Startups

No startup sector was entirely immune from 2022’s market uncertainty — except maybe AI — but some proved more resilient than others. Biotech was one of the most fortunate. The sector recorded 1,054 U.S.-based deals in 2022, worth a collective $30.7 billion, according to Pitchbook data. Those figures fell short of the 1,415 biotech deals

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. First off, hello to all the new Startups Weekly subscribers who joined us after last week’s newsletter. I’m glad we all still resonate with a comeback

The number of Shopify live websites grew a whopping 201% between March 2020 and January 2022 with the shift to e-commerce during the global pandemic. With all of those stores going after customers it’s difficult for individual merchants to cut through the clutter. That problem has given rise to startups eager to offer their no-code

Did you hear? The TechCrunch Live crew is taking a virtual trip to the Northeast. On Monday, February 27 (that’s in a couple days!), we’re hosting a special, extended TechCrunch Live event focused on Boston, and you’re invited to participate. Register for the free event right here. The event starts with a conversation with Matt

Welcome back to Found, where we get the stories behind the startups. This week Darrell and Becca are joined by Michael Chime, the co-founder and CEO of Prepared, a startup that allows 911 callers to stream video to emergency dispatchers. Michael discussed how a nearby tragedy in high school helped inspire the company, how the

Dr. Jaishree Naidoo was in charge of pediatric radiology at a South African hospital in 2014, when she had a moment of epiphany after coming across a news story on the usage of AI recognition pattern in distinguishing animals. As a radiologist with 20 years of experience, Naidoo was already familiar with pattern recognition, and

Successful startups need a solid founding team of like-minded people. But how do you find and hire others to help build, sell, and manage your product? Tanis Jorge and David Blumberg are speaking about the importance of co-founders at a very special TechCrunch Live event, on March 1 at 11:30 a.m. PST / 2:30 p.m.

Founders: Are you ready? TechCrunch Editorial is on the hunt for 200 early-stage founders to feature in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this September. To highlight global innovation across multiple sectors, we expanded the Startup Battlefield program and it was a wild success last year. With entrepreneurs from more than 20 countries

Amex Ventures, USAA are among the digital estate planning startup’s new backers Mary Ann Azevedo 9 hours Drafting a will and planning for what happens to your estate once you pass away is well, not exactly fun. Both tasks can also be very pricey endeavors, not to mention just painful to do for many reasons.

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. Helloooooo from team Daily Crunch! Haje is back from dealing with all sorts of little disasters, and Christine is still going strong. Let’s goooooo. It’s still Black History Month, so for today’s

Sophie Alcorn Contributor Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.” She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives. More posts by this contributor Dear Sophie: Do I qualify for

Nasdaq on Friday hosted the New Voices Foundation and Essence Ventures, inviting some of the most prominent Black professionals within the venture and startup space behind the podium to help open the markets. Though this isn’t the first time Nasdaq has honored Black History Month, some who were there commented that “history was made.” And

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! If you had the day off for President’s Day, we hope it was a peaceful transition into work today. Please send good vibes to Haje as he figures out what to

I try to keep things fresh, so I was dismayed to realize that I’d used the word “downturn” in two different headlines this morning. Despite the quickening pace of layoffs, there is some good news for SaaS startups: 70% of SMBs plan to increase IT spending in 2023, and the procurement process is getting faster.

Green Labs, a South Korean agtech startup that raised $140 million (170 billion won) Series C in January last year, is cutting a significant number of jobs. People familiar with the matter confirmed to TechCrunch earlier rumors by local media outlets that a workforce deduction would happen. Green Labs, which now has over 650 employees,

U.K. quantum computing company Quantum Motion has raised £42 million ($50.5 million) in an equity round of funding led by Bosch Ventures (RBVC), with participation from Porsche, the U.K. government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), and a host of additional investors. Quantum computing, for the uninitiated, builds on principles borrowed from quantum mechanics, with

Welcome to The Interchange! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If you’re reading this as a post on our site, sign up here so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, I’ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week.

Bridge rounds boomed at the end of last year Anna Heim 10 hours Welcome to the TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the daily TechCrunch+ column where it gets its name. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. Lux Capital partner Josh Wolfe predicted that “dry powder” would prove

Price parity with traditional foods is one of the main challenges for alternative protein startups. However, the avian flu, a shortage of cage-free eggs and a subsequent rise in prices in late 2022 seems to provide an “in” for alternative egg companies to show they can compete. Egg prices rose from a couple of dollars,

I’ve been let go from more startups than anyone else I know. Yes, that is a weird thing to boast about. Last month, nearly 100,000 tech workers lost jobs, and it felt like a great disturbance in the Force. These are real people grappling with real uncertainty: Should they move? How long will their savings

The onramps into Silicon Valley often include access: to a smart mentor, a well-connected venture capitalist, or even a rocket ship of a startup. But an emerging class of founders is reminding the ecosystem how collapse can be an activator, as well. Laid-off talent is flocking to build startups within all sectors, from climate to

Web3 gaming company Unagi today announced a €4.7 million ($5 million) seed round of funding, as the French startup prepares to expand its NFT fantasy sports platform beyond football (“soccer”) and into the basketball realm. Unagi, which doesn’t yet have its own website, was founded out of Paris by Charlie Guillemot, son of Ubisoft co-founder

Transcelestial is on a mission to make the internet more accessible by building a network of shoebox-sized devices that send lasers to one another, creating a fiber-like network. Today, the Singaporean-based startup announced it has raised $10 million, with the goal of expanding its wireless laser communications system in Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore

Last year’s tech-wide reckoning continues. In 2023, layoffs have yet again cost tens of thousands of tech workers their jobs; this time, the workforce reductions have been driven by the biggest names in tech like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo and Zoom. Startups, too, have announced cuts across all sectors, from crypto to enterprise SaaS.  The

Prince Boakye Boampong, the founder and CEO of Dash, which provides an alternative payment network with connected wallets allowing interaction between mobile money and bank accounts in Africa, has allegedly been temporarily suspended pending an investigation into financial impropriety, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation. Boampong founded the Ghanaian fintech in 2019

Prove to investors why this is the right time and you’re the right company Haje Jan Kamps 13 hours When talking to investors, you’re answering the what (product), why (mission), where (if relevant) and how (strategy and go-to-market). But founders often ignore another important question: Why now? Why wouldn’t it have been possible to have

Sophie Alcorn Contributor Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.” She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives. More posts by this contributor Dear Sophie: Will published articles better

A startup lives or dies by its board of directors. Sagi Eliyahu co-founded Tonkean in 2015 and has since raised money from some top investors, including Joanne Chen from Foundation Capital. Chen joined Tonkean’s board of directors in 2019. The two are set to discuss the best ways for founders to work with their board

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. Happy V-Day! What happens when you poll crypto traders about whether liking crypto was an “attractive feature”? Well,  4 out of 5 think that’s hella sexy, and 70% said they’d be more

Many tech workers have never experienced a job market like this one. Last year, 1,044 tech companies let go of 159,786 employees, according to Layoffs.fyi. As of this writing, 103,767 workers have been laid off from 345 startups so far in 2023. Many, many more are coming, obviously. Losing a job unexpectedly is more than