TechCrunch Startup News
3,872 episodes — Page 17 of 78
WhatFix raises a whopping $125M for its in-app user guides
Digital transformation — upgrading a company’s legacy apps and processes with new tech — has long been a buzzy and lucrative business. But the pandemic supercharged the market. Covid pandemic lockdowns and the widespread move to work-from-home spurred brands relying on old technology to modernize their organizations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Radian Aerospace completes ground tests of prototype space plane
Radian Aerospace has moved one step closer to achieving the “holy grail” of spaceflight: a reusable space plane that can take-off from an airfield and land on a runway like a conventional airplane. The startup just announced completion of a series of ground tests in Abu Dhabi earlier this summer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Fintech Mesa promises 1% cash back on mortgages, up to 3x on other home needs
Mortgage fintech Mesa has emerged from stealth on Tuesday with $9.2 million in seed capital and a novel idea for homeowners. It’s offering cash back and rewards on all spending done on the home, including the mortgage itself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Torq, which automates cybersecurity workflows, raises $70M in new capital
As the volume of cyberattacks grows, there’s increasing interest from the corporate sector in tech to help automate responses to breaches. Per a 2023 survey from analytics firm Devo, 80% of security leaders expected expanded investments in security automation technology this year; most cited the tech’s potential to support cyber threat mitigation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jump raises $12M to help freelancers get benefits just like employees
Jump offers full-time contracts to freelancers looking for some stability and the benefits involved with a full-time job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
David Energy is going up against Goliath energy incumbents
James McGinniss has been obsessed with decarbonization and the energy grid since he was a high schooler over a decade ago. Now, his startup David Energy has a lofty goal: getting the energy grid to run entirely on clean energy in the next 10 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
FTC report on predatory social media data hoarding hints at future regulations
A new FTC report on how social media and streaming sites collect and monetize their hoards of user data doesn’t really feature a lot of surprises for anyone who’s followed the space Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Health insurance startup Alan reaches $4.5B valuation with new $193M funding round
Belfius is leading Alan’s Series F funding round of €173 million (around $193 million at current exchange rates). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tidal Metals sees seawater as the solution to a critical mineral shortage
The startup, previously known as GreenBlu, was working on desalination when it realized there was more value in the minerals that were left behind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Brightband sees a bright (and open-source) future for AI-powered weather forecasting
With an explosion of weather and climate data that the last generation of tools can’t handle, is AI the future of forecasting? Research certainly suggests so, and a newly funded startup called Brightband is taking a shot at turning machine learning forecast models into both a business and open source standard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nurture wants to teach kids important life skills through interactive gameplay and entertainment
Parents understand the challenge of keeping young kids engaged in online learning. Nurture is a new app designed for children aged 4 to 7 that features interactive content and games to capture their interest. The company’s mission is to equip children with critical life skills such as socializing, basic financial understanding, mindfulness, fitness, nutrition, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Neuralink’s ‘breakthrough device’ clearance from FDA does not mean they have cured blindness
Neuralink, the Elon Musk-owned brain-computer interface company, has received “breakthrough device” clearance from the FDA. But this does not mean they have developed a cure for blindness, whatever Musk might say. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Quick-commerce startup Flink raises another $150M at a valuation of nearly $1B
Flink, a quick-commerce startup out of Berlin that was an acquisition target of Gorillas, Getir, Amazon, and Gopuff, is spelling out how it plans to go forth on its own. TechCrunch has exclusively learned that the company has raised $150 million, which it will use to double down on business in Germany and the Netherlands Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Greenlite, founded by an ex-Gopuff exec, automates construction permitting
Construction permitting often involves drafting lengthy applications, leading to unpredictable timelines for developers and businesses. There are tens of thousands of jurisdictions — each with their own different forms and application processes for building permits. Ben Allen knows a thing or two about permitting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AI coding assistant Supermaven raises cash from OpenAI and Perplexity co-founders
Supermaven, an AI coding assistant, has raised $12 million in a funding round that had participation from OpenAI and Perplexity co-founders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Life360’s Tile introduces its first new Bluetooth trackers since its acquisition
It’s been three years since Life360’s $205 million acquisition of AirTag competitor Tile. The company announced Monday its new lineup of lost-item Bluetooth trackers, featuring a sleeker redesign in new colors—aqua blue, green, navy blue, and pink Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
OffDeal wants to help small businesses find big exits with AI agents
Small businesses are the unsung heroes of the American economy, employing nearly half of America’s workforce and making up 44% of the country’s GDP. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Humanz brings its influencer marketing platform to the U.S.
Humanz, a marketing platform for content creators and brands, has entered the U.S. market, the company announced on Thursday. Having launched in Israel in 2017, Humanz has gained strong traction in global markets, including Europe, Latin America, South Africa, and the Middle East. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nuro pivots to license self-driving tech to carmakers, mobility companies
After multiple rounds of layoffs in 2022 and 2023, Nuro is pivoting its business strategy to focus more on the startup’s core autonomous driving technology instead of owning and operating a fleet of low-speed, on-road delivery bots Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tune.FM wants to take on Spotify by using crypto to pay artists up to 100x more per stream
Tune.FM is a decentralized music streaming service where users pay for each song they stream using Tune.FM's crypto token JAM. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Paymob, started by three college friends, lands another $22 million and is profitable in Egypt
Paymob has evolved into an omnichannel gateway offering over 50 methods for offline and online payments to more than 350,000+ merchants. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Atomico backs Tem to help businesses buy renewable energy directly from sources
Tem wants to do for utilities what neobanks have done for the financial sector: disrupt an industry using tech, streamline it, and cut out the middlemen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Qualifyze swallows $54M to improve pharmaceutical supply chains
In the world of pharmaceuticals, companies aim to operate under GMP guidelines — a set of production and manufacturing measures to assure standards for medicinal products. But too often, the reality is anything but that. “Officially, GMP stands for ‘Good Manufacturing Practices,’” said Dr. David Schneider, the founder and CEO of Qualifyze. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Neurode wants to treat and track ADHD symptoms through a wearable headband
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects more than 366 million adults globally, according to a 2020 study, but beyond medicating with stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin, there are few alternatives for people who suffer from the disorder. Therapy, education, and lifestyle changes are usually also advised, but those avenues can prove difficult as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sunamp’s thermal battery uses a chemical found in salt-and-vinegar potato chips
The startup has devised a durable way to store solar power as heat that can then be used for household heating or hot water. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The coolest startup in the Bay Area is a baseball team called the Oakland Ballers
This year, the B’s made their debut in the Pioneer League, a professional baseball organization that’s partnered with the MLB, but unlike the minor leagues, it’s not tied to any existing MLB teams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
All Hands AI raises $5M to build open source agents for developers
As with many open source startups, All Hands AI expects to monetize its service by offering paid, closed-source enterprise features. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Driverless car-sharing startup Vay steers toward B2B services
The new business-to-business division is a bet on what co-founder and CEO Thomas von der Ohe thinks is the future of mobility. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Reonic raises €13 million to help small installers of green tech like heat pumps and solar panels
European regulators are pushing hard for greener energy. The REPowerEU plan calls for 10 million additional heat pumps to be added by 2027, and solar panels are also on the rise. But most installations are done by small businesses that could be more productive with better work processes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
As remote working keeps rolling, Oyster raises $59M Series D at $1.2B valuation
No one is putting the remote working genie back in the bottle. Which is good news for Oyster, a payroll and HR platform that specializes in distributed workforces – or “global employment” as its marketing paints it Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
You.com ‘refocuses’ from AI search to deeper productivity agents with new $50M round
If you build an AI search product, you compete with Google. But Google has a lot easier time answering queries with a single, simple answer, such as “how many is a dozen?” than it does answering complex questions like “what influence did Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ have on Enlightenment ideals?”x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dutch clean energy investor SET Ventures lands new €200 million fund, which will go toward digital tech
New climate tech VC firms have emerged in recent years, but existing ones are also raising larger funds. Founded in 2007, Dutch firm SET Ventures is one of the latter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
‘Hospital at home’ startup Doccla raises $46 million for its European expansion
Hospitals around the world regularly face bed shortages — an issue that can get exacerbated to breaking point when a health scare or other large-scale disaster occurs. A startup called Doccla is bringing technology to bear address the issue: it’s building “virtual bed” tech to help doctors remotely manage patients who have either been discharged or not. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Laptop-leasing startup Fleet wants to become the IT companion for small companies
Fleet is launching several software services on top of its hardware-as-a-service proposition, from device management to cybersecurity and insurance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Generative AI coding startup Magic lands $320M investment from Eric Schmidt, Atlassian and others
Magic, an AI startup developing models to generate code and automate a range of software development tasks, says that it’s raised a large tranche of cash from investors including ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt. In a blog post this morning, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
‘Emotion AI’ may be the next trend for business software, and that could be problematic
As businesses experiment with embedding AI everywhere, one area starting to gain more attention is Emotion AI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Atlassian acquires Rewatch as it gets into AI meeting bots
Atlassian plans to integrate Rewatch into its recently launched Rovo AI platform so that transcripts become searchable within the overall business context. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The guy who sued NAR over real estate fees has co-founded a startup
One of the people who successfully sued the National Association of Realtors (NAR) to change real estate commissions has co-founded a new real estate startup. It all began in 2017 when Josh Sitzer and his wife listed their home for sale in Kansas City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bluesky adds ‘anti-toxicity’ tools and aims to integrate ‘a Community Notes-like’ feature in the future
Bluesky on Wednesday introduced the ability to hide replies, as well as a way to detach your original post from someone's quote post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Fluid Truck’s board ousted its sibling co-founders amid allegations of mismanaging funds
Fluid Truck, a startup that was founded to disrupt the commercial vehicle rental industry, has ousted its sibling co-founders – CEO James Eberhard and chief legal counsel Jenifer Snyder – according to sources familiar with the matter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Planera raises $13.5M to help solve the gnarly problem of scheduling for construction contractors
Planera, scheduling and planning software for commercial construction projects, has raised $13.5 million to expand its reach and help general contractors with more features. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Supio brings generative AI to personal injury cases
Supio uses generative AI to automate bulk data collection and aggregation for legal teams. It emerged from stealth Tuesday with a $25 million investment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Food delivery is seeing more consolidation: GrubMarket snaps up FreshGoGo
GrubMarket, the $3.6 billion food delivery and supply chain startup backed by Tiger Global, BlackRock and nearly 100 other investors, has snapped up another food delivery startup on its consolidation march: It is acquiring FreshGoGo, a New York-based, B2C platform selling Asian groceries and ready-made dishes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Piramidal’s foundation model for brainwaves could supercharge EEGs
AI models are being applied to every dataset under the sun, but are inconsistent in their outcomes. This is as true in the medical world as anywhere else, but a startup called Piramidal believes it has a sure thing with a foundational model for analyzing brain scan data. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The founder building a wealth-management product her grandmother would have loved
Mical Jeanlys-White built WealthMore out of frustration. She spent years on Wall Street, building products at American Express and serving as a managing director at JPMorgan Chase. She realized the finance industry still had a long way to go when it came to helping consumers build and understand wealth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Travly lets travelers submit videos for a chance to earn a 5% commission from hotel bookings
Travly is a new social-first discovery and hotel booking platform designed to cater to the growing number of travelers who rely on short-form video content for trip ideas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tingit is building a marketplace for ‘zero-effort’ repairs, starting with fashion
Tingit, a startup out of Lithuania, wants to help people restore their used clothing to their former glory with its newly launched repairs marketplace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Openmart wants to make it easier for enterprises to sell to local businesses
In 2020, Kathryn Wu launched a side hustle while she was working as a product engineer at Pinterest. Wu started a milk tea company, Ohtea, with the hopes of connecting with local grocery stores and gift shops to get them to carry the tea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dropbox acquires Index Ventures-backed AI scheduling tool Reclaim.ai
Dropbox has acquired AI-powered scheduling tool Reclaim.ai, which counts Calendly and Index Ventures among its backers. The development was revealed in a blog post on Reclaim.ai’s website Tuesday. Dropbox hasn’t disclosed the terms of the deal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Rounds scoops up $24M to bring its ‘household restocking’ delivery service to more markets
The Rounds, the startup that delivers recurring grocery and household essentials in reusable packaging, announced on Monday its $24 million Series B funding round. The new capital will go toward product development, hiring, and expanding the service to additional markets. Alongside the funding announcement, The Rounds introduced new features for customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices