Beyond Meat brought its plant-based “chicken” tenders to restaurants this summer, and soon you’ll be able to enjoy them at home when Beyond starts selling them through retailers.
Signal, the encrypted messaging app, is currently down for many users
Update: In a tweet, Signal said the disruption is due to a hosting outage. Hold tight, folks! Signal is currently down, due to a hosting outage affecting parts of our service. We’re working on bringing it back up. — Signal (@signalapp) September 27, 2021 Signal is down for many users right now. Its status website […]
Thailand’s fintech startup Ascend Money lands $150M at a $1.5B valuation
Ascend Money, the Thailand-based fintech startup behind TrueMoney, an e-wallet service, announced today it has raised a $150 million Series C round at a valuation of $1.5 billion. The Series C round was led by Charoen Pokphand Group, which is a major shareholder of Ascend Money, with participation from Bow Wave Capital Management and returning […]
Oraan raises $3M to increase financial inclusion among Pakistani women
After working as an investment banker in Canada for a decade, Halima Iqbal moved back to Pakistan in 2017 and quickly realized how difficult it is for women to access financial services. “I had a really hard time opening up a basic bank account. It took me about three and a half months,” Iqbal told […]
Aspire raises $158M Series B to build a full-stack “financial operating system” for Southeast Asian businesses
Aspire, the Singapore-based neobank that wants to become an “end-to-end financial operating system” for Southeast Asian businesses, is moving closer to its aspirations with a $158 million Series B. The round consisted of $58 million in equity and $100 million in debt, and was led by an undisclosed global fintech-focused growth equity investor, with participation […]
Singapore-based logistics startup Ninja Van secures $578M Series E
Ninja Van, a Singapore-based logistics startup, has closed a $578 million Series E round to support its operations infrastructure and technology systems growth. Investors include China’s Alibaba Group as well as existing investors DPDgroup’s GeoPost, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Savering’s B Capital Group, Monk’s Hill Ventures, and Zamrud, a sovereign wealth fund controlled by Brunei, based on its […]
China roundup: Meng Wanzhou’s release and Huawei’s future
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world. On Friday, Huawei’s chief financial executive Meng Wanzhou was released from house arrest in Vancouver after reaching a breakthrough deal with the U.S. Justice Department. Chinese […]
Facebook’s wearable glasses can succeed where Google Glass flopped
While Google tried to invent the design of its new glasses — using its imagination about what people wanted — Facebook leveraged a design that already has some certainties around it.
This Week in Apps: PayPal launches ‘super app,’ Twitter adds crypto tips, Apple won’t take Fortnite back
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. […]
When the biggest Disruption is to just sit down and focus
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. And just like that, TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 has come to an end. I’m exhausted, but it’s hard not to feel optimistic for the future after spending three days hearing vulnerable thoughts from […]