TechCrunch Startup News
3,873 episodes — Page 31 of 78
Invesco cuts Indian food delivery giant Swiggy’s valuation to $5.5 billion
Invesco, which led Swiggy’s previous round, has marked down the Indian food delivery giant’s valuation in its holding to about $5.5 billion, according to a filing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
PermitFlow advances construction permitting automation with $5.5M in new capital
PermitFlow has software for developers and general contractors to streamline the construction permit application and management processes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Antimetal is putting AI to work to root out cloud cost inefficiencies
One constant theme we’ve been hearing from the big cloud infrastructure vendors this year is helping customers increase the efficiency of their cloud spend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Go1 snaps up speed reading app Blinkist to expand in enterprise learning
After raising $100 million at a valuation of over $2 billion last year, the Australian ed-tech startup Go1 is making an acquisition and getting some investment to expand its reach and technology to serve the market of corporate online learning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Slash aims to corner the Gen Z market with business-focused banking features
Around two years ago, Victor Cardenas and Kevin Bai built a fintech platform called Slash that lets users create shareable virtual cards to split recurring expenses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AI-powered supply chain startup Pando lands $30M investment
Signaling that investments in the supply chain sector remain robust, Pando, a startup developing fulfillment management technologies, today announced that it raised $30 million in a Series B round, bringing its total raised to $45 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Green-Got is a neobank for climate-conscious customers
French startup Green-Got is building an alternative to your traditional bank account with a focus on climate change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mercu meets deskless workers where they are
Many employee engagement and retention tools were created with the assumption that workers spent most of their time at desks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Fiverr Enterprise aims to streamline managing large groups of freelancers
In 2021, gig marketplace Fiverr acquired Stoke Talent, a startup developing freelance management tools for employers, for $95 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Hackajob matches technical talent with companies looking to hire
Even today with all of the layoffs we have seen in the tech industry over the last year, there is still a shortage of technical talent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Citymapper lowers the paywall for premium features but keeps monthly subscription for removing ads
Citymapper is lowering the paywall around its premium features and introducing a new subscription plan purely for removing ads. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Simpplr raises $70M for its AI-powered intranet platform
Several years ago, entrepreneur Dhiraj Sharma’s first company, a software consultancy, was hired by an HR tech firm to develop an app to improve the employee onboarding experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AI platform to analyze creative advertising raises $5.1M from investors, including a16z
In this increasingly AI-driven era, creative and media teams will probably need to employ the technology to up their game on analyzing their creative assets and A/B testing — or someone else will simply beat them to the punch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Once-hot photo-sharing social app Poparazzi is shutting down
Poparazzi, the once-hot photo-sharing app that hit the top of the App Store in 2021, is shutting down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chunk Foods close to opening factory to produce ‘millions’ of plant-based steaks
The company develops whole cuts of alternative proteins using fermentation technology and food-grade microorganisms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Clubhouse needs to fix things, and today it cut more than half of staff
Clubhouse, a once skyrocketing social audio app built by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, has laid off more than half of its staff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bastion is an all-in-one cybersecurity solution for small businesses
Meet Bastion, a French startup that was created in October 2022 to help small companies tackle cybersecurity risks without too many complexities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Operant is changing the way you secure cloud native applications
Containers and micro services may not be a new concept at this point, but lots of companies are struggling with the transition to cloud native applications, and the impact of that approach on their security. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Luup raises $30M ahead of Japan’s new micromobility rules
Japanese shared micromobility startup Luup has raised $30 million in a Series D financing round, which consists of 3.8 billion yen in equity and 700 million yen in debt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
UniSieve’s filters use special crystals to reduce industrial emissions
The energy-intensive process of separating and purifying chemicals and gases is a big reason why industries like plastic manufacturing cause so much pollution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
ZEBOX, an incubator for supply chain startups, launches its Asia hub in Singapore
ZEBOX, an international accelerator network founded by shipping conglomerate CMA CGM to introduce more tech innovation into the supply chain industry, announced today the launch of its APAC headquarters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Greywing’s new SeaGPT solves email overwhelm for maritime crew managers
Every time a member of their crew changes, maritime crew managers need to handle immigration regulations, COVID requirements and travel plans for each person. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Constrafor, a construction procurement company, goes ‘SAFE’ route with new capital
Constrafor provides embedded financing and software to keep payments flowing between contractors and their subcontractors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Super.com targets $85M equity, debt raise into new savings super app
Super.com's super app is focused on helping “everyday Americans” find deals and savings across multiple categories, including travel and shopping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Home energy assessment startup Enter raises €19.4M Series A to expand in Germany and beyond
Largely because of their age, houses in Europe can be notoriously hard to heat. Most were built for an era when the knowledge about energy consumption just wasn’t available in the way it is today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Betterdata uses synthetic data to keep real data safe
Betterdata, a Singapore-based startup that uses programmable synthetic data to keep real data secure, announced today it has raised $1.55 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Kate raises $7.6 million for its electric micro-cars
French startup Kate has raised a $7.6 million (€7 million) funding round from a bunch of business angels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Primo is the IT tool for companies that are too small for an IT manager
Primo, a French startup that recently raised a $3.4 million funding round to build a software-as-a-service product that handles the IT needs of small and medium companies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Cortical Labs raises $10M for its Pong-playing stem cells which eventually could power AI
While Generative AI is buzzy right now, what OpenAI, Microsoft and Google are doing may be only part of the story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rally bags $12M to build the future of e-commerce checkout
Rally provides one-click checkout and post-purchase offers that allow the merchant to inject offers after the checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Remote working means this startup can use brains in emerging markets to disrupt management consultants
The global management consulting industry is worth billions of dollars but to this day it’s been tough to disrupt with technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
B Capital leads Odeko’s $53M Series D to help small coffee shops scale
Odeko has operations software for coffee shops to manage inventory, get data insights and order equipment and supplies from over 400 vendors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
LLMs come to workplace morale monitoring, as Loopin raises $1.9M for its platform
There have been several startup attempts to measure staff morale, some more halting that others. We reported on Plasticity Labs back in 2014, though their web site seems no longer functioning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Device-as-a-service startup Fleet expands beyond laptop leasing
French startup Fleet has been growing nicely over the past four years as the company has deployed nearly 10,000 devices with long-term leasing contracts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Stability AI’s new model is slightly better at generating hands
Stability AI, the startup funding a range of generative AI experiments, has released a new version of Stable Diffusion, the text-to-image AI system that was among the first to rival OpenAI’s DALL-E 2. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Zoom acquires Ireland-based employee communications platform Workvivo
Zoom today announced that it has acquired Workvivo, a six-year-old Irish startup focused on improving companies’ internal communications and culture. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Thynk wants to upgrade hotel stays with a vertical software platform
Meet Thynk, a new company that wants to build the definite enterprise software solution for the hospitality industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Otterize raises $11.5M to help developers securely connect software services
Tomer Greenwald, Uri Sarid and Ori Shoshan, software developers by trade, found themselves building and configuring software authentication and authorization mechanisms repeatedly — each time with a different tech stack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
General Atlantic invests another $100 million in PhonePe
General Atlantic has poured another $100 million in PhonePe, three months after leading a $350 million investment in the Indian fintech startup that has so far raised $750 million in an ongoing financing round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Fintech startup Clear Street raises $270M at a $2B valuation
Clear Street, which says it is building “modern infrastructure” for capital markets, has raised $270 million in the second tranche of a Series B funding round at a $2 billion valuation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Graneet raises $8.7 million for its vertical SaaS for construction companies
French startup Graneet is building an all-in-one software-as-a-service product focused on small construction companies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In edtech, history matters: Reach Capital just closed its largest fund to date
Reach Capital, one of the first venture firms to focus exclusively on edtech, closed its last investment vehicle during an unprecedented boom within tech. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Gradient Ventures backs Axle’s ‘Plaid for insurance’ approach to data verification
Axle allows users to connect their insurance account to trusted companies in seconds and then automates insurance verification. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Honeycomb scores $50M investment as observability platform thrives
Honeycomb was founded in 2016 by two former Facebook engineers to create a new way of looking at application monitoring based on the internal tooling they had seen at Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Anthropic’s $5B, 4-year plan to take on OpenAI
AI research startup Anthropic aims to raise as much as $5 billion over the next two years to take on rival OpenAI and enter over a dozen major industries, according to company documents obtained by TechCrunch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Alternative seafood startup Aqua Cultured Foods reels in $5.5M
Aqua Cultured Foods is using proprietary mycoprotein (fungi) fermentation processes to create whole cuts of calamari, shrimp, scallops and filets of tuna and whitefish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
SetSail adds ChatGPT questioning capabilities on top of sales data
SetSail set out to build a new way to compensate sales people, where based on the data, companies could pay salespeople on where they were in the pipeline, not in just one big chunk when they landed the sale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Alga Biosciences wants to help climate change, one bovine burp at a time
Cows are a significant source of methane emissions, primarily due to their unique digestive system. Milk and beef cows are ruminants, which means they have a specialized stomach chamber (called the rumen), which houses billions of microbes that facilitate the breakdown of fibrous plant material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ensemble raises $100M debut fund to bet on startup teams — but not in the way you think
The firm uses an in-house data algorithm it hopes will help it find startups that have teams designed to scale — beyond just the founders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
New funding helps CarmaCare accelerate its ‘healthcare-for-your-car’ service
CarmaCare take over where traditional car insurance leaves off to provide an easier way to buy extended warranties for car repairs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices