TechCrunch Startup News
3,873 episodes — Page 46 of 78
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
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