Alongside today’s release of the new Pixel 6 smartphones, Google has again upgraded one of the device’s most basic — but often overlooked — functions: the ability to make phone calls. In previous years, Google Assistant learned to screen your calls and make your reservations by phone via a technology called Duplex. Last year, it […]
TechCrunch+ roundup: Automattic TC-1, federal startup grants, ‘getting s*** done day’
Our latest longform look at a notable tech company examines Automattic, “the leading commercial complement to the open-source WordPress publishing platform.”
Mexico’s fintech success: How tech is driving the population to banking
Earlier this month, Citibanamex — Mexico’s second-largest bank — announced that it is building new APIs to allow fintech companies real-time access to information like its services and ATM locations.
The hyperactive open banking market of Latin America: How the region is being APIfied
We are only in the first chapter of Latin America’s long journey to tech growth. But with the region’s thirst for innovation, the market is expected to expand nearly tenfold over the next decade.
Alviere lands $70M in funding to help brands offer bespoke financial products and services
Alviere, an embedded finance startup that aims to help any brand deliver financial products and services to its customers and employees, announced today it has closed $70 million of new funding. In April, New York-based Alviere closed a $20 million Series A led by Viola Ventures and Viola Fintech, with the participation of CommerzVentures, Mitsubishi […]
Google and Temasek back Indian neobank Open in $100 million funding
Google has invested in Bangalore-based Open, becoming the latest high-profile investor to back a neobanking platform. Open said on Tuesday it has raised $100 million in a Series C financing round. Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek led the round, and Google and Japan’s SBI Investment (not to be confused with SoftBank or India’s SBI bank) […]
Personio, an HR platform for SMEs, raises $270M on a $6.3B valuation, expands into workflow automation
HR technology has been thrown into the spotlight in the last 20 months: COVID-19 has changed the way we work, and so how we manage people in the world of work has had to change, too. Today, a Munich-based startup called Personio, which has built a big business out of how to address that issue […]
Tiger Global backs African fintech Mono in $15M Series A round
Mono, an African startup that helps connect consumers’ bank accounts to financial applications, has raised a $15 million Series A round, the company confirmed to TechCrunch today. The round, led by Tiger Global — the VC firm’s third major investment in Africa this year after Flutterwave and FairMoney — also had participation from new investors […]
Fintech founders can learn a lesson about frugality from these industry leaders
Venture-backed fintechs raised a record $30.8 billion in the second quarter of this year, up 30% over the same quarter last year. But how are fintech founders spending it all?
Productfy raises $16M to build the ‘Shopify of embedded finance’
Productfy Inc., a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform that aims to build “DeFi for traditional finance,” has raised $16 million in a Series A round of funding led by CM Ventures. Existing backers Point72 Ventures, 500 Startups and Envestnet | Yodlee also participated in the financing, which brings its total raised since its 2018 inception to nearly […]