TechCrunch Startup News
3,836 episodes — Page 44 of 77
Doosan announces $33.7M raise, as it introduces a robotic camera system at CES
Doosan Robotics this week announced $33.7 million in funding, led Praxis Capital Partners and Korea Investment Partners. The fundraising news arrives as the Seoul-based company shows off its wares at CES in Las Vegas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
New pet tech at CES treats dogs and cats like the complex beings they are
There’s always fun tech for pet owners at CES, and 2022 is no different. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
DriveU.auto to power remote piloting of EasyMile’s autonomous shuttles, Coco’s sidewalk robots
Autonomous shuttle company EasyMile and sidewalk robot delivery startup Coco are integrating DriveU.auto’s teleoperation and connectivity platform into their operations, DriveU.auto, an Israeli startup that came out of stealth last year, they announced at CES. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Refinery Ventures’ second fund aimed at getting startups to Series A
Refinery focuses on “early scale” companies, a term the firm uses to describe companies that secured a seed, but need that “oomph” to get it to Series A. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Smart contact lens startup Mojo Vision partners with Adidas and other sports brands
For the past few years, Mojo Vision has had a small presence at CES, offering up glimpses into the potential of its augmented reality contact lenses. Every year, the picture seems a little closer, if still far away. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Smarter Health gets $5.15M SGD to reduce healthcare costs in Southeast Asia
Organizing information from providers, insurers and patients not only takes a lot of time, but increases private healthcare costs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AIMMO bags $12M Series A to advance data labeling technology
Most artificial intelligence models are trained through supervised learning, meaning that humans must label raw data. Data labeling is a critical part of automating artificial intelligence and machine learning model, but at the same time, it can be time-consuming and tedious work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Southeast Asian startups to watch in 2022
As someone who covers Southeast Asia startups and funding stories, the best word I can think of to describe 2021 is “whoa!” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Voyant raises $15M to scale production of its tiny, inexpensive lidar tech
The future of lidar is uncertain unless, as Voyant hopes to do, its price and size are reduced to fractions of their current values. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tech-led biofuel startup Koko Networks launches new consumer goods business in Kenya
Koko Networks, a Kenya-based bio-fuel technology enterprise has extended its business to cover other fast-moving consumer goods, through a new tech platform that will capitalize on its established distribution networks in low-income neighborhoods. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
TuSimple completes its first driverless autonomous truck run on public roads
Autonomous trucking startup TuSimple has completed its first autonomous truck run on open public roads without a human in the vehicle, according to the company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
India’s GlobalBees joins unicorn club for its Thrasio-like house of brands
GlobalBees, which raised one of the largest Series A financing rounds in India earlier this year, has entered the unicorn club as the New Delhi-headquartered firm scales its Thrasio-like house of brands. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nigerian edtech startup Teesas secures $1.6 million in pre-seed round, to launch tutor marketplace, expand in East, Southern, Francophone Africa in 2022
After seven years in the production of electronic gadgets, under his company Imose Technologies, Osayi Izedonmwen took leave to explore an idea that he had toyed with for some time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Indian neobank Jupiter raises $86 million to launch lending and wealth management services
Industry veteran Jitendra Gupta’s consumer-focused neobank Jupiter has raised about $86 million in a new financing round as the Bangalore-based startup gears up to offer its customers lending and wealth management services. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Automation Anywhere expands into process discovery with FortressIQ acquisition
Automation Anywhere, which is best known for its robotic process automation (RPA) software, plans to expand the platform. This morning, the company announced that it intends to acquire process discovery startup FortressIQ. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Skio raises $3.7M to help brands on Shopify sell subscriptions
Skio, a startup that aims to take the pain out of selling subscriptions for brands on Shopify, has raised $3.7 million in a seed funding round. Kennan Davison, an engineer who previously worked at Hulu and Pinterest, founded the startup in April. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
With $36 million Series C, Brazil’s Ambar hopes to make civil construction more efficient
Brazilian construction tech startup Ambar announced it has raised a large Series C round of R$204 million, approximately $36 million, to boost the digitization arm of its business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
TikTok rival Triller to go public via merger with SeaChange International
Short video app Triller is set to go public via a reverse merger with video-tech company SeaChange International, the two companies announced on Wednesday. The combined entity will be valued at approximately $5 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ampla raises $40M Series A for its business of providing credit to commerce brands
Ampla Technologies, a startup which provides financing to small-to-medium sized consumer-facing businesses, announced today it has raised $40 million in a Series A round of funding co-led by VMG Partners and Forerunner Ventures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Airtable acqui-hires Walrus.ai’s founding team
Airtable today announced that it quietly acquired Walrus.ai, a no-code software testing platform, earlier this year. ‘Acquired’ may be overstating things a bit, though. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rocket Companies buys Truebill for $1.275B
Rocket Companies announced this morning that it will purchase Truebill for $1.275 billion in cash. Rocket Companies is best known for its Rocket Mortgage product, while Truebill is a consumer-facing app that helps consumers manage subscriptions, automate savings and budget. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Melbourne-based edtech startup Vivi raises $20M to accelerate overseas expansion in race to reach 1M classrooms
Australian edtech start-up Vivi has raised $20 million from education investor Quad Partners, funds that it intends to use to improve its platform, upgrade its operational infrastructure, and hire more sales and marketing teams in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
GDevelop wants to make game development accessible
GDevelop is a game engine that lets you develop a video game without any specific development experience. While the ‘no-code’ trend has been quite popular this year, GDevelop has been around for a few years already. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tiger Global backs fintech CreditBook in first Pakistan investment
Two years ago, a group of entrepreneurs in Pakistan began surveying the market to understand why financial services weren’t reaching the majority of merchants in the world’s fifth most populous nation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Z Fellows wants to give you $10K to launch a crypto startup
Capital may help someone take the jump into entrepreneurship, but what about the activation energy to let them think that big in the first place? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Gopuff, the instant grocery startup, is raising $1.5B in a convertible note at up to a $40B valuation, ahead of going public as soon as mid-2022
Instant grocery — where urban-dwelling consumers buy food and other essentials and can get them delivered in 15 minutes or less — continues to be a big business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Taxdoo raises $64M to expand from tax compliance to a wider set of financial tools for e-commerce companies
With e-commerce becoming increasingly globalized, a company called Taxdoo, which builds API-based tools to help e-commerce companies with tax compliance and other accounting needs, is announcing a round of funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Quo.com raises $7.2M seed round led by SignalFire to broaden access to mortgages
Almost three million Americans a year are denied a mortgage. Most don’t even know where to start or understand what would qualify them. The system has become complex and confusing, causing people to never make it onto the housing ladder at all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Crypto company Anchorage raises $350 million at $3 billion valuation
Less than a year after raising an $80 million Series C round, Anchorage is announcing that it has raised a $350 million Series D round. With today’s funding round, the company has reached a valuation of more than $3 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Pair Eyewear focuses on adult glasses as it takes in $60M
If Pair’s announcement is any indication, the direct-to-consumer eyewear market is doing quite well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Weather-focused IBISA raises seed round to back its microinsurance solutions for low-income small farmers
Agricultural microinsurance startup IBISA raised a seed round of approximately $1.70 million led by London-based Insurtech Gateway, with participation from Rockstart’s AgriFood fund and others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Brand incubator Harry’s Labs makes acquisition of D2C deodorant brand LumÄ“
Prior to agreeing to acquire LumÄ“, Harry’s had looked at over 100 companies for possible M&A opportunities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
LiveKit co-founder believes the metaverse needs open infrastructure
The company is developing a free, open source infrastructure for building and scaling real-time audio and video experiences in applications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Anakin’s pricing tool gives e-commerce companies jump on competitors
The company launched its tool in March that help e-commerce stores and brands increase their revenue using pricing, products and trends data from other companies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
First Resonance brings its space-scale manufacturing OS to hardware makers with $14M A round
First Resonance makes software for making hardware. The company’s Ion platform provides an all-in-one option for anyone who has to manage manufacturing lines, supply chains, engineering and design, among other things. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Deed raises $10M for its workplace giving platform
As I wrote earlier this year, Deed‘s mission is a clearcut one: take the employee giving/charity/volunteer program that many big companies have, and make it better. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Petra emerges from stealth with $30M raised for tunnel-boring robot, Swifty
Petra emerged from stealth this week, announcing a $30 million Series A. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Black Ops Ventures launches to invest in Black founders
The venture capital market is on a tear, pumping capital into a host of startups around the world. It’s generally considered a great time to raise capital and build a technology-centered, disruptive business. For some, that is. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lydia grabs another $100 million for its European financial super app
Just a few weeks after announcing stock and crypto trading, French fintech startup Lydia is announcing that it has raised a $100 million Series C round. With this funding round, the startup has reached a unicorn valuation, which means that it is currently valued at more than $1 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ursa Major raises $85M to disrupt the vertically-integrated launch sector
The launch sector is getting crowded. Many of the biggest players are building their own rocket engines, but space startup Ursa Major is betting that many new launch providers would rather outsource the engine than build it in-house. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Supplier, grocer connector Clubbi secures $4.5M to expand in Brazil
Clubbi launched in October 2020 with 24-hour delivery, no minimum order quantity and flexible payment terms. It is currently working with 1,000 grocery stores in Rio de Janeiro. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Berlin’s Everphone raises $200M in debt and Series C equity
Berlin-based smartphone-as-a-service provider Everphone has topped up with $65 million in a Series C equity raise in addition to taking $135 million in debt financing — for a total raise of $200 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
TamatemGames raises $11M Series B led by PUBG maker Krafton
Jordan-based mobile game publisher TamatemGames announced today it has raised $11 million in a Series B led by KRAFTON, a South Korean game developer behind PUBG, marking its first investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Umamicart bags $6M to deliver traditional Asian ingredients right to your home
Umamicart aims to be a one-stop shop for home cooks, offering staple products and pantry essentials, recipe inspirations and occasion-specific kits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Judging by the future, not the past, Stride takes steps to turn student finance upside down
If you’re trying to get a mortgage or an auto loan, banks will put on their judging glasses and look into your past. Makes sense; it’s a reasonably reliable indicator as to whether you’ll be able to repay your loans or not. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Social app IRL makes its first acquisition with deal for digital nutrition company AaBeZe Labs
IRL, the SoftBank-backed social app and recent unicorn, is today announcing its first acquisition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Toronto-based VFX startup MARZ raises $5.3M to develop AI technology solutions
Technology and visual effects startup Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ) has raised $5.3 million in Series A funding. The investment was led by Round13 Captial with participation from Rhino Ventures and Harlo Equity Partners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Better.com gets $1B cash infusion in new agreement with its SPAC backers
Digital mortgage lender Better.com, which announced in March that it was going public via a SPAC, is getting a cash infusion from its backers sooner than expected. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bitly makes first acquisition with QR code leader Egoditor
The acquisition is in line with Bitly’s goal of becoming a global SaaS company that enables organizations to engage with customers and for people to connect with digital experiences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Partech raises $750 million growth fund
Paris-based VC firm Partech has announced the closing of the fundraising of its new growth fund. Partech Growth II is the firm’s second growth fund. And the team managed to raise $750 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices