The life of a tech journalist can be soul-sapping. I talk to so many founders — capable, smart, well-connected, experienced founders — who are working on problems that genuinely just don’t matter. They might have successfully raised money. Perhaps they even rounded up a team of smart people like them. They are solving problems that […]
Kayak co-leads Life House’s $60M Series C to ‘reimagine’ the hotel experience
Life House, a boutique hotel operator that has built software aimed at helping independent hotel owners and operators, has raised $60 million in a Series C round of funding co-led by new investors Kayak and Inovia Capital. Existing backers Tiger Global, Derive Ventures, Thayer Ventures, JLL, Trinity Ventures, Sound Ventures and Cooley LLP, among others, […]
Toronto-based VFX startup MARZ raises $5.3M to develop AI technology solutions
Technology and visual effects startup Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ) has raised $5.3 million in Series A funding. The investment was led by Round13 Captial with participation from Rhino Ventures and Harlo Equity Partners. MARZ plans to use the funding to grow its core VFX business and accelerate the development of its ‘AI for VFX’ […]
Francophone African super app Gozem grabs $5M to expand and offer more services
Gozem, a super app that provides a host of services — including transport, e-commerce and financial services in Francophone Africa — has raised $5 million in Series A financing, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The Togo- and Singapore-based company received investment from AAIC, Thunes (TransferTo), Momentum Ventures (SMRT), Innoport Ventures (Schulte Group), CMC Ventures (National […]
Daily Crunch: Spotify packs its 2021 year-end recap with new sharing, social features
Hello friends and welcome to Daily Crunch, bringing you the most important startup, tech and venture capital news in a single package.
Ahead of public market debut, Better.com lays off 9% of its staff
One day after announcing an amendment to its SPAC agreement, digital mortgage lender Better.com confirmed today that it is laying off roughly 9% of its nearly 10,000 person staff. Doing the math, that amounts to about 900 people. The company declined to comment beyond the following written statement from CFO Kevin Ryan: “A fortress balance […]
South African talent marketplace OfferZen gets $5.2M to deepen European expansion
South African tech talent marketplace OfferZen is one of the beneficiaries of the growing global demand for tech workers: It confirmed to TechCrunch that it has raised €4.5 million ($5.07 million) in Series A funding from South African investment company Base Capital. This is OfferZen’s first round of funding since Philip Joubert, Malan Joubert and Brett […]
Jobandtalent raises $500M Series E to keep scaling its ‘workforce as a service’ marketplace
Spain’s Jobandtalent, a “workforce marketplace”-cum-digital temping agency which uses AI to match workers to casual labor gigs in sectors like warehousing, ecommerce and logistics, has closed a $500 million Series E round of funding led by Kinnevik and with what it bills as a “significant” follow on by SoftBank VisionFund 2. Existing investors including Atomico, […]
Sydney-based medtech startup Harrison.ai gets $129M AUD led by Horizons Ventures
Harrison.ai, a Sydney-based company that creates medical devices with AI technology, announced today it has raised $129 million AUD (about $92.3 million USD) in what it says is one of the largest Series B rounds ever for an Australian startup. The funding was led by returning investor Horizons Ventures, and included participation from new investors […]
Better.com gets $750M cash infusion in new agreement with its SPAC backers
Digital mortgage lender Better.com, which announced in May that it was going public via a SPAC, is getting a cash infusion from its backers sooner than expected. Blank-check company Aurora Acquisition Corp. and SoftBank have decided to amend the terms of their financing agreement to provide Better with half of the $1.5 billion they committed […]