TechCrunch Startup News
3,836 episodes — Page 45 of 77
Quick-commerce startup YallaMarket eyes Saudi Arabia and Qatar next year after U.A.E expansion
YallaMarket, a Dubai-based quick-commerce startup, is planning to expand within the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E), and to enter Saudi Arabia and Qatar next year, to tap the appetite for speedy and convenient grocery shopping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Pyxo wants to build the biggest network of reusable food containers
Meet Pyxo, a French startup that has been thinking a lot about single-use plastic food packaging for the past three years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jefa raises $2 million for its challenger bank for women in LATAM
Fintech startup Jefa has raised a $2 million seed round to build a challenger bank with a product specifically designed for women living in Latin America and the Caribbean. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
TabTrader raises $5.8M for a mobile app that aggregates crypto exchange data
As many of the top cryptocurrencies seem to temporarily stabilize near all-time highs, users looking to speculate on tokens that are a bit more volatile are searching across exchanges to find deals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Attio wants to build the CRM for the Airtable generation
Meet Attio, a new CRM for people who are familiar with modern collaboration tools, such as Airtable, Notion and Zapier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Arc hooks another $30M in investment as EV interest spills over into electric boats
Arc is not even a year old and the electric boat startup has attracted investment from top VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, entertainment industry big wigs and now a $30 million raise led by an early Tesla executive who led the automaker’s early manufacturing efforts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Payhawk raises $112M to better compete in the heated corporate card race
If you’ve followed corporate card and spend management startups in the U.S., you might be familiar with Brex and Ramp. Payhawk is also offering an all-in-one financial management solution for businesses, but with a focus on European customers. And the company just raised a $112 million Series B round at a $570 million valuation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Wave brings some science and sanity to the business of mental health
The kids aren’t alright. According to the founders of Wave, 75% of Gen Z is struggling with their emotional well-being. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Deliverr bags another giant round as it works to move inventory closer to customers
E-commerce fulfillment is certainly having a moment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Food tech company Amara gobbles up $12M for its nutrient-dense infant products
This year, Amara produced its Yogurt Smoothie Melts, which CEO Jessica Sturzenegger touts as “the only melt-in-mouth snacks for babies and toddlers without any added sugar.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Workday to acquire external workforce management startup VNDLY for $510M
Workday announced this afternoon that it intends to acquire VNDLY, a Mason, OH startup that helps companies manage external workforce personnel for $510 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Eatron, which makes ‘intelligentautomotive software’, raises $11M Series A led by MMC
An electric vehicle is, essentially, just ‘software on wheels’, and requires lots of moving parts, not physical but, of course, virtual. That software needs to continually optimize the performance, efficiency, and safety of the EV it’s running. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Kandji pulls in $100M Series C on $800M valuation, up 10x since last year
Kandji, the startup building an Apple device management business, has been doing pretty well for itself with rapidly growing revenue, a fat valuation and lots of investment capital rolling in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Practice Ignition lands $50M to scale globally
Practice ignition, an Australia-based client engagement and commerce platform for professional service businesses, has raised $50 million (65 million AUD) in a Series C round to accelerate its growth and expand globally. It brings the startup’s total raised to $75 million, said Guy Pearson, CEO and founder of Practice Ignition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
LiveOak Venture Partners takes in $210M aimed at Texas entrepreneurs
The firm touts this fund as “the largest institutional Texas-focused, early-stage venture fund in the past decade” at a time when funding to companies within the state is at an all-time high. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Credit-focused company Upgrade raises $280 million at $6 billion valuation
Fintech company Upgrade has raised a Series F round just four months after raising its previous round. Today, the company is announcing $280 million in new funding at a $6 billion pre-money valuation. In August, the company announced its Series E round — $105 million at a $3.325 billion valuation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Real estate marketing software provider Luxury Presence raises $25.9M in a Bessemer-led Series B
Luxury Presence, a startup selling marketing software to real estate brokerages, announced today it has raised $25.9 million for its Series B round. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round alongside fellow existing investors Toba Capital and Switch Ventures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lifen raises $58 million to digitize the healthcare industry
French startup Lifen has raised a $58 million (€50 million) funding round. The startup has been working on digital infrastructure for the healthcare industry, starting with medical reports. 600 healthcare facilities are using the product to send and receive medical documents. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Doola raises $3M to help global founders launch an LLC in the US
Doola, a startup that aims to help global entrepreneurs form a U.S. business, has raised $3 million in seed funding. Doola actually started its life in 2020 as StartPack as a pivot from another startup called Standups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Foody cooks up marketplace for culinary creators
Husband-and-wife co-founders Daniel and Brenna Stitzel have developed a way for foodies to monetize their culinary creations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Weflow pours pre-seed funding into tool that makes updating Salesforce faster
Salesforce users tend to have a similar complaint in the amount of time it takes to update records, but Weflow aims to conquer this form of “Salesforce fatigue.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Collectible card trading platform Alt raises $75M as it eyes other asset categories and preps its mobile launch
When we last checked in with Alt back in March, it had just raised $31 million for its alternative asset platform — a platform, thus far, used primarily by those looking to research, trade, and securely store high-value sports cards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
E-commerce logistics startup Hive buzzes following $34M investment
Hive levels the logistics playing field by streamlining fulfillment so that DTC companies get the same inventory management, cost structure and customer notifications that big brands use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Subscription carbon offsetting platform Ecologi hits $8M total raised, includes General Catalyst
People subscribe to music so why wouldn’t they subscribe to carbon offsetting to alleviate their conscience about the climate crisis? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
igniteXL Ventures closes debut fund to target ‘$5T oversight’ in beauty, wellness
General Partner Claire Chang’s plan is to deploy capital into 30 new investments and keep some back for follow-on investments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Health tech startup Color raises $100M at a $4.6B valuation
Health tech startup Color has raised $100 million in Series E funding, bringing the company’s valuation to $4.6 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Point One Navigation raises $10M to bring its precise location tech to all vehicles
Drivers who spend any time commuting in a new car or truck have likely experienced ping ponging — a phenomenon when a vehicle equipped with an advanced driver assistance system has trouble centering itself in a lane and bops back and forth until it finds that sweet spot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
HawkEye 360 raises $145M to scale space-based radio frequency data and analytics
The biggest players in the Earth observation industry use imaging satellites to deliver intelligence and analytics, but startup HawkEye 360 is taking a different tack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Fidelity, Visa and Kingsway back South African fintech JUMO in $120M round
JUMO, a South Africa- and London-based company that offers financial services to entrepreneurs and businesses in emerging markets, has raised $120 million in a new round of funding led by Fidelity Management & Research Company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Guardian’s Collective wants to make parenting easier, or at least less alone
While few would argue over the need for a tech-enabled solution to make parenting easier, the demand is more obvious than the execution. Parenting is hard and requires support for a whole range of moments, from when your kid accidentally eats a button to early signs of depression during the remote school day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
MilkRun lands new capital to deliver farm-fresh groceries
The company offers a recurring subscription, and 50% of every dollar spent goes back to farmers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Gwoop raises $1.8M for its esports training platform as it starts working with high school gaming leagues
Earlier this year I wrote about Gwoop, a team out of Minnesota building a collection of browser-based games meant to help you get better at video games overall. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Housing startup QuintoAndar to open first technology hub outside Brazil in Portugal
The new office will serve as its first in Europe and will be operational in March, initially staffing up to 50 by the end of next year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Spartan Radar raises a total of $25M to help radar compete with lidar tech
Take a dollop of machine learning, a handful of radar sensors and a market that is clamoring for autonomous cars not mowing down hordes of pedestrians, and you’ve got yourself a particularly frothy fundraising environment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
BrainCheck brings in another $10M to detect, manage cognitive impairment
BrainCheck has several new initiatives in the works to close the loop with the patient journey that will be brought to market soon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Walmart acquires design tool Botmock as its invests in shopping by voice and text
Walmart is further investing in technology that will enable shopping via voice and chat with its latest acquisition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Music wearable Mictic raises $2.5M to get you shredding, scratching and strumming
Switzerland-based Mictic has created a pair of wearables that turns thin air into your concert hall. Imagine a theremin without the theremin, hooked up to a clever loop station, and you’ve got the right idea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
OctoML raises $85M for it for its machine learning acceleration platform
OctoML, a Seattle-based startup that helps enterprises optimize and deploy their machine learning models, today announced that it has raised a $85 million Series C round led by Tiger Global Management. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Zeit secures $2M in seed funding for its stroke-detecting wearable
Zeit Medical, which makes an early warning system for strokes during sleep, has raised $2M in a seed round just after leaving Y Combinator’s Summer 2021 cohort. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Will Smith, Kevin Durant and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs invest in electric boat startup Arc
Arc, a startup that launched 10 months ago with ambitions to electrify everything on the water, starting with a limited-edition $300,000 boat, has captured the attention and capital of some of the entertainment industry’s biggest stars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Social Chat launches with $6M to bring brands closer to their customers
Social Chat was founded on the premise that social commerce should be the standard for every store, and it may very well be soon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Atlys raises $4.25M to make visa applications faster and easier
International travel is slowly opening up again, but that also means business and leisure travelers alike will once again have to think about visa restrictions as they take to the air. Nobody has ever enjoyed the process of applying for a visa, but Atlys promises to take the hassle out of the process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Gamma brings in $7M to bring the slide deck into the 21st century
Co-founder and CEO Grant Lee refers to building content in Gamma like “choosing your own adventure.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Daring Foods bites into third round in 12 months as plant-based chicken product enters Walmart
The company saw 900% growth over the past 12 months and will be using the new funding to support that growth and new innovation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Truepill’s latest funding boosts valuation to $1.6B as it works on B2B side of healthcare
The new funding represents a “hyper growth moment” for the company, which is in position to bring in some $300 million in revenue this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Speechmatics pushes forward recognition of accented English
Speech recognition has gone from convenient to crucial over the last few years as smart speakers and driving assist modes have taken off — but not everyone’s voice is recognized equally well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Market demand for cybersecurity products helps Devo raise $250M at unicorn valuation
Devo, a Boston-area startup focused on log management and cybersecurity, announced this morning that it has closed a $250 million round of funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Heart to Heart raises $750K to bring sweet, sweet flirtation to your ear-holes
Radio has long been described as the most intimate of media. Quips about putting radio on the internet aside, the persistent popularity of podcasting and the cockamamie climb of Clubhouse shows that audio-based platforms will continue to echo around the upper echelons of the ecosystem for a while yet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Routine is a new productivity app that combines task management and notes
Meet Routine, a new startup working on a productivity tool that should help you manage your work day more efficiently. It’s a brand new take on to-do lists as it combines both tasks, non-actionable notes and a daily planner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Citcon raises $30M to make paying with mobile wallets ‘as easy as paying with a credit card’
Citcon, a mobile wallet payment provider, has closed on $30 million in funding in a Series C round co-led by Norwest Venture Partners and Cota Capital. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices