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Realworld has a big vision — founder and CEO Genevieve Ryan Bellaire told me her goal is “simplifying adulthood.” And the New York startup has raised $3.4 million in seed...

Quiq acquires Snaps to create a combined customer messaging platform

At first glance, Quiq and Snaps might sound like similar startups — they both help businesses talk to their customers via text messaging and other messaging apps. But Snaps CEO...

How to get into a startup accelerator

Should you try to get your company into an accelerator? How far along should your idea and your team be before applying? When it is time to apply, how do...

Spend management startup Ramp confirms $115M raise at a $1.6B valuation

This morning, Ramp, which provides corporate cards and spend management software, announced that it has closed $115 million across two investments, the latter of which valued the company at $1.6...

YC-backed Abacum nets $7M to empower finance teams with real-time data and collaboration tools

SaaS to support mid-sized companies’ financial planning with real-time data and native collaboration isn’t the sexiest startup pitch under the sun but it’s one that’s swiftly netted Abacum a bunch...

Butter is building an ‘all-in-one’ platform to run virtual workshops

Butter, a startup registered in Denmark but operating fully remote, is building an “all-in-one” platform for planning and running virtual workshops. Offering video software and other features dedicated to workshopping,...

TrueLayer raises $70M for its open banking platform

TrueLayer, the London startup that offers a developer-friendly platform for companies, including other fintechs, to utilise open banking, is disclosing $70 million in new funding. The Series D round is...

Nabla is building a healthcare super app for women

Meet Nabla, a French startup launching a new app today focused on women’s health. On Nabla, you’ll find several services that should all contribute to helping you stay on top...

Acorns’ new fintech target is debt management with acquisition of Pillar

Apr 7, 2021

Popular saving and investing app Acorns has acquired Pillar, an AI-powered startup built to help manage student loan debt, in its second acquisition of 2021. New York-based Pillar helps consumers...

Singapore-based retail analytics company Trax raises $640M Series E led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and BlackRock

Apr 7, 2021

Trax’s co-founders, Joel Bar-El (left) and Dror Feldheim (right), and Trax’s CEO, Justin Behar (center) COVID-19 forced many retailers and brands to adopt new technologies. Retail analytics unicorn Trax expects...

Plaid raises $425M Series D from Altimeter as it charts a post-Visa future

Apr 7, 2021

Plaid, a unicorn that helps connect consumers’ bank accounts to financial applications, has raised a $425 million Series D, it announced this morning. TechCrunch understands that the new capital infusion,...

Coinbase’s monster Q1 in context

In the first quarter of 2021, American consumer cryptocurrency trading giant Coinbase grew sharply, generating strong profits at the same time. For Coinbase, the disclosure of its preliminary Q1 2021...

Will Topps’ SPAC-led debut expand the bustling NFT market?

Twitter is abuzz with the news that Topps, a company perhaps best known for making collectible trading cards, is going public via a SPAC. The reverse merger with its chosen...

Robotic exoskeleton maker Sarcos announces SPAC plans

While it’s true the VC world has gone SPAC-happy, the reverse merger method hasn’t been a huge driver in robotics thus far, with some notable exceptions like Berkshire-Grey. This morning,...

Facebook’s Kustomer buy could face EU probe after merger referral

The European Union may investigate Facebook’s $1BN acquisition of customer service platform Kustomer after concerns were referred to it under EU merger rules. A spokeswoman for the Commission confirmed it...

Revolution Ventures backs Casted in B2B-focused podcast play

Historically, podcasts have been aimed at consumers. The value to be gained in the B2B world is something that has been largely untapped. For Lindsay Tjepkema — who has been...

Bob W, the ‘tech-driven’ hospitality provider, raises €10M in seed funding

Bob W, the self-described “tech-driven” hospitality provider that offers an alternative to traditional hotels and short-stay rentals, is disclosing €10 million in seed funding. Leading the round, which included a...

Charles raises €6.4M seed to bring ‘conversational commerce’ to WhatsApp

Charles, a Berlin-based startup that offers a “conversational-commerce” SaaS for businesses that want to sell on WhatsApp and other chat apps, has raised €6.4 million in funding. Led by Accel...

Taiwan-based MLOps startup InfuseAI raises $4.3M Series A led by Wistron Corporation

AI models not only take time to build and train, but also to deploy in an organization’s workflow. That’s where MLOps (machine learning operations) companies come in, helping clients scale...

Singapore-based career platform Glints gets $22.5M in Series C funding

Glints, the Singapore-based career platform, announced today it has raised $22.5 million in Series C funding led by Japanese human resources management firm PERSOL Holdings. The new capital will be...

Digging into the Alkami Technology IPO

It appears that the slowdown in tech debuts is not a complete freeze; despite concerning news regarding the IPO pipeline, some deals are chugging ahead. This morning, we’re adding Alkami...

Ribbit Capital leads $26.7M round for Brazilian fintech Cora

Cora, a São Paulo-based technology-enabled lender to small-and-medium-sized businesses, has raised $26.7 million in a Series A round led by Silicon Valley VC firm Ribbit Capital. Kaszek Ventures, QED Investors...

Equity Monday: Edtech consolidation, and Amazon continues to make you like it less

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market...

ConductorOne raises $5M in seed round led by Accel to automate your access requests

Over the course of their careers, Alex Bovee and Paul Querna realized that while the use of SaaS apps and cloud infrastructure was exploding, the process to give employees permission...

Byju’s acquires Indian tutor Aakash for nearly $1 billion

Why did Byju’s raise over $1 billion last year and is already inching closer to securing another half a billion dollars? We are getting some answers today. Byju’s said on...

You might have just missed the best time to sell your startup

Apr 3, 2021

Welcome back to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s broadly based on the daily column that appears on Extra Crunch, but free, and made for your weekend reading....

Uruguayan payments startup dLocal quadruples valuation to $5B with $150M raise

Apr 2, 2021

Cross-border payments startup dLocal has raised $150 million at a $5 billion valuation, less than seven months after securing $200 million at a $1.2 billion valuation. This means that the...

Private equity, a SPAC and an IPO walk into a bar

Apr 2, 2021

The first quarter of 2021 was a busy season for technology exits. Coming off a hot period in the final quarter of 2020, it was no surprise that tech upstarts...

Clubhouse will create billions in value and capture none of it

Apr 2, 2021

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Natasha and Danny and Alex and Grace were all here to chat through the week’s biggest tech happenings. It...

Coinbase to direct list on April 14th, provide financial update on April 6th

Today Coinbase, an American cryptocurrency trading platform and software company, said that it will begin to trade via a direct listing on April 14th. In a separate release the company...

Compass CEO hails IPO as a fundraising event amid ‘challenging’ market

While several tech companies are opting to delay their IPOs in the face of less-than-enthusiastic market demand for their shares, real estate tech company Compass forged ahead and went public today....

Kaltura puts debut on hold. Is the tech IPO window closing?

The Exchange just yesterday discussed a downward revision in the impending Compass IPO and the disappointing Deliveroo flotation as signals that market demand for high-growth, unprofitable tech shares could be slipping....

Holler raises $36M to power ‘conversational media’ in your favorite apps

Holler, described by founder and CEO Travis Montaque as “a conversational media company,” just announced that it’s raised $36 million in Series B funding. You may not know what conversational...

LINE Ventures merges with YJ Capital, launches $271M fund

LINE completed its merger with Yahoo! Japan owner Z Holdings last month, and now the two firm’s venture capital arms have also combined. Z Holdings announced today that its subsidiary,...

Pipe, which aims to be the ‘Nasdaq for revenue,’ raises more money at a $2B valuation

Fast-growing fintech Pipe has raised another round of funding at a $2 billion valuation, just weeks after raising $50M in growth funding, according to sources familiar with the deal. Although...

Leeway is a contract workflow service for your legal team

Meet Leeway, a French startup that is building an end-to-end software-as-a-service solution for your contracts. Leeway lets you centralize all your contracts in a single repository, go through multiple negotiation...

Ensemble raises $3M to help divorced parents avoid arguing about money

At the age of 14, Jacklyn Rome saw firsthand how divorce can impact families, and how arguing about finances both during and after the process can impact children. The experience...

Zapp, the on-demand delivery and ‘dark’ store operator, picks up backing from Lightspeed and Atomico

Zapp, one of a number of startups currently battling it out in London and beyond by promising to let you order everyday items on-demand from its own delivery-only stores, has...

Strength-training startup Tonal crosses unicorn status after raising $250M

When the pandemic unfolded last year, demand for at-home fitness equipment skyrocketed, and Tonal was no exception. The maker of a smart home fitness trainer experienced an explosive increase in...

Clocktower Technology Ventures makes $25M bet on Latin American fintechs

The fintech space and the Latin American venture scene are both booming. So it’s no surprise that an increasing number of global investors are investing in fintech startups based in...

Cryptocurrency wallet and blockchain tech startup imToken raises $30 million Series B

imToken, the blockchain tech startup and crypto wallet developer, announced today it has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Qiming Venture Partners. Participants included returning investor IDG...

Nested, the UK-based ‘modern’ estate agent, raises additional £5M to improve the home-selling experience

Nested, the London-based startup that is using technology to build a “modern” estate agency and improve the home-selling experience, has raised an additional £5 million. Backing comes from Axel Springer,...

Sequoia Capital India on its early investment in Appier, the fund’s latest exit

Chih-Han Yu, chief executive officer and co-founder of Appier Group Inc., right, holds a hammer next to a bell during an event marking the listing of the company on the...

Otrium raises $120 million for its end-of-season fashion marketplace

Otrium has raised a $120 million round just a year after raising its $26 million Series B round. BOND and returning investor Index Ventures are leading the round. Existing investor...

Amazon acquires Indian retail startup Perpule

Amazon has acquired a startup in India that is helping offline stores go online, the e-commerce group’s latest attempt to make inroads in the world’s second most populous nation where...

Stockly lets e-commerce websites sell out-of-stock items from a shared inventory

Meet Stockly, a French startup that keeps the inventory of various e-commerce websites in sync. When you see an out-of-stock item on an e-commerce website, chances are you leave that...

Capitolis lands a16z-led $90M Series C for fintech SaaS platform

Capitolis, which makes technology for capital markets players such as investment and merchant banks, has closed on a $90 million Series C funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The...

Living Security raises $14M for predictive human risk management

Cybersecurity training is one of those things that everyone has to do but not something everyone necessarily looks forward to. Living Security is an Austin-based startup out to change cybersecurity...

MessageBird acquires 24sessions to bring video to its ‘omnichannel’ platform

MessageBird, the omnichannel cloud communications platform recently valued at $3 billion, is continuing to ramp up its M&A activity. Following last year’s acquisition of Pusher, a company that provides real-time...

Singapore-based Nimbly gets $4.6M to help businesses automate their standard operating procedures

Many work teams, especially stores and restaurants, rely on manual spreadsheets to ensure their operations are running smoothly. Based in Singapore, Nimbly develops software that automates more of that process....

Finch Capital acquires Wirecard Turkey

Finch Capital, the early-stage fintech VC with a presence in London and Amsterdam, is acquiring Wirecard Turkey, a subsidiary of Wirecard, the disgraced fintech out of Germany. The acquisition, for...

Everli, the European marketplace for online grocery shopping, bags $100M Series C

Everli, the European marketplace for online grocery shopping that started in Italy but now also operates in Poland, Czech Republic and France, has raised a $100 million in Series C...

Knock is the latest proptech said to be eyeing the public markets

Mar 29, 2021

Another proptech is considering raising capital through the public arena. Knock confirmed Monday that it is considering going public, although CEO Sean Black did not specify whether the company would...

UK’s Cazoo will list on the NYSE by way of a SPAC, valuing it at $7B and raising $1.6B

Mar 29, 2021

Cazoo, the U.K. used-car sales portal that has been on a major fundraising tear in the last year, will be the next company to pursue more growth by way of...

Ajaib raises $65M Series A extension led by Ribbit Capital, increasing the round’s total to $90M

Mar 29, 2021

Ajaib, the Indonesian investment app, has added $65 million to its Series A, bringing the round’s new total to $90 million. The extension was led by Ribbit Capital, the fintech...

Jeff Bezos’ investment fund is backing a startup hoping to be the AWS for SMB accounting

Mar 27, 2021

One of the biggest pain points for startups and small businesses is keeping up with back office tasks such as bookkeeping and managing taxes. QuickBooks, it seems, just doesn’t always...

UIPath’s meteoric rise from unknown startup to $35B RPA juggernaut

When TechCrunch covered UIPath’s Series A in 2017, it was a small startup out of Romania working in a little known area of enterprise software called robotic process automation (RPA)....

Headless commerce startup Swell raises $3.4M

While new headless commerce platforms are emerging all the time, Swell CEO Eric Ingram told me that it remains “really hard to do something new in e-commerce.” Specifically, he told...

UiPath’s IPO filing suggests robotic process automation is booming

Robotic process automation platform UiPath added its name to the list of companies pursuing public-market offerings this morning with the release of its S-1 filing. The document details a quickly...

WeWork lines up for a second run at the public markets

At this point, if you aren’t going public via a direct listing, traditional IPO or SPAC, are you even a growthy business? Every CEO I talk to at a startup...

Benitago Group raises $55M in combined debt and equity to buy and grow Amazon brands

Benitago Group, a startup looking to build a big portfolio of Amazon brands, is announcing that it has raised $55 million in new funding — most of it in the...

You can only invest if you promise not to read the fine print, ok?

A first look at UiPath’s IPO filing

This morning, well-known robotic process automation (RPA) unicorn UiPath has filed to go public. The company’s S-1 filing comes after it raised billions of dollars while private, making it amongst the...

“Link-in-bio” company Linktree raises $45M Series B for its social commerce features

If you browse Instagram, you are probably familiar with the term “link in bio.” Links aren’t allowed in post captions, and users are only allowed one URL in their bios,...

YC-backed Homebase is an alternative to traditional mortgages for home buyers in Vietnam

Homebase co-founders Phillip An and Junyuan Tan The home ownership rate in Vietnam is about 90%, but many millennials are struggling to join that number. Rising property prices in cities,...

Ryu Games raises $2.3M, betting that cash tournaments for mobile games are the future

Ryu Games, a startup that helps developers add cash tournaments to their mobile games, announced this morning it has raised $2.3 million in a seed round. The funds came from...

Will fading YOLO sentiment impact Robinhood, Coinbase and other trading platforms?

What happens to hot fintech startups that have benefited from a rise in consumer trading activity if regular folks lose interest in financial wagers? That’s the question facing Robinhood, Coinbase...

Gorillas, the on-demand grocery delivery startup, raises $290M and ‘surpasses’ $1B valuation

Gorillas, the Berlin-HQ’d startup that promises to let you order groceries and other “every day” items for delivery in as little as ten minutes, has raised $290 million in Series...

CoScreen launches its screen-sharing product, announces $4.6M in fundraising

This morning CoScreen, a startup that helps teams share screens and collaborate in real-time, formally launched its product to market. It also disclosed that it has raised $4.6 million to...

Notarize raises $130M, tripling valuation on the back of 600% YoY revenue growth

When the world shifted toward virtual one year ago, one service in particular saw heated demand: digital notary services. The ability to get a document notarized without leaving one’s home...

Pie Insurance raises $118M for data-driven workers’ comp coverage

Pie Insurance, a startup offering workers’ compensation insurance to small businesses, announced this morning that it has closed on $118 million in a Series C round of funding. Allianz X...

Argentina’s Digital House raises over $50M to help solve LatAm’s tech talent shortage

Digital House, a Buenos Aires-based edtech focused on developing tech talent through immersive remote courses, announced today it has raised more than $50 million in new funding. Notably, two of...

Ribbon wants to make it easier for product teams to interview users

Everybody says they want to build user-centric companies and products, but how exactly is that achieved? Talking and listening to users, of course — a task that is both unnecessarily...

Digital banking solutions provider Meniga closes additional €10M investment

Meniga, the London fintech that provides digital banking technology to leading banks, has closed €10 million in additional funding. The round is led by Velocity Capital and Frumtak Ventures. Also...

Hong Kong-based viAct raises $2M for its automated construction monitoring platform

Hong Kong-based viAct helps construction sites perform around-the-clock monitoring with an AI-based cloud platform that combines computer vision, edge devices and a mobile app. The startup announced today it has...

UI-licious gets $1.5M led by Monk’s Hill Ventures to simplify automated UI testing for web apps

UI-licious’ co-founders, chief technology officer Eugene Cheah (left) and chief executive officer Shi Ling Tai (right) UI-licious, a Singapore-based startup that simplifies automated user interface testing for web applications, announced...

Ketch raises $23M to automate privacy and data compliance

Ketch, a startup aiming to help businesses navigate the increasingly complex world of online privacy regulation and data compliance, is announcing that it has raised $23 million in Series A...

Equity crowdfunding is making the private markets public

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. For this week’s deep dive, the Equity team brought on Gumroad CEO...

Chord, a headless commerce startup led by former Glossier execs, raises $18M

Last year, former Glossier executives Henry Davis and Bryan Mahoney unveiled a new e-commerce startup called Arfa. Today, they’re announcing a new vision for the company, along with a new...

Australian lidar maker Baraja collects $31M B round to illuminate the future of autonomy

Lidar companies across the planet are going SPAC, but Baraja isn’t in a hurry to go public. The Australian lidar maker has raised a $31M B round to continue the...

Pacaso raises $75M, goes from launch to unicorn in 5 months

Pacaso, a less-than-one-year-old startup that is out to give more people a chance at second home ownership, announced Wednesday that it has received $75 million in growth funding at a...

Motosumo scores $6M to spin up a challenge to Peloton

Denmark-based Motosumo has scored a $6M Series A raise led by London’s Magenta Partners, alongside existing investors. The new funding will go on doubling its network of spin class instructors...

Neighbor raises $53M for self-storage marketplace after 5x YoY revenue growth

Neighbor, which operates a self-storage marketplace, announced Wednesday that it has raised $53 million in a Series B round of funding. Fifth Wall led the financing, which notably also included...

Indonesian social commerce app KitaBeli gets $10M led by Go Ventures

Indonesian social commerce app KitaBeli’s team, including founders Prateek Chaturvedi (seated, right front row and Ivana Medea Tjandra (center front row) KitaBeli, an Indonesian social commerce app for group buying,...

Cross-border fintech Airwallex raises $100M Series D extension at new valuation of $2.6B

Airwallex, the fintech company for cross-border businesses, announced today it has added $100 million more to its Series D round, bumping its valuation up to $2.6 billion. The extension was...

Robinhood files confidentially to go public

Today Bloomberg reported, and Axios confirmed that Robinhood has filed privately to go public. The well-financed Robinhood is an American fintech company that provides zero-cost trading services to consumers. Private...

Twitter acquihires team from Reshuffle to work on its API platform

Twitter today is announcing what the company calls a “strategic acquihire” of the API integration platform Reshuffle. The startup’s commercial technology, which allows developers to build workflows and connect systems...

Stock trading app Freetrade raises $69 million

U.K. challenger stockbroker Freetrade has raised a $69 million Series B round led by Left Lane Capital. The growth fund of L Catterton and existing investor Draper Esprit also participated....

Discord’s reported $10B exit; Compass and Intermedia Cloud Communications set IPO price ranges

It’s demo day for the current Y Combinator class, so we’ll have a largely early-stage focus at TechCrunch today. But there’s also a host of late- and super-late-stage news this...

OneTrust adds ethics to its privacy platform with Convercent acquisition

OneTrust, a late stage privacy platform startup, announced it was adding ethics and compliance to the mix this morning by acquiring Convercent, a company that was built to help build...

Arcadia steps in to Texas’ startup energy market with the acquisition of Real Simple Energy

On the third greatest television show of all time (sorry Rolling Stone), one of Texas’ most famous fictional football players once said, “When all the scared rats are leaving a...

User Interviews, the CRM for qualitative user research, raises $10 million Series A

User Interviews, the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator-backed company that has built a CRM for product developers to get user feedback, has closed on a $10 million Series A round. The financing...

‘Instant needs’ delivery startup goPuff raises $1.15B at an $8.9B valuation

Last fall, delivery startup goPuff made a big splash by raising $380 million in funding and acquiring West Coast beverage retailer BevMo shortly afterwards. Just a few months later, the Philadelphia-based...

Customer data platform ActionIQ extends its latest funding round to $100M

ActionIQ, which helps companies use their customer data to deliver personalized experiences, is announcing that it has extended its Series C funding, bringing the round to a total size of...

Hopin buys two more companies as it triples down on video focus

Hopin, a unicorn best known for its online events-hosting service, announced this morning that it has acquired two more companies. The smaller concerns, Jamm and Streamable, were acquired in deals...

ServiceNow takes RPA plunge by acquiring India-based startup Intellibot

ServiceNow became the latest company to take the robotic process automation (RPA) plunge when it announced it was acquiring Intellibot, an RPA startup based in Hyderabad, India. The companies did...

Real estate platform Loft raises $425M at a $2.2B valuation in one of Brazil’s largest venture rounds

Buying and selling residential real estate is a complex business, no matter where you live. A slew of startups in the United States are focused on streamlining that process for...

Jeff raises $1M to build alternative credit scoring and other fintech products for Southeast Asia