TechCrunch Startup News
3,808 episodes — Page 45 of 77
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
Audit Sight takes on new capital to eliminate all of the back and forth between auditors, companies
The company intends to build out several SaaS applications and is poised to roll out its first two modules for revenue and accounts receivables by the end of the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AirGarage, a full-stack parking operator, raises $12.5M in round led by a16z
Parking can often feel almost laughably old-fashioned, with some lots still hiring an attendant to collect fees and check for valid tickets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Customer engagement platform Batch raises $23 million after years of bootstrapping
If you’ve been working in the French tech ecosystem, you may remember a startup called AppGratis. The app discovery and promotion startup basically had to stop operating overnight following a long and nasty fight with Apple. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
SoftBank-backed Flock Freight is the freight industry’s newest unicorn
The global shipping and freight industry has never been more in the spotlight, as the pandemic and other disruptions have led to enormous supply chain bottlenecks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Credo AI launches out of stealth with $5.5 million to help companies with “ethical AI”
There are many in the world of AI who worry about its implications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Vertical Oceans aims to grow sustainable shrimp in huge ‘aqua towers’ inside cities
John Diener, the CEO of an aquaculture nutrition and genetics company, would visit hundreds of shrimp farms as part of his job. But gradually he became frustrated by some of the environmentally unsustainable practices used in many locations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Frozen coffee startup Cometeer raises $35M Series B and launches its product in earnest
Gloucester, Massachusetts-based Cometeer has been around for nine years. In that time, the company has built up a mad scientist’s lair worth of coffee scientists, equipment and processes to jolt some fresh life into the industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dance Church raises $4.7M to get your bootie back on the (virtual) dance floor
Our DJ, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy dancefloor come, thy steps be done, on earth, as it is at Dance Church. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
VC Lab introduces free fund formation documents to make startup investing cheaper and easier
There may be plenty of funding for some startups these days. But plenty of companies will tell you otherwise. VC Lab, an accelerator for venture capital firms, wants to create investors who will back the rest of the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Founded by ex-Braintree and PayPal execs, Pagos raises $10M to offer API-driven payment intelligence
Pagos, a payment intelligence infrastructure startup founded by former Braintree and PayPal execs, has raised $10 million in seed funding. Started earlier this year, the remote-first Pagos is building a data “platform” and API-driven micro-services that it says can integrate with any payment stack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Space Perspective raises $40M Series A for stratospheric balloon rides
The successful commercial launches of Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic have officially ushered in a new era of space tourism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Reliable Robotics lifts $100M to take autonomous cargo planes where none have gone before
When flying cargo from one part of the world to another, you typically need a pilot for two parts: The take-off and the landing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Cannabis commerce company Dutchie doubles valuation following new funding round
The industry will continue to see adoption across all areas, especially as more people are educated on finding the right product and modality and more states legalize cannabis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
ScienceIO leaves stealth with millions to structure health data
Years before he co-launched a stealthy business to fix the messy world of health data, Gaurav Kaushik was slowly connecting the dots on how better visualization could impact health outcomes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jow raises $20 million for its meal and grocery planning service
French startup Jow has raised a $20 million funding round led by Eurazeo. Jow wants to make it easier to cook at home by taking care of menu ideas and helping you manage your online orders of groceries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
VanMoof teases new high-speed electric bike
E-bike manufacturer VanMoof recently raised a $128 million funding round. And the company is already using some of that cash to develop a brand new product — the VanMoof V. This is a new product in the VanMoof lineup, a high-speed bike. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
ThoughtFull gets $1.1M seed to make mental health support more accessible in Southeast Asia
Depression and anxiety were taking a serious toll on peoples’ well-being even before COVID-19, and the pandemic prompted more interest (and venture capital) in mental health startups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Varda Space Industries will send its first space factory to orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
Varda Space Industries, a startup that wants to build in-space manufacturing facilities, will be sending its first spacecraft to orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2023. The actual spacecraft — the startup’s first to go to orbit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mobile gaming startup Homa Games raises $50 million
Just days after Voodoo acquired Beach Bum, another French mobile gaming company has news to share. Homa Games is raising a $50 million Series A round led by Northzone. The company partners with indie game studios and acts as a publisher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Alpha Paw brings in $5.2M to carve out its niche in the pet wellness space
Alpha Paw offers pet products for dogs and cats like food and supplements that are customized with pet breed in mind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tiger Global in talks to lead over $100M investment in India’s Slice
A number of high-profile investors are chasing to invest in Slice, a fintech startup that is attempting to expand the market for credit cards in India. Tiger Global is in advanced stages of talks to lead a round of over $100 million in the Bangalore-based startup, sources familiar with the matter told me. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Microsoft acquires Ally.io, OKR startup that raised $76 million
Microsoft announced today that it has acquired Ally.io, a software service that helps companies measure their progress against OKRs or objectives and key results, a common way the management measures both individual and company progress. The two firms did not share the purchase price. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
MindLabs gets $3.5M seed to make mental wellness engaging
Making sure mental wellness is part of your routine can be difficult, especially if you are already busy and stressed. MindLabs wants to make it easier with a combination of on-demand or live video classes and community features. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
BeeHero’s precision pollination platform wings its way to $19M in new funding
Move over, precision agriculture — precision apiculture is what’s on the minds of all future-focused farmers. BeeHero has been growing fast since its debut and seed round last year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Goldman Sachs spinoff Juven to back African high-growth companies with large checks
Mauritius and U.K.-based investment company Juven went live today with plans to fund growth-stage technology and consumer companies in Africa. The one-year-old firm is looking to invest large checks in companies “that have proven business models, strong revenue traction and large addressable markets,” it said in a statement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Podcastle raises $7M for its all-in-one platform for podcast production and publishing
Both Anchor and Descript have made their names as being among the most significant Podcast creation platforms of recent times, but hoving into the rear-view mirror recently has been Podcastle, an all-in-one platform that can cover off recording, production and publishing, all on the one platform. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
YC grad Wasp land $1.5M seed to help developers build web apps faster
It seems that a lot of startups are trying to help developers reduce the complexity involved in coding an app. Last week we covered the seed round for RunX, a company that helps developers code back-end cloud resources more quickly. Today, Y Combinator Winter 2021 graduate Wasp announced a $1.5 million seed round to help […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ladder raises $100M on a $900M valuation for a platform selling flexible term life insurance
Life insurance has had a new lease on life in the era of insuretech, and today one of the companies building a business out of rethinking everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices