TechCrunch Startup News

After feedback from the investor and founder communities, Y Combinator is making a change to how it does Demo Days in a remote world. The accelerator announced today that it will keep its two-day Demo Day virtual, but instead of offering pre-recorded pitches on-demand, the entire program will be streamed live. In an e-mail, Y […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Low-code is a hot category these days. It helps companies build workflows or simple applications without coding skills, freeing up valuable engineering resources for more important projects. Paragon, a member of the Y Combinator Winter 2020 cohort, announced a $2.5 million seed round today for its low-code application integration platform. Investors include Y Combinator, Village […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ClimaCell, the weather forecasting and intelligence service that is using a number of interesting new techniques to gather weather data, today announced that it has raised a $23 million Series C round co-led by new investor Pitango Growth and existing investor Square Peg Captial. With this new round, the Boston- and TelAviv-based company’s total funding […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The manufacturer of a vegan collagen, Geltor, has raised a new round of financing — $90 million, according to people familiar with the company. It’s another sign of the newfound viability of sustainability and cell-based, vegetarian replacements for animal products. Sustainable bio-products, whether plant-based, genetically modified or cell-cultured, are having a big year. In the […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Berlin -based cargo.one, which runs a marketplace for booking air freight, has closed an $18.6 million Series A round of funding led by Index Ventures. Next47 and prior backers Creandum, Lufthansa Cargo and Point Nine Capital also participated in the round, along with a number of angel investors — including Tom Stafford of DST Global […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fintech startup Revolut just announced that it has raised $80 million as part of its Series D round that it had already announced in February. The new influx of funding comes from TSG Consumer Partners. In February, Revolut raised a $500 million led by TCV at a $5.5 billion valuation. Today’s new funding extends that […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One little-known home and retail automation startup might seem like an unlikely candidate to help combat the ongoing pandemic. But its founder says its technology can do just that, even if it wasn’t the company’s original plan. Butlr, a spin-out of the MIT Media Lab, uses a mix of wireless, battery-powered hardware and artificial intelligence […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As we move deeper into the pandemic, companies are looking for ways to digitize processes that previously required in-person meetings with manual approaches. Investors appear to be rewarding companies who can achieve this. iObeya, a French company that helps digitize management planning processes like lean and agile, announced a $17 million Series A today. Red […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Glimpse is giving Airbnb hosts a way to make extra money while also supplying their accommodations with new products. The startup was founded by CEO Akash Raju, COO Anuj Mehta and CPO Kushal Negi, who all recently graduated from Purdue University. It’s part of the current batch of startups at accelerator Y Combinator — where, […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I assumed most investors were jerks in pitch meetings, but my white colleagues told me the level of disrespect and dismissiveness I received was not typical. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices