TechCrunch Startup News
2,977 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 days ago - ★★★★ - 16 ratingsListen to select TechCrunch articles on startups coverage—who's raising, who's exiting, who's changing the world.
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Boosted nabs $60M as the electric skateboard maker looks to build something new
December 24, 2018 08:01 - 3 minutesBoosted nabs $60M as the electric skateboard maker looks to build something new Boosted has scored some serious cash as it looks to move beyond the world of electric skateboards to conquer new forms of personal transportation. The startup announced today that it has closed a $60 million round of Series B funding co-led by Khosla Ventures andiNovia Capital.Stanford’s StartX and Bay Meadows also participated in the round. Boosted has now raised north of $70 million. Learn more about your ad cho...
Teeth aligner startup Candid opens up physical locations in SF
December 21, 2018 16:31 - 3 minutesCandid, a teeth aligner startup that aims to make straight teeth more accessible and more affordable than Invisalign, is evolving its direct-to-consumer business. In addition to its at-home impression process, Candid recently started enabling people to come into a physical office to get their teeth scans completed. Today, Candid is opening physical storefronts in San Francisco, Austin, Columbus, Ohio and Santa Monica, Calif. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Earnin raises $125M to help workers track and cash out wages in real time
December 21, 2018 08:00 - 4 minutesBeforeRam Palaniappan founded Earnin, he developed a system for employees at a payments company called UniRush, where he spent eight years as president. If you needed money before payday, he would write you a check from his checking account and when payday rolled around, employees would reimburse him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Square Roots is bringing more transparency to its produce
December 20, 2018 16:32 - 5 minutesIf you’re concerned about what you eat, there’s a good chance you’ve looked at the food in the supermarket, or in your fridge, and wondered where it actually comes from. Now urban farming incubator Square Roots is introducing a new way for you to check full history of the produce that you’re about to purchase. To do so, you just scan the QR code or type in the lot number that the company says will be included in the packaging of all its produce moving forward. Learn more about your ad choices...
Coinbase’s Earn.com becomes a crypto webinar with crypto rewards
December 20, 2018 08:00 - 3 minutesCoinbase acquired Earn.com for at least $120 million back in April. And the company now plans to transform Earn.com into Coinbase Earn, a website with educational content to learn more about cryptocurrencies. Users who complete those classes will earn tokens. Coinbase bought Earn.com partly so that it could appoint Earn.com co-founder and CEO Balaji Srinivasan as Coinbase’s CTO. The previous iteration of Earn.com wasn’t a priority for Coinbase. Earn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit p...
The Wing gets $75M from Sequoia, Airbnb
December 19, 2018 16:35 - 5 minutesThe Wing, the owner of several co-working spaces and social clubs designed for women, has garnered the support of Sequoia Capital in its latest funding round. The startup has announced a $75 million Series C led by the storied venture capital firm, with support from Airbnb and Upfront Ventures, as well as existing investors NEA and WeWork. Headquartered in New York, The Wing was founded by Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan in 2015. To date, the pair have raised $117. Learn more about your ad...
At cobotics startup Formant, ex-Googlers team up humans & machines
December 19, 2018 08:00 - 7 minutesOur distinct skillsets and shortcomings mean people and robots will join forces for the next few decades. Robots are tireless, efficient, and reliable, but in a millisecond through intuition and situational awareness, humans can make decisions machine can’t.Until workplace robots are truly autonomous and don’t require any human thinking, we’ll need software to supervise them at scale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lightspeed is raising its largest China fund yet
December 18, 2018 16:37 - 3 minutesLightspeed China Partners, the China-focused affiliate of Silicon Valley-based Lightspeed Venture Partners, has set a $360 million target for its fourth flagship venture fund, according to a document filed with theU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today. If the target is reached, the fund will be Lightspeed China’s largest yet, perPitchBook. Lightspeed China’s previous two funds each closed on $260 million. The VC raised $168 million for its debut fund in 2013. Learn more about your a...
But not a broken man
December 18, 2018 08:00 - 6 minutesI’ve been living for the past few years in a limbo between journalist and entrepreneur, trying to build startups the way I saw them being built on stage at Disrupt and discovering that my skill and will to win are no match against the world. That’s fine. These days I’ll take it. But for a few minutes in Chicago last May, I couldn’t. That day was normal for me. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Propel raises $12.8M for its free app to manage government benefits
December 17, 2018 16:33 - 3 minutesPropel, maker of the Fresh EBT app for managing food stamps and other benefits, announced today that it has raised $12.8 million in Series A funding. Fresh EBT (the EBT stands for the Electronics Transfer Benefit card, which is how food stamp participants receive their benefits) allows users to check their food stamp/SNAP balance and find stores that accept food stamps. Users can also track their spending. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Robinhood said to not be properly insured to offer checking & savings
December 17, 2018 08:01 - 9 minutesRobinhood’s new high-interest, zero-fee checking and savings featureseems to be too good to be true. Users’ money may not be fully protected. The CEO of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, a non-profit membership corporation that insures stock brokerages, tells TechCrunch its insurance would not apply to checking and savings accounts the way Robinhood claims. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A former Ofo exec is launching his own scooter startup
December 14, 2018 16:35 - 4 minutesThe funding extravaganzamay be approaching its end for scooter “unicorns” Lime and Bird, but smaller startups in the micro-mobility space have continued to close venture capital rounds at a consistent pace. See Grin, Tier and Yellowfor examples. The latest is Dott, a European scooter startup founded by Maxim Romain, Ofo’s former head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The annual PornHub year in review tells us what we’re really looking at online
December 14, 2018 08:01 - 4 minutesPornHub, a popular site that features people in various stages of undress, saw 33.5 billion visits in 2018. There are currently 7.53 billion people on Earth. Y’all have been busy. The company, which owns most of the major porn sites online, produces a yearly report that aggregates user behavior on the site. Of particular interest, aside from the fact that all of us are horndogs, is that the U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Farfetch bets on sneakers with $250M Stadium Goods acquisition
December 13, 2018 16:31 - 6 minutesThe lines between streetwear and luxury fashion have blurred in recent years, especially as excitement around sneaker brands like Yeezy and Off-White has soared. A marriage between a luxury fashion marketplace and a sneaker and streetwear reseller seems like a natural way to wrap up M&A in 2018. With that said, Farfetch has acquired New York-based Stadium Goods, opting to pay $250 million for the sneaker startup in a combination of cash and Farfetch stock. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...
YayPay raises $8.4 million for its accounts receivable service
December 13, 2018 08:00 - 3 minutesFintech startup YayPay just raised another $8.4 million for its software-as-a-service solution focused on collecting money from outstanding invoices. The company participated in TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield several years ago. Information Venture Partners led today’s funding round with existing investors Birchmere, QED, Fifth Third Capital, Gaingels and 500 Fintech Fund also participating. YayPay targets large companies with an accounting department. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...
How Uber will become an ad company, starting with Eats Pool
December 11, 2018 08:00 - 8 minutesWhere there is discovery in an app, there is paid discovery. Google helped you choose between links, then sold ads that promote a few. Facebook helped you choose between pieces of content, then sold ads that promote a few. And eventually, as Uber helps you choose between restaurants, it will sell ads that promote a few. It could become the marketing platform through which the physical world vies for your attention. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Why you need a supercomputer to build a house
December 10, 2018 16:37 - 8 minutesWhen the hell did building a house become so complicated? Don’t let the folks on HGTV fool you. The process of building a home nowadays is incredibly painful. Just applying for the necessary permits can be a soul-crushing undertaking that’ll have you running around the city, filling out useless forms, and waiting in motionless lines under fluorescent lights at City Hall wondering whether you should have just moved back in with your parents. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoic...
2 Milly files a lawsuit against Fortnite maker Epic Games over dance move
December 10, 2018 08:00 - 4 minutesRapper 2 Milly is suing Epic Games over Fortnite’s use of his dance move, the Milly Rock. The lawsuit claims direct infringement of copyright, contributory infringement of copyright, violation of the Right of Publicity under California Common Law, among other things. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The trust dilemma of continuous background checks
December 07, 2018 16:32 - 9 minutesFirst, background checks at startups, then Huawei’s finance chief is arrested, SoftBank’s IPO is subscribed, and I am about to record our next edition of TechCrunch Equity. It’s Thursday, December 6, 2018. TechCrunch is experimenting with new content forms. This is a rough draft of something new – provide your feedback directly to the author (Danny at [email protected]) if you like or hate something here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Freeletics raises $45M for its AI-powered mobile fitness coach
December 06, 2018 16:35 - 3 minutesOne of Europe’s most popular fitness applications is poised to flourish in the U.S. market with the help of several Los Angeles-based investors. Freeletics, headquartered in Munich, Germany, is today announcing its first round of private capital after bootstrapping since 2013. The $45 million Series A was co-led by FitLab, Causeway Media Partners and JAZZ Venture Partners, with participation from Courtside Ventures, Elysian Park Ventures and ward.ventures. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...
Birth control delivery startup Nurx now offers an at-home HPV testing kit
December 06, 2018 08:00 - 4 minutesTelemedicine startup Nurx— once dubbed the “Uber for birth control” — has launched a direct-to-consumerHuman papillomavirus (HPV) testing kit. The addition means its customers can test for the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S. and a cause of genital warts and cervical cancer in the comfort of their own homes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Uber Eats test lets restaurants trade discounts for ranking boost
December 05, 2018 08:01 - 4 minutesUber Eats has effectively invented its own native ad unit. Uber confirmed to TechCrunch that a test quietly running in markets around India allows restaurants to bundle several food items together and sell them at a discounted price in exchange for promoted placement by Uber Eats in a featured section of local “Specials”. In some cases, restaurants foot the cost of the discount, while in others Uber pays for the discounts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Agricool raises another $28 million to grow fruits in containers
December 04, 2018 16:31 - 5 minutesFrench startup Agricool is raising another $28 million round of funding (€25 million). The company is working on containers to grow fruits and vegetables in urban areas, starting with strawberries. Bpifrance, Danone Manifesto Ventures, Marbeuf Capital, Solomon Hykes and other business angels participated in today’s funding round. Some existing investors also participated, such as daphni, XAnge, Henri Seydoux and Kima Ventures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
WiARframe wants to make building AR experiences easy
December 04, 2018 08:00 - 4 minutesAugmented reality has been a buzzword for years, but for the most part, it has remained a novelty. WiARframe, which is competing in our Startup Battlefield competition today at Disrupt Berlin, believes that we are still very early on in the AR game and that part of what is holding the market back is that the tools need to become easier to use and that designers need to find better ways to find inspiration for their AR experiences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adc...
Lyft’s pink-wheeled shareable bikes will be available to rent soon
November 30, 2018 16:37 - 3 minutesLyft has finally given us a glimpse of its forthcoming line of shareable bikes, which the ridesharing company says will be available to rent within its mobile app in select cities “soon.” The news comes as the $15 billion company announces the final close of its acquisition of Motivate, the New York City-based mobility startup that owns a number of bike-rental services, like Citi Bike, Ford GoBike, Divvy, Blue Bikes and Capital Bikeshare. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices...
Spin Analytics automates credit risk modeling for banks
November 29, 2018 16:31 - 3 minutesMeet Spin Analytics, a startup that wants to leverage artificial intelligence to automatically write credit risk modeling regulation reports. The company is participating in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin. If you work for a big bank, you know how painful it can be to launch a new product. Every time you start selling a new asset, you need to comply with regulations around the world. It can take months and a lot of money to write detailed documents about your asset. Learn mor...
Australian scheduling software company Deputy brings in $81M amid rapid growth
November 29, 2018 08:00 - 3 minutesAfter eight years of bootstrapping, Deputy sought scale. So the workforce management platform turned to venture capital, quickly raising a $25 million Series A in early 2017. Today, Deputy is announcing a major accomplishment: the close of an $81 million round — the largest Series B in Australian history. IVP has led the investment for the Sydney and Atlanta-headquartered company, with support from OpenView Venture Partners, Square Peg Capital and Equity Venture Partners. Learn more about you...
Meet ‘Bitski’, the single sign-on wallet crypto desperately needs
November 28, 2018 16:34 - 8 minutesThe mainstream will never adopt blockchain-powered decentralized apps (dApps) if it’s a struggle to log in. They’re either forced to manage complex security keys themselves, or rely on a clunky wallet-equipped browser like MetaMask. What users need is for signing in to blockchain apps to be as easy as Login With Facebook. So that’s what Bitski built. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Amazon exec Dave Stephenson tapped to lead Airbnb to the public markets
November 27, 2018 16:31 - 4 minutesAirbnb has completed a much-needed hire ahead of its rumored 2019 initial public offering. Thehospitality giant has brought on Dave Stephenson, a long-time Amazon vice president and former president of Big Fish Games, as its chief financial officer. Stephenson replaces the company’s head of global financial planning and analysis, Ellie Mertz, who served as interim head of finance as Airbnb searched for its former CFO Laurence Tosi’s replacement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcas...
Banuba raises $7M to supercharge any app or device with the ability to really see you
November 27, 2018 08:00 - 11 minutesBanuba raises $7M to supercharge any app or device with the ability to really see you Walking into the office of Viktor Prokopenya – which overlooks a central London park – you would perhaps be forgiven for missing the significance of this unassuming location, just south of Victoria Station in London. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Cloud communications platform Agora closes $70M Series C to create new developer tools
November 26, 2018 08:00 - 3 minutesPart of Agora’s team. The cloud communications startup has offices in Santa Clara and Shanghai. Agora, a developer of cloud communication APIs, will create products for new markets and verticals after raising a $70 million Series C led by Coatue Management. Existing investors SIG, Morningside Capital, and Shunwei Capital also returned for the round, which brings Agora’s total funding so far to $125 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Move over Le Creuset? A new cookware startup founded by and for millennials is getting down to business
November 23, 2018 08:00 - 5 minutesMove over Le Creuset? A new cookware startup founded by and for millennials is getting down to business Sometimes, it’s hard to imagine a product or industry that a new e-commerce startup hasn’t tried to remake already, fromslipperstomattresses, fromluggagetolipstick. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
October lets 11 public companies borrow money on its platform
November 22, 2018 16:32 - 3 minutesFrench crowd-lending platform October (formerly known as Lendix), wants to educate more people about new ways to borrow money. That’s why the company is launching a project called Grandir Ensemble (grow together). 11 big companies are borrowing €100,000 each on October at a 2.5 percent interest rate. October users will be able to lend as little as €20 to one of these companies. If you look at the list of companies, all those names will sound familiar to French readers and beyond. Learn more ...
CVCompiler is an robot that fixes your resume to make you more competitive
November 22, 2018 08:00 - 3 minutesCVCompiler is an robot that fixes your resume to make you more competitive Machine learning is everywhere now, including recruiting. Take CVCompiler, a new product by Andrew Stetsenko and Alexandra Dosii. This web app uses machine learning to analyze and repair your technical resume, allowing you too shine to recruiters at Google, Yahoo, and Facebook. The founders are marketing and HR experts who have a combined fifteen years experience in making recruiting smarter. Stetsenko founded Relocate...
Berlin-based Wind Mobility raises $22M for its e-scooter rental service
November 21, 2018 16:31 - 4 minutesWind Mobility, a Berlin-based mobility startup that offers “dockless” e-scooter (and electric bicycle) rentals, has raised $22 million in seed funding, throwing its hat into the European competitor to Bird and Lime ring. It follows recent raises by Sweden’s VOI ($50 million Series A led by Balderton) and Germany’s Tier (€25 million Series A led by Northzone). All three companies are attempting to be pan-European from the get-go. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adcho...
iHeartMedia to acquire radio adtech company Jelli
November 21, 2018 08:48 - 3 minutesRadio giant iHeartMedia announced today that it’s reached an agreement to acquire Jelli, a company bringing programmatic ad-buying to radio broadcasters. In fact, iHeartMedia was already working with Jelli to allow businesses to use programmatic tools to buy advertising on the company’s 850 broadcast radio stations. iHeartMedia also invested in Jelli’s most recent funding round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Genies brings lifelike avatars to other apps with $10M from celebrities
November 20, 2018 16:32 - 6 minutesGenies is emerging as the top competitor to Snapchat’s wildly popular Bitmoji as Facebook, Apple, and Google have been slow to get serious about personalized avatars. Over one million people have customized dozens of traits to build a realistic digital lookalike of themselves from over a million possible permutations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Shyft raises $6.5M to help retail and service workers swap shifts
November 20, 2018 08:01 - 3 minutesAnyone that has experience in the service or retail industry knows swapping shifts can be a logistical nightmare that leaves employees in trouble with management or stuck working during a friend’s birthday party. As a former Old Navy “sellebrity” myself, I can confirm there’s a huge need for an efficient tool to solve this problem. That’s where Shyft, a Seattle-based startup that helps connect shift workers, comes in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Plastiq raises $27M at 2X+ value to let you pay for anything on credit
November 19, 2018 16:34 - 5 minutes“I wasn’t asking to pay in Bitcoin!” Plastiq CEO and co-founder Eliot Buchanan recalls with a laugh. “I went to pay part of my tuition at Harvard and I was told that they didn’t (and never would) accept credit card. It was inconvenient and seemed odd. Credit cards had been around for 50 years.” That set off the a light bulb in his head. “Why couldn’t I use a credit card to pay for this important bill? So, I set out to solve my own problem. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoice...
Standard Cognition raises $40M to replace retailers’ cashiers with cameras
November 19, 2018 08:01 - 8 minutesThe Amazon Go store requires hundreds of cameras to detect who’s picking up what items. Standard Cognition needs just 27 to go after the $27 trillion market of equipping regular shops with autonomous retail technology. Walk into one of its partners’ stores and overhead cameras identify you by shape and movement, not facial recognition. Open up its iOS or Android app and a special light pattern flashes, allowing the cameras to tie you to your account and payment method. Learn more about your a...
Bunch scores $3.8M to turn mobile games into video chat LAN parties
November 16, 2018 16:34 - 5 minutesThe best parts of gaming are the jokes and trash talk with friends. Whether it was four-player Goldeneye or linking up PCs for Quake battles in the basement, the social element keeps video games exciting. Yet on mobile we’ve lost a lot of that, playing silently by ourselves even if we’re in a squad with friends somewhere else. Bunch wants to bring the laughter back to mobile gaming by letting you sync up with friends and video chat while you play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podca...
Lies, damn lies, and HQ2
November 15, 2018 16:32 - 10 minutesThere are few things certain in our world except for the uplifting tendencies of technology. I’ve spent the past few years trying to prove this to myself, at least, by interviewing hundreds of thinkers on the topic. I’ve come to a singular conclusion: when tech moves into a city, be it an iOS dev shop or a robotic facility for making widgets, things change primarily for the better. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Clearbanc raises $70M to give startups ad money for a rev share
November 15, 2018 08:00 - 6 minutesSelling equity to buy Facebook and Google ads is a bad deal for startups. Clearbanc offers a fundraising alternative. For fast-growing businesses reliably earning sales from their marketing spend, Clearbanc offers funding from $5,000 to $10 million in exchange for a steady revenue share of their earnings until it’s paid back plus a 6 percent fee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lime is debuting its line of shareable vehicles in Seattle this week
November 14, 2018 08:01 - 3 minutesLime, the well-funded startup known for its fleet of brightly colored dockless bicycles and electric scooters, has a new way for its customers to get around: cars. Beginning this week, Lime users in Seattle will be able to reserve a “LimePod,” a Lime-branded 2018 Fiat 500, within the Lime mobile app. There will be 50 cars available to start as part of the company’s initial rollout. Lime plans to increase that number at the end of the month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoi...
Calm heads to the airport, invests $3 million in XpresSpa
November 13, 2018 16:32 - 3 minutesWellness app Calm has today announced a $3 million equity investment in XpresSpa Group, a fast-spa service you may have noticed in your local airport. Calm sees the investment as a way to expand its offline presence, growing awareness of the app as well as its retail products like Sleep Mist and the Calm Book. Calm subscribers will have access to a variety of in-store benefits and treatments at one of 52 XpresSpa locations in cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Lea...
SAP agrees to buy Qualtrics for $8B in cash, just before the survey software company’s IPO
November 13, 2018 08:01 - 4 minutesSAP agrees to buy Qualtrics for $8B in cash, just before the survey software company’s IPO Enterprise software giant SAP announced today that it has agreed to acquire Qualtrics for $8 billion in cash, just before the survey and research software company was set to go public. The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019. Qualtrics last round of venture capital funding in 2016 raised $180 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoic...
A tale of two scooter cities
November 12, 2018 16:32 - 12 minutesThe kids in Madrid’s El Retiro Park are loving their new on-demand joyriding toys. Lime launched its scooters in the Spanish capital this summer. Spending a weekend in the city center last month the craze was impossible to miss. Scooters parked in clusters vying for pay-to-play time. Sometimes lined up tidily. All too often not. The bright Lime rides really stood out, though it’s not the only brand in town. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Pure Bit, a South Korean exchange, pulls a $2.8 million exit scam
November 12, 2018 08:00 - 2 minutesAnother day, another exit scam. This time it comes to us from South Korea where an exchange, Pure Bit, has completely shut down after raising $2.8 million in Ethereum from investors. The exchange, which promised to deliver something call Pure Coin, was live yesterday and today is completely shut down after posting “Sorry” and “Thanks” to their communications channels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Olho do Dono is the winner of Startup Battlefield Latin America
November 09, 2018 18:21 - 2 minutesFifteen startups have spent the day presenting on-stage in Sao Paulo, Brazil. For the finalists, that meant presenting twice — once in the initial rounds, then again for our finalist judges. This was all part of Startup Battlefield Latin America, an event that we put on in partnership with Facebook’s FB Start program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The scooters arrive in Australia
November 09, 2018 08:00 - 2 minutesThe scooter startups are taking over the world — or trying to. Earlier this week, Bird debuted its electric scooters in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park; today, Lime is announcing its foray into the land down under with the launch of a three-month scooter pilot atMonash University in Melbourne, Australia. Lime has also released several hundred of its dockless electric bikes in Sydney and plans to introduce its scooters there, aswell as in Brisbane, soon. Learn more about your ad choices....