AI as a service to solve your business problems? Guess again

SaaS, PaaS – and now AIaaS: Entrepreneurial, forward-thinking companies will attempt to provide customers of all types with artificial intelligence-powered plug-and-play solutions for myriad business problems. Industries of all types are embracing off-the-shelf AI solutions. According to industry

Check out who's coming to TC Sessions: SaaS 2021

On October 27, less than two fast-moving months away, we're hosting TC Sessions: SaaS 2021, our first event focused exclusively on the software-as-a-service ecosystem. SaaS — the de facto business model for B2B and B2C startups and enterprises alike — shows no sign of slowing down. This is

Ledgy is an equity management tool for European startups

Every startup founder faces the same issue — how do you manage your cap table and equity plans in a transparent and lightweight manner? If you're based in the U.S., chances are you're using an equity management solution like Carta. But if you're not based in the U.S., you don't ha

Fractory raises $9M to rethink manufacturing supply chain for metalworks

The manufacturing industry took a hard hit amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are signs of recovery — helped in part by new efforts to make factories more responsive to the fluctuations in demand that come with the ups and downs of the shifting economy, virus outbreaks and more. Today, a b

Spain’s Factorial raises $80M on the back of strong traction for its ‘Workday for SMBs’

Factorial, a startup out of Barcelona that has built a platform that lets SMBs run human resources functions with the same kind of tools that typically are used by much bigger companies, is today announcing some funding to bulk up its own position: The company has raised $80 million, funding that i

Barbershop technology startup theCut sharpens its platform with new $4.5M round

TheCut, a technology platform designed to handle back-end operations for barbers, raised $4.5 million in new funding. Nextgen Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Elevate Ventures, Singh Capital and Leadout Capital. The latest funding gives theCut $5.35 million in total funding since th

Panorama raises $60M in General Atlantic-led Series C to help schools better understand students

Panorama Education, which has built out a K-12 education software platform, has raised $60 million in a Series C round of funding led by General Atlantic. Existing backers Owl Ventures, Emerson Collective, Uncork Capital, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Tao Capital Partners also participated in

Explosion snags $6M on $120M valuation to expand machine learning platform

Explosion, a company that has combined an open source machine learning library with a set of commercial developer tools, announced a $6 million Series A today on a $120 million valuation. The round was led by SignalFire, and the company reported that today’s investment represents 5% of its va

Pixalate tunes into $18.1M for fraud prevention in television, mobile advertising

Pixalate raised $18.1 million in growth capital for its fraud protection, privacy and compliance analytics platform that monitors connected television and mobile advertising. Western Technology Investment and Javelin Venture Partners led the latest funding round, which brings Pixalate's total f

Skit raises $23M Series B round led by WestBridge Capital to accelerate its growth

“Traditional voice-based call center service is difficult and costly. This is where artificial intelligence and voice technology have presented an opportunity for enterprises to overcome the challenges of scale and engagement at their customer contact centers,” Skit co-founder and CEO Sourabh G

PayEm comes out of stealth with $27M and its answer to the expense report

Itamar Jobani was a software developer working for a medical company and “hated that time of the month” when he had to use the company's chosen reimbursement tool. “It was full of friction and as part of the company's wellness team, I felt an urge to take care of the employee experien

Extra Crunch roundup: Toast and Freshworks S-1s, pre-pitch tips, flexible funding lessons

The digital transformation currently sweeping society has likely reached your favorite local restaurant. Since 2013, Boston-based Toast has offered bars and eateries a software platform that lets them manage orders, payments and deliveries. Over the last year, its customers have pro

Rattle raises $2.8M from Lightspeed and Sequoia to modernize enterprise sales stack

Tech employees build amazing consumer-facing apps for the world. But for their internal communications, they are stuck using applications that don't play well with one another. This is a problem, as most employees at a mid-sized or large-sized firm spend a fourth to a third of their days on int

Octane banks $2M for flexible billing software

Software bling startup Octane announced Tuesday that it raised $2 mlion on a post-money valuation of $10 mlion to advance its pay-as-you-go bling software. Akash Khanolkar and his co-founders met a decade ago at Carnegie Mellon University and since then went off in different directions. In Khanolka