Startups

Joe Hellerstein Contributor Joe Hellerstein is co-founder and chief strategy officer of Trifacta and the Jim Gray Chair of Computer Science at UC Berkeley. In February 2010, The Economist published a report called “Data, data everywhere.” Little did we know then just how simple the data landscape actually was. That is, comparatively speaking, when you

Daniel Cossío Contributor Latin American farms and fields produce a lot of food, but 47 million people still remain hungry. The region accounts for about a quarter of global exports in agricultural and fisheries products, including fruits and vegetables, salmon, maize, sugar and coffee. The agricultural sector is crucial for Latin American livelihoods, contributing to

Oxygen, a startup that is bringing digital banking services to freelancers and micro- and small-sized businesses, is in talks to raise a new round at a valuation of over $500 million, two sources familiar with the matter told me. The San Francisco-headquartered firm is in advanced stages of talks to raise about $70 million, the

João Del Valle Contributor João Del Valle is the co-founder and CEO of EBANX, a Brazilian fintech unicorn that serves as the gateway to Latin America through its payments platform for global merchants, tech giants and other large companies from all over the world. If you look under the hood of nearly any large merchant’s

Priti Choksi, partner at Norwest Venture Partners, has a portfolio that includes Bright, Lumosity, Citcon, UPSIDE Foods and Birdies. But before she ever entered the world of VC, she was an operator at companies like Facebook and Google. She managed business development teams and ran M&A and has vast experience in the world of growing

Joey Noble Contributor Your startup’s homepage should accomplish two things well: (1) Clearly explain exactly what you offer and (2) Convert visitors into active prospects. If visitors leave confused or your website isn’t able to convert, allocate the resources to fix it before worrying about marketing. When building your startup’s website, start by getting inspiration

Lorna Mitchell Contributor Lorna Mitchell is head of Developer Relations at Aiven, a software company that combines the best open source technologies with cloud infrastructure. With World Mental Health Day just behind us, I thought about how the tech industry can be a difficult place to stay mentally well. Working remotely, especially under unprecedented circumstances,

When we last checked in with Alt back in March, it had just raised $31 million for its alternative asset platform — a platform, thus far, used primarily by those looking to research, trade and securely store high-value sports cards. Just a few months later, the company has raised a $75 million Series B from

Indonesia-based startup GoTo Group announced today it has secured more than $1.3 billion in the first close of its pre-IPO funding.  The latest round was led by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), with participation from Avanda Investment Management, Fidelity International, Google, Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), Primavera Capital, SeaTown Master Fund, Temasek, Tencent and Ward Ferry.

Every year, tons of food ends up in landfills because of cosmetic issues (they won’t look nice in stores) or inefficiencies in the supply chain. Singapore-based TreeDots, which says it is the first food surplus marketplace in Asia, wants to help. The company is focused on creating a vertically integrated supply chain with a B2B

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: Options for founder moving

Investor interest in African fintech continues to grab headlines with large fundraises. Today, Africa’s largest digital payments network MFS Africa joins the fray. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it has raised $100 million in Series C financing — split between $70 million equity and $30 million debt. Private equity fund AfricInvest FIVE co-led the Series

Disrupting the traditional MBA may be the most tried, tested and tweaked edtech startup pitch out there. And rightfully so: Business school is damn expensive and largely reserved for a select group of people who have the time and money to invest in elite education. While no single company has perfectly cracked the code yet,

Content publishing platform Medium is acquiring a small startup called Projector. As part of the deal, the entire Projector team is joining Medium with Projector’s co-founder and CEO Trevor O’Brien becoming Medium’s Chief Product Officer. If you’re not familiar with Projector, the company has been building a browser-based graphic design tool. In just a few

By the time CapitalG signed on for Webflow’s Series B, the no code web design service was already profitable – a rarity for an early-stage company. It was a good position for the company and investors alike. For CapitalG, it was clear that the startup was already on the right path. And for Webflow, it

The biggest players in the Earth observation industry use imaging satellites to deliver intelligence and analytics, but startup HawkEye 360 is taking a different tack. The company monitors radio frequency (RF) signals, like those emitted by marine radios or emergency beacons, on the premise that invisible electromagnetic spectrum is as ripe for information as the

Drivers who spend any time commuting in a new car or truck have likely experienced ping ponging — a phenomenon when a vehicle equipped with an advanced driver assistance system has trouble centering itself in a lane and bops back and forth until it finds that sweet spot. Point One Navigation jumped on the scene

While few would argue over the need for a tech-enabled solution to make parenting easier, the demand is more obvious than the execution. Parenting is hard and requires support for a whole range of moments, from when your kid accidentally eats a button to early signs of depression during the remote school day. The diversity

Appetiser‘s site lists three factors for app success: Technology, marketing, and design. And while the Australian agency was recommended to TechCrunch via our our survey to identify software development partners for startups, it could just have well have come through our survey to recommend growth marketers, which you can answer here. With a focus on

Earlier this week, Thirteen Lune, a direct-to-consumer beauty platform that was launched last year in LA, announced $3 million in seed funding. We might not normally pause on this kind of development, especially in a market where dozens of startups are announcing funding every day, but this deal stood out for a few reasons. First,

Boston-based VC firm OpenView interviewed nearly 600 SaaS companies for its annual pricing survey and the results are in: Automation is taking usage-based pricing (USP) mainstream. Last year, 34% of survey respondents said they were using a flexible pricing model. This year, that figure rose to 45%. Full TechCrunch+ articles are only available to members.Use

This week’s top story is located at the crossroads of growth marketing and software development. Usage-based pricing (UBP) for SaaS services is becoming more popular as companies of every type automate their processes, but one important result of the shift is that companies that adopt UBP see a return on their customer acquisition costs much

Colin Turner Contributor Colin Turner is co-founder and COO of Postscript, an SMS marketing platform leveraged by thousands of Shopify businesses. Mailchimp made headlines last month when it sold to Intuit for $12 billion, but many of the stories surrounding the news were far from glowing. Its 1,200 employees didn’t get any equity in the

Shared electric micromobility giant Lime has closed a $523 million raise in convertible debt and term loan financing, money that Lime CEO Wayne Ting says is the next step on the company’s path to going public next year. Lime will use the capital to invest in its decarbonization efforts, refresh a significant portion of its

Dan Perry Contributor Dan Perry is managing partner of the Thunder11 communications agency. He previously headed the Associated Press in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. Jonathan “Yoni” Frenkel Contributor On the surface, it’s impressive that Israel has nearly as many unicorns as the European Union with a population almost 50 times smaller. It may

Rivian, the electric automaker that recently filed for an IPO, has been sued by a former sales and marketing vice president for alleged gender discrimination. The lawsuit alleges that Laura Schwab, a former sales and marketing executive who had a long employment history with Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin before joining Rivian in November

Since it was founded in 2012, Blend has signed up some of the biggest banks in the country — including the likes of Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank — as well as a bevy of smaller, more traditional financial institutions across the U.S.. Now, it’s setting its sights on the startup and fintech market, hoping

Self-driving trucks startup TuSimple signaled it is close to testing its system without a human safety operator on public roads before the end of the year. During the startup’s third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, TuSimple announced plans to proceed with its driver-out pilot program, which would remove the driver for runs over the 80-mile route

Rent the Runway is more than 10 years old now and has raised upwards of $500 million, recently filing to IPO at a valuation north of $1 billion. Jenny Fleiss is a co-founder at Rent the Runway and sits on the board of several notable companies, including Shutterfly, Party City and, of course, Rent the

Kneron has launched its first automotive-grade chip — fueled by funds from Foxconn, Alibaba, Sequoia, Horizons Ventures, and Qualcomm — that it says could revolutionize the path to vehicle autonomy. The chip industry has been dominated by legacy and tech companies like Intel, AMD and Qualcomm. Kneron – which has raised over $100 million to