As consumers think more about what they are putting in their bodies, they are also thinking about what they are feeding their pets. Driven by the global pandemic and everyone being at home with their pets, sales topped $100 billion in 2020 in this sector. Austin-based Maev, developing human-grade raw dog food, is poised to
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The Twitter account of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “briefly compromised” on Sunday, his office said. Modi’s account — whose handle is @narendramodi — tweeted after the midnight that India had officially adopted bitcoin as a legal tender, prompting suspicions about a hack because of the timing of the announcement and also as New
Looks like Better.com CEO Vishal Garg’s behavior is catching up to him. This morning, employees were notified via email by the Better board of directors that Garg would be taking time off effective immediately after the “very regrettable events over the last week.” The move came, according to an employee who wished not to be
The 2021 IPO cycle is winding down this week as HashiCorp and Nubank priced their public debuts and listed. Happily for startup fans and the venture classes, both IPOs went well. Samsara’s IPO will come next week if current calendars hold up, but that’s pretty much it for the year. We made it to the
Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, is testifying before the Senate today about the impact of Instagram on teens’ mental health. His first appearance before the Senate, this is just one of several hearings that have taken place ever since whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked documents from Facebook — now Meta — showing that the company knew
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is facing the prospect of imminent extradition to the US after the UK High Court granted an appeal by the US government against an earlier (January) refusal by a UK judge to extradite him on mental health grounds. A final decision on whether or not to grant the extradition will be
E-commerce in Africa is growing fast and its potential remains enormous as more people get connected to the internet. Across sub-Saharan Africa 303 million people, about 28% of the population, are connected to the mobile internet, according to the 2021 GSMA mobile economy report, and this number is expected to rise to 40% in three
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Friends, we’re almost there: the end of the year that felt like a decade. This week, Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex put aside their 2021 fatigue and talked through a week full of news – and
Instagram is bringing back a chronological feed, according to statements made by Instagram head Adam Mosseri during his testimony today before a Senate panel over the harms to young people using the app. Mosseri was asked if he believed consumers should be able to use the Instagram app without “being manipulated by algorithms,” and the
Ikigai, a startup based on research out of MIT, wants to make it simple to build workflows with humans involved. Whereas traditional robotic process automation (RPA) is about building bots for repetitive tasks, this company wants to make it easier to build workflows where humans have to make a decision as part of the process.
HURR — a “RentTheRunway” style UK fashion rental marketplace – has raised $5.4M in a seed funding round led by European VC firm, Octopus Ventures. Also participating was Ascension and D4 Ventures, among others. HURR launched in 2019 and has a hybrid business model combining peer-to-peer fashion rentals, direct partnerships with fashion outlets, and a
Scott Lenet Contributor More posts by this contributor 3 lies VCs tell ourselves about startup valuations Is there a creed in venture capital? Venture capitalists frequently say that valuing startups is “more art than science.” If that’s true, then it’s absurdist art, because most seed-stage businesses have no value. In fact, seed-stage startups — companies
Nuvocargo, a logistics startup out to help simplify the challenges of cross-border trade, has raised $20.5 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management. The round valued the New York-based startup at $180 million, more than double the $70 million it was valued at when it raised $12 million in April. The company says it
Meta (formerly Facebook) today is introducing a number of Facebook Live updates that will allow creators to engage with fans during their live broadcasts, including new features like Polls, support for four-person co-broadcasting via the “Live With” feature, new commenting features, a new post format, support for adding links to broadcasts and “Live in Stories,”
Detroit became the center of America’s automobile industry largely for logistical reasons: its midwestern location, high population density and proximity to raw materials were just a few factors that assured investors it was an optimal spot for building an industrial hub. Silicon Valley’s tech ecosystem, on the other hand, was initially seeded by military research
Spain’s government has agreed on the details of a draft startup law — passing the baton to the parliament to debate and potentially amend the plan ahead of a vote to turn it into actual law. The Council of Ministers announced adoption of the draft text today which it said contains important measures to cut
Software consultant Andrew Drach’s two companies Callentis and Solwey demonstrate his entrepreneurial skills, but his clients also value his educational background, as we learned through TechCrunch’s survey to identify the best software consultants for startups. Telling us why her company picked Solwey, eDiscovery Assistant’s Kelly Twigger cited “Andrew’s Ph.D. and analytical background related to data,”
Amid a hectic year, the continent’s VC momentum appears set to continue in 2022 Alex Wilhelm 8 hours Europe, long viewed as a relative backwater to the U.S. startup market, has been on a tear in recent quarters and years. Akin to many startup markets around the world, Europe has seen its venture capital totals
Wisdom, a social audio app that’s focused on surfacing “life advice” and broadening access to mentorship — and whose iOS app launched we covered back in October — has nabbed $2 million in seed funding off the back of early traction. The seed is led by First Round Capital, with participation from a number of
Freddy Jose Mangum Contributor Freddy Jose Mangum is CEO and co-founder of Hub, provider of a unified presales productivity platform. Today’s high-growth technology companies rely on millions of presales professionals, also known as sales engineers and solution consultants, to explain the value of technologies to buyers and customers. Ultimately, the contributions of these trusted technical
Roger Gothmann Contributor Roger Gothmann, Ph.D., is co-founder and CEO at Taxdoo, an automated platform for financial compliance in e-commerce. Electronic interfaces, platforms and marketplaces form a key layer in the digital infrastructure behind e-commerce, serving as gatekeepers between consumers and producers of digital content or digitally sold products. These gatekeepers offer third-party companies access
Blockstream CSO Samson Mow talks with Bloomberg’s Caroline Hyde about his involvement with El Salvador’s plans to construct a “Bitcoin City” and issue the world’s first sovereign Bitcoin bonds. He joins “Bloomberg Technology” from the Conchagua volcano in El Salvador – the energy of which will be used to power the “Bitcoin City.”
Instant grocery delivery continues to be a very frothy market, but today comes news of a major funding round for one player in it that investors believe will still be standing after the hype has died down. Flink, the Berlin-based startup that sells food and other essentials at supermarket prices and aims to deliver them
Grocery delivery startup Tiggy is a new player in the Canadian quick commerce space, announcing Friday $6.35 million in seed funding to get its dark stores up-and-running to accommodate 15-minute deliveries. E-commerce sales are a $29 billion market in Canada, but food delivery is still nascent. Eugene Bisovka and Razmik Sukyasov co-founded Vancouver-based Tiggy in
Tinder is partnering with Spotify to launch a new “Music Mode” feature where users will hear a 30-second looped preview of a potential matches’ chosen song while checking out their profile. Users who link their Spotify accounts and add a chosen song, called an “Anthem,” to their Tinder profiles will be able to enter Music
Fresh from its time in Y Combinator, SaaS startup Anakin raised $2 million to continue developing its software enabling e-commerce companies to see live pricing data on their competitors. Mohit Prateek and Rashmi Bala started the company last September and officially launched in March to help e-commerce stores and brands increase their revenue using pricing,
Earnr is a new finance and tax service aimed at the UK creator economy and people doing ‘side-hustle’ businesses. It’s now secured £650,000 to launch an app aimed at ‘solopreneurs’. The round was led by 7percent Ventures, and was joined by Antler and FJ Labs. The startup deals with the financial and tax admin side
Tim Berners-Lee’s startup, Inrupt, has raised about $30 million in its Series A financing round, a source familiar with the matter said. Forte Ventures led Inrupt’s new round, the two said Thursday, but both declined to disclose the size of the deal. The round saw participation from “all existing investors,” including Akamai Technologies and Glasswing
Robust Intelligence, an AI startup that helps businesses stress test their AI models and prevent them from failing, today announced that it has raised a $30 million Series B funding round led by Tiger Global. Previous investor Sequoia, which led the company’s Series A round, as well as Harpoon Venture Capital and Engineering Capital also
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has rolled out “Year in Review” features for both Facebook and Instagram. On Facebook, users can share their personalized “Year Together” card, which highlights the friends, feelings, places and people that mattered most to them in 2021. The new in-feed experience reflects on people’s year on the platform and curates