If you’ve ever had to take out a loan, you know just how many documents are involved in the approval process. It’s a lot. The process is tedious and time-consuming, and in many more cases than you’d expect — still manual. Ocrolus is a startup that is hoping to change that with an automation platform […]
Vyne raises $15.5M seed round to grow its merchant-focused open banking solutions
Open banking — a new approach to payments and other financial services that disrupts traditional card-based infrastructure by linking directly into banks — is having a moment. On the heels of open banking startup TrueLayer hitting a $1 billion valuation in its latest round after seeing strong traction for its services, today another open banking […]
Robinhood muscles deeper into Coinbase’s territory with new crypto wallet feature
The fervor around Dogecoin delivered big revenues for stock-trading app Robinhood, and the company announced Wednesday that it’s wandering deeper down the crypto rabbit hole, sharing that it will soon begin testing crypto wallets for its users. The crypto wallets, which Robinhood says it will begin rolling out next month over time to users on […]
Latin America’s second wave of digital transformation
Over the past year, Latin America has been covered heavily in the international news as the COVID-19 pandemic led many to question our endurance in the face of a crisis.
Mexico’s Kavak drives away with $700M in new funding, doubling its valuation to $8.7B
Kavak, a Mexico City-based startup that operates a pre-owned car marketplace in Latin America, announced today that it has raised a massive $700 million in a Series E round that more than doubles the company’s valuation to $8.7 billion. This news is notable for a few reasons. For one, it’s a staggering sum for any […]
Extra Crunch roundup: DTC strategy, IPO analysis, Zoom’s future product plans
TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 is underway! Tickets are still available for the three-day virtual event, which encompasses everything from Ryan Reynolds’ lessons on “fast-vertising” to Startup Battlefield.
Just raises $8M in its effort to beat Root at the car insurance game
Just Insure, a pay-per-mile insurance technology company, has raised $8 million in a funding round. CrossCut Ventures, ManchesterStory and Western Technology Investments co-led the investment, which brings its total raised to $15.3 million since its January 2019 inception. Los Angeles-based Just says it uses telematics “to reward safe drivers and reduce insurer bias” by looking […]
PayPal launches its ‘super app’ combining payments, savings, bill pay, crypto, shopping and more
PayPal has been talking about its “super app” plans for some time, having recently told investors its upcoming digital wallet and payments app had been given a go for launch. Today, the first version of that app is officially being introduced, offering a combination of financial tools including direct deposit, bill pay, a digital wallet, […]
UK’s MarketFinance scores $383M to fuel its online loans platform for SMBs
Small and medium businesses regularly face cashflow problems. But if that’s an already-inconvenient predicament, it has been exacerbated to the breaking point for too many during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, a UK startup called MarketFinance — which has built a loans platform to help SMBs stay afloat through those leaner times — is announcing a […]
Alternative financing startup Pipe snaps up Stripe and HubSpot execs, expands to UK
Pipe, a two-year-old startup that aims to be the “Nasdaq for revenue,” announced today it has snagged former Stripe EIC Sid Orlando and HubSpot’s ex-Chief Strategy Officer Brad Coffey to serve on its executive team. The Miami-based fintech also revealed today its first expansion outside of the United States with its entry into the U.K. […]