Welcome raises $12 million to be the ‘Ritz-Carlton for event platforms’

On the heels of Hopin’s $125 million funding round, a newcomer in the virtual events space is gaining steam. Welcome, led by co-founder and CEO Roberto Ortiz, is positioning itself as the “Ritz-Carlton for virtual events,” Ortiz told me. Today, it’s announcing a $12 million

Rapid Robotics raises $5.5M for pre-programmed manufacturing robots

Bay Area-based Rapid Robotics today announced it has raised $5.5 million in seed funding in a round led by Greycroft and Bee Partners. The announcement comes during what has been a solid several months for robotics funding, and more and more companies are looking to automate workforces as the COVID

Build.security raises $6M for its authorization policy management platform

Build.security, a Tel Aviv and Sunnyvale-based startup that aims to make it easier for developers to bake authorization policy management right into their applications, today announced a $6 million seed funding round led by cybersecurity-centric firm YL Ventures. CrowdStrike CEO and co-founder Geor

OpsLevel raises $5M to fix DevOps

The term “DevOps” has been rendered meaningless and developers still don’t have access to the right tools to put the overall idea into practice, the team behind DevOps startup OpsLevel argues. The company, which was co-founded by John Laban and Kenneth Rose, two of PagerDuty’

Astroscale sets March 2021 for first commercial orbital debris removal demonstration

Japanese startup Astroscale is aiming for March 2021 for a launch of its first-ever active orbital debris removal mission. This is a demonstration of its technology that it hopes to use to help ensure that low-Earth orbit becomes a sustainable environment for commercial activity as it becomes incre

Tapping into digital nomadism and ‘deep work’ trends, Skimlinks founder raises $1.5M for Flown

We already knew there was a big trend toward remote working, and this has only been drastically accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the distractions of daily life can easily impinge on the “deep work” many need to get done when working on something important, like wr

Malaysia-based inventory management platform Food Market Hub raises $4 million from Go-Ventures, SIG

"attachment_2075594" aria-describedby="" style="width: 1024px">Food Market Hub co-founders Anthony See and Shayna Teh Many restaurants still rely on spreadsheets to track their inventory of produce, meat and other ingredients. But using manual methods often results in food wastage and higher costs.

Resellee wants to become the Pinduoduo of Southeast Asia

Launched in the Philippines, social commerce startup Resellee wants to recreate the success of Pinduoduo, one of China's fastest-growing e-commerce companies, in Southeast Asia. A major part of Resellee's business is grocery deliveries, including fresh produce, and it has struck partnership

Yubo could be the next big social app as it raises $47.5 million

French startup Yubo is the biggest social media app you've never heard of — unless you're a teen. With a focus on young people under 25, the company has managed to attract 40 million users. A fraction of them hang out every day in live-streaming rooms, meet new people and spend money for

AI-tool maker Seldon raises £7.1M Series A from AlbionVC and Cambridge Innovation Capital

Seldon is a U.K. startup that specializes in the rarified world of development tools to optimize machine learning. What does this mean? Well, dear reader, it means that the “AI” that companies are so fond of trumpeting does actually end up working. It has now raised a £7.1 million Series A rou

Why some VCs prefer to work with first-time founders

Repeat founders who have a proven track record, good references, and in the best cases, an exit to point to will have an easy time making inroads with venture capitalists. Earlier this week, for example, the former founders of Udemy and altMBA raised more than $4 million for a startup with no name

Relativity Space is raising a massive $500M round at $2.3B valuation

Rocket printer Relativity Space is raising a $500 million D round, valuing the launch provider at $2.3 billion, as reported by CNBC and confirmed to technewss by sources familiar with the matter. That’s not bad for a company that has yet to take its first payload to orbit. Relativity aims to

Why are telehealth companies treating healthcare like the gig economy?

Telehealth has taken off. Spurred by the pandemic, many doctors in the U.S. now offer online appointments, and many patients are familiar with getting live medical advice over the internet. Given the obvious benefits, many experts have concluded that telehealth is here to stay. “It’s taken

LA-based A-Frame, a developer of celebrity-led personal care brands, raises cash for its brand incubator

"speakable-summary" style="font-weight: 400;">A-Frame, a Los Angeles-based developer of personal care brands supported by celebrities, has raised $2 million in a new round of funding led by Initialized Capital. Joining Initialized in the round is the serial entrepreneur Moise Emquies, whose previous