CTO). All of the founders have launched and sold multiple previous startups. Ringlein, for instance, previously sold design agency nclud to Twitter in May, 2012, for an undisclosed amount. In 2016, Ringlein, Dudla and Agree's CPO Michael Dick sold a startup called nvite to Eventbrite. In 2020, that trio also sold Gather to Brex Hubbard started his first company, air quality monitory startup ChemiSense, as a junior at UC Berkeley. He ran it for about six years and sold it to Kaiterra in 2019. Hubbard then started his next company, Niche (verticalized community marketplaces), shortly thereafter, and it was acquired by Opera Event in 2020. More recently, Hubbard and Ringlein also started early-stage venture firm Adventure Fund, which has invested in the likes of Mercury and beehiiv. As for the growth plan for Agree, Pelion Partner Tyler Hogge told TechCrunch that 'the smartest way to get massive adoption would be to use e-signature as the wedge, give it away for free, and make it impossible for incumbents to reply.' Hogge added that Agree's 'business model is truly unique: free software, monetized through invoicing and payments.' Blank Ventures also participated in the seed round, along with angel investor Gokul Rajaram. All existing backers, including Better Tomorrow Ventures, 8-Bit Capital, Sophia Amoruso's Trust Fund, Hustle Fund, Everywhere Ventures, Singh Capital Partners and Firsthand VC doubled down on their investment. While the company primarily operates in the United States today, it intends to expand internationally later this year, starting with the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
