Visa takes a swipe in fintech, builds new online marketplace

The relationships between banks and fintechs are multi-faceted. In some cases, they partner. In many cases, they compete. In other cases, one acquires or invests in the other. Well, today, an announcement by global payments giant Visa is aimed at helping facilitate banks and fintec

Indonesian crypto exchange Pintu gets $6M Series A led by Pantera, Intudo and Coinbase Ventures

Along with the stock market, cryptocurrency is also seeing an uptick among retail investors in Indonesia. Pintu, a platform focused on first-time cryptocurrency buyers, announced today it has raised a $6 million Series A, led by Pantera Capital, Intudo Ventures and Coinbase Ventures. Other particip

Matera raises another $43 million to turn residential building management into SaaS

French startup Matera has announced that is has raised a new $43 million (€35 million) Series B funding round led by Mubadala Capital. Bpifrance, Burda Principal Investments as well as existing investors Index Ventures and Samaipata. The company is building a vertical SaaS for residential propert

Tiger Global leads $30 million investment in Indian Twitter rival Koo

Investors are backing Koo, an Indian alternative to Twitter, with large size checks at a time when tension is brewing between the American social network and New Delhi. The Indian startup said on Wednesday it has raised $30 million in a financing round led by Tiger Global Management. Mirae Asset, I

Emotion-detection software startup Affectiva acquired for $73.5M

Smart Eye, the publicly traded Swedish company that supplies driver monitoring systems for a dozen automakers, has acquired emotion-detection software startup Affectiva for $73.5 million in a cash-and-stock deal. Affectiva, which spun out of the MIT Media Lab in 2009, has developed software that ca

Extra Crunch roundup: Lordstown Motors’ woes, how co-CEOs work, Brian Chesky interview

Lordstown Motors released its Q1 earnings yesterday, and the electric vehicle manufacturer is facing a few challenges. Expenses were higher than expected, it plans to slash production by about 50%, and the company reported zero revenue and a net loss of $125 million. Oh, it also needs more capital.

What Vimeo’s growth, profits and value tell us about the online video market

The spinout of video platform Vimeo from IAC completed today, with the smaller company now trading as an independent entity under the ticker symbol VMEO. If you missed the news that the internet conglomerate was spinning out the video service, don’t feel bad; it slipped past many radars. But

Call it a comeback: Turntable.fm raises $7.5M

Earlier this year, Turntable.fm’s founder Billy Chasen dusted off the old site and resurrected it for the pandemic age. I know I wasn't the only one feeling a wistful pang of nostalgia for the service during the long, dull days of sheltering in place. And while March 2020 would have been

Raising a round? AngelList Venture CEO Avlok Kohli will share insights at TC Early Stage

What’s it like raising a round in 2021? How has it changed over the last few months, as some glimmer of normalcy seems, at least, within reach? What do early-stage founders (and investors!) need to know about the current state of the industry? Few are in a better place to outline this than Av

Whatnot raises $50M to let people sell Pokémon cards, Funko Pops and more via livestream

Whatnot exists with one primary goal in mind: to give people a place to buy and sell collectibles (like Pokémon cards, sports cards, pins, etc.) in a safe, authenticated way. The company started out with intentions of being a GOAT/StockX-style resale marketplace, where the products up for sale liv

Airbyte announces $26M Series A for open-source data connector platform

One of the major issues facing companies these days isn’t finding relevant data so much as moving it to where it’s needed. Enter Airbyte, an early-stage startup that is building an open-source data integration platform to help solve that problem. Today the company announced a $26 millio

Phantom Space acquires StratSpace in pursuit of becoming a turnkey space service

Even as 2021 shapes up to see a record number of launches, demand is growing fast. Companies like Phantom Space Corporation aim to fill it with mass manufacturing techniques never yet seen in the space industry. Now the company has acquired StratSpace, a satellite program designer and manager, Phan

Taipei-based computer vision startup eYs3D gets $7M Series A

EYs3D Microelectronics, a fabless design house that focuses on end-to-end software and hardware systems for computer vision technology, has raised a $7 million Series A. Participants included ARM IoT Capital, WI Harper and Marubun Corporation, which will each serve as strategic investors. Based in

Blockchain startup Propy plans first-ever auction of a real apartment as a collectible NFT

We previously wrote about Propy using blockchain technology to smooth real-world real estate sales by introducing the concept of smart contracts. Propy was the first blockchain startup to make that work. Now the company is pushing the boundaries again, by auctioning a real apartment as an NFT. Alth