Startups

Although he’s coming from a numbers-driven background, growth expert Julian Shapiro focuses on the emotional power of storytelling these days. “I like to think of successful brand-building as creating a company that customers would be upset to separate from their identity,” he say

U.S. consumer investing and trading service Robinhood announced this morning that it will acquire Say Technologies in a $140 million cash deal. Say Technologies is a venture-backed startup, having raised $8 million in 2018, per Crunchbase data. PitchBook data indicates that the company was worth $2

Surfside, a data and marketing platform aimed directly at the cannabis industry, has today announced the close of a $4 million seed round led by Casa Verde. The firm’s managing partner, Karan Wadhera, will join the Surfside board. The startup is relatively new, but helmed by two founders expe

OwnBackup, the late-stage startup that helps companies in the Salesforce ecosystem back up their data, announced a $240 million Series E today at a $3.35 billion valuation. The latter is up from $1.4 billion in January when the company announced a $167.5 million Series D. Alkeon Capital and B Capit

Home-cooked food delivery service WoodSpoon is planning an expansion after raising $14 million in Series A funding. Restaurant Brands International led the round along with World Trade Ventures and a group of individual investors, including Victor Lazarte. New York-based WoodSpoon w

Leafly is turning to a SPAC with Merida Merger Corp. I to go public. The deal, valued at about $532 million and expected to generate proceeds of up to $161.5 million, includes Leafly's recent capital raise of $31.5 million from investors, including Merida Capital Holdings. The company is expect

Working in the world of disability insurance for a decade, Colin Nabity felt not everyone could access this type of insurance due to its nature of it being difficult to understand and underwrite. Disability and critical illness insurance is typically income protection should someone be too sick or

No matter how carefully you set up your systems, sooner or later something fundamental breaks. How you react during those times and how quickly you respond to the crisis is what people remember after it’s over. FireHydrant, a startup that helps companies prepare for and manage such crises, an

Roughly a year ago, Latent AI, a now three-year-old, Menlo Park, California-based startup, pitched a handful of investors during technewss’s Battlefield competition. It didn’t win that contest, but that hasn’t kept it from winning the interest of investors elsewhere. It just clos

With the fourth quarter now upon us, every industry faces a challenge in managing a holiday production calendar that will deliver the goods. The key for startups looking to defend the quarter from disruptions is to adopt a proactive, data-driven approach to inventory management. Here are five metho

Sexual harassment is, unfortunately, always in the news. Of late, it's revelations at gaming giants and governments. Yet despite how prevalent harassment is, companies often adopt an “it can't happen here” stance — until it does, and then there are knee-jerk reactions and crisis c

SpaceX will be acquiring satellite connectivity startup Swarm Technologies, the first such deal for the 19-year-old space company headed by Elon Musk. Swarm operates a constellation of 120 sandwich-sized satellites as well as a ground station network. The deal would transfer control of Swarm's

Canopy Servicing announced this morning it recently closed a $15 million Series A. The startup sells software to fintechs and others, allowing customers to create loan programs and service the resulting products. The company raised a $3.5 million seed round in 2020. Canaan led its Series A, with pa

Friends Alvaro Silberstein and Camilo Navarro came up with the idea for the Wheel the World travel booking site following a 2016 trip to Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Initially, they thought this type of trip would be near impossible with Silberstein in a wheelchair after a car accident