Vimeo, the B2B video platform that spun out from IAC earlier this year, has made a pair of acquisitions aimed at building out the suite of features and tools it offers to businesses to create and run their own video strategies. The company has picked up short-form AI-based video creation platform Wibbitz; and Wirewax, which
Flexbase is turning construction financing on its head with a new credit card — the industry’s first, according to the founders — that offers up to 60 days interest-free financing. The company, which develops automated payments tools for contractors and the construction industry, was started by Zaid Rahman and Hadi Solh to target small- and
Google has won an appeal against a class action-style privacy litigation at the UK Supreme Court — avoiding what could have been up to £3BN in damages had it lost the case. The long-running litigation was brought by veteran consumer rights campaigner, Richard Lloyd, who, since 2017, has been pursing a collective lawsuit, alleging Google
Instagram really wants you to post Reels — they’ll even pay you up to $10,000 for one, if you’re lucky. As TikTok surpasses the 1 billion monthly active users mark, competitor platforms like YouTube Shorts, Snapchat Spotlight and Instagram Reels are incentivizing users to post their short-form content on their apps instead. YouTube established a
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady said he’s been driving a Tesla for four years because he made a conscious choice to lead a more sustainable lifestyle. And yes, he’s a Tesla fan, too. Brady stars in an ad campaign for Hertz that just went public today on the Nasdaq. He spoke to Bloomberg’s Erik Schatzker. ——– Like this
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,
With record venture capital totals, record numbers of startups worth $1 billion or more, and eye-watering revenue multiples available for private and public technology companies alike, you could be forgiven for having concern that we’re heading for a dot-com-style correction. The believers are not convinced. And for good reason, it turns out. The Exchange explores
Instagram added two features to Reels yesterday: text-to-speech and voice effects. These features are popular already on TikTok, but now, creators can use them on Instagram too. This marks yet another effort from Instagram to keep up with TikTok when it comes to short-form video, as Instagram offers big reels bonuses to incentivize creators, Text-to-speech
When you live in a home, something always breaks. And it can be difficult to know who to call and if you can afford the repairs. That’s where Puls Technologies come in. Now armed with $15 million in fresh capital led by Hanaco Venture Capital, the Livermore, California-based company, which offers on-demand home repair services
Business education is, let’s face it, finding it hard to keep up with a $3 trillion global tech startup economy that’s booming right now. High-growth companies are time-starved and so are their executives, but the courses they are offered are long, often boring, and varying in quality. Ideally, business education should be more on-demand, targeted,
When Panic first launched pre-orders of its adorable little retro-inspired handheld gaming device, Playdate, it expected the first 20,000 units to ship by the end of 2021 — just in time, they hoped, for the holidays. That first batch sold out in under 20 minutes. Sadly, due to last-minute battery component issues, even those first
In an effort to expand beyond music, Spotify has been investing hundreds of millions to build out its podcasts business. Now the company has set its sights on another form of audio, with today’s acquisition of digital audiobook distributor Findaway. Spotify declined to share the financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close
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
Less than six months after raising $8 million in seed funding, Chilean proptech startup Houm has raised $35 million in a Series A round led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Goodwater Capital. Fifth Wall also participated in the financing, along with existing backers OneVC, Elad Gil, Liu Jang and new investors Fen Ventures, Broadhaven
Twitter will no longer automatically crop image previews on the web after rolling out full-size image previews on mobile earlier this year. On Twitter for the web, images will now display in full without any cropping. Instead of gambling on how an image will show up in the timeline, images will look just like they
As developers push code across multiple clouds, figuring out what infrastructure you own becomes a real challenge, usually involving writing custom scripts. CloudQuery, an early-stage startup, wanted to make it easier, and built an open source tool to do the work for you. Today, the company announced a $3.5 million seed round led by Boldstart
We last heard from Ometria, an “AI-powered” customer marketing platform allowing brand and retailers to personalize marketing messages, in 2019 when it raised $21 million in a Series B. It’s now completed a $40M Series C round, led by InfraVia Growth, with participation from existing investors Octopus Ventures, Sonae IM, Summit Action, Adjuvo, Columbia Lake
Former Google CEO and Schmidt Futures co-founder Eric Schmidt joins Emily Chang for a deep conversation on the growing role of AI in society, how limits should be set on AI before it gets out of hand and regulating big tech. ——– Like this video? Subscribe to Bloomberg Technology on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrM7B7SL_g1edFOnmj-SDKg Watch the latest
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.
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, the time of the week when we niche down to a single topic. Today we spoke about the revolution within agriculture otherwise known as vertical farming. Alex and Natasha spoke to Hardware
Discord founder and CEO Jason Citron sought to reassure users Wednesday that the company doesn’t have impending plans to shift its business toward NFTs. In a tweet earlier this week, Citron shared an image of crypto wallet MetaMask integrated into Discord’s user interface with the text “probably nothing” — shorthand language in the NFT space
Berlin-based Hive announced $34 million in new investment Wednesday as it continues developing its technology that provides direct-to-consumer brands an alternative way to manage operations. The company was founded by Oskar Ziegler, Franz Purucker and Leo von Kleist in July 2020 to offer software and operational services, including transparent cost structures, special features and sustainable
As investors continue to pour billions into super speedy on-demand grocery delivery — trying to dislodge the dominance of traditional supermarket giants via a hyper convenience lever (whipping up some local opposition to their 24/7 dark stores and delivery methods in the process) — other entrepreneurs are spotting opportunities to slow things down a little.
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
After spending more than a decade building out its expense management platform, Expensify went public today, listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker “EXFY.” Early returns have been positive, as the company revised its original listing price up — and still saw its shares rise 40% on its first day of trading. We’ve written a
Twitter and ViacomCBS today announced a sizable global deal that will see the social media platform streaming digital content from across the ViacomCBS portfolio of news, sports and entertainment brands — including content from live events, TV shows and other franchises. In addition, ViacomCBS-owned streaming service Paramount+ will host three “Twitter Watch Parties” designed to
People subscribe to music, so why wouldn’t they subscribe to carbon offsetting to alleviate their conscience about the climate crisis? That’s partly the thinking behind U.K. startup Ecologi, which uses the funds to plant 1 million trees every 10 days in places like Africa and Latin America, as well as doing things like protecting peatlands
Smart building technology company Brivo reached an agreement to go public via special purpose acquisition with Crown PropTech Acquisitions. The SPAC deal values Brivo at $808 million. Once the merger closes in early 2022, the combined company will operate as Brivo and is expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the
Blackshark.ai, the Austrian startup behind the digital globe you fly over in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator, has raised a $20M round A to develop and scale its replica-Earth tech. The potential applications for a planetary “digital twin” are many and various, and the company has a head start even on mapping giants like Google. The world
Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced today the comapny has begun testing a new feature this week called “Take a Break” which will allow users to remind themselves to take a break from using the app after either 10, 20 or 30 minutes, depending on their preferences. As an opt-in feature, however, the reminders may have