A few years ago, at the start of the fintech services boom in Africa, Oliver Blantern got an opportunity to work in the continent offering advisory services to high-growth startups. For slightly over three years his company, Riverhouse Technology, helped the emerging tech firms in talent sourcing and acquisition. The trained lawyer did all this […]
TrueNorth has raised $50 million from Sam Altman and others to empower independent truckers
Jin Stedge studied aerospace engineering at MIT, but after she found herself at Scotty Labs, an SRI International spin-out focused on autonomous driving, she says she came to appreciate how far away the tech is from large-scale adoption. Indeed, when Scotty was acquired by DoorDash in the summer of 2019, she teamed up with Sanjaya […]
Lydia grabs another $100 million for its European financial super app
Just a few weeks after announcing stock and crypto trading, French fintech startup Lydia is announcing that it has raised a $100 million Series C round. With this funding round, the startup has reached a unicorn valuation, which means that it is currently valued at more than $1 billion. Dragoneer and Echo Street are investing […]
Indonesian fintech Flip secures $48M in Series B to support expansion
Flip, an Indonesia-based fintech startup, announced today it has raised $48 million in a Series B to accelerate its growth. The funding brings Flip’s total capital raised to $65million. Sequoia Capital India, Insight Partners and Insignia Ventures Partners co-led the Series B round. Flip is Insight Partners’ first investment in Indonesia. The startup plans to […]
Better.com CEO Vishal Garg apologizes to current employees for ‘blundering’ of mass layoffs; SPAC delayed
Better.com CEO Vishal Garg apparently realizes he’s done wrong. (As if the barrage of negative publicity wasn’t enough evidence of that.) Today, a letter to current employees was leaked on Blind by a verified Better employee. In the letter, Garg apologized for the way he (mis)handled the layoff news last week, writing: “I failed to show […]
Daily Crunch: Digital infrastructure giant Equinix buys Nigeria-based MainOne for $320M
Hello friends and welcome to Daily Crunch, bringing you the most important startup, tech and venture capital news in a single package.
TechCrunch+ roundup: Credit Karma post-exit, recruiting developers, re:Invent recap
The very day in Feb. 2020 that Credit Karma planned to announce that it had been acquired by Intuit for over $7 billion, the stock market tanked, spooked by news that a virus could start a pandemic.
Better.com’s PR, comms, marketing heads submit resignations in wake of layoffs fiasco
Better.com continues to find new ways to make itself look bad. This week, sources familiar with internal happenings within the company told TechCrunch the company’s VP of communications, Patrick Lenihan; head of public relations, Tanya Gillogley; and head of marketing, Melanie Hahn, have all submitted their resignations. Insider also reported the news earlier today. The […]
USAID should let for-profit companies help it build a better world
If USAID’s NPI expands to work with tech companies, they can provide USAID with existing tools and solutions. Opening up NPI to for-profit businesses is the first step in doing so.
Max Q: Rocket Lab unveils Neutron, plus more private space station news
Hello and welcome back to Max Q! There was a TON of space news this week so I won’t ramble too much, other than to remind you that many of the people mentioned below will be at TC Sessions: Space on the 14th and 15th! That includes Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab, Nanoracks’ Jeffrey Manber, and […]