Startups

The rise of remote instruction left many parents freshly aware of (and annoyed by) the shortcomings of Zoom school, but for Letha McLaren, COVID-19 brought an epiphany: the importance of a headset. McLaren’s son, who deals with executive dysfunction, was better able to focus through the screen because he used a headset that blocked out

bloss is a UK startup that connects would-be or existing parents to pre-vetted parenting experts. It has now raised £1million in a pre-seed round led by Antler, the early-stage VC and is also backed by angels including Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Narry Singh, footballer Andriy Shevchenko and British-Jamaican entrepreneur, Alexandra Chong. The funds will be used

Applying to colleges is one of the hardest parts of high school, especially for students who want to study abroad. Cialfo wants to make the process easier, with a platform that includes school research, communication tools for counselors and students, and Direct Apply, which helps international students find and apply to hundreds of programs with

Banking giant UBS announced earlier today that it will purchase venture-backed robo-advisor Wealthfront in an all-cash transaction worth $1.4 billion. Wealthfront, which raised just north of $200 million while private, per Crunchbase data, is one of a few wealth management services that grew on the back of offering automatic investing tools to consumers. Betterment ($435

As the startup game has matured around the world, it’s become less fun. Building companies from nothing to something is hardly supposed to be laugh-a-minute, but I think we’ve lost sight of how much fun new tech used to be. An example that comes to mind is Meerkat. Let me explain: Back in 2015, Meerkat

OZÉ, a Ghanaian fintech startup that provides digital recordkeeping tools with embedded finance products to medium and small businesses, has raised a $3 million pre-Series A round. The startup’s new financing round was led by European early-stage VC Speedinvest, with participation from Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund, Savannah Capital and other unnamed angel investors. This news

News reports surfaced over the past 24 hours that the $40 billion Nvidia-Arm deal, which ranks among the most expensive tech deals ever, is in peril. Nvidia is reportedly ready to walk away due to regulatory pressure. The question is, what does it mean for tech M&A if this deal falls apart? Let’s not forget

IRobot announced Terra three years ago this week. After making some tough internal decisions to delay launch back in 2020, the robot mower is still MIA. For those with a lot of grass and far less time, there are still a number of robotic mowers out there, on both the commercial and consumer side of

Mental health app Intellect’s founder and CEO Theodoric Chew Intellect, the Singapore-based mental health startup focused primarily on Asia-Pacific markets, announced today it has raised a $10 million Series A. The company’s services, including self-directed mental wellness programs in 15 languages and online therapy sessions, are available through two channels: as an employee benefit 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 and welcome to Daily Crunch for January 24, 2022! Today is a kinda tough day for, well, everyone. The value of assets new and old dropped around the world, and everyone

German startup Gorillas has announced that it plans to acquire Frichti, a French startup that delivers both ready-to-eat meals and groceries. The acquisition hasn’t closed just yet but both companies have entered exclusive discussions. “We don’t share details about the deal itself, especially as it isn’t completely signed,” Frichti co-founder and co-CEO Julia Bijaoui told

Barnabas Birmacher Contributor Barnabas Birmacher is the CEO of Bitrise. Breaking into Japan is often one of the biggest challenges a growing tech company will encounter. The country is home to some of the world’s most advanced software and hardware leaders. For the startups that cater to these companies, “cracking Japan” is inevitably part of

Software consultants come in many forms, but if you cannot write your own code, finding a developer who meets your needs can be a stressful process that involves much trial and error. To narrow down good consultancies, we polled experts across the world about the best software development consultants through our TechCrunch Experts program. One

Let’s get into it! Software consulting (TechCrunch+) How should non technical founders collaborate with software developers? Miranda Halpern continues the TechCrunch Experts project by interviewing CEO of Wolfpack Digital, Georgina ‘Gina’ Lupu Florian. What percentage of your clients are non-technical people who have an idea, but no coding experience? How much of a limitation is

In algorithmic investing, investors use a company’s metrics to decide whether to participate in a deal. But when the art of choice is factored out, it becomes more difficult to perform deep due diligence on founders who may be about to receive millions of dollars via a wire transfer. In practice, attempts to remove bias

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. AngelList’s recently closed early-stage venture fund brings back one of my favorite conversations within the world of early-stage startup fundraising: to data, or not to data. The $25 million fund bases all

Josh Berman Contributor Josh Berman is president of C2C, an independent and vetted Google Cloud community with a unique pulse on the cloud market. The past two years have been exciting periods of growth for the cloud market, driven by increased demand for access to new technology during COVID-19 and the proliferation of the “work-from-anywhere”

Rodrigo Vicuna Contributor Cryptocurrency and blockchain had a breakout year in 2021. ust look at the numbers: 80 million unique crypto wallets; Bitcoin and Ether grew 60% and 407%, respectively; El Salvador adopted bitcoin as official currency; the NFT market generated $2.5 billion in trades. Even Burger King announced a whopper when they got in

Gary York Contributor Gary York is the CEO of Help Lightning. He is a serial entrepreneur with four successful software and services exits: three private sales and one IPO. Business leaders are responsible for examining and implementing technologies that are proven, cost-effective and easy to use while also offering long-term solutions that reimagine workflows, speed

French payroll startup PayFit is now valued at $2.1 billion after raising a $289 million Series E round. It’s not France’s only recent unicorn, though: Ankorstore, Qonto, Exotec and Spendesk also joined the club this month. If you add Back Market’s $510 million Series E round valuing the company at $5.7 billion, things are shaping

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 20, 2022! Today’s theme is more. Sure, the creator economy grew last year, but this year more major platforms are working to help power

Sexual health isn’t the taboo it once was, but that doesn’t mean everything is all roses and unicorns in the land of STI testing. TBD Health is taking a fresh new approach with at-home testing made available for vagina-havers. The company has been offering a five-panel “check yourself out” kit for at-home testing, and recently

Greenlabs, a South Korean agtech startup, announced this week it has closed a $140 million Series C led by BlueRun Ventures, with participation from Skylake Incuvest and SK Square. The startup plans to use the Series C, which brings its total raised to $170 million to date, to expedite its global expansion, make acquisitions 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 and welcome to Daily Crunch for January 19, 2022! What a news roundup we have for you today: China’s changing venture landscape, the power of passwords, no-code startups, and why women

Australian user research software company Dovetail announced today that it has closed a $63 million Series A led by Accel. The company has now raised just over $70 million in total, and it added its new capital at a valuation that it describes as “north” of $700 million. As you can tell by the numbers,

Wrangle raised $2 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding to advance its technology that automates workflows, approvals and tickets so that a company can track work and provide call-to-action tasks within chat platforms like Slack. Bloomberg Beta and Eniac Ventures co-led the investment, with participation from Liquid 2 Ventures, Hustle Fund, TDF Ventures and more

After a month-long “break,” Better.com CEO Vishal Garg is back at the helm of the mortgage tech company he co-founded in 2016, according to an internal memo that circulated today that has been shared with TechCrunch. In the memo, the Better board of directors said it was “moving forward with strong, dynamic CEO leadership.” The

Even though the only thing the robot can do right now is pull weeds, Aigen is adamant it isn’t building a weed-whacking robot. It claims to be on a mission to terraform the earth, and says it has a path toward making agriculture carbon positive. It must have made a compelling argument, because it just

Yet more funding is finding its way to Istanbul’s gaming startups. Today, Dream Games — the casual games developer behind the hit game Royal Match — is announcing a $255 million Series C that values the startup at $2.75 billion. This Series C is being led by Index Ventures, with Makers Fund, IVP, funds and

South Korea-based human resources management platform flex announced today it has closed a $32 million Series B round at a valuation of $298 million. The latest funding, which brings its total raised to $42 million, was led by Greenoaks, with participation from DST Global Partners.   The startup’s mission is to enable corporations to automate and