March 29, 2024

Web and Technology News

TechCrunch Podcasts this week: Layoffs, the crypto downturn, investor offense, and Columbus, Ohio

TechCrunch is more than just a site with words. We’re also building a growing stable of podcasts focused on the most critical topics relating to the startup and venture capital worlds. To help you find the right show for your interests, we’ve compiled our audio output from the week. Embedded below is the latest from […]

How the myth of the ‘girlboss’ harms emerging women in tech

On Lafayette Street in SoHo, young, fashionable women lined up around the block to enter a minimalist, millennial oasis, the most perfect Instagram feed brought to life. Staff members glided around the store in pastel pink suits, each embodying the kind of girl that Glossier made us all want to be: beautiful, yet effortless. “We […]

How the myth of the ‘girlboss’ harms emerging women in tech

On Lafayette Street in SoHo, young, fashionable women lined up around the block to enter a minimalist, millennial oasis, the most perfect Instagram feed brought to life. Staff members glided around the store in pastel pink suits, each embodying the kind of girl that Glossier made us all want to be: beautiful, yet effortless. “We […]

The IRS’s crypto tax partner, ZenLedger, raises $11.5 million Series B

Government tends to struggle when it comes to keeping up with tech innovation. The past U.S. tax season that just wrapped up in April was particularly stressful for investors and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) alike, as both struggled with the implications of 2021’s crypto investing boom. The IRS, for its part, turned to Seattle, […]

Workrise fixes API that spilled users’ personal information

Workforce management unicorn Workrise has fixed an exposed API that was spilling some users’ personal information. The Austin, Texas-based startup, which previously went by RigUp, was founded in 2014 as a marketplace for on-demand and skilled labor in the oil and gas industry. The company changed its name to Workrise in February 2021 to accommodate […]

Just Eat Takeaway takes away chairman, investigates COO, weighs Grubhub sale as meal delivery cools down

The food delivery business, and tech companies leading the charge, were hot commodities at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic as people stayed indoors and turned to apps to fill their bellies with pre-made meals. Now with that trend cooling off, those companies are feeling the chill. In the latest development, big changes and drama […]

Norebase raises $1M to allow companies start, scale, and operate in any African country

Startup pitches with promises to provide various services to Africans — across different sectors — are commonplace now. And in trying to sweet-talk investors, what’s not taken into context or often disregarded is that Africa is a fragmented $3 trillion market. The continent is also home to more than 1.2 billion people with below-average disposable […]

Kevin raises $65M as it charges ahead on account-to-account payments over point-of-sale terminals

Payments remains a very fragmented business around the world: depending on where you’re buying or selling something (and whether you are selling online or offline) you will have different “standard” payment methods, currencies and settlement schemes and more. Today, a startup called Kevin that’s taking one piece of that puzzle — payments made from account […]

Kevin raises $65M as it charges ahead on account-to-account payments over point-of-sale terminals

Payments remains a very fragmented business around the world: depending on where you’re buying or selling something (and whether you are selling online or offline) you will have different “standard” payment methods, currencies and settlement schemes and more. Today, a startup called Kevin that’s taking one piece of that puzzle — payments made from account […]

Fishy business: Rooser raises $23M for its seafood trading platform

The fishing market globally was worth $253 billion in 2021, and despite the controversy that swirls around the industry, that figure continues to grow. Today a startup that has built a platform to make the business of fishing more efficient — and thus the process overall more traceable and less prone to waste — is […]

Oklo’s Caroline Cochran and Swell’s Sulemon Kahn talk scaling alternative energy at TC Sessions: Climate

Stopping the dire pace and consequences of climate change requires a diverse range of climate technologies across multiple fronts, and alternative energies play an essential role. However, changing the way the world generates and consumes energy is just one of many formidable challenges. Scaling alternative energy solutions and achieving profitability are two more, especially important […]

Oklo’s Caroline Cochran and Swell’s Sulemon Kahn talk scaling alternative energy at TC Sessions: Climate

Stopping the dire pace and consequences of climate change requires a diverse range of climate technologies across multiple fronts, and alternative energies play an essential role. However, changing the way the world generates and consumes energy is just one of many formidable challenges. Scaling alternative energy solutions and achieving profitability are two more, especially important […]

ImaliPay gets $3M to offer financial services to underserved gig workers across Africa

The gig economy is experiencing profound growth in Africa. Yet, all that growth hasn’t changed the status of workers who are seen as contractors rather than employees. Because many of them, particularly in the two-wheeler space, lack access to some financial services, being contractors is disadvantageous. Some gig platforms have tried to embed financial services into […]

Perlego raises $50M to build out its vision of being the ‘Spotify for textbooks’

Spotify helped pave the way for a new model for consumers to listen to music: pay a monthly fee to stream whatever you want, with no need to own any physical or digital versions of it. Now, a startup called Perlego, which has been applying that concept to academic textbooks, has picked up $50 million […]

Perlego raises $50M to build out its vision of being the ‘Spotify for textbooks’

Spotify helped pave the way for a new model for consumers to listen to music: pay a monthly fee to stream whatever you want, with no need to own any physical or digital versions of it. Now, a startup called Perlego, which has been applying that concept to academic textbooks, has picked up $50 million […]

Nigeria’s Sudo Africa raises $3.7M pre-seed for its card-issuing API platform

Sudo Africa, a fintech that provides a card-issuing API for developers and businesses in Nigeria, has raised $3.7 million in pre-seed funding. San Francisco-based Global Founders Capital (GFC) led the round. Participating VCs include Picus Capital, LoftyInc Capital, Rallycap Ventures, Kepple Africa, Berrywood Capital, ZedCrest and Suya Ventures. Several African fintech founders such as Olugbenga […]

Nigeria’s Sudo Africa raises $3.7M pre-seed for its card-issuing API platform

Sudo Africa, a fintech that provides a card-issuing API for developers and businesses in Nigeria, has raised $3.7 million in pre-seed funding. San Francisco-based Global Founders Capital (GFC) led the round. Participating VCs include Picus Capital, LoftyInc Capital, Rallycap Ventures, Kepple Africa, Berrywood Capital, ZedCrest and Suya Ventures. Several African fintech founders such as Olugbenga […]

Connecteam raises $120M at an $800M+ valuation for its all-in-one communications app for deskless workers

After years of being overlooked, front-line employees and others who do not sit at desks all day are taking center stage in a new wave of workplace productivity apps. In the latest development, Connecteam — an all-in-one app providing HR tools, communications services, and daily operations management (eg scheduling, virtual time cards) — has raised […]

M-KOPA raises $75M as it clocks 2 million customers across four African markets

A 2019 World Bank report says 85% of Africans live on less than $5.50 per day. A large percentage of these adults are unbanked and underbanked; thus, they don’t have access to credit and also can’t afford important purchases outright. M-KOPA’s financing platform has proved helpful to this set of users since launching as an […]

M-KOPA raises $75M as it clocks 2 million customers across four African markets

A 2019 World Bank report says 85% of Africans live on less than $5.50 per day. A large percentage of these adults are unbanked and underbanked; thus, they don’t have access to credit and also can’t afford important purchases outright. M-KOPA’s financing platform has proved helpful to this set of users since launching as an […]

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 […]

BlueVoyant nabs $250M to help enterprises nab malicious hackers and stop security breaches

Cybersecurity continues to be a pernicious and complex problem, for enterprises, and today a company that’s building a multi-faceted toolkit to help them address it better is announcing a big round of funding to continue its growth. BlueVoyant — which provides a mix of proprietary technology, third-party best-in-class tools and professional services to implement those […]

Spotter raises $200M to invest $1 billion into YouTubers’ back catalogs

How do YouTubers make a living? Usually, through a mixture of merch sales, membership programs or maybe even a custom product. But YouTube ad revenue makes up a sizable chunk of the pie chart. A YouTuber’s back catalog becomes a financial asset — every month, they know they’ll get a payout from ever-increasing engagement on […]