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
Dec 21, 2018 • 4min
Teeth aligner startup Candid opens up physical locations in SF
Candid, a teeth aligner startup that aims to make straight teeth more accessible and more affordable than Invisalign, is evolving its direct-to-consumer business. In addition to its at-home impression process, Candid recently started enabling people to come into a physical office to get their teeth scans completed. Today, Candid is opening physical storefronts in San Francisco, Austin, Columbus, Ohio and Santa Monica, Calif. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 21, 2018 • 4min
Earnin raises $125M to help workers track and cash out wages in real time
BeforeRam Palaniappan founded Earnin, he developed a system for employees at a payments company called UniRush, where he spent eight years as president. If you needed money before payday, he would write you a check from his checking account and when payday rolled around, employees would reimburse him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 20, 2018 • 5min
Square Roots is bringing more transparency to its produce
If you’re concerned about what you eat, there’s a good chance you’ve looked at the food in the supermarket, or in your fridge, and wondered where it actually comes from. Now urban farming incubator Square Roots is introducing a new way for you to check full history of the produce that you’re about to purchase. To do so, you just scan the QR code or type in the lot number that the company says will be included in the packaging of all its produce moving forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 20, 2018 • 3min
Coinbase’s Earn.com becomes a crypto webinar with crypto rewards
Coinbase acquired Earn.com for at least $120 million back in April. And the company now plans to transform Earn.com into Coinbase Earn, a website with educational content to learn more about cryptocurrencies. Users who complete those classes will earn tokens. Coinbase bought Earn.com partly so that it could appoint Earn.com co-founder and CEO Balaji Srinivasan as Coinbase’s CTO. The previous iteration of Earn.com wasn’t a priority for Coinbase. Earn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 19, 2018 • 5min
The Wing gets $75M from Sequoia, Airbnb
The Wing, the owner of several co-working spaces and social clubs designed for women, has garnered the support of Sequoia Capital in its latest funding round. The startup has announced a $75 million Series C led by the storied venture capital firm, with support from Airbnb and Upfront Ventures, as well as existing investors NEA and WeWork. Headquartered in New York, The Wing was founded by Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan in 2015. To date, the pair have raised $117. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 19, 2018 • 7min
At cobotics startup Formant, ex-Googlers team up humans & machines
Our distinct skillsets and shortcomings mean people and robots will join forces for the next few decades. Robots are tireless, efficient, and reliable, but in a millisecond through intuition and situational awareness, humans can make decisions machine can’t.Until workplace robots are truly autonomous and don’t require any human thinking, we’ll need software to supervise them at scale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 18, 2018 • 3min
Lightspeed is raising its largest China fund yet
Lightspeed China Partners, the China-focused affiliate of Silicon Valley-based Lightspeed Venture Partners, has set a $360 million target for its fourth flagship venture fund, according to a document filed with theU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today. If the target is reached, the fund will be Lightspeed China’s largest yet, perPitchBook. Lightspeed China’s previous two funds each closed on $260 million. The VC raised $168 million for its debut fund in 2013. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 18, 2018 • 6min
But not a broken man
I’ve been living for the past few years in a limbo between journalist and entrepreneur, trying to build startups the way I saw them being built on stage at Disrupt and discovering that my skill and will to win are no match against the world. That’s fine. These days I’ll take it. But for a few minutes in Chicago last May, I couldn’t. That day was normal for me. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 17, 2018 • 3min
Propel raises $12.8M for its free app to manage government benefits
Propel, maker of the Fresh EBT app for managing food stamps and other benefits, announced today that it has raised $12.8 million in Series A funding. Fresh EBT (the EBT stands for the Electronics Transfer Benefit card, which is how food stamp participants receive their benefits) allows users to check their food stamp/SNAP balance and find stores that accept food stamps. Users can also track their spending. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 17, 2018 • 9min
Robinhood said to not be properly insured to offer checking & savings
Robinhood’s new high-interest, zero-fee checking and savings featureseems to be too good to be true. Users’ money may not be fully protected. The CEO of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, a non-profit membership corporation that insures stock brokerages, tells TechCrunch its insurance would not apply to checking and savings accounts the way Robinhood claims. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
