TechCrunch Startup News
3,808 episodes — Page 39 of 77
Maze raises $40M to help facilitate software product research
Product research generally involves determining whether an idea for a new product might be successful and how to best develop and sell that product. It’s a straightforward process, in theory, but the basic definition belies the barriers that can crop up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Luminai (formerly DigitalBrain) gets $16M investment for customer support RPA-like tool
The founders of DigitalBrain have quite a back story, a pair of immigrants living in a hacker house in San Francisco, the two paid bills for a time by competing at hackathons and winning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
HYCU locks down additional funding to grow its cloud data protection business
Hybrid Cloud Up Time (HYCU), a self-described “backup-as-a-service” company for customers managing hybrid and multi-cloud environments, today announced that it raised $53 million in a “majority equity” Series B round led by Acrew Capital with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Atlassian Ventures, and Cisco Investments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
TestBox nabs $10M seed to expand platform for software purchase testing
TestBox, an early stage startup, has a goal of making it easier to test software you want to purchase in your own environment. What’s more, it comes pre-populated with synthetic data that is similar to yours. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Proper raises $4.3M seed round to help other fintechs wrangle data
What’s one of the hottest areas within fintech today? Funny enough, it’s fintech for fintechs (say that a few times fast). Fintech startups have absolutely proliferated in the past few years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Former Better.com exec alleges company misled investors ahead of SPAC
One of Better.com’s former executives has filed a lawsuit against the online mortgage lender, alleging that the company and its CEO Vishal Garg misled investors when it attempted to go public via a SPAC, reports the Wall Street Journal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Magical makes $35M appear to move data between webpages
It’s the belief of some analysts that the market for robotic process automation, which leverages AI to automate certain software tasks, is headed toward consolidation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Child care startup Kinside raises $12M Series A in a round led by mothers
Finding and affording child care is one of the biggest challenges parents face. Kinside makes the process easier by not only providing a marketplace of verified carers, but also helping parents tap into their flexible spending accounts (FSA) and other benefits to afford care. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Opal secures $10M for dynamic access management
Opal, a platform that decentralizes access management for enterprise customers, today announced that it raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Greylock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Agtech robotics firm FarmWise just raised another $45 million
The rest of the startup universe may be struggling to bring in funds, but it’s still a good time to get a robotic raise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Temasek’s Pavilion Capital backs South Korean AI chip maker Rebellions with $50M investment
Global venture capital firms are pouring money into the semiconductor startups developing the next generation of chips. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mexico City’s Kolors wants to disrupt intercity busing in Latin America
Kolors, a Mexico City-based startup, says its platform that connects intercity bus riders with bus drivers is like “if Uber and Southwest Airlines had a baby.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sanlo, a startup that offers app and game developers access to financial tools and capital, raises $10M
Sanlo, a San Francisco-based fintech startup that offers small to medium-sized game and app companies access to tools to manage their finances and capital to fuel their growth, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Konvoy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chainguard raises $50M to guard supply chains
Chainguard, a startup that focuses on securing software supply chains, announced today that it has raised a $50 million Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chick-fil-A taps Refraction AI for autonomous delivery pilot
When Refraction AI was founded in 2019, its goal was to use robotics to bring down the cost of last-mile delivery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Car-sharing startup Turo expands to New York and France
Peer-to-peer car sharing company Turo is expanding to New York State and France in June, the company said on Wednesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
One AI raises $8M to curate business-specific NLP models
Whether to power translation to document summarization, enterprises are increasing their investments in natural language processing (NLP) technologies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Strong Compute raises $7.8M seed round to speed up ML training pipelines
Strong Compute, a Sydney, Australia-based startup that helps developers remove the bottlenecks in their machine learning training pipelines, today announced that it has raised a $7.8 million seed round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Meta and Google’s Gradient back LatAm startup OlaClick
More than 80% of food delivery orders in Latin America are still made over phone calls and settled with cash. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mintlify taps AI to automatically generate documentation from code
Mintlify, a startup developing software to automate software documentation tasks, today announced that it raised $2.8 million in a seed round led by by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from TwentyTwo Ventures and Quinn Slack, Sourcegraph’s co-founder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Betastore gets $2.5M to solve stock-outs, financing challenges for informal retailers in West and Central Africa
About 80% of household retail in sub-Saharan Africa is delivered through informal channels, which perennially face several challenges like stockouts, leading to an instability in earnings, and a lack of attractiveness to financiers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Foursquare founder banks funding for mystery 3D social network startup
The excitement around web3 and the metaverse have pulled plenty of entrepreneurs who defined the first generation of native mobile apps to begin questioning what’s next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Hugging Face collaborates with Microsoft for new AI-powered Azure service
Fresh off a $100 million funding round, Hugging Face, which provides hosted AI services and a community-driven portal for AI tools and data sets, today announced a new product in collaboration with Microsoft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
SoftBank leads $150M round for Firework’s shoppable video
Firework provides tools for retailers and consumer brands to tap into their own customer data to build engaging video experiences across their own digital properties and social channels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Astroforge raises $13M seed round for asteroid mining ambitions
Although we’ve long understood that asteroids are not simply the rubble of the universe, but potentially profitable stores of precious minerals, humanity has never been able to unlock this value. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bowery opens a new vertical farm in Pennsylvania
When I wrote my big TC1 on Bowery Farming late last year, there was a lot of talk of the company’s third commercial farming site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
MainStreet’s valuation could fall 60% to $200 million amid investor recapitalization pursuit
Weeks after laying off about 30% of its staff, MainStreet is said to be raising another round of funding at a $200 million valuation, sources tell TechCrunch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Klarna lays off 10% of its workforce
Swedish payment giant Klarna is going to cut hundreds of jobs in the coming days. Today’s news comes a few days after the Wall Street Journal reported that the company was going to cut its valuation in order to raise fresh capital. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Carbon capture is headed for the high seas
Unless you live near a port, you probably don’t think much of the tens of thousands of container ships tearing through the seas, hauling some 1.8 billion metric tons of stuff each year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
FloorFound grabs more capital to grow its oversized recommerce business
What makes FloorFound stand out from its competitors is its approach to putting retailers, which often struggle with how to effectively do returns, at the center of recommerce. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dig emerges from stealth to help organizations secure their data in public clouds
Dig, a Tel Aviv-based cloud data security startup, has emerged from stealth with an $11 million investment to help organizations protect data stored in public cloud environments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
ChargeLab’s software layer to power ABB’s EV chargers in North America
ChargeLab, a Toronto-based startup that builds software to operate and optimize electric vehicle charging equipment for fleets and commercial customers, has raised a $15 million Series A round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Joby Aviation acquires Avionyx to accelerate aerospace software certification
Joby Aviation, a California-based company developing electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOL) for commercial passenger service, announced the acquisition of Avionyx, an aerospace software engineering firm, on the TechCrunch Sessions: Mobility stage on Wednesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jungle Ventures closes a $600M fund, bringing its total assets under management to over $1B
Singapore-based venture firm Jungle Ventures is digging deeper into Southeast Asia and India with the close of its fourth fund. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Palette sells a sales commission tool for modern sales teams
Meet Palette, a software-as-a-service startup that is going to be particularly interesting if you’re also running a software-as-a-service startup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Fashinza, a B2B supply chain marketplace for fashion brands, raises $100M
The pandemic has majorly affected the global supply chain, with 60% of U.S. adults in an August 2021 Gallup survey saying that they’ve been unable to get a product they wanted in the past two months because of shortages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A.Team emerges from stealth with a gig marketplace for product specialists
The gig economy has, to use a well-worn word, disrupted industries from ride-hailing to quick-service restaurants. Contract work has its downsides, namely on the pay and benefits side of the equation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Uber Eats pilots autonomous delivery with Serve Robotics, Motional
Uber Eats is launching two autonomous delivery pilots in Los Angeles on Monday with Serve Robotics, a robotic sidewalk delivery startup, and Motional, an autonomous vehicle technology company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Classiq raises additional funding for its quantum algorithm design tools
Tel Aviv-based Classiq, a startup that wants to make it easier for developers to build quantum algorithms and applications, today announced that it has raised additional funding for its service by adding HSBC, NTT Finance, and Intesa Sanpaolo as new investors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bubbles aims to supercharge chats with async video messaging
Bubbles, a startup that pitches its platform as the “anti-Zoom” for video messaging, today announced that it closed a $8.5 million funding round led by Khosla Ventures, Craft Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, 468 Ventures, and Bain Capital. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Gusto raises an extension round, following Faire as unicorns react to a changing market
Gusto, an HR technology unicorn worth nearly $10 billion, has raised an extension to its 2021-era Series E funding round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Leland breaks into the coaching space with a focus on careers, not classes
The coaching world is crowded. There’s BetterUp, a re-skilling platform that wants to bring executive coaching to employees, and Sounding Board, which mixes SaaS and coaching services. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Singapore-based Good Startup raises $34M fund to invest in alternative protein companies
Good Startup, a Singapore-based venture capital firm focused on alternative protein, has closed its latest fund. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Berlin’s GetHenry breaks into last-mile delivery e-bike scene with $17.4M seed
Berlin-based GetHenry, a startup that provides electric last-mile delivery bikes to couriers and logistics companies, has raised a $17.4 million (€16.5 million) seed round to expand its business across Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
EV startup Canoo sues major investor over sketchy share sales
Electric vehicle startup Canoo has filed suit against one of its largest shareholders, demanding that the firm pay back more than $61 million in “short-swing profits.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Blueland takes its ‘don’t ship water’ model to body wash
To date, Blueland, fresh off its $20 million fundraise back in February, has mostly been focusing on home cleaning products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Fertility startup Hannah Life Technologies gets $5.15M Pre-Series A
Hannah Life Technologies, a startup for couples trying to conceive, announced today it has raised $5.15 million in pre-Series A funding led by Monk’s Hill Ventures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
South Korea’s OHouse lands $128M to add AR to home improvement app
During the worst days of the pandemic, when people were stuck at home and starving for some form of entertainment beyond streaming yet another TV series, many turned to DIY home improvement projects. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Daniel Ek pumps $50 million into Spotify: ‘I believe our best days are ahead’
Spotify cofounder Daniel Ek said on Friday that he’s pouring $50 million into the music streaming service, driving its stock price up by more than 3% to a high of $108.98 per share during regular trading hours. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lucid is raising prices on its luxury Air EV by as much as 13%
Lucid Group is the latest automaker to up the price of its electric vehicles. The company announced Thursday alongside its first-quarter earnings report that it was raising prices of the variants of its luxury Air sedan, beginning June 1. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices