Tillit, a fintech startup that is building something akin to buy now, pay later for B2B purchases, looks set to become Sequoia’s next European investment, TechCrunch has learned. According to multiple sources, the Silicon Valley VC — which recently expanded to Europe with an office in London — is backing a €2.5 million round in […]
Workplace injuries and illnesses cost the U.S. upwards of $250 billion each year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. ERA-backed startup Intenseye, a machine learning platform, has raised a $4 million seed round to try to bring that number way down in an economic and efficient way. The round was co-led by Point Nine and […]
People don’t often equate gaming with dating, but maybe they should. As gaming continues to grow in popularity, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, a new startup called 2up is launching to help gamers connect both on and off screen. The app was founded by sibling duo Stephanie and Lincoln Smith, who have been […]
Human Interest, a 401(k) provider for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), announced Thursday that it has tacked on another $55 million to its Series C. The news is notable for a couple of reasons. For one, the San Francisco-based company had already raised $50 million across two tranches in 2020. Secondly, the majority of its […]
TikTok has crafted a number of policies over the years to distance itself from the often-messy political fray, but its users continue to have other agendas in mind. In Russia, a tug-of-war has emerged on the social network. On one side are young people using the app to create videos in support of free speech, […]
With a stated goal of aligning the mortgage industry with consumer interests, Austin-based UpEquity has raised $25 million in equity and debt funding to expand its business. Chief executive Tim Herman started the mortgage lending company to take advantage of what he saw as inefficiencies in the $2 trillion U.S. housing market. Existing financial services […]
Royal Dutch Shell Group, one of the largest publicly traded oil producers in the world, just laid out its plan for how the company will survive in a zero-emission, climate conscious world. It’s a plan that rests on five main pillars that include the massive rollout of electric vehicle charging stations; a greater emphasis on […]
If you’ve ever left a job, chances are you left your 401(k) plan along with it. And, if you’re like many Americans and change jobs every few years or so, you could have multiple 401(k) plans spread out at various companies, doing their own thing. Many of us don’t deal with the hassle of trying […]
Shauntel Garvey and Jennifer Carolan liked edtech before the sector was cool, so the duo co-founded Reach Capital in 2015 with a $53 million debut fund. The San Francisco-based venture firm has since put checks into education startups including Newsela, Sketchy, ClassDojo and Outschool, landing six exits so far. Now, after seeing its portfolio accelerate […]
SuperAnnotate, a NoCode computer vision platform, is partnering with OpenCV, a nonprofit organization that has built a large collection of open-source computer vision algorithms. The move means startups and entrepreneurs will be able to build their own AI models and allow cameras to detect objects using machine learning. SuperAnnotate has so far raised $3 million […]
The venture capital scene in Africa has consistently grown, with an influx of capital from local and international investors reaching unprecedented heights in recent years. To understand how much growth has occurred, African startups raised a meagre $400 million in 2015 compared to the $2 billion that came into the continent in 2019, according to […]
Cryptocurrency pioneer and early Bitcoin thought-leader Diana Biggs has joined Swiss-based startup Valour, which lets investors easily buy digital assets through their bank or broker. The move is significant with the news that Tesla has bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin, thus massively boosting the mainstream markets for crypto assets. Biggs explored the potential for […]
Monzo, the U.K. challenger bank with just shy of 5 million customers, has recruited a new U.S. CEO to head up its efforts states-side, TechCrunch has learned. Carol Nelson, who previously spent 10 years as CEO of Cascade Bank and prior to that was a longtime senior vice president of Bank of America, will start […]
Spacelift, a startup that automates the management of cloud infrastructure, has raised $6 million in a Series A funding round led by London’s Blossom Capital. Polish fund Inovo Venture Partners and Hoxton Ventures are also investing. The Polish and US-based startup is taking advantage of the opportunity presented by the increasingly complex cloud world, with […]
Since M-Pesa’s mobile money infrastructure came into play in 2007, there has been a proliferation of fintech services ranging from wallets to savings and loans. With this mobile money ecosystem growing in double-digits year-on-year, a lot of data is being created in the process. But this has left some fragmentation, where one person’s information is […]
India may soon have another fintech unicorn. BharatPe said on Thursday it has raised $108 million in a financing round that valued the New Delhi-based financial services startup at $900 million, up from $425 million last year. Coatue Management led the three-year-old startup’s Series D round. Other six existing institutional investors — Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, […]
Northmill Bank, the Sweden-based challenger that has around 200,000 customers across three European countries, has raised around $30 million in new funding. Leading the round is M2 Asset Management, the Swedish investment company controlled by Rutger Arnhult, and asset management firm Coeli. The injection of cash will be used for continued geographical expansion and to […]
This afternoon Bumble priced its IPO at $43 per share, ahead of its raised IPO range of $37 to $39 per share. Bumble filed to go public in mid-January, and offered up its first price range on February 2. That range, $28 to $30 per share, wound up coming up short. Bumble raised its price […]
Facebook tries to get less political, Oracle’s TikTok acquisition may not be happening and Twitter says Donald Trump is banned forever. This is your Daily Crunch for February 10, 2021. The big story: Facebook tests a News Feed with less politics Facebook announced today that it’s testing changes to the News Feed that would downrank […]
Scalarr, a startup that says it uses machine learning to combat ad fraud, is announcing that it has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding. The company was founded by CEO Inna Ushakova and CPO Yuriy Yashunin, who previously led the mobile marketing agency Zenna. Ushakova told me that while at Zenna, they realized that […]
