TechCrunch Startup News
3,836 episodes — Page 23 of 77
Planet A Foods whips up more capital to take its cocoa-free chocolate global
Planet A Foods uses fermentation technology to turn all-natural, locally-sourced ingredients, for example, oats and sunflower seeds, into its cocoa-free chocolate brand, ChoViva. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Accel eyes new India fashion e-commerce bet with Newme
Accel, an early investor in Indian e-commerce giants Flipkart and Myntra, is preparing a new fashion e-commerce bet in India even as competition intensifies with the recent expansion of Mukesh Ambani’s Ajio platform. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Speedinvest closes fourth fund at $380 million to back early-stage startups in Europe
Vienna-based early-stage VC Speedinvest has closed its fourth early-stage fund, Speedinvest 4, at €350 million (around $380 million at today’s exchange rate), surpassing the initial goal of €300 million ($325 million). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Fidelity cuts Meta-backed Meesho valuation to $3.5 billion
Fidelity has cut the value of its holding in Meesho by 33.6% since the original investment, giving the Indian social commerce startup a valuation of $3.5 billion, adjusted for outstanding shares. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
BlueLayer is building the operating system for carbon project developers
Meet BlueLayer, a new European startup that is building a software platform specifically designed for carbon project developers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Byju’s seeks to raise $200 million in rights issue
Byju’s, the world’s most valuable edtech startup, launched a rights issue on Monday, seeking to raise $200 million as the Indian firm works to address its working capital issues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Yume’s platform helps manufacturers turn potential food waste into money
While running a bar in Melbourne, Katy Barfield was taken aback by the large amount of ingredients thrown out at the end of each day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Delivery startup Veho makes corporate job cuts
The company said the layoffs are part of a "reorganization of our corporate team to improve efficiencies and accelerate our path to profitability." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ola founder’s AI startup becomes unicorn in $50M funding
Krutrim, an AI startup founded by Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal, said it has raised a funding round that values it at $1 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Elo Life Systems grabs another $20.5M to get its monk fruit sweetener to market
Elo Life is focused on a number of technologies from developing plant-based sweeteners to crop protection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Prompt Security wants to make GenAI safe for the enterprise
Businesses are moving faster than ever to use generative AI and bring it to both their employees and users. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
General Catalyst leads $200M investment into Bilt Rewards, doubling its valuation to $3.1B
Bilt Rewards, whose platform aims to allow consumers to earn rewards on rent and daily neighborhood spend, has raised $200 million at a $3.1 valuation, the company announced today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Kittl raises another $36 million for its browser-based design tool
Just a year after raising $11.6 million, Kittl raised another $36 million in a Series B round led by IVP with some existing investors participating once again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Byju’s seeks new funding at less than $2 billion valuation, a 90% drop
Byju’s, once valued at $22 billion, is willing to cut its valuation to below $2 billion as it hunts for new funding, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Plural, the VC led by founders, pulls together a new $432M fund to back European startups
European VC Plural has carved out a reputation for itself as being one of the few VCs in the region started and led by entrepreneurs who grew their own startups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Day One gets more social with a new collaborative ‘Shared Journals’ feature
Journal app Day One is introducing Shared Journals, a new social feature that lets you share stories and memories with your friends and family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Kenyan agtech Shamba Pride raises $3.7M to grow its merchant network
Shamba Pride has since 2016 worked to enhance last-mile distribution for farm inputs and tackle price exploitation and quality issues for farmers through its merchant network dubbed digishops. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Plex confirms plan to launch TV and movie rentals next month
Media streamer Plex’s long-delayed plans to launch a marketplace for TV and movie rentals are finally being realized after multiple false starts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Farm-ng makes modular robots for a broad range of agricultural work
Agriculture is poised to be one of the next great robotics categories. Everyone needs to eat, and much of what we eat in this part of the world comes from large farms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What happened to Artifact?
Last week, Artifact, a buzzy news app from Instagram’s co-founders, announced it was shutting down after failing to gain critical mass. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
International Battery Company powers up with $35M funding to bridge EV gap in India
International Battery Company, a startup developing lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles, has raised $35 million as it plans to bridge the demand-supply gap in the growing EV market in India. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Astroscale takes the wraps off its $25M orbital refueling craft for Space Force
Orbital operations company Astroscale has revealed new details about its approach to refueling satellites in space, as part of a $25.5 million project exploring the concept with the Space Force. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Goodnotes acquires a AI-powered video summary startup as it looks beyond education
London-based notetaking startup Goodnotes said today it is acquiring South Korean startup Dropthebit, which operates a meeting and video summary tool called Traw. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Build a Rocket Boy, a game studio from former Grand Theft Auto developer, raises $110M
Build a Rocket Boy, a Scotland-headquartered game development company founded by one of the former lead developers behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise,announced it has raised $110 million in a Series D round of funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Pomelo stacks $40M to scale its payments infra business in LatAm
Argentinian payments infrastructure startup Pomelo has raised $40 million in a Series B round of funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Singapore’s Locofy launches its one-click design-to-code tool
After using Figma to create user interfaces and experiences, developers are left with the hefty task of coding the designs in order to create functional websites or apps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
FlutterFlow attracts cash for its low-code mobile app dev platform
Low-code dev platforms have gained momentum in recent years, in large part because they promise to shorten what’s otherwise typically a lengthy app development cycle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Anthropic researchers find that AI models can be trained to deceive
Most humans learn the skill of deceiving other humans. So can AI models learn the same? Yes, the answer seems — and terrifyingly, they’re exceptionally good at it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Airbnb or hotel? Overmoon’s vacation rental model aims to combine the best of both
Historically, vacation rental companies have managed homes for homeowners. While this model has proven popular, it also has its drawbacks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This startup is trying to bring T9-like text input to your TV
Some technologies make so much sense that they just won’t disappear. T9 — the old text input from our trusty Nokia phones from the 1990s — is one of those throwbacks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Micromobility startups Tier and Dott plan to merge to find a path to profitability
After years of exploding growth and massive funding rounds, it’s time for consolidation in the micromobility industry. Tier and Dott, two leading European companies in the space, have announced that they plan to merge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Seedstars Africa Ventures gets $30M backing from EIB Global to invest in early-stage startups
Seedstars Africa Ventures has received a $30 million capital commitment from EIB Global, an arm of the European Investment Bank, which becomes the first major institutional investment for its first Pan-African venture capital fund. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sony’s new ‘digital birth certificate’ for imaging tech smells a lot like NFTs
Sony is breaking new ground in the ongoing NFTs and content authenticity saga. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Will.i.am’s new startup Sound Drive wants you to reboot the music industry in your car
You can spend all day long curating custom playlists for every mood, picking tracks based on tempo or intensity, but whether you’re corner-carving or just commuting you’ll never perfectly match the cadence and energy of every drive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Anecdotes lands $25M to expand its governance, risk management and compliance business
Governance, risk management and compliance — GRC for short — remains one of the most active startup areas in terms of VC investments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nabla raises another $24 million for its AI assistant for doctors
Paris-based startup Nabla just announced that it has raised a $24 million Series B funding round led by Cathay Innovation, with participation from ZEBOX Ventures — the corporate VC fund of CMA CGM. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This app lets cafes and coffee shops charge to use the bathroom
Thanks to bans on pay toilets dating back to the 1970s, folks in the U.S. have become accustomed to enjoying free public restroom access pretty much anywhere their travels take them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Peak XV-backed MobiKwik seeks to raise $84 million in India IPO
Indian financial services startup MobiKwik seeks to raise about $84.2 million through issue of new shares in an initial public offering in the home market. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
EV startup Fisker struggling to meet internal sales goals, documents show
Fisker remains far from meeting CEO and founder Henrik Fisker’s publicly-stated goal of delivering 300 electric SUVs per day globally Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AI-powered search engine Perplexity AI, now valued at $520M, raises $70M
As search engine incumbents — namely Google — amp up their platforms with gen AI tech, startups are looking to reinvent AI-powered search from the ground up. It might seem like a Sisyphean task, going up against competitors with billions upon billions of users. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Intel spins out a new enterprise-focused gen AI software company
Intel, intent on making bigger moves in the market for AI-powered enterprise software, is spinning out a new platform company with the backing of Boca Raton, Florida-based asset manager and investor DigitalBridge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Short-term rental provider Frontdesk lays off entire staff, on the verge of shutting down
Another proptech startup has run into trouble. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Former Anthemis partner soft-launches new fintech-focused venture firm
Ruth Foxe Blader has left her role as partner at Anthemis Group after nearly seven years to start her own venture firm, Foxe Capital, TechCrunch learned exclusively today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tesla’s cheapest cars helped it notch another record year
Tesla shipped a record number of electric vehicles in the fourth quarter to help it edge out its targets for the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rivian deliveries slip 10% in Q4, raising demand questions
Rivian reported Tuesday it produced 17,541 vehicles at its Normal, Illinois factory and delivered 13,972 to customers in the fourth quarter, mixed results that left investors wary and sent shares down in pre-market trading. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Shield AI expands massive Series F with another $300M in equity, debt, scaling valuation to $2.8B
Defense tech startup Shield AI has expanded its latest funding round with another $300 million in equity and debt, bringing its total Series F to $500 million, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. This total amount reflects $200 million in equity closed in November, $100 million in new equity raised at the Series F price, and $200 […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Giga ML wants to help companies deploy LLMs offline
AI is all the rage — particularly text-generating AI, also known as large language models (think models along the lines of ChatGPT). In one recent survey of ~1,000 enterprise organizations, 67.2% say that they see adopting large language models (LLMs) as a top priority by early 2024. But barriers stand in the way. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
SoftBank-backed FirstCry seeks to raise nearly $220 million in India IPO
E-commerce startup FirstCry is seeking to raise $218 million through issue of fresh shares in its initial public offering, the 13-year-old startup said in a draft prospectus filed with the market regulator Thursday, becoming the latest Indian startup to explore the public markets. FirstCry earlier sought to raise as much as $700 million in its […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Propelled by ‘science for humanity,’ this Chinese AI startup sets sight on US
Amid rising geopolitical tensions, many Chinese tech companies find themselves recalibrating their overseas pursuits, often sidestepping any reference to their origin. One bold startup called DP Technology stands out from the crowd. Working to apply artificial intelligence to molecular simulations, DP, short for “Deep Potential,” believes that the unifying power of “scientific research for humanity” […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
BotBuilt wants to lower the cost of homebuilding with robots
Homes aren’t getting cheaper — or necessarily easier to secure. This year, the median household income for home buyers jumped to $107,000 from $88,000 last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. The volume of homes for sale in the U.S. reached record a low, meanwhile — and shows no sign of recovery. Now, […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices