Bring your own environment: The future of work

A few years from now, the organizations that succeed will be the ones that resisted the urge to race everyone back to the office and instead rethought how their workforce operates.
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Growth roundup: Investing in community, targeting developers, new marketer recs

“The best thing a startup can do, and I’m seeing it happen more and more, is investing in community early on,” growth marketing expert Max van den Ingh of Unmuted tells us. “When I was leading growth at MisterGreen, we created a community for the first thousand Tesla Model 3 owners in the Netherlands. Everyone […]
https://tcrn.ch/3yjtxcQ

Yat thinks emoji ‘identities’ can be a thing, and it has $20M in sales to back it up

I learned about Yat in April, when a friend sent our group chat a link to a story about how the key emoji sold as an “internet identity” for $425,000. “I hate the universe,” she texted. Sure, the universe would be better if people with a spare $425,000 spent it on mutual aid or something, […]
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Gillmor Gang: Social climbing

Fear is back with the deadly combination of pandemic politics and a vicious variant. The good news is that if enough people took the shots we could cut the damage to something manageable. The other good news is progress on the twin issues of Trump and social media. In both cases some semblance of balanced […]
https://tcrn.ch/3rQupTZ

Horizon Blockchain Games raises $4.5M for its NFT trading card game and wallet

Horizon Blockchain Games is — as the name implies — a company building games on the blockchain, along with tools to help others do the same. The company announced today that it has raised another $4.5 million, bringing its total raised to a little over $13 million. Horizon’s first game is Skyweaver, a competitive digital […]
https://tcrn.ch/3i8Tl5Y

Biofourmis receives FDA breakthrough device designation for heart failure “digital therapy”

Kuldeep Singh Rajput, the founder of Boston-based Biofourmis, is imagining a future where heart failure patients go home with a prescription, a wearable sensor and an app. Today, a new FDA designation gets the company one step closer to that goal.  Founded in 2015, Biofourmis is a digital therapeutics company that develops software to “augment” […]
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Amazon’s Fire TV Cube now supports Zoom calls on your TV

Late last year, Amazon launched support for two-way calling that worked with its Fire TV Cube devices. The feature allowed consumers to make and receive calls from their connected TV to any other Alexa device with a screen. Today, the company is expanding this system to enable support for two-way calling with Zoom. Starting today, […]
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INKR draws in $3.1M to make more comics accessible to worldwide audiences

INKR is a digital comics platform that crosses cultural and language divides, enabling creators to reach global audiences with its proprietary localization technology. Previously bootstrapped, the company announced today that it has raised $3.1 million in pre-Series A funding led by Monk’s Hill Ventures, with participation from manga distributor TokyoPop founder and chief executive Stu […]
https://tcrn.ch/3zHWzTK

Personalized menopause platform Vira Health raises £1.5M from LocalGlobe, MMC Ventures

A new trend is emerging in the world of startups and, to many, it couldn’t have come too soon. Why are there so few women in senior roles? Women going through menopause are commonly known to drop out of leadership roles, for instance. In the UK, menopause is responsible for about 14 million lost working […]
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Shopify’s Q2 results beat estimates as e-commerce shines

Like Microsoft and Apple in the wake of their after-hours earnings reports, Shopify shares are having a muted reaction to the better-than-expected results.
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Shikho, an edtech startup focused on Bangladesh’s students, gets $1.3M seed

In Bangladesh, students often rely on after school learning centers for study help or test preparation, but many of the best ones are concentrated in major cities. Edtech startup Shikho was created to make supplementary education more accessible and affordable. The company announced today it has closed a $1.3 million seed round co-led by returning […]
https://tcrn.ch/3iUvENN

Greywing launches Crew Change to help shipping companies navigate COVID-19 regulations

For fleet managers, managing shipping crew changes across different countries is an elaborate process even in the best of times—and now is definitely not the best of times. Greywing, a Y Combinator-backed platform for automating maritime operations, launched a new solution today that it describes as an industry-first. Called Crew Change, it is used to […]
https://tcrn.ch/3l3ZMZP

Apple News partners with NBCUniversal to share exclusive Olympics content

Apple News on Monday announced a collaboration with NBCUniversal to develop exclusive daily recaps and audio briefings, event schedules and medal counts to help fans keep tabs on the games.
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Peppy, a B2B health platform for menopause, fertility, raises $10M Series A led by Felix Capital

When it comes to health issues like menopause, fertility, pregnancy, and even early parenthood, the data tells us that people typically turn to search engines and social media for advice to ask about symptoms or concerns they have. They tend not to go to a medical practitioner, in the first instance. The suggestion, therefore, is […]
https://tcrn.ch/3zE6JVr

ActiveFence comes out of the shadows with $100M in funding and tech that detects online harm, now valued at $500M+

Online abuse, disinformation, fraud and other malicious content is growing and getting more complex to track. Today, a startup called ActiveFence, which has quietly built a tech platform to suss out threats as they are being formed and planned, to make it easier for trust and safety teams to combat them on platforms, is coming […]
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The Station: Rivian adds to its EV war chest, Sec. Buttigieg is coming to Disrupt, Argo preps to launch with Lyft

The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. 
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One of Nigeria’s high profile angel investors is launching a fund for African startups

Olumide Soyombo is one of the well-known active angel investors in Nigeria tech startups and Africa at large. Since he began angel investing in 2014, Soyombo has invested in 33 startups, including Stripe-owned Paystack, PiggyVest, and TeamApt. Today, the investor is announcing the launch of Voltron Capital, a Pan-African venture capital firm he co-founded with […]
https://tcrn.ch/2UH0nWQ

Sproutl is an online marketplace for gardeners founded by former Farfetch executives

Meet Sproutl, a marketplace for gardeners living in the U.K. The startup founded by former Farfetch executives has raised a $9 million seed round. It wants to make gardening more accessible by providing a curated list of items, relevant advice as well as inspiration. Index Ventures is leading the round in the startup with Ada […]
https://tcrn.ch/3zyzq6k

Data-driven iteration helped China’s Genki Forest become a $6B beverage giant in 5 years

The bottled beverage industry wasn’t what Genki Forest’s founder, Binsen Tang, initially set out to tackle. The company aims to reach $1.2 billion this year.
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Sequoia’s Mike Vernal outlines how to design feedback loops in the search for product-market fit

"Finding product-market fit is not a deterministic process. Most of the time, it requires iteration. It requires constant adaptation."
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Rivian raises another $2.5B, pushing its EV war chest up to $10.5B

Rivian announced Friday that it has closed a $2.5 billion private funding round led by Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, D1 Capital Partners, Ford Motor and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. Third Point, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Dragoneer Investment Group and Coatue also participated in the round, according to Rivian. […]
https://tcrn.ch/3BC3I9V

Apple Music brings its spatial audio and lossless streaming to Android

It takes a really specific consumer to buy an Android phone, yet use Apple Music. But the small overlap in that Venn diagram may be getting bigger. Last month at WWDC, Apple unveiled a free update for Apple Music subscribers that added lossless audio streaming and spatial audio with support for Dolby Atmos. Now, Android […]
https://tcrn.ch/3hYHAir

Alphabet’s Intrinsic aims to make industrial robots more capable

Alphabet’s public-facing history with robotics has, thus far, been a spotty one. Most notably, Google X’s big acquisition push culminated in its selling Boston Dynamics to SoftBank (who eventually flipped it to Hyundai). Alphabet/Google’s subsequent approach has been less flashy and focused on more immediate robotic tasks. Unveiled today through the X blog, Intrinsic certainly […]
https://tcrn.ch/2V60fjs

VOCHI raises additional $2.4 million for its computer vision-powered video editing app

VOCHI, a Belarus-based startup behind a clever computer vision-based video editing app used by online creators, has raised an additional $2.4 million in a “late-seed” round that follows the company’s initial $1.5 million round led by Ukraine-based Genesis Investments last year. The new funds follow a period of significant growth for the mobile tool, which […]
https://tcrn.ch/3iB59wY

Check out the all-star speakers joining us on Extra Crunch Live in August

Extra Crunch Live has taught us a lot. From how Retail Zipline’s Series A pitch deck ticked every box for Emergence Capital to how Coda perfected the growth fly wheel, much to the delight of Madrona’s S. Somasegar to Toast’s ongoing obsession with its customers, and why its investors are obsessed with Toast. And that’s […]
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India considering phased roll out of central bank digital currency

India’s central bank is considering launching a digital currency, according to a top executive, giving a clear indication of its intentions for the first time after previously stating that it was studying the idea. T Rabi Sankar, the deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India, said at a conference today that the central bank is […]
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Elon Musk says Tesla will ‘most likely’ accept bitcoin again when it becomes more eco-friendly

Tesla will ‘most likely’ resume accepting bitcoin as a form of payment once the mining rate for the cryptocurrency reaches 50% renewables, CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday at a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Crypto Council for Innovation, remarks that are in line with statements he made last month on Twitter. Tesla started accepting […]
https://tcrn.ch/36WkkeF

Group discounts let you take the whole team to TC Sessions: SaaS 2021

If you want to get the most value out of attending TC Sessions: SaaS 2021, a day-long deep dive into the rapidly changing and expanding world of software as a service, don’t go it alone — take your team. It’s a smart way to cover more ground on October 27, make more connections and increase […]
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Outplay gets $7.3M from Sequoia Capital India to help outbound sales team scale their campaigns

Outbound sales managers typically rely on high volumes of inquiries to find customers, but this means that their revenue is often in proportion to the size of their team. Outplay helps them scale more easily with tools that automate campaigns, identifies the likeliest prospects and uses data to decide the right time to send pitches. […]
https://tcrn.ch/3BuP6cm

Brokrete wants to be the ‘Shopify of construction’, raises $3M seed led by Xploration Capital

With the pandemic affecting every aspect of life and industry, it’s no surprise that digitization is coming to construction fast. Construction suppliers are increasingly under the same pressure as other sectors to perform at a higher level. We’ve seen the rise of companies like Dozer, Reno Run and Toolbox try to address this, but often […]
https://tcrn.ch/2V2VrLG

Biden taps Google critic to lead the DOJ’s antitrust division

The Biden administration tripled down on its commitment to reining in powerful tech companies Tuesday, proposing committed Big Tech critic Jonathan Kanter to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division. Kanter is a lawyer with a long track record of representing smaller companies like Yelp in antitrust cases against Google. He currently practices law at his […]
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ChargePoint to buy European charging software startup for $295M

ChargePoint struck a deal to buy European charging software company has·to·be for €250 million ($295 million) in cash and stock, the electric vehicle charging network’s first acquisition since it became a publicly traded company. Through the deal, ChargePoint gains more than just 125 employees and the company’s operating software, which manages more than 40,000 networked […]
https://tcrn.ch/36TAncU

Founders: How well do you really understand seed-stage financing?

Tactically, fundraising is a skill like any other. You get better the more you do it. But practicing gets you nowhere if you don't have a strong foundation in understanding fundraising components.
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Watch Blue Origin launch Jeff Bezos to space live, along with the youngest and oldest astronauts ever

Blue Origin is set to launch its fully reusable New Shepard spacecraft with humans on board for the first time on Tuesday, and it’s sending Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos up along with his brother and two record-setting astronauts. The launch livestream above is scheduled for 6:30 a.m. CDT (7:30 a.m. EDT/4:30 a.m. PDT), […]
https://tcrn.ch/3riRnD2

LeagueApps raises $15M to be the ‘operating system’ for youth sports organizations

Youth sports are an integral part of our communities, bringing families together and helping kids all over gain confidence and skills. Most of us don’t think about all the work that goes into setting up, growing and maintaining these leagues. It’s a lot. Today, LeagueApps, which aims to be the operating system for youth sports […]
https://tcrn.ch/3wTa7dr

Zoom buys cloud call center firm Five9 for $14.7 billion

Zoom is taking advantage of the impressive rise in its stock price in the past year to make its first major acquisition. The popular video conferencing firm, which was valued at about $9 billion at its IPO two years ago, said Sunday evening it has agreed a deal to buy cloud call centre service provider […]
https://tcrn.ch/3xRbCtR

Kamereo gets $4.6M to connect farmers and F&B businesses in Vietnam

While working as the chief operating officer of a pizza chain in Vietnam, Taku Tanaka saw how difficult it is for restaurants to connect with farmers. Many small F&B businesses can’t buy in large volumes, so they rely on nearby markets or multiple suppliers who only sell one category. In turn, this means farmers are […]
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The end of open source?

Though exploit development and disclosure is often messy, running technically complex "red team" programs against the world's biggest and most important open-source project feels a little extra.
https://tcrn.ch/3kxC2Nl

All eyes are on India’s brightest Zomato

Relevance is often tied to rarity. As a result, the first anything — whether a birthday, scientific feat or female vice president — comes with its own weight. Whether that pressure is warranted is a discussion in and of itself, but today, we’ll focus on the ripple effects of India’s first unicorn IPO: Zomato. Food […]
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How F1 got the data crunched for its new race car

Welcome back to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter for your weekend enjoyment.
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Growth marketing roundup: SEO for 2021, pitch tactics, reviews and more

Google favors large sites more than ever, basically because it is trying to avoid providing misinformation in our polarized age. But sometimes the small sites have key new information — like the content that your startup is trying to share with the world. How can you stand out in the right search results, as algorithms continue […]
https://tcrn.ch/3wLmAzT

Rivian delays deliveries of R1T, R1S electric vehicles again

Rivian is pushing back deliveries of its long-awaited R1T electric pickup truck and R1S SUV several more months due to delays in production caused by “cascading impacts of the pandemic,” particularly the ongoing global shortage of semiconductor chips, according to a letter sent to customers from CEO RJ Scaringe. The R1T deliveries will begin in […]
https://tcrn.ch/36KDx2R

Nym gets $6M for its anonymous overlay mixnet to sell privacy as a service

Switzerland-based privacy startup Nym Technologies has raised $6 million, which is being loosely pegged as a Series A round. Earlier raises included a $2.5M seed round in 2019. The founders also took in grant money from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research fund during an earlier R&D phase developing the network tech. The latest funding […]
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How we got 75% more e-commerce orders in a single A/B test for this major brand

Before we discuss the changes that produced the lift, it is important to quickly go over the research that informed those changes.
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Revolut’s 2020 financial performance explains its big new $33B valuation

It's not super stupid to value Revolut far more richly with massively improved gross margins, profitability and more proven revenue growth.
https://tcrn.ch/2Tc0ZCQ

Butlr Technologies, developing anonymous people sensors, inks $7.9M seed round

New funding boosts Butlr's ability to apply real-time people-sensing technology beyond real estate and retail uses to monitor falls and other movements for active seniors who are aging in place.
https://tcrn.ch/3B83ZRO

Singapore-based Tinvio raises $12M Series A to build financial services for supply chain merchants

First created to give supply chain merchants a streamlined way to communicate with buyers, Tinvio is now preparing to launch financial services, including financing and credit card issuing. The Singapore-based startup announced today it has raised a $12 million Series A to build out its B2B transactions platform. The round was led by AppWorks Ventures, […]
https://tcrn.ch/3igPxi1

Events platform Bevy acquires Egypt’s Eventtus to scale its offering for enterprises

It’s been fascinating to watch the development of Eventtus, a startup I came across many years ago in my travels in the Middle East, finding them at the Rise-Up Summit in Cairo in 2012. Then, it was two young women who’d taken the Silicon Valley startup culture to heart and created their own take on […]
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Gourmey is a cell-based poultry startup working on lab-grown foie gras

Meet Gourmey, a new French startup that recently raised a $10 million founding round in equity and debt. The startup is working on meat grown in laboratories from animal cells. In particular, the company is focusing on poultry and aims to convince chefs that they should use the company’s products in their restaurants. “We’ve been […]
https://tcrn.ch/3B0RhEm

Apple is reportedly working on a pay later feature for Apple Pay

If you’ve done any online shopping in the last little while, there’s a good chance you’ve run into services like Affirm and PayPal’s Pay in 4. They allow you to purchase something and pay for it later by splitting up the total cost of the item into several installments.
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