Open banking — a disruptive technology that seeks to bypass the dominance of card networks and other traditional financial rails by letting banks open their systems directly to developers (and new services) by way of APIs — continues to gain ground in the world of financial services. As a mark of that traction, a startup […]
Airwallex raises $200M at a $4B valuation to double down on business banking
Business, now more than ever before, is going digital, and today a startup that’s building a vertically integrated solution to meet business banking needs is announcing a big round of funding to tap into the opportunity. Airwallex — which provides business banking services both directly to businesses themselves, as well as via a set of […]
Extra Crunch roundup: Adtech investing, Intuit buys Mailchimp, ideal customer profiles
In school, it’s highly unethical to copy someone else’s work and pass it off as your own. In business, however, it is expected.
What could stop the startup boom?
Similar to how certain macroeconomic conditions have provided a long-term boost, a reversal of those conditions could do the opposite.
Google’s R&D division experiments with newsletters powered by Google Drive
Following entries into the newsletter market from tech companies like Facebook and Twitter, Google is now experimenting with newsletters, too. The company’s internal R&D division, Area 120, has a new project called Museletter, which allows anyone to publish a Google Drive file as a blog or newsletter to their Museletter public profile or to an […]
It measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile
Enough with the GDP — it’s time to measure genuine progress – “Unlike GDP, the Genuine Progress Indicator is designed to measure economic performance from the perspective of ordinary American households, not corporations or Wall Street investors.”[1,2]…
Index Ventures launches web app to help founders calculate employee stock options
The ability to offer stock options is utterly essential to startups. They convince talented people to join when the startup is unlikely to be capable of matching the high salaries that larger, established tech firms can offer. However, it’s a complex business developing a competitive stock option plan. Luckily, London-based VC Index Ventures today launches […]
As UK Gov reaches out to tech, investors threaten to ‘pull capital’ over M&A regulator over-reach
UK competition regulators are spooking tech investors in the country with an implied threat to clamp down on startup M&A, according to a new survey of the industry. As the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer engaged with the tech industry at a ‘Chatham House’ style event today, the Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) think-tank […]
SpotOn raises $300M at a $3.15B valuation and acquires Appetize
Last year at this time, SpotOn was on the brink of announcing a $60 million Series C funding round at a $625 million valuation. Fast forward to almost exactly one year later, and a lot has changed for the payments and software startup. Today, SpotOn said it has closed on $300 million in Series E […]
Egyptian startup Capiter raises $33M to expand B2B e-commerce platform across MENA
Funding startups that help manufacturers and sellers distribute products and merchants access them on a single platform keeps increasing across Africa. Today, Cairo-based B2B e-commerce startup Capiter continues that trend by raising a $33 million Series A round. The investment was co-led by Quona Capital and MSA Capital. Other participating investors include Savola, Shorooq Partners, […]