Top startup news stories you need to know this Friday, January 19

Good morning! Here are some of the top tech startup news stories today Friday, January 19.

Shell Oil made its first investment in blockchain with London startup Applied Blockchain. Shell has made its first investment in blockchain. The oil giant is taking a minority stake in London startup Applied Blockchain to help it explore how the technology might be applied to its business.

Germany-based startup eBlocker raises additional funding to develop privacy tools. The Germany-based data protection startup eBlocker announced that it has raised a undisclosed amount of money  to further develop its privacy products to let users retain control of their data online. The latest funding comes from High-Tech Gruenderfonds (HTGF).

Portland startup NurseGrid raises $5.7 million.  Portland startup NurseGrid has raised $5.7 million from Hatteras Venture Partners, a North Carolina investment firm that specializes in health care and related technology. The funding will be used to improve its technology and recruit additional staff. NurseGrid offers online tools to help hospitals and other health care facilities manage their staffing. Founded in 2013 by Joe Novello, the startup has raised a total of $9.4 million to date.

Airbnb now lets users pay less up front. Airbnb now has a new feature that helps users pay less up front. The new feature gives its customers the option to pay half of the cost of a booking’s total fees at the time of booking and then pay the remainder of the total fees at a later time prior to check-in.

India-based startup Sports Flashes launches Internet radio channel. New Delhi-based India Sports Flashes Pvt. Ltd, which operates sports content app Sports Flashes, has launched an Internet radio channel dedicated to sports. The news story was first broke to VCCircle.

Startup Hanson Robotics is working toward building trust between humans, robots. Hanson Robotics is combining artificial intelligence with expertise in toy design, electronics and manufacturing to craft ‘social robot’ appealing enough to win trust from humans.

Moroccan startup launches to showcase African creativity. Moroccan startup Creative Africa has launched a platform that features the best of African creatives in different domains such as photography, web design and painting. The founder, Ahmed El Azzabi, plans to build the site into a full platform where creatives can find information to better perform their job, and obtain work.