In a shot across the bow to the buy now, pay later (BNPL) industry, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today issued a report suggesting that companies like Klarna and Afterpay, which allow customers to pay for products and services in installments, must be subjected to stricter oversight. The CFPB — in a step
admin
The sneaker world has a dirty secret — the carbon footprint of just about every shoe out there weighs more than the shoe itself. Then there’s the extensive use of plastics and polyesters, foam and rubber, nearly all of which is derived from fossil fuels. Those clean kicks might not be so clean after all.
U.K.-based fintech Lightyear is extending its stock-trading offering to include a wide selection of U.K. and European stocks, as well as exchange traded funds (ETF). The news comes just a couple of months after Lightyear launched outside the U.K. for the first time, arriving in 19 European markets, with the support of $25 million in
Like a number of attendees, I was taken with ClicBot when I first saw it a few CESes ago. We’re all up to our ears in “educational” robotics kits. STEM learning is important, of course, but the last several years have seen a veritable explosion in these sorts of toys, and your mileage is going
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Happy Thursday! Has everyone recovered from Zoom going down this morning? Don’t worry, Zoom is back up, but if anything, we hope it helped you have a quieter day…for a while at
Fintech startup Ratio secured $411 million in equity and debt funding to continue developing what it calls “a new flavor” of buy now, pay later that combines payments, predictive pricing, financing and a quote-to-cash process. Co-founder and CEO Ashish Srimal founded Ratio in 2021 with CTO Mason Blake, and they have been heads down ever
Welcome back to Found, the podcast that brings you the stories behind the startups. We talk to a lot of health tech founders on this show because there are countless ways the healthcare system, particularly in the U.S., needs to be disrupted. This week, we talked to Kelsey Mellard, who founded Sitka with the goal
The burgeoning food tech revolution continues apace with news that French startup Standing Ovation has raised €12 million ($12 million) in a series A round of funding to develop an animal-free casein for use in cheese. Casein, for the uninitiated, is a protein found in dairy products, and which constitutes around 80% of cow milk —
European Union lawmakers have proposed a new set of product rules to apply to smart devices that’s intended to compel makers of Internet-connected hardware — such as ‘smart’ washing machines or connected toys — to pay fulsome attention to device security. The proposed EU Cyber Resilience Act will introduce mandatory cybersecurity requirements for products that
Samsung announced Thursday it will invest more than $5 billion (7 trillion KRW) in its carbon-neutral projects and environmental technologies through 2030, aiming to make its global operations and products net zero carbon emission by 2050 in an effort to tackle the climate crisis. The company says the strategy includes reducing emissions from the production
AI Dungeon realized the dream many gamers have had since the ’80s: an evolving storyline that players themselves create and direct. Now, it’s going further with a new feature that enables players to generate images that illustrate those stories. Developed by indie game studio Latitude, which was initially a one-person operation, AI Dungeon writes dialogue
Cryptocurrency transactions in Indonesia hit $60 billion last year, according to the country’s commodities futures trading agency. Crypto exchange and marketplace Reku has been riding the wave with what it says are the lowest fees on the market, and a platform that is aimed at both newcomers and experienced traders. Today, the startup, founded in
When Olive launched in 2021, it aimed to eliminate waste from online shopping by enabling consumers to order from multiple sites and get products in one reusable package. Today, the company relaunches itself in the business-to-business space to work initially with apparel retailers on establishing a circular economy that delivers clothing and accessory orders in
President Joe Biden will attend the Detroit Auto Show Wednesday and announce the approval of the first $900 million in funding to build electric vehicle charging stations in 35 states as part of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, the White House said. Around $5 billion has been set aside by Congress to be doled out
Sigmoid, a startup helping firms in the U.S., U.K. and Europe comb through their data and derive better insights from it, has raised $12 million in a new financing round following a strong year of growth, it said Thursday. Sequoia Capital India led the San Francisco-headquartered startup’s Series B funding, which included some secondary shares
Norwegian startup Nomono this week announced that it has raised $3.6 million. The audio firm is still classifying the raise as part of a seed round, in spite of having additionally raised around $12.4 million to date through investors and various local grants. The round, led by Norway-based VC firm Schibsted Ventures, follows the unveiling
Bruin Capital Founder and CEO George Pyne joins Emily Chang to discuss the future of streaming and sports, and NFL+ to launch later this season. Bruin Capital owns the technology behind the NFL GamePass App. ——– Like this video? Subscribe to Bloomberg Technology on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrM7B7SL_g1edFOnmj-SDKg Watch the latest full episodes of “Bloomberg Technology” with
The quest to define what exactly a web3 use case looks like hasn’t always been easy, but has allowed plenty of founders to get creative in building out products designed to tap the ethos of decentralization and the business opportunities of the creator economy. Arpeggi Labs, a new crypto startup focused on using blockchains to
We know that long-term leases aren’t the move anymore, but San Francisco–based Codi has a hotter take: neither is co-working. The company, co-founded by Christelle Rohaut and Dave Schuman, began in 2018 to create more flexible office space for companies whose employees want private, flexible workspaces. These days, the startup’s most disruptive belief is one
If you’re a renter and you want solar power, you’re usually out of luck. For most, the only option is a community solar program, where people subscribe to utility-scale projects, but they’re not available everywhere. And given that most renters only stay for a few years, which of them are going to pay tens of
EU lawmakers are moving in on the metaverse and making it plain that, whatever newfangled virtual world/s and/or immersive social connectivity that tech industry hype involving the term may refer to, these next-gen virtual spaces won’t escape one hard reality: Regulation. There may be a second metaverse certainty too, if the Commission gets its way:
Amazon wants Alexa owners to buy more things. That’s the clear impetus behind the new Alexa feature announced today at Amazon’s Accelerate conference, called Customers Ask Alexa, which lets brands submit answers to common questions like “How can I remove pet hair from my carpet?” and “How to eliminate odor from soil stains?” Previously, Alexa
Yet another round of layoffs at Netflix has unfortunately affected 30 Netflix Animation employees. Deadline first reported the news, and Netflix confirmed to TechCrunch that the company is downsizing the department. Earlier this year, Netflix brought on Karen Toliver as vice president of Animation Film Content and Traci Balthazor as vice president of Animation Film
Groundcover, a performance monitoring platform for cloud apps, today announced that it raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Zeev Ventures with participation from Angular Ventures, Heavybit and Jibe Ventures. The new capital brings the startup’s total raised to $24.5 million, which CEO Shahar Azulay says will be used to “raise awareness”
The global cultured meat market is poised to reach half a billion dollars by 2030; however, this kind of technology is still very much in the R&D phase for a lot of companies that have emerged over the past five years. Cultured meat, also known as cultivated meat, is animal meat, but instead of slaughtering
Enverus, a company specialized in energy-focused software-as-a-service products, has announced that it has acquired RatedPower, a Spanish startup that helps you plan, design and optimize solar power plants. Terms of the deal remain undisclosed. Enverus works with all sorts of customers in the energy ecosystem focused both on renewables and oil and gas. In particular,
There is a fight emerging in Central and Eastern Europe, and all the way down into the South Eastern regions. Investors such as Inovo, Credo, LauncHUB, Vitosha, Venture Friends, Marathon VC, are all VCs of varying sizes who are – as we speak – roaming everywhere from Eastonia and Poland all the way down to
This year marks GoPro’s 20th year. It’s been an interesting journey for a company that has become synonymous with a specific product category for well over a decade. I’d venture to guess that – to this day — more people are familiar with the GoPro name than the term “action camera,” which may have proved
The New York Shipping Exchange (Nyshex), a platform that connects shippers with ocean carriers, today announced that it raised $25 million in a Series B funding round led by Collate Capital with participation from Blumberg Capital, Goldman Sachs, and NewRoad Capital. The infusion brings the company’s total raised to $69 million, which CEO Gordon Downes
If you’re a university- or college-level student who believes the future of finance is crypto — or even if you’re just crypto curious — pack a bag and head to Miami for TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17. Why? Well, for starters, TechCrunch (of Disrupt and Startup Battlefield fame) brings its considerable talent for attracting