Around the same time Apple was touting its sizable App Store revenue growth this week, developer and noted App Store critic Kosta Eleftheriou brought to light what appeared to be yet another App Store scammer hiding in plain sight. On Twitter, Eleftheriou documented the earnings for a music syncing app called AmpMe, which claims to
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Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic and dive deep. This week Natasha and Mary Ann and Alex came together to talk about the changing nature of
Venture capitalists went hard in 2021. Data collected from a number of sources indicates that last year set venture capital records around the world. From dollars invested to deal volume, sectors and geographies posted their strongest performance and excelled on essentially every continent. Today’s startup boom, from a venture capital perspective, is a wide-ranging and
API transformation company Jitterbit today announced that it has acquired PrimeApps, a Turkey-based low-code application development service. Jitterbit plans to combine its API platform with PrimeApps to build an end-to-end platform that will make it easier for non-technical users to build business apps, something that — almost by default — includes integrating different data sources.
It’s now 2022 and there are many, many apps out there that allow you to do cardio or build muscle by taking classes inside smartphone apps. We are all familiar with the success of platforms like Peloton (IPO’d), but there are of course new upstarts such as FiiT (raised £9M) or Fitplan (raised $9.9M). Plus
Consumer spending on mobile apps reached $170 billion in 2021, according to App Annie’s newly released “State of Mobile 2022″ report, out today, which offers a comprehensive look at the app economy across iOS, Google Play and third-party Android app stores in China. That figure is up 19% year-over-year, which is down just one percentage
The sign of a true entrepreneur is someone who can look around and go “wait a minute, there must be a better way.” That approach worked well for Outlines‘ founders, who are tackling the unsexy but pretty serious recycling issue of shower curtain liners. The company just closed a $1 million pre-seed lead by Social Impact
It’s painful to watch SPAC deals collapse post-combination. You can viscerally feel dreams melting away to disappointment as founders, employees and investors still holding shares in the newly public entities watch their wealth dwindle. The mess is not sector-specific. Media? Not a good SPAC target. Insurtech? Nope. 3D printing? Not looking good. E-scooters? Nerp. Hardware
Africa’s appetite for cloud computing software continues to increase as connectivity and bandwidth opportunities push boundaries. Per reports, the continent’s cloud computing industry coupled with the Middle East is expected to grow to $31.4 billion in 2016 from $14.2 billion last year. SeamlessHR, a Nigeria-based company that wants to help African businesses “leverage the continent’s
French startup Doctolib is expected to close the acquisition of Tanker today based on regulatory filings. Doctolib is a French unicorn that develops a software-as-a-service product to help doctors and medical workers with admin tasks. In particular, Doctolib acts as a booking platform that connects doctors with patients. 300,000 health professionals pay for the service
Apple has submitted its compliance plans to allow developers to use third-party payment options in South Korea at a reduced service fee, the Korea Communication Commission (KCC) said on Tuesday. KCC also said it would discuss with Apple to iron out further details, including service fee structures and the exact date when the payment option
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PST, subscribe here. Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for January 11, 2022! Today we have new venture funds, spyware news, Brex raising (again), and more. We’re back to 100% of last year’s startup and
A year after the FTC blocked Harry’s from getting acquired by Edgewell Personal Care, the direct-to-consumer razor startup raised $155 million in Series E financing to give it a $1.7 billion valuation. Now, months later, Harry’s filed paperwork indicating that it has raised another nine-figure cash tranche. SEC filings show that Harry’s has raised $139.9
IBM announced this morning that it has acquired Australian startup Envizi to add to its package of ESG (environmental, sustainability and governance) offerings to help measure environmental impact up and down the supply chain. The companies did not share the terms of the acquisition, but with Envizi Big Blue gets a platform for measuring, managing
You don’t need to be a scientist to understand the impacts of factory farming: if you’ve been near a North Carolina hog waste lagoon or driven past the enormous cattle feedlot in Coalinga, CA, the smell travels for miles. In exchange for affordability and convenience, consumers, regulators and meat producers have learned to live with
Twig, a London-based fintech targeting Gen Z and younger Millennial consumers with an e-money account that gives them instant cash-outs on fashion and electronics they want to sell, has closed a $35 million Series A round of funding. The investment is led by UK-based fintech specialist, Fasanara Capital, with additional backing from a number of
French startup Back Market has raised another mega round of funding. In May, the company raised a $335 million Series D round. Today, the company is announcing a $510 million Series E round, which values the company at $5.7 billion. If you’re not familiar with Back Market, the company operates a marketplace of refurbished electronics
A new social app, Locket, popped to the top of the App Store charts in recent days thanks to its clever premise to put live photos from friends in a widget on your iOS homescreen. In other words, it turns Apple’s widget system — typically used to showcase information like news, weather, inspirational quotes or
AmazeVR, a virtual reality concert platform that enables users to experience their favorite artists’ VR concerts through content generation tools, announced today it has secured $15 million, which was oversubscribed within three weeks. Partners Investment and Murex Partners co-led the new funding, with participation from Smilegate Investment, Quantum Ventures Korea, ABC Partners, Everrich Group, GS
Kleiner Perkins, one of Silicon Valley’s legacy venture capital firms, is kicking off 2022 right by celebrating five decades in business and $1.8 billion in funds raised for two new funds — KP20 and Select2. KP20 is an $800 million venture fund focused on early-stage investments in enterprise, consumer, hardtech, fintech and healthcare companies, while
Every company has to decide what to pay their employees and track that compensation in some way, often in spreadsheets and across disparate payroll, finance and HR systems. Companies also need to ensure that they are paying people with comparable experience a similar amount for the same job. Assemble, an early-stage startup, wants to bring
“Deskless” workers have become a big focus for tech companies looking for new opportunities in the B2B market, and today a startup targeting this segment with e-learning tools is announcing a round of funding to fuel its own growth. EduMe, a London startup that provides online corporate training and education in the form of “microlearning”
Foxtrot is changing the way we think about convenience stores, and just picked up $100 million in new Series C funding to expand its brick-and-mortar footprint to 50 new retail locations in the next two years. We last looked in on Chicago-based Foxtrot in early 2020, just before the world was shook by the global
Indonesia-based eFishery announced today that it has raised what it claims is the largest round of funding by an aquaculture tech startup in the world. The company, which provides feeding devices, software and financing for fish and shrimp farmers, got a $90 million Series C co-led by Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Sequoia Capital
French startup Qonto has raised a $552 million Series D funding round (€486 million). Following this investment, the startup has reached a valuation of $5 billion (€4.4 billion). This is one of the largest rounds in the French tech ecosystem. Qonto is a challenger bank focused on business bank accounts. The startup focuses primarily on
Economies of scale are an essential cornerstone for on-demand companies, and to that end one of the hopefuls in the space has raised a big round to grow its business. Bolt — the startup and app of the same name that operates on-demand ride hailing, shared cars and scooters; and restaurant and grocery delivery —
For fifty-four years, big and small hardware manufacturers that hoped to reach their target audiences rolled out new products at the Consumer Electronics Show. The first CES event in June 1967 drew 17,500 attendees, where many in the crowd were absolutely dazzled by GE’s new 24-pound color television. In the intervening decades, the conference grew
Despite facing numerous antitrust lawsuits and tighter regulations in certain markets, Apple today reported new figures indicating record App Store growth in 2021. The company in a press release said it has now paid out more than $260 billion to app developers since the App Store first launched in 2008, a number that’s up from
Palantir COO Shyam Sankar joins Emily Chang to discuss their latest announcement: a more than $25 million deal with Hyundai Heavy to build a new big data platform. Also, his take on the supply chain crunch, the chip shortage, and the future of EVs.
Karen Peacock Contributor Understanding the health of your business starts with customer focus: Are you providing breakthrough value to your customers? Is it value that’s so far above and beyond other solutions that it’s worth a prospective customer’s time and effort to switch to you? Is it value that’s so clearly and increasingly a step