TechCrunch Startup News
TechCrunch
Listen to select TechCrunch articles on startups coverage—who's raising, who's exiting, who's changing the world.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jan 29, 2020 • 6min
Teller raises $4M to take on Plaid in the U.S. by providing API access to bank accounts
Teller raises $4M to take on Plaid in the U.S. by providing API access to bank accounts “They’re idiots, they’re really naive,” is how Stevie Graham, the co-founder of fintech Teller, once described Open Banking Limited, the body charged with delivering open banking in the U.K. His view back in 2017 — which now looks somewhat prophetic — was that open banking wouldn’t be the competition driver it was hyped up to be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jan 29, 2020 • 5min
Cooks Venture raises $4 million from Golden West Food Group to ramp up distribution
Cooks Venture, the agtech company looking to revolutionize the chicken industry, has today announced the close of a $4 million funding round led by Golden West Food Group. Cooks Venture has been working in stealth for many years, but launched onto the scene in 2018 with a plan to reshape agriculture from the ground up. And the key to that strategy? Chickens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jan 28, 2020 • 3min
N26 reaches 5 million customers including 250,000 in the US
Challenger bank N26 has reached 5 million customers. In 2019 alone, N26 managed to add over 2.5 million customers. And the company’s growth rate seems to be accelerating as N26 reached 3.5 million customers in June 2019. That represents an addition of 1 million customers during the first half of 2019 and an addition of 1.5 million customers during the second half of 2019. One reason why N26 is growing at a faster pace is that the company is still expanding to new market. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jan 28, 2020 • 3min
Bird confirms acquisition of Berlin scooter competitor Circ
If you didn’t see this coming, then clearly you didn’t have your eyes on the road. Bird, the LA-founded e-scooter giant, has confirmed that it is acquiring European competitor Circ, the micromobilty company founded by Lukasz Gadowski of Delivery Hero fame. The deal, for which terms remain undisclosed, was first reported by the FT late last week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jan 27, 2020 • 4min
Memphis Meats raised $161 million from SoftBank Group, Norwest and Temasek
Memphis Meats, a developer of technologies to manufacture meat, seafood and poultry from animal cells, has raised $161 million in financing from investors including Softbank Group, Norwest and Temasek, the investment fund backed by the government of Singapore. The investment brings the company’s total financing to $180 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jan 24, 2020 • 4min
Layoffs reach 23andMe after hitting Mozilla and the Vision Fund portfolio
Layoffs in the technology and venture-backed worlds continued today, as 23andMe confirmed to CNBC that it laid off around 100 people, or about 14% of its formerly 700-person staff. The cuts would be notable by themselves, but given how many other reductions have recently been announced, they indicate that a rolling round of belt-tightening amongst well-funded private companies continues. Mozilla, for example, cut 70 staffers earlier this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jan 23, 2020 • 5min
Substack builds multi-author support into its hybrid publishing, newsletter service
Substack announced today that it has built support for multiple authors into its service. The company provides a publishing tool that blends blogs and email newsletters into a single entity, with a focus on subscription monetization. The day’s updates also include a number of publisher-friendly tools, like shared access and homepage features closer to those of traditional websites than the linear timeline style that Substack has focused on so far. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jan 22, 2020 • 4min
Corporate relocation startup Shyft raises $15M
Shyft is announcing that it has raised $15 million in Series A funding to make the moving process less painful — specifically in the situations where your employer is paying for the move. There other startups are looking to offer concierge-type services for regular moving — I used a service called Moved last year and liked it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jan 21, 2020 • 9min
Baraja’s unique and ingenious take on lidar shines in a crowded industry
It seems like every company making lidar has a new and clever approach, but Baraja takes the cake. Its method is not only elegant and powerful, but fundamentally avoids many issues that nag other lidar technologies. But it’ll need more than smart tech to make headway in this complex and evolving industry. To understand how lidar works in general, consult my handy introduction to the topic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jan 20, 2020 • 4min
As Alphabet crests the $1T mark, SaaS stocks reach all-time highs of their own
Continuing our irregular surveys of the public markets, two things happened this week that are worth our time. First, a third domestic technology company — Alphabet — passed the $1 trillion market capitalization threshold. And, second, software as a service (SaaS) stocks reached record highs on the public markets after retreating over last summer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
