The q-commerce belt tightening continues: U.S. category veteran Gopuff, the SoftBank-backed delivery platform juggernaut — which was being valued at $15 billionN as recently as 2020, and had been rumored to be prepping for an IPO at the start of this year (er, nope that didn’t happen!) — is dialling back its ambitions in Europe.
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Rachel Parrinello Contributor Rachel Parrinello is a principal in The Alexander Group’s San Francisco office and is a leader in sales compensation, media sales and technology practices. John Stamos Contributor John Stamos, a principal in The Alexander Group’s Chicago office, has extensive experience leading large-scale sales transformation engagements, enterprise program build-outs and global compensation redesign
California lawmakers have passed a bill that seeks to make apps and other online spaces safer for kids in the absence of robust federal standards. The bill, if signed into law, would impose a set of new protections for people under the age of 18 in California, potentially punishing tech companies with thousands in fines
Despite serving as the online watercooler for journalists, politicians and VCs, Twitter isn’t the most profitable social network on the block. Amid internal shakeups and increased pressure from investors to make more money, Twitter reportedly considered monetizing adult content. According to a report from The Verge, Twitter was poised to become a competitor to OnlyFans by
A new company is looking to do for B2B hardware sales what a growing number of companies have been doing in the consumer sphere, by making it easier for businesses to pay for equipment in instalments through rentals and subscriptions. While companies such as Klarna and Affirm have been pushing payment services that help consumers
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. Hey, hey, hey! Good to have you back with us again. Today, we’re mostly amazed at how quiet Twitter gets during Burning Man, and excited that we’re doing a Labor Day sale
Nov.11 — Elon Musk’s vision for space-based internet service as SpaceX launches its second batch of sixty Starlink satellites. Bloomberg’s Dana Hull has the latest on “Bloomberg Technology”.
Kate Anthony started in the Lone Star State. It was there, in 2019, that she launched her app Euphoria, seeking to provide information and resources on gender-affirming care. She knew the stakes were going to be high, and as the state passed anti-trans legislation, she and her company were forced to flee. Settling in Denver,
Women-led mobile gaming startup Robin Games raised funding around the idea of carving out a new niche in the market of “lifestyle gaming.” The idea, the company explained at the time of its 2020 public debut, was to create a fantasy gaming experience that’s more sophisticated and stylish — something more in line with the
Populus, the San Francisco-based transportation data startup, got its start as shared scooter mania took hold and cities tried to make sense of how infrastructure was being used by fleets of tiny vehicles. Now, Populus co-founder and CEO Regina Clewlow is positioning the company, which collects data on transportation fleets and shares it with cities,
I’ve always wondered who gets to name demographic cohorts. My parents were pre-Baby Boomers, which made them part of the Silent Generation. (I’m Generation X, so feel free to ignore me entirely.) Generation Z is stereotyped as being materialistic, mistrustful and extremely reliant on personal technology. And now that they are entering the ranks of
After SpaceX announced its Starlink Maritime service last month, it was only a matter of time before some household name in boat world went all-in on the satellite service. Sure enough, today Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines announced it will be adding the service to its whole fleet, after a pilot service on one of its
Blank-check companies may be little more than a quick way to de-horn unicorns Alex Wilhelm Anna Heim 12 hours Yesterday, we asked how low SPAC-led public debuts could go, and the answer was very close to zero. Some now-public companies that rode blank-check companies to the public markets have seen 90% or more of their
It’s an exciting day for Studio Ghibli fans — fans in the United States and Canada, that is. The majority of Studio Ghibli’s film catalog has just been released to major digital rental platforms, such as Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, Microsoft and Vudu, a report by Variety confirms. For the first time, Studio Ghibli’s films can
The first major subsidy contract under the U.K. Government’s £5 billion ($5.9 billion) Project Gigabit scheme has officially been awarded, with Wessex Internet securing £6 million ($7 million) to connect remote properties in South West England to high-speed broadband. In a world that has rapidly embraced remote work over the past couple of years, the
Ben Boissevain Contributor Ben Boissevain is the founder of Ascento Capital, a boutique investment bank that provides advisory services for M&A, capital raises and valuations to technology companies in the U.S. and internationally. More posts by this contributor Mark-to-market to arrive at a realistic valuation and improve your fundraising odds How to prepare for M&A,
Keyboard tech licensing startup Fleksy has expanded its SDK offering with an eye on winning over indie devs and app makers with an accessible, SaaS-like platform entry-point to its software licensing business. CEO Olivier Plante says Fleksy now has a dozen enterprise customers for its keyboard SDK — which offers a suite of features like
Oxwash, a UK startup that’s spent the last few years applying high tech processes to shrink the environment cost of dry cleaning and commercial laundry, has trousered £10 million (~$12M) in Series A funding to expand its nationwide footprint. Currently its service is available in five UK cities: London, Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Manchester but
Twitter is launching its Circle feature — which lets you post a tweet to a select set of people — globally. The company started testing this Instagram “Close Friends”-like feature in limited beta in May, and now it’s making it available to all users. Users can add up to 150 people to their Circle, and
More than three years in the making, the UK government today announced a new, sweeping set of rules it will be imposing on broadband and mobile carriers to tighten up their network security against cyber attacks — aimed at being “among the strongest in the world” when they are rolled out, said the Department for
Digital avatar startup Genies, known its for high-profile partnerships with celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Migos and Cardi B, has just released its long-anticipated NFT storefront, “The Warehouse.” Genies last earned a $1 billion valuation from heavy-hitting tech investors including Silver Lake and Mary Meeker’s Bond Capital during its most recent raise, a $150 million
Headquartered in Singapore, proptech startup Propseller is on a mission to make real estate transactions more efficient and data-driven for sellers and buyers alike. Its platform is able to tell users the likelihood of a conversion each step of the way. Today Propseller announced it has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by
Glints, one of Southeast Asia’s largest talent development and recruitment platforms, announced today it has raised $50 million in an oversubscribed Series D. The round was co-led by DCM Ventures, Lavender Hill Capital and returning investor PERSOL Holdings. This brings Glints’ total raised so far to $80 million. As part of the investment, Lavender Hill
A Pakistani startup, which has taken inspiration from China’s JD.com and India’s Flipkart to build a managed marketplace of electronics products, said on Tuesday it has raised seed funding from scores of investors including PayPal founder Peter Thiel. Launched in March 2020 — just two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the world — the
Pakistani fintech PostEx has acquired logistics service provider Call Courier, creating what it describes as the largest e-commerce service provider in the country. PostEx will now serve 1.3 million users with over 8,000 merchants across 500 cities in Pakistan, and is on track to having a loan book of more than $12 million. The acquisition
Don’t you hate it when, after going just five or 10 meters underwater, you lose signal completely? Now this vexing limitation of modern technology is being addressed by researchers at the University of Washington, who have made an underwater communication app that uses sonic signals to pass messages to your other submerged friends. It may
Today, NBC launched a new channel subscription on Apple Podcasts called “Dateline Premium,” an ad-free plan that includes a seven-day free trial and costs $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year. Subscribers get ad-free episodes, early access to new content and exclusive bonus material. NBC’s “Dateline” podcasts go more in-depth into true crime stories. Titles
For a brief moment earlier in the ongoing pandemic, it appeared that there was a solution for the backlog of richly priced startups that needed to provide their backers with liquidity: SPACs. SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, are paper companies taken public with capital attached that then combine with a private entity, effectively bootstrapping
Fresh regulations are often met with skepticism from startup founders, but digital lenders in Kenya largely seem to be upbeat about the new Digital Credit Providers law, saying it will bring order to the sector. The chairman of the Digital Lenders Association of Kenya, Kevin Mutiso, sounded optimistic about the impending new regulatory environment, saying
Initialized Capital was venture capitalist Garry Tan’s answer to a need first highlighted by Y Combinator. As a partner at the accelerator from 2010 to 2015, Tan spent time working with companies to better understand what they needed from investors after they graduated. “I literally built the seed fund that I wanted to exist for