TechCrunch Startup News
2,977 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 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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The Infatuation raises $30M from Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo to bring Zagat into the digital age
September 28, 2018 16:31 - 4 minutesWndrCo, the consumer tech investment and holding company founded by longtime Hollywood executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, has invested $30 million in The Infatuation, a restaurant discovery platform. The Infatuation made waves earlier this year when itpurchased Zagat from Google,which had paid $151 million for the 40-year-old company in 2011. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rally Rd., the app that lets you invest in classic cars, raises $7M Series A
September 28, 2018 08:00 - 4 minutesWhat happens when you bring together an entrepreneur, a product designer and an investment banker who all really love collector vehicles? You get Rally Rd., an app for buying and selling equity shares in classic cars. Launched in 2016, the company’s SEC-compliant platform lets users purchase shares in Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis and other classic models for as little as $50 per share. The company says it has50,000 members that have invested millions. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...
YC grad The Lobby raises $1.2M to help job seekers break into Wall Street
September 27, 2018 16:32 - 3 minutesSix months after completing Y Combinator’s 12-week accelerator program, The Lobbyis announcing a $1.2 million investment. The startup connects job seekers to Wall Street bankers, venture capitalists and other finance“insiders” for advice and personalized career coaching. Founder and former investment banker Deepak Chhugani wants to help people who don’t come from elite backgrounds or have the network of an Ivy League graduate land high-profile finance roles. Learn more about your ad choices. ...
Farmer’s Fridge wants to make eating healthy food as easy as getting money from an ATM
September 27, 2018 08:01 - 5 minutesFast, healthy food is one of those concepts that just seems too good to be true. But Farmer’s Fridge, a Chicago-based startup that recently closed a $30 million Series C round led by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, aims to make that a reality. Farmer’s Fridge retrofits vending machines to serve up healthy foods — salads, sandwiches, granola, etc. — for people on the go, for anywhere from $5 to about $8. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sequoia backs Maven, a virtual health clinic for women
September 26, 2018 16:32 - 4 minutesDespite the increase in women in the U.S. workforce and public pledges from several high-profile CEOs to close the gender pay gap, women, especially working mothers, often find themselves without the resources necessary to succeed at work. Maven, a digital health startup and benefits platform focused on improving access to healthcare for women, has emerged specifically to help businesses help their female employees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Data.world raises $12M to help Fortune 500 companies close the great data divide
September 26, 2018 08:00 - 4 minutesAirbnb, Uber, Lyft, Warby Parker and a long list of other startups of the 21st century have appointed C-level employees to roles focused exclusively on data science. These digital-age companies have established “data cultures,” which provide employees broad access to high-quality data, advocate for data literacy and have data-driven decision-making processes,according to Carl Anderson, who previously led data analytics and data science at Warby Parker and WeWork. Learn more about your ad choi...
BlaBlaCar is on the path to profitability
September 25, 2018 16:32 - 3 minutesFrench startup BlaBlaCar just released some interesting metrics. The company has reached profitability if you look at revenue between January 2018 and today. BlaBlaCar forecasts that 50 million people will book a ride on BlaBlaCar in 2018, which represents a 40 percent increase compared to 2017. BlaBlaCar is a marketplace for long-distance rides. People driving from point A to point B can find riders willing to go in the same direction to share the cost of the ride. Learn more about your ad ...
Understanding Renaud Laplanche’s next Upgraded act
September 25, 2018 08:00 - 14 minutesRenaud Laplanche spent ten years building LendingClub. In the process, he created an industry from scratch. Circumventing conventional banking channels for consumer credit began in 1996 when Chris Larsen started E-LOAN, which ultimately led to Prosper Marketplace. But LendingClub, which Laplanche founded in 2007, was and remains the poster child for the business of marketplace lending. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
VCs say Silicon Valley isn’t the gold mine it used to be
September 24, 2018 16:32 - 7 minutesIn the days leading up to TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018, The Economist published the cover story, ‘Why Startups Are Leaving Silicon Valley.’ The author outlined reasons why the Valley has “peaked.” Venture capital investors are deploying capital outside the Bay Area more than ever before. High-profile entrepreneurs and investors,Peter Thiel, for example, have left. Rising rents are making it impossible for new blood to make a living, let alone build businesses. Learn more about your ad choices....
uBeam wireless power’s CEO Meredith Perry steps aside amidst B2B pivot
September 24, 2018 08:00 - 7 minutesAfter repeatedly missing self-imposed deadlines for progress on its wireless charging-at-a-distance phone case, uBeam’s CEO Meredith Perry has decided to shift out of the CEO position and into a board member and senior advisor role. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
‘Brotopia’ inspired OODA Health to raise its $40.5M round only from firm’s with female partners
September 21, 2018 16:35 - 4 minutesIt’s never particularly easy to raise a round of venture capital — but I think most experienced founders will tell you its not quite as bad the second or third time around, when you’ve got some experience under your belt and a track record to present to VCs. It helps if you’re male too, at least according to all the data out there on the gender funding gap in VC. The leadership team at OODA Health, a startup developing technology to make the U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcas...
Cluep, a Canadian startup that raised just $500k, acquired for $40M
September 21, 2018 08:00 - 3 minutesEveryone lovesa tale of a bootstrapped startup founder’s journey to an eight-figure exit. The team at Toronto-based Cluep have a good one. The founders of theadtech startup raised less than $500,000 from angel investors before selling their company to Impact Group for $40 million ($53 milllionCAD) this week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Fresh out of Y Combinator, Leena AI scores $2M seed round
September 20, 2018 08:01 - 4 minutesLeena AI, a recentY Combinator graduate focusing on HR chatbots to help employees answer questions like how much vacation time they have left, announced a $2 million seed round today from a variety of investors including Elad Gil and Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. Company co-founder and CEO Adit Jain says the seed money is about scaling the company and gaining customers. They hope to have 50 enterprise customers within the next 12-18 months. They currently have 16. Learn mo...
Mabl announces $20 million Series B to bring automated QA to enterprise customers
September 19, 2018 08:00 - 4 minutesMabl, a Boston-based startup from the folks who brought you Stackdriver, wants to change software testing using machine learning, and today it announced a $20 million Series B investment led by GV (formerly Google Ventures). Existing investors CRV and Amplify Partners also participated. As part of the deal, Karim Faris, general partner at GV will be joining the Mabl board. Today’s investment comes on top of a $10 million Series A announced in February. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ...
Uber fires up its own traffic estimates to fuel demand beyond cars
September 18, 2018 16:32 - 4 minutesIf the whole map is red and it’s a short ride, maybe you’d prefer taking an Uber JUMP Bike instead of an UberX. Or at least if you do end up stuck bumper-to-bumper, the warning could make you less likely to get mad mid-ride and take it out on the driver’s rating. This week TechCrunch spotted Uberoverlaying blue, yellow, and red traffic condition bars on your route map before you hail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Boom’s chief test pilot on the thrill and challenge of going supersonic (again)
September 18, 2018 08:00 - 6 minutes“There’s nothing like it out there,” says Commander Bill “Doc” Shoemaker (Ret.), chief test pilot for Boom Supersonic, the startup aiming to make a passenger airliner for transoceanic flights at speeds (as you might guess from the name) faster than sound. Shoemaker, a former Navy aviator, fighter pilot and aeronautics engineer, will have the daunting privilege of being the first to fly the company’s proof of concept single-seater during tests next year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...
Crypto’s second bubble, Juul has 60 days and three Chinese IPOs
September 17, 2018 16:35 - 4 minutesHello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. After a long run of having guests climb aboard each week, we took a pause on that front, bringing together three of our regular hosts instead: Connie Loizos, Danny Chrichton, and myself. Despite the fact that there were just three of us instead of the usual four, we got through a mountain of stuff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lively raises $6.5M to bring its comfortable and inclusive lingerie to brick-and-mortar stores
September 14, 2018 16:31 - 4 minutesRoy Raymond opened a little store called Victoria’s Secret, now one of the most popular lingerie businesses in the world, because he was embarrassed to buy lingerie for his wife in department stores. The brand was founded on the premise that men needed a safe space to buy lingerie for women and women needed a larger variety of sexy, angelic bras and other intimates to wear for men. But it’s 2018. Women, today, buy lingerie for themselves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoice...
It’s the end of crypto as we know it and I feel fine
September 14, 2018 08:00 - 7 minutesWatching the current price madness is scary. Bitcoin is falling and rising in $500 increments with regularity and Ethereum and its attendant ICOs are in a seeming freefall with a few “dead cat bounces” to keep things lively. What this signals is not that crypto is dead, however. It signals that the early, elated period of trading whose milestones including the launch of Coinbase and the growth of a vibrant (if often shady) professional ecosystem is over. Crypto still runs on hype. Learn mor...
Ready, Set, Raise is a new accelerator built for women by women
September 13, 2018 16:31 - 4 minutesWomen in tech are not only significantly under-funded by venture capitalists, but they also often lack access to the early-stage support granted to their male counterparts. To enroll in a startup accelerator like Y Combinator, for example, its expected founders relocate to the Bay Area for three months. Women, who are more often caregivers, might not be able to do that, and even if they can, the program may not cater to their specific needs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoi...
Job Today gets a $16M top up as it preps for Brexit bump
September 13, 2018 08:00 - 4 minutesJob Today gets a $16M top up as it preps for Brexit bump Accel-backed mobile-first jobs appJob Todayhas pulled in another $16M — an expansion to its November 2016 $20M Series B round. It raised a $10M Series A in January of the same year. The 2015 founded startup offers a mobile app for job seekers that does away with the need for a CV. Instead job seekers create a profile in the app and can apply to relevant jobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Paysend announces global account to compete with Revolut
September 12, 2018 16:31 - 4 minutesMeet Paysend’s global account, a new way to hold, spend and send money in multiple currencies using a mobile app and a card. It looks a lot like Revolut’s basic features. But the company is trying to provide a more focused and robust experience from day one. “We are quite different from both a technical infrastructure and consumer offering viewpoint. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Global M&A activity is flat so far in 2018
September 12, 2018 08:00 - 3 minutesGlobal M&A activity is flat so far in 2018 U.S. tech companies continue to be the most active acquirers in the world, says a new report from Crunchbase andMind the Bridge. The pair crunched data on 22,000 startup exits since 2010, recording about 4,200 so far this year. U.S. companies, though less active this year than last, have acquired approximately 2x more startups than their European counterparts. Overall, 2018 is a flat year for M&A activity, despite a record-setting 2017. Learn more ab...
Not hog dog? PixFood lets you shoot and identify food
September 11, 2018 08:00 - 3 minutesWhat happens when you add AI to food? Surprisingly, you don’t get a hungry robot. Instead you get something like PixFood. PixFood lets you take pictures of food, identify available ingredients, and, at this stage, find out recipes you can make from your larder. It is privately funded. “There are tons of recipe apps out there, but all they give you is, well, recipes,” said Tonnesson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong: ‘I’d love to run a public company’
September 10, 2018 16:31 - 2 minutesBrian Armstrong, the CEO of cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase, wants to take his company public — maybe on the blockchain. Onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018, Armstrong dished on his ambitions for the future of Coinbase. “We are self-sustaining,” Armstrong said. “You know, we’ve been profitable for quite a while. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Deep-linking startup Branch is raising more than $100M at a unicorn valuation
September 10, 2018 08:00 - 3 minutesBranch, the deep-linking startup backed by Andy Rubin’s Playground Ventures, will enter the unicorn club with an upcoming funding round. The four-year-old company, which helps brands create links between websites and mobile apps, has authorized the sale of $129 million in Series D shares, according to sources and confirmed by PitchBook, which tracks venture capital deals. The infusion of capital values the company at roughly $1 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.c...
Vtrus launches drones to inspect and protect your warehouses and factories
September 07, 2018 16:32 - 6 minutesKnowing what’s going on in your warehouses and facilities is of course critical to many industries, but regular inspections take time, money, and personnel. Why not use drones? Vtrus uses computer vision to let a compact drone not just safely navigate indoor environments but create detailed 3D maps of them for inspectors and workers to consult, autonomously and in real time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
PoLTE lets you track devices using LTE signal
September 07, 2018 08:00 - 3 minutesMeet PoLTE, a Dallas-based startup that wants to make location-tracking more efficient. Thanks to PoLTE’s software solution, logistics and shipment companies can much more easily track packages and goods. The startup is participating in TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield at Disrupt SF. If you want to use a connected device to track a package, you currently need a couple of things — a way to determine the location of the package, and a way to transmit this information over the air. Learn more ab...
Ashton Kutcher hates cars, loves scooters
September 06, 2018 16:31 - 2 minutesAshton Kutcher and Effie Epstein discussed their investment strategy at TechCrunch Disrupt SF. With their VC fund Sound Ventures, they invested in Bird. While they are conflicted on this topic, Kutcher had a passionate answer about scooters. Here’s a video of what he had to say: Ashton Kutcher: It's a better world if scooters like Bird take off #TCDisrupt pic.twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Unity CEO says half of all games are built on Unity
September 06, 2018 08:00 - 4 minutesUnity CEO John Riccitiello came to TechCrunch Disrupt SF to give everyone an update on the world’s most popular game engine. You might not be aware that most of the games you’re playing, especially mobile games, are built using Unity. For those not familiar with game engines, Riccitiello started by describing game engines very clearly. Back in the days, “[game developers] would write out a game program that had lots of art assets, lots of animation, lots of sounds. Learn more about your ad c...
Here are the six startups participating in Betaworks LiveCamp
September 05, 2018 16:31 - 3 minutesBetaworks this morning revealed this list of six startups participating in its fourth Camp accelerator program. Launched in 2016, the program brings together a collection of young companies united under a single theme. This time out, things are focused on live-streaming, for a program fittingly titled, LiveCamp. Betaworks settled on the topic based on the popularity of apps like Twitch and HQ Trivia. It’s admittedly a bit more nebulous than past topics like BotCamp, VoiceCamp and VisionCamp....
Uber’s chief diversity officer is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2018
September 04, 2018 08:00 - 3 minutesAt TechCrunch Disrupt 2018, Uber’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Bo Young Lee will be joining us to talk about the ride-sharing company’s efforts to put detoxify its corporate culture and promote a more inclusive environment for employees. Lee was hired as the company’s first chief diversity and inclusion officer this past January, after leaving insurance company Marsh LLC where she held a similar role. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Spotinst, excess cloud capacity management service, snares $35M Series B
August 30, 2018 16:31 - 4 minutesSpotinst, the startup that helps companies purchase and manage excess cloud infrastructure capacity, announced a hefty $35 million Series B today led by Highland Capital. Existing investors Leaders Fund, Intel Capital and Vertex Ventures also participated. Today’s round brings the total investment to over $52 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Datree gets $3M seed round to build DevOps policy engine in GitHub
August 30, 2018 08:00 - 3 minutesDatree, an early-stage startup based in Israel, wants to help companies create a set of policies for their applications, and apply them in GitHub before a commit goes live. Today, it announced $3 million in seed funding from TLV partners. The check was actually written last September, according to the founders, and they are making the investment public today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Cleo Capital sets $10M target to fund female entrepreneurs
August 29, 2018 16:31 - 4 minutesSarah Kunst has filed to raise $10 million for her debut venture capital fund, Cleo Capital. According to Axios, the firm will give cash to female entrepreneurs who will act as scouts. Scouts look for viable early-stage startups for firms to invest in and then receive a cut of the profits on the investments. Kunst, pictured above, is a scout for Sequoia; it’s unclear if that will change now that she’s running her own firm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Very Good Security makes data ‘unhackable’ with $8.5M from Andreessen
August 29, 2018 08:00 - 7 minutes“You can’t hack what isn’t there,” Very Good Security co-founder Mahmoud Abdelkader tells me. His startup assumes the liability of storing sensitive data for other companies, substituting dummy credit card or Social Security numbers for the real ones. Then when the data needs to be moved or operated on, VGS injects the original info without clients having to change their code. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
VMware acquires CloudHealth Technologies for multi-cloud management
August 28, 2018 08:00 - 4 minutesVMware is hosting its VMworld customer conference in Las Vegas this week, and to get things going it announced that its acquiring Boston-based CloudHealth Technologies. They did not disclose the terms of the deal, but Reuters is reporting the price is $500 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rebuilding employee philanthropy from the bottom up
August 27, 2018 16:31 - 11 minutesIn tech circles, it would be easy to assume that the world of high-impact charitable giving is a rich man’s game where deals are inked at exclusive black tie galas over fancy hors d’oeuvre.Both Mark Zuckerberg and Marc Benioff have donated to SF hospitals that now bear their names. Gordon Moore has given away $5B – including $600M to Caltech – which was the largest donation to a university at the time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Housing startup Bungalow raises $14 million Series A round led by Khosla Ventures
August 24, 2018 16:31 - 4 minutesMoving to a new city can be tough for a number of reasons, but what’s arguably hardest about moving is a competitive and expensive housing market, and lack of a pre-existing social support network. That’s the problem startup Bungalow is trying to solve. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nylas scores $16M Series B to expand email API tool
August 24, 2018 08:01 - 4 minutesNylas, a startup that helps developers integrate email content into applications via an API, announced a $16 million Series B today led by Spark Capital. Other investors joining in included Slack Fund, Industry Ventures, and ScaleUp along with existing investors 8VC, Great Oaks Capital, Rubicon Capital and John Chambers’ personal fund. Today’s investment brings the total raised to $30 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Foundries.io promises standardized open source IoT device security
August 23, 2018 08:00 - 4 minutesIoT devices currently lack a standard way of applying security. It leaves consumers, whether business or individuals, left to wonder if their devices are secure and up-to-date. Foundries.io, a company that launched today, wants to change that by offering a standard way to secure devices and deliver updates over the air. “Our mission is solving the problem of IoT and embedded space where there is no standardized core platform like Android for phones,” Foundries. Learn more about your ad choice...
Talla builds a smarter customer knowledge base
August 22, 2018 16:31 - 4 minutesTalla is taking aim at the customer service industry with its latest release, an AI-infused knowledge base. Today, the company released version 2.0 of the Talla Intelligent Knowledge Base. The company also announced that Paula Long, most recently CEO at Data Gravity, has joined the company as SVP of engineering. This tool combines customer content with automation, chatbots and machine learning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Semmle, startup that makes code searchable, hauls in $21M Series B
August 22, 2018 08:00 - 3 minutesSemmle, a startup that originally spun out of research at Oxford, announced a $21 million Series B investment today led by Accel Partners. It marked the second time Accel has led an investment in the company. Other investors include Work-Bench, Capital One, Credit Suisse, Google, Microsoft, NASA and Nasdaq Trust. Today’s investment brings the total to $31 million. Semmle has warranted this kind of interest by taking a unique approach to finding vulnerabilities in code. Learn more about your ...
Titan launches its mobile ‘not a hedge fund’
August 21, 2018 08:00 - 8 minutesWhat Robinhood did to democratize buying individual stocks, Titan wants to do for investing in a managed portfolio. Instead of being restricted to rich accredited investors willing to pour $5,000 or even $500,000 into a traditional hedge fund that charges 2 percent fees and 20 percent of profits, Titan lets anyone invest as little as $1,000 for just a 1 percent fee while keeping all the profits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Incentivai launches to simulate how hackers break blockchains
August 20, 2018 16:32 - 5 minutesCryptocurrency projects can crash and burn if developers don’t predict how humans will abuse their blockchains. Once a decentralized digital economy is released into the wild and the coins start to fly, it’s tough to implement fixes to the smart contracts that govern them. That’s why Incentivai is coming out of stealth today with its artificial intelligence simulations that test not just for security holes, but for how greedy or illogical humans can crater a blockchain community. Learn more a...
Klarity uses AI to strip drudgery from contract review
August 20, 2018 08:00 - 4 minutesKlarity, a member of the Y Combiner 2018 Summer class, wants to automate much of the contract review process by applying artificial intelligence, specifically natural language processing. Company co-founder and CEO Andrew Antos has experienced the pain of contract reviews first hand. After graduating from Harvard Law, he landed a job spending 16 hours a day reviewing contract language, a process he called mind-numbing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Credit Karma acquires mortgage platform Approved
August 17, 2018 16:31 - 4 minutesCredit Karma, the service best known for providing free credit score monitoring and other financial advice(mostly to millennials), is getting into the mortgage business. The company today announced that it has acquired Approved, a mortgage platform that brings modern technology to a process that even today often still involves faxing documents back and forth. The companies did not disclose the financial details of the transaction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adc...
Shelf Engine uses machine learning to stop food waste from eating into store margins
August 17, 2018 08:00 - 6 minutesShelf Engine’s team While running Molly’s, the Seattle-based ready meal wholesaler he founded, Stefan Kalb was upset about its 28 percent food wastage rate. Feeling that the amount was “astronomical,” he began researching how to lower it — and was shocked to discovered Molly’s was actually outperforming the industry average. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
To fight the scourge of open offices, ROOM sells rooms
August 16, 2018 16:31 - 8 minutesNoisy open offices don’t foster collaboration, they kill it, according to a Harvard study that found the less-private floor plan led to a 73 percent drop in face-to-face interaction between employees and a rise in emailing. The problem is plenty of young companies and big corporations have already bought into the open office fad. But a new startup called ROOM is building a prefabricated, self-assembled solution. It’s the Ikea of office phone booths. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit pod...
Owl raises $10 million for two-way car dashboard camera
August 16, 2018 08:00 - 7 minutesOwl, the two-way dash cam founded by a team of ex-Apple and Dropcam executives, has secured a $10 million Series A1 round led by Canvas Ventures. This brings Owl’s total funding to $28 million. “We’ve seen a lot of pent-up demand for car security, and Owl is tapping into that demand with a product that’s easy to install and use,” Canvas Ventures General Partner Rebecca Lynn said in a statement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices