The digital transformation of banking and payments services is a red-hot trend that’s shown no signs of slowing down. Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) products like Synapse, Unit, and Bond have helped fuel the shift by allowing companies to quickly spin up new financial services using APIs. NovoPayment is a global BaaS startup based in Miami that has largely been focused
Tokio Marine, a Tokyo-headquartered insurance corporation, said Tuesday it has launched its $42 million corporate venture capital (CVC) fund, dubbed Tokio Marine Future Fund, to invest in early-stage startups around the world. The Palo Alto-based CVC fund will write checks worth between $500K and $3 million into seed, Series A rounds across sectors including
CoinDCX has doubled its valuation to $2.15 billion (post-money) in eight months following a fresh $135 million funding, it said today, as the Indian cryptocurrency exchange looks to aggressively expand its product offerings and talent base, including some to double down on compliances in the world’s second largest internet market. Steadview and existing backer Pantera
Square Peg Capital, one of Australia’s largest venture capital firms with current assets under management of about $3 billion USD, is digging deeper into Southeast Asia. The firm is currently raising $550 million in new funding, and if its recent investment history is anything to go by, a good chunk of that will be invested
Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat shares her favorite family rituals and travel destinations with Emily Chang on “Bloomberg Studio 1.0.” Alphabet is the parent company of Google.
If 2020 and 2021 were the years of the SPAC, 2022 is shaping up to be the year of the reprimand. Nearly all of the electric vehicle manufacturers that took a shortcut to an IPO by merging with a special purpose acquisition company over the last two years are being investigated by the Securities and
The value of later-stage startups is in decline, data indicate. This particular market movement isn’t a surprise, but the scale of the contraction is worth noting. Forge Global, a secondary market for private-company shares, “said the prices of companies on its platform had fallen 19.9 per cent in February and March compared with the fourth
This month, Twitter announced the ground-shaking news that it was actually going to offer users a way to edit tweets — a longtime user request. And it would have been the biggest Twitter story in years, if it weren’t for the Elon Musk takeover attempt. Now, it appears work on Twitter’s Edit button has already
Clipboard Health, an app-based marketplace that matches nurses with open shifts at nearby healthcare facilities, today announced that it raised $80 million over two unannounced rounds, a $50 million Series B round in 2021 and a $30 million Series C round this year, at a $1.3 billion valuation post-money. CEO Wei Deng says that the
Everyone thought it was a little bonkers when Panic announced that they would be making a monochrome handheld gaming machine with a sort of subscription model where you can’t choose the games you get. DOA, right? Well, the preorders sold out so perhaps not. And fortunately, Playdate is a fun, weird and promising device that’s
As part of its continued investment into expanding its mobile gaming business, Netflix today announced it will, for the first time, launch a mobile game alongside a TV series from the same franchise. The game and show will be based on the popular Exploding Kittens card game. The mobile game will launch in May exclusively
Zambian card issuing fintech Union54 has raised $12 million in a seed extension round led by Tiger Global. Other participating investors in this financing include existing ones such as Vibe VC and new investors Earl Grey Capital and Packy Mccormick’s Not Boring Capital. It’s been only six months since Union54, whose API allows African software
Sequoia Capital India, one of the most prolific and successful investors in India and Southeast Asia, addressed the fraudulent practices allegations levelled against some of its portfolio startups and pledged to take proactive steps to do more to drive increased compliance. In a blog post published Sunday afternoon, the storied venture fund said it’s still a “work-in-progress”
Welcome to my weekly fintech-focused column. I’ll be publishing this every Sunday, so in between posts, be sure to listen to the Equity podcast and hear Alex Wilhelm, Natasha Mascarenhas and me riff on all things startups! And if you want to have this hit your inbox directly once it officially turns into a newsletter on May 1, sign
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. The move by Elon Musk to try and buy Twitter has proved polarizing. Not that we should be surprised; mega-deals are always clarifying moments. But the Musk-Twitter saga
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the
I have been thinking a lot about silos, or the lack thereof, within startupland. There’s sometimes an artificial wall that is put up between companies at different stages of growth, when in reality, everyone is in the same room, clinking glasses and tripping over the same rug. Let me be more precise. As the late-stage
What if you could buy a Peloton with pre-tax dollars? How about vitamins and supplements? Skincare products? Or even mattresses and massages? All of those may likely qualify as purchases you could make through a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) or Health Savings Account (HSA). Both types of accounts allow people to contribute pre-tax dollars that
The Twitter and Elon Musk saga is far from over as Elon Musk has made an offer to buy Twitter in an SEC filing. The billionaire has said he is willing to pay $54.20 per share to buy 100% of the company. It would be an all cash offer and would value the social network
Cloud security is one of the big drivers among enterprises making IT investments this year, according to a recent report from Gartner, which estimated that some $4.4 trillion in IT spend overall in 2022. Today, a startup called DoControl, which is building what it describes “no code” solutions for one part of that security stack
Front-line workers and those paid in hourly wages rather than salaries have become a prime target in the world of business IT, with a wave of apps helping them find jobs, do their jobs, communicate with each other better. In the latest development, a UK startup building what it describes as a financial “super app”
Throughout the web3 world, companies, protocols and projects alike are pushing to onboard a billion users — what they see as the tipping point for cryptocurrency use to grow exponentially. But that number is only possible — obviously — through increased adoption. That means major players in the space must make improvements regarding ease and
Immigrants to the United States face myriad challenges besides having to learn a new language. In many cases, they are dealing with a foreign and complex financial system, may struggle with finding adequate housing and health care and just generally feel lost. Welcome Tech, a startup aiming to build “an operating system” for immigrant families
Twitter’s board of directors announced in a press release that the company is adopting a limited duration shareholder rights plan — a “poison pill” in merger and acquisition lingo. While the company doesn’t name Elon Musk directly, Twitter is clearly trying to prevent the billionaire from buying the social network. Elon Musk currently owns 9.2%
Filevine, a startup offering a software-as-a-service product for legal case management, today announced that it closed a $108 million series D round led by StepStone Group with participation from Golub Capital and existing investors Signal Peak Ventures and Meritech Capital. CEO Ryan Anderson said that the proceeds will be put toward pursuing new market opportunities,
Startups which create platforms making it easier to buy “buy to let” properties are proliferating. In the US there is Roofstock, Mynd, Awning and Doorvest, among others. In Europe, there is, for example, GetGround or Bricklane. Beanstock.fr, a French buy-to-let investment marketplace that allows individuals to buy and manage properties online, has made hay as Spanish, English,
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PT, subscribe here. Welcome to the Daily Crunch for Friday, April 15, 2022, where we are continuing to stick our heads in the sand regarding the war in Ukraine and the Earth slowly roasting itself
The United States is the world’s largest cannabis market, but as more European countries consider legalizing recreational use, investors are looking for opportunities in production, distribution and retail. Much like the U.S., laws governing this plant-based drug differ across the EU, which means entrepreneurs must navigate complicated legal frameworks even as they compete with an
The parent company of Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast will buy D&D Beyond, the role-playing game’s popular digital suite of tools. The company announced the news this week in a press release, disclosing that it would buy D&D Beyond from current owner Fandom in a $146.3 million cash deal. Wizards of the
Jesse Klein Contributor Jesse Klein is a science, outdoor and business journalist who has written for New Scientist, GreenBiz, The New York Times and WIRED. Having previously worked inside Bay Area startups, she has a deep understanding of the pressing issues facing the businesses of tomorrow. More posts by this contributor Should we be growing