Suma Brands raises $150M to acquire more third-party brands for its Amazon roll-up play

Amazon has become a lynchpin in the e-commerce machine over the years in part because it’s a site we consumers can visit to buy just about anything we want — sold either by Amazon or its 5 million+ third-party merchants — and easily get it delivered to our homes. But the system is

Humanity launches ‘slow your aging’ app in the UK and raises $2.5M more from health investors

More than one smartphone app startup has tried to convince you that by using their app you will miraculously stave off the ravages of age and flab. All I need to do is flip open my phone and reel off a few: Gyroscope, MyFitnessPal, Welltory, ActivityTracker, SleepCycle. The list goes on. You name i

Autonomous cargo drone startup Elroy Air lands $40M Series A

Elroy Air has raised a $40 million Series A, including financing from Lockheed Martin's venture capital arm, to ramp up the building, testing and validation of its inaugural autonomous cargo drone. The funding round saw participation from Marlinspike Capital and Prosperity7, as well as existing

Dubai-based buy now, pay later platform tabby raises $50M at $300M valuation

These past few years have seen the emergence of buy now, pay later services worldwide, with leading players raising buttloads of cash to serve an insatiable young adult population who don’t fancy credit cards or paying interest. In what seems to be a consolidation of some sorts, fintech jugge

Vietnamese on-demand e-commerce platform Loship raises $12M at a valuation of $100M

Loship, the Vietnamese on-demand e-commerce platform that started as a reviews app, announced today it has raised $12 million in pre-Series C funding, bringing its valuation to $100 million. The round was co-led by BAce Capital, an Ant Group-backed venture firm, and the direct investment unit of Su

Brazilian digital auto marketplace InstaCarro revs up with $23M in funding

InstaCarro, a digital marketplace that connects used car sellers to dealers in Brazil, has raised $23 million in a Series B round of funding. Notably, U.S.-based firms co-led the investment, including J Ventures, FJ Labs and Rise Capital. Spain's All Iron Ventures and Big Sur also participated

Demand Curve: Tested tactics for growing newsletters

There are very few marketing channels as well rounded as email newsletters. They provide a direct, owned line of communication with your audience; nearly 40x return on investment (~$40 generated per every dollar spent), are infinitely scalable and virtually free. But to unlock these benefits, you&#

FandangoNOW and Vudu merge into a new streaming service with titles to rent, buy or stream free

Last year, movie ticketing and discovery business Fandango, a division of NBCUniversal, bought the on-demand video streaming service Vudu from Walmart, after the retailer had failed to capitalize on the service it had first acquired in 2010 for $100 million. Today, Fandango is taking the next steps

Edtech startup bina raises $1.4M to teach 4- to 12-year-olds, launch School-as-a-Service

With the pandemic wreaking havoc amongst early years education amid school lockdowns, it's no wonder edtech startups have piled into the space. But it has also served to highlight the abysmal nature of early years teaching: Some 40 million teachers across the globe are leaving the sector, accor

CELA Innovation holds a master class on Lean Startup Methodology for the Startup Alley+ cohort

Startup Alley is the place to be at technewss Disrupt 2021 on September 21-23. The sold-out expo area is the virtual home to hundreds of innovative startups ready to demo their tech and talent. While exhibiting offers plenty of opportunity for all, a VIP experience kicked off in July for 50 startu

Rani Therapeutics' $73M IPO will fund upcoming clinical trials

Rani Therapeutics, a San Jose-based company developing a pill to replace medical injections, went public on Friday.  According to S-1 filings, shares were estimated to price between $14 and $16 last week. On Friday, shares debuted slightly lower, around $11. Rani raised about $73 million in its de

Why Draper Esprit doubled down on its status as a publicly listed VC

We cover a lot of venture capital news here at technewss. New funds, partner changes, the funding rounds themselves — the list is long. Lately, we’ve had to touch on rolling funds, solo GPs and a faster-than-ever investing cadence that has rewritten the rules of venture investing. Gone

Moderne Ventures closes second fund with $200M, targets industry digital transformation

Since 2015, Constance Freedman, founder and managing partner of Moderne Ventures, and partner Liza Benson have built up a network of more than 700 executives across the real estate, finance, insurance and home services industries. Today, their early-stage venture capital firm buttoned up an oversub

Kenya’s Wapi Pay raises $2.2M pre-seed for cross-border payments between Africa and Asia

According to the World Bank, it is more expensive to send money to sub-Saharan Africa than to any region in the world. It is also the most expensive region to send money from. In Q1 2020, people spent an average of 8.9% to send money to the region, much higher than the global average of 6.8%. There