March 28, 2024

Web and Technology News

Fleksy switches to a SaaS model for its custom keyboard tech

Keyboard startup Fleksy has launched a new self-serve SDK to expand its reach for indie developers wanting to add custom keyboard software to their apps. The Barcelona-based mobile keyboard software maker has been pursuing a white label licensing approach to selling its customizable keyboard tech for several years but it’s now looking to expand its […]

Mass transit group Swvl confirms estimated $100M acquisition of UK start-up Zeelo

Mass transit group Swvl has confirmed to TechCrunch its deal to buy UK start-up Zeelo, estimated to be a $100 million acquisition, according to sources. The Egyptian-born startup that provides shared transportation services for intercity and intracity trips, recently expanded into Turkey with its acquisition of Volt Lines. Earlier this year it went public (NASDAQ: […]

Mass transit group Swvl confirms estimated $100M acquisition of UK start-up Zeelo

Mass transit group Swvl has confirmed to TechCrunch its deal to buy UK start-up Zeelo, estimated to be a $100 million acquisition, according to sources. The Egyptian-born startup that provides shared transportation services for intercity and intracity trips, recently expanded into Turkey with its acquisition of Volt Lines. Earlier this year it went public (NASDAQ: […]

Spanish scale-ups club together to shift the tech policy agenda

In the latest spark from its fast evolving tech ecosystem, Spain’s scale-ups are banding together to lobby lawmakers and press the economic case for their high-tech, high-growth business model more broadly. The new lobby group, called EsTech (aka ‘Es’ for España), had its official launch last week — when it unveiled nine founding company members […]

Amenitiz gets $30M for SaaS it bills as ‘Shopify for hotels’

Barcelona-based Amenitiz, which sells software-as-a-service for streamlining the administration of independent hotels and B&Bs which it shorthands as ‘Shopify for hotels’, has closed a $30 million Series A a few months after it announced a $7.5M seed. The latest round is led by VC firm Eight Roads, with Chalfen Ventures and existing investors Point-Nine, Backed […]

Amenitiz gets $30M for SaaS it bills as ‘Shopify for hotels’

Barcelona-based Amenitiz, which sells software-as-a-service for streamlining the administration of independent hotels and B&Bs which it shorthands as ‘Shopify for hotels’, has closed a $30 million Series A a few months after it announced a $7.5M seed. The latest round is led by VC firm Eight Roads, with Chalfen Ventures and existing investors Point-Nine, Backed […]

SOSV and JetBlue Technology Ventures talk VC climate tech and ESG at TC Sessions: Climate 2022

Investment in climate tech is heating up almost as fast as climate change itself. In 2021, climate tech startups received $40+ billion across more than 600 deals. That’s more than double the capital investment made in 2020.  As S&P Global recently reported, corporate sustainability efforts are under increasing scrutiny from investors, regulators and the public […]

Talent.com raises $120M to take on Indeed and ZipRecruiter in mass-market job search

Online recruitment was one of the early and big hits of the first dot-com boom. But with more and more business processes moving online, online job search is the gift that keeps on giving, and so today comes news of another portal in the space raising a big round to take on the incumbents in […]

Typeform takes $135M to tickle more marketers

It’s been several years since Barcelona-based Typeform tapped investors to grow usage of its “conversational data collection platform”, as it bills the customizable form/survey/quiz builder software it sells. Actually it’s around 4.5 years since its $35M Series B — the result of “sustainable growth while prioritizing efficiency”, as it tells it. But growth in the […]

Circular.io is putting a referral spin on tech recruitment

Demand for talent continues to make tech recruitment a hotbed of startup activity. To wit: Madrid-based startup Circular.io which is now expanding its “talent sharing platform” — initially focused on tech skills — into the UK (opening to in-house tech recruiters in London from today). It is also revealing $10 million in combined seed and […]

ByteDance-owned VR startup Pico strengthens ties with Qualcomm

Pico, the Chinese virtual reality startup bought by TikTok parent ByteDance back in August, has struck a major partnership with Qualcomm to push further into the extended reality (XR) space. Pico’s XR products will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Spaces, the chipmaking giant’s developer program designed to make apps more ready for extended reality. Rather […]

Jeffrey Katzenberg backs the $10M Seed round for HUBUC’s embedded finance API

I recently wrote about the so-called “Embedded finance” trend, citing the example of Intergiro’s recent fund-raising in the space. There’s now yet another example of this trend in the shape of HUBUC. Billing itself as “AWS for financial services” the startup — which emerged from Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain — has now raised a $10m Seed […]

EWA, which taps into popular media to teach languages, hits 51M downloads and 3.5M MAUs and raises its first outside funding

Online language learning continues to be a huge opportunity for startups, with the most engaging experiences meeting a surge of interest from consumers looking for more productivity out of the hours that they spend on their smartphones. In one of the more recent developments, a language learning app called EWA — which has built a […]

EWA, which taps into popular media to teach languages, hits 51M downloads and 3.5M MAUs and raises its first outside funding

Online language learning continues to be a huge opportunity for startups, with the most engaging experiences meeting a surge of interest from consumers looking for more productivity out of the hours that they spend on their smartphones. In one of the more recent developments, a language learning app called EWA — which has built a […]

Spain’s Rosita Longevity, an app that helps seniors be more active, is headed to Florida

Hearts Radiant, a Spanish startup that’s building a “longevity coach” for seniors — with the goal of extending quality of life through app-based personalized coaching designed to combat and even prevent frailty — has closed a seed round of funding as it gears up to launch in the US, eyeing Florida’s 4M+ over 65s. We […]

Boutique hotel tech platform NUMA raises $45M growth financing round led by DN Capital

Based out of the US, Sonder is a tech-driven hospitality company. It’s raised $529.6M and in the post-pandemic world where the population has become far more movable due to remote working, similar businesses are raising funds to attend to the needs of this global, nomadic workforce. We first covered the NUMA Group (then called Cosi) […]

Bumble makes its first acquisition with deal for French Gen Z dating app, Fruitz

Dating app company Bumble, Inc. is making its first acquisition with today’s news that it’s adding the fast-growing French dating app Fruitz to its family of applications. Though Bumble, Inc. already has an international footprint as the parent company to Badoo, which is particularly popular in Europe, it sees the addition of Fruitz as a […]

Bumble makes its first acquisition with deal for French Gen Z dating app, Fruitz

Dating app company Bumble, Inc. is making its first acquisition with today’s news that it’s adding the fast-growing French dating app Fruitz to its family of applications. Though Bumble, Inc. already has an international footprint as the parent company to Badoo, which is particularly popular in Europe, it sees the addition of Fruitz as a […]