Insurtech bolttech gets $196M at $1.6B valuation from investors like MetLife
Embedded insurtech is still hot, as the $196 million in funding landed by bolttech proves. The company, which started in Singapore but now has operations around the world, said it is now valued at $1.6 billion. The funding was led by Tokio Marine, Japan's first insurance company. Other particip
Finnish VC firm Lifeline Ventures closes $163M fund for early-stage startups
Venture capital firm Lifeline Ventures today announced a fresh €150 million ($163 million) fund aimed at early-stage startups across Finland.
Founded in 2009, Helsinki-based Lifeline Ventures has invested in around 115 companies to date, with more than a dozen exits to its name including activity
Wefox secures new funding at $4.5 billion valuation as it aims for profitability
Wefox, the German insurtech startup, has closed a new funding round from existing investors. The funding amount isn't going to impress anyone, as the company managed to secure $55 million. This could be considered as an extension of the $400 million Series D round as Wefox managed to maintain t
Singapore's Ora takes a vertically integrated approach to telehealth
According to the founder of Singapore-based telehealth platform Ora, 90% of its patients are less than 39 years old and have not been treated for their conditions offline. That puts the onus on Ora to make sure its patients, mostly millennials who live in cities, have a good experience. Ora wants t
5 ways SaaS companies can level up their product-led growth
Following the valuation collapse of the last 12 months, the phrase “efficient growth” is reverberating around SaaS boardrooms worldwide. Every software leader is seeking to boost revenues, cut costs, and demonstrate a clear path to profitability.
Sitting at the heart of this conversation is pro
Self-driving cars are taking ages to become a reality, but they won’t take forever
The spotlight of hype has lit up many areas since autonomous driving had its own time in the sun, but progress in the technology is chugging along. It’s clear that the dream of not having to drive ourselves around is not dead, given the rising tallies of miles driven by bots, greater commerci
Tangible wants to scale up construction decarbonization
The real estate industry is a bit of a greenhouse gas powerhouse, responsible for 40% of all global emissions. A quarter of that comes from building materials, and Tangible has had enough. The company is building a tool for finding, managing and reporting on lower-carbon, more sustainable, buildin
Without Black representation in climate tech, 'the planet will burn'
Historically, the Black community in the U.S. has been disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change. Relegated for decades to a vulnerable economic and social class, the community is nearly always at risk of facing the brunt of natural disasters, no matter where they occur.
This iss
This European startup is installing 50 traffic-counting sensors across San Francisco
Belgian startup Telraam designed a device that lets anyone point out of a window a camera-like device that uses on-board tech to count the number of road users. It is currently installing a network of 50 or so devices in San Francisco, a project the company says is largely funded by Yelp CEO Jeremy
How to get warm introductions to investors
Okay, so you’ve created a comprehensive list of investors you want to talk to. Now how the hell do you meet them?
A vanishingly small number of investors will look at any pitch — GoAhead ventures is one such firm. For most VCs, though, you’ll need to get your foot in the door to be he
Youth mental health startup Somethings launches with a $3.2M raise led by General Catalyst
Patrick Gilligan's childhood struggle with food began when he was 10 years old. Placed on a caloric-restrictive diet by a doctor, the regime left him feeling ashamed and alone and triggered what would become a more than decade-long eating disorder. “I still look back on all the time that I sp
Success with Rihanna’s music rights helps web3 marketplace raise fresh VC round
Normally in the music industry, it's more or less impossible for ordinary investors to buy music rights. Thus, web3 startups saw an opportunity to tokenize music assets, allowing fans access to music rights in a wholly new fashion.
Of course, this garnered a lot of interest during the crypto bo
Async replaces work calls with asynchronous voice messages
Chances are you don't like wasting time in useless meetings. People often say “this meeting should have been an email.” But what about one-to-one calls? Could they be a series of voice messages and quick text replies?
Meet Async, a new productivity startup based in New York that wan
Hippocratic is building a large language model for healthcare
AI, specifically generative AI, has the potential to transform healthcare.
At least, that’s the sales pitch from Hippocratic AI, which emerged from stealth today with a whopping $50 mlion in seed financing behind it and a valuation in the “triple-digit mlions.” The tranche, co-led