TechCrunch Startup News
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India’s MoveinSync eyes $50–60M in fresh funding
MoveinSync, an Indian startup offering mobility solutions to blue-chip companies for workplace commute, is engaging with investors to raise a growth round, according to people familiar with the deliberations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Gravel gets funding from NEA to support Indonesia’s booming construction industry
Indonesia’s construction industry is growing quickly, driven by residential and industrial building, alongside infrastructure development plans by the government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Clayful, a startup that helps students connect to mental health experts within 60 seconds, raises $7M
Clayful is a platform that enables students aged eight to 18 to connect with a mental health expert within 60 seconds when they need it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Yieldstreet to acquire real estate investment platform Cadre
Alternative investment platform Yieldstreet announced today that it has agreed to acquire Cadre, an online real-estate-focused investment platform aimed at institutional and high net worth investors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
DuploCloud lands $32M infusion to make provisioning cloud apps easier
It’s only appropriate that, during AWS’ biggest week of the year, a cloud-based software-as-a-service startup closed a sizeable funding round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Kognitos raises $35M to help businesses automate back-office processes
Businesses will never not (forgive the double negative) push to improve efficiency. It’s their commercial imperative. Sometimes, that takes the form of budget cuts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Layla taps into AI and creator content to build a travel recommendation app
Many companies are trying to use AI chatbots (beyond ChatGPT) in different industries Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Inflow connects small fashion brands with manufacturers in Vietnam
Textiles and garments contribute 16% of Vietnam’s total GPD, but it’s challenging for small garment brands to take advantage of the country’s manufacturing prowess. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Cradle’s AI-powered protein programming platform levels up with $24M in new funding
Biotech and AI startup Cradle is finding success with its generative approach to protein design, landing big customers and a hefty $24 million of new investment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Stability AI gets into the video generating game
AI startups that aren’t OpenAI are plugging away this week, it’d seem — sticking to their product roadmaps even as coverage of the chaos at OpenAI dominates the airwaves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
US chip export ban is hurting China’s AI startups, not so much the giants yet
Well before Washington banned Nvidia’s exports of high-performance graphic processing units to China, the country’s tech giants had been hoarding them in anticipation of an escalating tech war between the two nations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Birdseye’s AI-powered chief marketing officer drives personalized email campaigns for retailers
The company offers hyper-personalization email and SMS campaigns and retail transaction data insights from one dashboard. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lightspeed finalizing leading $80M-plus funding in Pocket FM
Audio series platform Pocket FM has topped $160 million in annual recurring revenue and is inching closer to raising over $80 million in a new funding round, three sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. Lightspeed, an existing investor in Pocket FM, is in advanced stages of talks to lead the funding round into the […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Vendelux grabs new capital for B2B event marketing amid in-person resurgence
Vendelux offers 65 million data points on over 160,000 global events, tradeshows and conferences so event marketers can make better decisions about what to attend or sponsor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Generative AI startup AI21 Labs raises cash in the midst of OpenAI chaos
One AI startup’s undoing is another’s opportunity. Case in point: today, AI21 Labs, a company developing generative AI products along the lines of OpenAI’s GPT-4 and ChatGPT, closed a $53 million extension to its previously-announced Series C funding round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
SEVA, a new growth equity fund, secures $85M for debut fund in four months
SEVA intends to invest in New York-based customer-centric founders of fast-growing, bootstrapped companies to scale via profitable growth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
LucidLink lands $75M for its on-demand file streaming tech
LucidLink, a startup offering a platform that enables teams to work on files without having to download or sync them, today announced that it raised $75 million in a Series C round led by Brighton Park Capital Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Toku’s AI platform predicts heart conditions by scanning inside your eye
Ehsan Vaghefi, CEO and co-founder of Toku, grew up with a blind father who lost eyesight at the age of four due to congenital glaucoma. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Candela’s electric hydrofoiling ferry takes flight
The future is going to be electric, but in the air and on the water that transition is proving more difficult than on land. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ida uses AI to prevent grocery food waste
Ida is a relatively new French startup that wants to work with supermarkets and grocery stores to optimize new orders of fresh products, such as fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry and fish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Refilled wants to save 100 million plastic bottles from the landfill
The Australian government recently set new packaging regulations after an official review found just 18% of plastic packaging is recycled, falling far short of a 70% target by 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Remote connects talent and employers with a new job board
Remote, the HR tech company that allows companies to hire, manage and pay remote workers, is launching a remote job marketplace called Remote Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
3D generative AI platform Atlas emerges from stealth with $6M to accelerate virtual worldbuilding
Atlas, a 3D generative AI platform, is launching today after two years in stealth with $6 million in seed funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Interplay secures $45M for third fund focused on B2B marketplaces, vertical software
Mark Peter Davis, Interplay founder and managing partner, says the firm stands out with its outsized value proposition relative to its check size. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Etaily is a “one stop solution” for consumer brands that want to enter Southeast Asia
E-commerce in Southeast Asia grew rapidly during the pandemic, and that momentum is continuing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Upciti helps cities level up their data strategy
Upciti is a French startup that has been working on a hardware sensor for city centers that is easy to install and maintain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Picsart launches a suite of AI-powered tools that let you generate videos, backgrounds, GIFs and more
Picsart, a photo-editing startup backed by SoftBank, is launching a new suite of AI-powered tools for businesses and individuals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chptr, a memorialization app for gathering and sharing memories of loved ones, raises $1.5M
Chptr, an app for sharing and holding onto memories of lost loved ones, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ozone raises $7.1M to scale its AI-powered collaborative video editor in the cloud
Ozone, the maker of an AI-powered collaborative video editor in the cloud, has raised $7.1 million in seed funding and is launching in open beta. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
mogul club raises $3.6M toward its effort to make real estate investing more accessible
While the idea of owning rental properties is appealing to many Americans, the ability to vet and afford such investments in single-family homes is out of reach for a large part of the population. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Popular video chat service Omegle shuts down
Omegle, an online service that allowed individuals to connect and chat with strangers, has shut down after 15 years citing growing misuse of the platform, including in committing “unspeakably heinous crimes.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Vanguard slashes Ola valuation by 60%-plus; NB reduces Pharmeasy’s by over 90%
Written by Manish Singh - The U.S. index fund pioneer Vanguard has cut the worth of its holding in the Indian ride-hailing startup Ola by nearly two thirds since original investment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Meta taps Hugging Face for startup accelerator to spur adoption of open source AI models
Written by Pete Sawers - Facebook parent Meta is teaming up with Hugging Face and European cloud infrastructure company Scaleway to launch a new AI-focused startup program at the Station F startup megacampus in Paris. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lidl owner and Bosch Ventures co-lead $500M Series B into German AI startup Aleph Alpha
German AI startup Aleph Alpha has raised a Series B funding round of $500 million from a consortium of seven new investors, as well as existing investors from previous rounds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Enable, a platform for managing B2B rebates, is now worth $1B
There’s a new unicorn in town, and its name is Enable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Appetite wants to help you and your friends discover, plan and book a meal out
Appetite, an app for discovering and booking restaurants, is aiming to streamline the process of planning nights out with friends and family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Revel ends moped sharing, focuses on EV charging and ride-hail
Electric mobility startup Revel is officially shutting down its shared moped business in New York City and San Francisco, according to a company-wide email that CEO and co-founder Frank Reig sent Friday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Blackbird invests in Carepatron’s “radically accessible” healthcare management platform
When TechCrunch covered Carepatron’s pre-seed last year, it was focused on serving solo practitioners and small health practices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Flavrs, a shoppable video app for foodies, launches a new takeout feature and AI-powered recommendations
Flavrs, an iOS app that lets foodies discover recipes and and then shop for ingredients, is introducing a new takeout feature and AI-powered recommendation systems thanks to a custom integration with OpenAI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Flexport acquires technology of former digital freight unicorn Convoy
Supply chain logistics platform Flexport is acquiring the assets of shuttered digital freight network Convoy, according to a memo Flexport CEO Ryan Peterson sent to staff Wednesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
EarlyBird raises $4.5M, partially from its users, to scale its investment gifting platform for families
EarlyBird, an app that lets families and friends gift investments to children, has raised $4.5 million in a seed extension round that was partially funded by its user base. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Grant Assistant wants to apply generative AI to grant proposals
By Kyle Wiggers. Grants are the lifeblood of many organizations. But procuring them often turns out to be a time-consuming, labor-intensive process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Charlie’s senior-focused banking puts new funding toward stopping fraud
By Mary Ann Azevedo. Less than six months after launching to the public and announcing a $7.5 million seed raise, a startup providing banking services to Americans over the age of 62 has raised additional funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Guidde’s AI automatically generates software documentation videos
Organizations today rely on a growing number of apps to get work done. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Yuzu wants to make health plans cheaper by letting insurers mix and match benefits
In the U.S., figuring out ways to pay for health insurance is a perennial problem — not just for individuals, but for the businesses employing them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Stealthy social commerce startup taps into Meta roots to create AI-first brand messaging
Nectar AI will help brands find new ways to personally engage and convert consumers where they spend the most time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Soundboks is scaling high-volume, high-energy speakers across borders and cultures
Norway-based Soundboks just released its latest $1,000 Bluetooth speaker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Outset is using GPT-4 to make user surveys better
Getting answers to tough, qualitative questions about products from users can be costly, both in terms of time and money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
India’s bike taxi startup Rapido is getting into the cab business
Rapido, the eight-year-old Indian bike taxi startup, is expanding into the cab market in the South Asian nation, where Uber and its homegrown competitor Ola dominate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Blackbird backs Heidi Health’s AI platform for overworked doctors
Many doctors are overwhelmed by paperwork, leaving them stretched thin, with less time to see patients. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices