Startups

In a bid to expand its classical music offering, Apple today announced that it has acquired Primephonic. The Amsterdam-based service, which launched in 2014, will bring a laser focus on a music genre that's been sorely lacking in Apple Music’s generalized approach to streaming. The servic

The venture world is — quite literally — waking up to the potential of applying artificial intelligence to a wider variety of real-world, consumer-driven problems, and today comes the latest development on that front: Eight Sleep, which makes “smart” mattresses and mattress

Ideanomics, a fintech and electric mobility firm based in New York, has added to its list of acquisitions: commercial electric vehicle manufacturer Via Motors (in an all-stock deal valued at $450 million). Ideanomics has been aggressively purchasing mobility businesses this year, as it seeks to bui

Petlove&Co, a São Paulo-based digital platform for products and services for the pet market, announced today that it has raised about $150 million (R$750 million) in a funding round led by Riverwood Capital. The round is nearly double that of what Petlove has raised in its history. The company

Alpaca said this morning that it has closed a massive $50 million Series B round of capital. technewss previously covered the company’s late-2019 $6 million seed round and its late-2020 $10 million Series A. Alpaca offers equities trading software via API. The company initially allowed firm

Most founders fall into an extremely common trap: Just because you produced outstanding results for the last round of investors doesn’t mean new investors will believe you. This new cohort hasn't seen that performance firsthand, and they have no reason to trust you yet. As a founder appro

The design space has undergone major changes in the last decade. What once was dominated by a single player in Adobe has now become a burgeoning software landscape, with a handful of major players answering the needs of designers across every industry. One such player is Canva, the startup valued a

With so much startup activity in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) space it can be a challenge for businesses to figure out which of these SaaS (SaaSes?) are actually useful and worth continuing to shell out for. Well, Cologne-based startup Sastrify is here to help — offering what it describes

technewss Disrupt 2021 takes place September 21-23, and we're here to call out just some of the awesome content we have scheduled over three very busy days. The Disrupt agenda so far features more than 80 interviews, panel discussions, events and breakout sessions that span the startup tech sp

Embedded fintech company Zeal secured $13 million in Series A funding to continue developing its platform for building individualized payroll products. Spark Capital led the Series A, with participation from Commerce Ventures and a group of individual investors, including Marqeta CEO Jason Gardner

When it comes to contactless, automated supermarket shopping, Imagr is backing a vision-based approach. But unlike Amazon Go stores, which use cameras and sensors to monitor the shopper as they walk in and out without scanning or paying at checkout, this New Zealand-based company thinks the only im

":flx" tabindex="1" role="textbox" contenteditable="true" spellcheck="false" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true"> Global investment firm KKR has plans to acquire a New Zealand bus and coach company with an 86-year heritage, Ritchies Transport. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, bu

A new startup called Popcorn wants to make work communication more fun and personal by offering a way for users to record short video messages, or “pops,” that can be used for any number of purposes in place of longer emails, texts, Slack messages or Zoom calls. While there are plenty o

The Y Combinator application season is upon us. I have been through YC a couple of times and have reviewed thousands of applications as a volunteer in later years. Typically, you hear advice focused on ways to improve your YC application so it gets accepted. Here are some tips on what not to do and