Crunch Hype

We’re taking a look at the early-stage venture capital market, this time through a European lens, helped by a few investors from the continent.

While the digital revolution has transformed nearly every social interaction and communication type in the past couple decades, the humble birthday card has shown surprising resiliency. Givingli, a small LA-based startup with an app aiming to challenge how Gen Z sends digital greeting cards, is picking up some seed funding from investors betting on their […]

How psyched are you about our TC Early Stage: Marketing & Fundraising event? Still need some convincing? Here’s another great session we’ve got planned for the show, which will span July 8 and 9. Emerge Capital Growth Partner Doug Landis will be joining us to discuss how early stage companies can build out the proper […]

On a muggy Tuesday morning in Brooklyn, electrified mobility company Revel unveiled its first electric vehicle fast charging superhub. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm joined the New York-based startup, alongside Revel’s founder and CEO Frank Reig in a ribbon cutting ceremony. “Thank you, ⁦Revel, for being an example of what we need in this country[…] Thank […]

Add Soft Robotics to the long list of automation companies that have seen a boost in investment interest amid the pandemic. The New England-based firm announced this morning a $10 million raise that serves as an extension of the $23 million Series B it announced in January of last year. The extension was led by […]

Bees are absolutely critical to the health of our agricultural system, ecosystem, and overall wellbeing as a species here on Earth. And yet bee populations are decreasing and extinction concerns are growing. Beeflow, a startup that today announced the close of a $8.3 million Series A round, is looking to both save the bees and […]

Amazon today announced a new feature that will turn Alexa into a reading companion for children as well as new support for Alexa Voice Profiles for Kids, which personalize the child’s Alexa experience across all Echo devices in the household. The two features go hand in hand, as the Voice Profile allows Alexa to identify […]

Ask anyone looking to sell online about their customer acquisition costs compared to a few years ago, and you’ll hear a tale of woe. Channels that were once a cost-effective ground for acquiring customers, like various social networks, have become increasingly pricey real estate. Facebook’s recent broaching of the $1 trillion market cap threshold attests […]

This morning Arrows, a startup building software to help software companies onboard their customers, announced that it has raised a $2.75 million round led by Google’s Gradient Ventures. The round was joined by a host of angels, including funds from Sprout Social founder and CEO Justyn Howard. Per Arrows CEO Daniel Zarick, the company had […]

New York-based construction startup Toggle this morning announced that it has raised an $8 million Series A. The round was led by Tribeca Venture Partners and featured Blackhorn Ventures, Point72 Ventures, New York State and Twenty Seven Ventures. It follows a $3 million seed round raised in late-2019. Robotics in general have been a massively […]

TechCrunch has covered Acceleprise several times over the years, including a look at its mid-2020 accelerator startup batch from its three accelerators. The firm has long focused on business-to-business SaaS startups, helping them get their start in a competitive global software market. As of today, Acceleprise is now Forum Ventures, according to the group’s CEO […]

Orum, which aims to speed up the amount of time it takes to transfer money between banks, announced today it has raised $56 million in a Series B round of funding. Accel and Canapi Ventures co-led the round, which also included participation from existing backers Bain Capital Ventures, Inspired Capital, Homebrew, Acrew, Primary, Clocktower and […]

The world of work has changed massively in the last year, and with it a rush of startups have emerged with new technology and approaches to improve how it is shaped, and specifically how human resources departments do their jobs. In the latest chapter, Visier, a Canadian startup that has built a big-data engine to […]

Gympass, the exercise and corporate wellness unicorn that originated in Brazil, today announced a $220 million Series E. The company has seen tremendous growth in the last few months, as more and more people are vaccinated and flocking back to the gym. Gympass is like ClassPass, but on steroids. However, unlike ClassPass’ BTC model, Gympass […]

The pandemic significantly changed how we do medical research, and now companies are trying to figure out what trends will stay and which ones will go. One that 4G Clinical is hoping will survive the pandemic is a need for speed and flexibility in therapeutics trials. 4G Clinical creates software to run the back-end of […]

I love testing drones. It’s a lot of fun, and a nice way to mix up my standard review cycle. But I’ve altogether given up on testing them around here. Granted, living in Queens, NY presents a unique combination of obstacles, including population density, two major international airports and a prison – but restrictions have […]

The Citizenry announced today that it raised $20 million in Series B funding in partnership with NextWorld Evergreen. A direct-to-consumer home decor retailer, The Citizenry works with artisans from around the world to produce limited-edition runs of handcrafted, hand-numbered home goods. In October, The Citizenry opened its first brick-and-mortar store in New York City, and […]

SpaceX’s upcoming Starship orbital test flight could end up being a veritable smorgasbord of its technological capabilities, as the company has filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to request approval to fly Starlink terminals on the spacecraft in order to “demonstrate high data rate communications” between the new launch system and the ground throughout […]

Connected vehicle data startup Wejo has announced partnerships with Microsoft, Palantir and Sompo Holdings to improve its ability to collect, store and analyze data from millions of connected vehicles around the world. This follows the GM-backed startup’s announcement that it would be going public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, Virtuoso Acquisition Corp., […]

JFrog, the company best known for a platform that helps developers continuously manage software delivery and updates, is making a deal to help it expand its presence and expertise in an area that has become increasingly connected to DevOps: security. The company is acquiring Vdoo, which has built an AI-based platform that can be used […]

2U, a SaaS platform that helps non-profits and colleges run online universities, plans to acquire all the assets of Harvard and MIT-founded edX for a deal north of $600 million, according to multiple sources. 2U did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and its unclear if this is an all-cash deal. The combined forces […]

Google today is launching a new suite of resources for people struggling with food insecurity across the U.S. The project includes the launch of a new website, “Find Food Support,” that connects people to food support resources, including hotlines, SNAP information, and a Google Maps locator tool that points people to their local food banks, […]

Accel announced Tuesday the close of three new funds totaling $3.05 billion, money that it will be using to back early-stage startups, as well as growth rounds for more mature companies. Notably, the 38-year-old Silicon Valley-based venture firm is doubling down on global investing. The announcement underscores both the robust confidence investors continue to have […]

10club, a six-month-old Indian startup that is building a Thrasio-like venture, said on Tuesday it has raised $40 million in what is one of the largest seed financing rounds in the South Asian market. The round was co-led by Fireside Ventures (a prominent Indian investor in consumer and hardware tech space) and an unnamed global […]

E-commerce saw a massive surge of activity and growth in 2020; and while we may hear a lot about how big companies like Amazon got even bigger during the Covid-19 pandemic, that rising tide also lifted a lot of smaller boats. And that, in turn, has had a big impact on the wider e-commerce ecosystem. […]

The share of exports from Africa to the rest of the world ranged from 80% to 90% between 2000 and 2017. This has created a growing demand for Africa to be less dependent on commodity exports and focus on regional commerce. Not only does this decrease export dependence, but it also forms new markets for […]

Family offices have existed since the 1800s, but they’ve never been so manifold as in recent years. According to a 2019 Global Family Office Report by UBS and Campden Wealth, 68% of the 360 family offices surveyed were founded in 2000 or later. Their rise owes to numerous factors, including the tech startups that mint […]

Duolingo, a Pittsburgh-based language learning business last valued at $2.4 billion, has officially filed to go public. The 400-person company, which we explored in great detail in our EC-1, was co-founded by Luis von Ahn, the inventor of CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA, and Severin Hacker. One of the most revealing bits of its story? It’s a […]

Hello friends and welcome to Daily Crunch, bringing you the most important startup, tech and venture capital news in a single package.

A court case in South Korea has ended in a loss for Netflix and a victory for ISPs in the country, which may now be empowered to levy bandwidth usage fees on traffic-gobbling streaming platforms. The decision is likely to be challenged, as it essentially saddles the new wave of streaming services with ISP-negotiated rents […]

“It is great that MWC is back,” Samsung UK’s James Kitto said, opening up this year’s presser. “And behalf of everyone at Samsung, it’s great to be back at MWC.” What, precisely, it means to be “back” in 2021 is another question entirely. Samsung was, of course, one of a number of major industry players […]

Email has the highest return on investment than any other marketing channel because you have a captive audience who has opted-in to you communicating with them.

One of the biggest factors to the success of a startup is its ability to quickly and confidently deliver software. It’s what makes or breaks a company.

We caught up with Scott Tong, a startup design expert who advises early-stage companies, to learn more about the marriage of products and brands.

Backbone One, the killer iPhone game pad I profiled here late last year, has just scored the mother of all tie-ups for a gaming accessory. It’s getting bundled with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate as it launches on iOS today alongside the xCloud game streaming service. As a part of the deal, Backbone is being bundled […]

An antitrust suit against Facebook by the FTC and several states had the wind taken out of its sails today by a federal judge, who ruled that the plaintiffs don’t provide enough evidence that the company exerts monopoly control over social media. The court was more receptive, however, to revisiting the acquisitions of Instagram and […]

After raising tens of millions from investors and executing a pretty substantial pivot earlier this year, augmented reality startup Ubiquity6 and its team have been acquired by gaming chat app giant Discord. The ambitious AR startup had raised $37.5 million from a series of top investors including Benchmark, First Round, Kleiner Perkins and Google’s Gradient […]

In the wake of the pandemic, organizations have a real chance to refocus company cultures, destigmatize addiction and make wellness a priority. This is a unique window to focus on mental health.

Last fall, Facebook announced it was opening an office in Lagos, Nigeria, which would provide the company with a hub in the region and the first office on the continent staffed with a team of engineers. We’ve now spotted one of the first products to emerge from this office: an education-focused mobile app called Sabee, […]

On this week’s episode of Found, we speak to Rob Schutz, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Ro. Ro recently raised $500 million, bringing its total raised to date to near $1 billion. The digital healthcare startup now does everything from telehealth primary care, to operating physical pharmacies, but it originally began life as Roman, […]

The only thing holding you back is your attitude toward leveraging data to sell to your core customers.

LocoNav, an India-based startup that is helping drivers and fleet owners in over two-dozen nations run their vehicles more efficiently and save money, said on Monday it has raised $37 million in a new financing round. Five-year-old LocoNav’s new financing round, a Series B, was funded by Quiet Capital, Anthemis Group, Foundamental, Sequoia Capital India, […]

Samsung’s Mobile World Congress presser was, once again, all about wearables. The big news at this evening’s (or afternoon’s, timezone dependent) event was our best look yet at a redesigned interface for the company’s line of Galaxy Watches. One UI Watch – which takes its name from the Galaxy mobile interface — will share a […]

Microsoft today released the first preview build of Windows 11 to those in the Dev Channel of the company’s Windows Insider program. If you have joined the Insider program and meet Microsoft’s new — and somewhat complicated — system requirements for the new operating system, you should see the update soon. This first preview includes […]

The math is simple: Great research universities beget great startups. Pittsburgh certainly has little want for the former, with two world-class research schools — Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh – located in the city. The latter historically presented a challenge for Pittsburgh, as local startups often left for the greener (in the […]

Consumer spending in mobile apps hit a record $64.9 billion during the first half of 2021, according to preliminary data from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower. This figure represents a 24.8% increase in spending seen across both the App Store and Google Play, compared with the year-ago period. But while industry experts believe the […]

"What we need is more capital — angel funds, venture funds so that entrepreneurs have a variety of funding sources to go to locally."

Side, a real estate technology company that works to turn agents and independent brokerages into boutique brands and businesses, has raised “$50 million-plus” in a funding round that more than doubles its valuation to $2.5 billion. The latest financing comes just three months after the San Francisco-based startup raised $150 million in a Series D […]

According to the EPA, the U.S. alone produces 292.4 million tons of municipal solid waste a year. That figure works out to around 4.9 pounds per person, per day. To say the world – and the United States in particular – has a waste problem is putting it mildly. No one solution is going to […]

With less than a month to go before the Olympics kick off in Tokyo, cord-cutting services like YouTube TV are attempting to woo new subscribers who are looking for a way to watch summer sports. But whether or not you’re eager to watch Simone Biles defy gravity, YouTube TV’s latest upgrades enhance the product with […]