Rhinoceros beetles are one of the greatest threats to oil palm crops, attacking plants while they are young and potentially lowering a farm’s yield for years. They also affect workers’ health, since pesticides need to be sprayed frequently. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Poladrone wants to change the way farms use pesticides with a combination of […]
Learn what happens after you sell your startup at TC Sessions: SaaS on Wednesday
Seems like the goal of every startup is to exit via IPO, and if you can’t do that, by way of acquisition. In many cases, a sale gives a founder the opportunity to pay back investors and reward long-time employees, but what happens after the ink dries on the contract, and the reality of being […]
Kenya cracks down on digital lenders over data privacy issues
Digital lenders that share personal data of loan defaulters, with third parties, risk license withdrawal in Kenya after lawmakers added a clause — granting the banking regulator the mandate to revoke permits of operators who breach customer confidentiality — to the new law passed by the country’s National Assembly. Typically, loan apps collect borrowers’ phone […]
Heart to Heart raises $750K to bring sweet, sweet flirtation to your ear holes
Radio has long been described as the most intimate of media. Quips about putting radio on the internet aside, the persistent popularity of podcasting and the cockamamie climb of Clubhouse shows that audio-based platforms will continue to echo around the upper echelons of the ecosystem for a while yet. Joining the fray is Heart to […]
Fintech’s growing role in the healthcare revolution
Similar to how fintech is scaling vertical SaaS, the pandemic-fueled disaggregation of healthcare has created new players that are taking a page out of the fintech revolution book.
Routine is a new productivity app that combines task management and notes
Meet Routine, a new startup working on a productivity tool that should help you manage your work day more efficiently. It’s a brand new take on to-do lists as it combines both tasks, non-actionable notes and a daily planner. The two co-founders of Routine are Julien Quintard and Quentin Hocquet, two French entrepreneurs who previously […]
Hera is a new calendar app for people with a lot of virtual meetings
Meet Hera, a new calendar app that wants to turn the calendar into the main work interface. Hera helps you schedule meetings more easily with natural language processing and lets you share availabilities in an email or any messaging app. The startup is also going to build integrations with your other work tools so that […]
Wefight answers questions about chronic illness with its virtual assistant
Meet Wefight, a French startup that has developed more than a dozen apps to help people suffering from chronic illness. Using a basic chatbot interface, people can ask questions and get answers about their illness. The startup recently raised a $11.6 million (€10 million) funding round from Digital Health Ventures, Impact Partners, as well as […]
Brazilian insurtech Justos raises $35.8M in Ribbit Capital-led Series A
Justos, a startup that says it will be the first insurance company in Brazil to use data when determining rates, has raised a $35.8 million Series A round of funding led by Ribbit Capital. SoftBank’s Latin American Fund and GGV participated as new investors, in addition to existing backers Kaszek, BigBets, Nubank CEO David Velez […]
TechCrunch+ roundup: Slashing technical debt, IPO analysis, your first comms hire
Early-stage entrepreneurs eager to ship usually spend more time calculating their startup’s burn rate than selecting an optimal development environment. As a result, technical debt can accumulate.