TechCrunch Startup News
3,836 episodes — Page 20 of 77
Embedded accounting startup Layer secures $2.3M toward goal of replacing Quickbooks
So did investors laugh them out of the room when they explained how they wanted to replace Quickbooks? Kind of. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Meet PayHOA, a profitable and once-bootstrapped SaaS startup that just landed a $27.5M Series A
PayHOA, a previously bootstrapped Kentucky-based startup that offers software for self-managed homeowner associations is an example of how real-world problems can translate into opportunity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Orange Charger thinks a $750 outlet will solve EV charging for apartment dwellers
Charging has long been the Achilles’ heel of electric vehicles. One startup thinks it has a better way for apartment dwelling EV drivers to charge overnight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Aplazo is using buy-now-pay-later as a stepping stone to financial ubiquity in Mexico
Four-year-old Mexican BNPL startup Aplazo facilitates fractionated payments to offline and online merchants even when the buyer doesn't have a credit card. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sona, a frontline workforce management platform, raises $27.5M with eyes on US expansion
Sona, a workforce management platform for frontline employees, has raised $27.5 million in a Series A round of funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Retell AI lets companies build ‘voice agents’ to answer phone calls
Call centers are embracing automation. There’s debate as to whether that’s a good thing, but it’s happening — and quite possibly accelerating. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bluesky now lets you personalize its main Discover feed using new controls
The social network has announced an updated version of its app that lets you offer feedback about its algorithmic feed so you can better customize it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Blackboard founder transforms Zoom add-on designed for teachers into business tool
When Class founder Michael Chasen was in college, he and a buddy came up with the idea for Blackboard, an online classroom organizational tool. His original company was acquired for $1.64 billion in 2011. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Triomics raises $15M Series A to automate cancer clinical trials matching
For cancer patients, medicines administered in clinical trials can help save or extend lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lucid Bots secures $9M for drones to clean more than your windows
Cleaning the outside of buildings is a dirty job, and it’s also dangerous Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Checkfirst raises $1.5M pre-seed to apply AI to remote inspections and audits
We’ve all seen them. The inspector with a clipboard, walking around a building, ticking off the last time the fire extinguishers were checked, or if all the lights are working. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Meati Foods bites into another $100M amid growth to 7,000 retail locations
Meati Foods is adding 2,000 retail locations within Kroger’s family of stores by April. Three products will be available, including the Classic cutlet as well as Classic and Carne Asada steaks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
After a $20M Series A funding, Germany’s Insempra plans eco-friendly lipid production
Insempra plans to turn oil yeast in lipids on an industrial scale using yeast fermentation factories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Samsung Medison to acquire French AI ultrasound startup Sonio for $92.7M
The French startup's AI assistant is aimed at helping obstetricians and gynecologists with the evaluation and documentation of ultrasound exams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
DocuSign acquires AI-powered contract management firm Lexion
As DocuSign reportedly explores a sale to private equity, it’s acquiring a company itself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Honeycomb Insurance grabs $36M Series B from solo VC-led Zeev Ventures
When Itai Ben-Zaken’s first startup failed in 2018, the former BCG consultant and Wharton MBA spent months trying to understand what he could have done differently during the five years he ran the company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dropbox, Figma CEOs back Lamini, a startup building a generative AI platform for enterprises
Lamini, a new startup with funding from Andrew Ng, has emerged from stealth with a generative AI platform aimed at enterprises. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Iconiq raises $5.15B toward seventh flagship fund
Iconiq Capital has raised $5.15 billion across two funds associated with the seventh growth fund family, according to SEC filings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Hubble Network makes Bluetooth connection with a satellite for the first time
Hubble Network has become the first company in history to establish a Bluetooth connection directly to a satellite — a critical technology validation for the company, potentially opening the door to connecting millions more devices anywhere in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Freshworks acquires Device42 for $230M, appoints Dennis Woodside new CEO
Freshworks, the publicly listed SaaS firm, is acquiring U.S.-based startup Device42 for $230 million, the company disclosed in an SEC filing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Digital fraud detection startup BioCatch hits $1.3B valuation as Permira buys majority stake
Digital fraud detection company BioCatch has a new majority shareholder in the form of U.K private equity firm Permira. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
ButcherBox acquires ‘Shark Tank’-featured startup Truffle Shuffle
Butcherbox is known for grinding its way forward, bootstrapping to more than $600,000 worth of revenue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Midi is building a digital platform for an oft-overlooked area of women’s health
When Joanna Strober was around 47 she stopped sleeping. While losing sleep is a common symptom of perimenopause, she first had to go to multiple providers, including driving 45 minutes out of San Francisco to pay $750 out of pocket, to get that diagnosis and proper treatment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chicago-based Hyde Park Venture Partners closes $98M Fund IV with two investments made so far
Hyde Park Venture Partners is known for having visibility into more than 90% of mid-continent startups and being early backers of companies like ShipBob, FourKites, G2, LogicGate and Dentologie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
neuroClues wants to put high speed eye tracking tech in the doctor’s office
The eyes aren’t just a window into the soul; tracking saccades can help doctors pick up a range of brain health issues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Carbonfact is a carbon management platform designed specifically for the fashion industry
French startup Carbonfact believes that the best carbon accounting solutions will focus on one vertical. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ex-NSA hacker and ex-Apple researcher launch startup to protect Apple devices
Two veteran security experts are launching a startup that aims to help other makers of cybersecurity products to up their game in protecting Apple devices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ethiopian plastic upcycling startup Kubik gets fresh funding, plans to license out its tech
Kubik, a plastic upcycling startup, has raised a $1.9 million seed extension, months after announcing initial equity investment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Zomato’s quick commerce unit Blinkit eclipses core food business in value, says Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs said in a report late Thursday that Indian food delivery giant Zomato’s quick commerce arm Blinkit is now more valuable than its core food delivery business, as per the bank’s sum-of-the-parts analysis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The FTC’s ban on noncompete clauses could be good for startups. But it also might be struck down.
The Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 to ban the use of most noncompete agreements on Tuesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Playruo lets you try game demos from your web browser
It’s still unclear whether cloud gaming will ever become the next big thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Edonia grabs €2M to turn microalgae into less bitter-tasting ground meat alternative
The company produces plant-based ingredients from raw microalgae biomass, generated from spirulina or chlorella, that it claims is more nutritious than meat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Madica, a program by Flourish Ventures, steps up pre-seed investing in Africa
Madica, an investment program launched by US-based investor Flourish Ventures to back pre-seed startups in Africa, plans to invest in up to 10 ventures by the end of the year, ramping up its funding efforts after closing three initial three deals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Parloa, a conversational AI platform for customer service, raises $66M
Conversational AI platform Parloa has nabbed $66 million in a Series B round of funding, a year after the German startup raised $21 million from a swathe of European investors to propel its international growth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Campus, a community college startup, receives $23M Series A extension led by Founders Fund
Although many students in the United States enter community colleges intending to transfer to four-year universities, only 16% of those students receive bachelor’s degrees within six years Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Two widow founders launch DayNew, a social platform for people dealing with grief and trauma
After losing their husbands in devastating and unexpected ways, Karine Nissim and Eloise Bune D’Agostino discovered there were no suitable places where people could go to face all the challenges that surface during the grieving process Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Webflow acquires Intellimize to add AI-powered webpage personalization
Webflow, a web design and hosting platform that’s raised over $330 million at a $4 billion valuation, is expanding into a new sector: marketing optimization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ecosia launches a cross-platform browser, starts an affiliate link program
Tree planting search engine Ecosia launched a new cross-platform browser today to increase its online footprint. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Langdock raises $3M with General Catalyst to help companies avoid vendor lock-in with LLMs
Plenty of large corporations want to join the AI revolution, but many feel it’s too early to be locked into one foundational model. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Magnus Metal wants to revamp the 4,000-year-old way metal parts are made
The startup is developing a technology it claims is as fast and energy efficient as 3D printing at a cost that can compete with sand casting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Fintech startup Mercury, which is under regulatory scrutiny, expands into consumer banking
Business banking startup Mercury, founded in 2020, is now launching a consumer banking product. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dark Space is building a rocket-powered boxing glove to push debris out of orbit
Paris-based Dark Space is taking on the dual problems of debris and conflict in orbit with their mobile platform designed to launch, attach to, and ultimately deorbit uncooperative objects in space. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Vorlon is trying to stop the next big API breach
Application programming interfaces, or APIs as they’re commonly known, are the bedrock of everything we do online. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
GovDash aims to help businesses use AI to land government contracts
Tim Goltser and Curtis Mason have been building things together since high school, when the two were the co-captains of their school’s robotics team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Finmid raises $24.7M to help SMBs access loans through platforms like Wolt
finmid is building an embedded finance product that targets that relationship between marketplaces and sellers, and raised a Series A round to further build out its product and enter new markets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Quilt rides heat pump heat wave with hefty $33M Series A
Quilt promises its heat pump will be a sleeker design that can be installed in more places around a room than competitors’ offerings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lawhive raises $12M to expand its legaltech AI platform for small firms
UK-based legaltech company Lawhive, which offers an AI-based in-house ‘lawyer’ through a software-as-a-service platform targeted at small law firms, has raised £9.5 million ($11.9M) in a seed round to expand the reach of AI-driven services for ‘main street’ law firms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Paraform raises $3.6M seed round to connect startups with recruiter networks
Layoffs usually drive attention and sympathy towards affected employees, but rarely does anyone talk about what happens to the recruiters who are sometimes also asked to leave when companies decide to cut headcount. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
India’s Exponent Energy brings 15-minute charging to passenger three-wheelers
India is getting an electric three-wheeler passenger vehicle that charges from 0 to 100% in 15 minutes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
CleanFiber wants to turn millions of tons of cardboard boxes into insulation
The startup has raised $28 million to help fund a nationwide expansion of its cardboard-based cellulose building insulation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices