MarketForce, a Kenyan B2B retail and financial services distribution startup, has expanded into five additional markets across Africa to grow RejaReja — its retailer ‘super app’ that makes it possible for informal merchants to order and pay for inventory digitally, accept payments for utility bills, and access financing for their businesses. The startup has today […]
Francophone African super app Gozem grabs $5M to expand and offer more services
Gozem, a super app that provides a host of services — including transport, e-commerce and financial services in Francophone Africa — has raised $5 million in Series A financing, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The Togo- and Singapore-based company received investment from AAIC, Thunes (TransferTo), Momentum Ventures (SMRT), Innoport Ventures (Schulte Group), CMC Ventures (National […]
Jobandtalent raises $500M Series E to keep scaling its ‘workforce as a service’ marketplace
Spain’s Jobandtalent, a “workforce marketplace”-cum-digital temping agency which uses AI to match workers to casual labor gigs in sectors like warehousing, ecommerce and logistics, has closed a $500 million Series E round of funding led by Kinnevik and with what it bills as a “significant” follow on by SoftBank VisionFund 2. Existing investors including Atomico, […]
TechCrunch+ roundup: Jack leaves Twitter, Black Friday data, Nubank lowers IPO pricing
Perhaps it should be pro forma for corporate boards in search of a new CEO to start by talking to the company’s longtime engineers, product managers and marketing leads.
This Week in Apps: Twitter launches livestream shopping, Netflix snags new games, Tile gets acquired
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 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes […]
Forest bags $8M seed round to acquire Japanese e-commerce brands
Japan has been the birthplace of traditional arts and crafts since ancient times. Craftmanship, meticulous attention to detail and balance of design and functionality have contributed to creating unique Japanese products like pottery, traditional fabrics, washi (paper), woodwork, glasses, bento-boxes and more. This craftsmanship continues to be passed along from generation to generation and live […]
Walmart will be the first retailer to test Twitter’s new livestream shopping platform
Twitter’s e-commerce initiatives now include livestream shopping and Walmart will be the first retailer to test the new platform. Over the past year, Walmart has invested in live shopping by hosting events across social platforms like TikTok and YouTube, and soon it will debut Twitter’s first-ever shoppable livestream. On November 28, Walmart will kick off […]
In Amazon scuffle, Visa’s loss could be Affirm’s gain
Let’s look at why BNPL is becoming a more attractive payment option for big e-commerce companies like Amazon and Walmart, as well as merchant marketplaces like Square and Shopify.
EU’s data protection adviser latest to call for ban on tracking ads
The European Data Protection Board (EDPB), an expert steering body which advises EU lawmakers on how to interpret rules wrapping citizen’s personal data, has warned the bloc’s legislators that a package of incoming digital regulations risks damaging people’s fundamental rights — without “decisive action” to amend the suite of proposals. The reference is to draft […]
Airwallex raises $100M at a $5.5B valuation to expand its business banking and payments platform globally
E-commerce and other online businesses are becoming increasingly global in their operations and customer bases, and a startup called Airwallex — which has built a banking solution that addresses the opportunity to provide cross-border financial services — has been seeing a massive surge of activity. To capitalize further on that opportunity, today the company is […]