Reels are coming to Facebook in the U.S. The company this morning announced it will begin testing a new feature, Facebook Reels, which will give Facebook users the ability to create and share short-form video content directly within the News Feed or within Facebook Groups. The addition is an expansion of tests launched earlier this […]
Indian fintech CRED launches peer-to-peer lending feature Mint
India’s CRED, which rewards users for paying their credit-card bills on time, is broadening its offerings to help its 7.5 million members gain more from the service. The Bangalore-based startup said on Thursday that CRED users can now lend to one another at an interest rate of up to 9% annually. Kunal Shah, founder and […]
Spotify expands its radio DJ-like format, Music + Talk, to global creators
Last fall, Spotify introduced a new format that combined spoken word commentary with music, allowing creators to reproduce the radio-like experience of listening to a DJ or music journalist who shared their perspective on the tracks they would then play. Today, the company is making the format, which it calls “Music + Talk,” available to […]
Amazon backs Indian wealth management service Smallcase in $40 million funding
Amazon has entered the financial services and insurance markets of India in recent years. Now it is paving the way to foray into the wealth management category. The American e-commerce giant has backed Bangalore-based startup Smallcase in a $40 million Series C financing round. The round was led by Faering Capital and Premji Invest as […]
Governments should invest in their diaspora founders
Many governments that are not major tech hubs (i.e., most countries excluding the U.S., China, Israel and India) should stop restricting themselves to supporting locally domiciled VC funds.
Equity Monday: Hacks, IPOs, and the next generation of American tech giants
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You […]
Indian bike taxi service Rapido raises $52 million
Rapido, a bike taxi aggregator in India, said on Monday it has raised $52 million in a new financing round as the six-year-old startup looks to find space in a category dominated by Ola and Uber in the South Asian market. The six-year-old startup’s new funding — Series C — was financed by Shell Ventures, […]
Bollywood’s Kareena Kapoor subject to online abuse over baby’s name
Supporters say attacks over choice of name similar to 17th-century Muslim Mughal emperor rooted in prejudice against inter-faith marriageBollywood star Kareena Kapoor has received abuse online from extremists over her new baby’s name.Kapoor has been at…
Avni Doshi on summer in Mumbai
The Burnt Sugar author remembers summer 2007, when her grandmother arrived to help her set up home – and teach her some life lessons• Read other authors on their memorable urban summersShe arrives with a small suitcase and several jute bags filled with…
Building a growth community in India with Ayush Srivastava of Growth Folks
To hear more about the strategies that are boosting Indian startups, we interviewed Ayush Srivastava, co-founder of growth marketing group Growth Folks (and a growth marketer at Zynga by day).