Nigeria’s Prospa gets $3.8M pre-seed to offer small businesses banking and software services
In Nigeria, there are more than 40 million micro-businesses underserved in some form or another regarding banking services. Although some of these businesses have registered bank accounts, gaps exist in how banks use the data available to serve the needs of each business.
With banks, presenting a
Owl Ventures and Harvard Management Company back India’s study-abroad platform Leap in $55 million round
Leap, a two-year-old startup with headquarters in San Francisco and Bangalore that is helping students in India find the right college abroad, prepare for entrance tests, and also secure visas and loan, said on Wednesday it has raised $55 million in a new financing round from several high-profile e
Indian fintech Slice launches $27 credit limit cards to tap 200 million users
Even as there are hundreds of millions of Indians who have bank accounts, only about 30 million of them have credit cards. The adoption rate of the plastic card has largely remained stagnant in the South Asian nation for the last few years.
The relatively young credit-rating system in India covers
New IBM Power E1080 server promises dramatic increases in energy efficiency, power
We know that large data centers running powerful servers use vast amounts of electricity. Anything that can reduce consumption would be a welcome change, especially in a time of climate upheaval. That’s where the new IBM Power E1080 server, which is powered by the latest Power10 processors, c
Geely’s ride-hailing unit Cao Cao Mobility raises $589M Series B to upgrade tech and expand fleet
Cao Cao Mobility, the ride-hailing unit of Chinese automaker Geely Automobile Holdings, has announced a $589 million (RMB 3.8 billion) Series B raise that the company says will help it upgrade its technology and expand its fleet, according to a statement released by the company (in Chinese).
The ra
Indonesia-focused Intudo Ventures closes $115M third fund
Intudo Ventures, the “Indonesia-only” investment firm, announced today it has closed its third fund, totaling $115 million. Called Intudo Ventures Fund III, it was raised in less than three months and oversubscribed.
Fund III's limited partners include Black Kite Capital, the family office
E-commerce aggregator Rainforest raises $20M just months after its last funding
Four months after its last funding announcement, Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator Rainforest has closed a $20 million pre-Series A round led by Monk's Hill Ventures. Other participants included January Capital, Crossbeam Venture Partners, Amasia and Lo & Behold Group, along with return
UK’s Marshmallow raises $85M on a $1.25B valuation for its more inclusive, big-data take on car insurance
Marshmallow — a U.K.-based car insurance provider that has made a name for itself in the market by providing a new approach to car insurance aimed at using a wider set of data points and clever algorithms to net a more diverse set of customers and provide more competitive rates — is ann
Daily Crunch: Hyundai to provide hydrogen fuel cell versions of all commercial vehicles by 2028
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Hello and welcome back to the Daily Crunch for Tuesday, September 7, 2021! Your regular host Alex Wilhelm is AFK for the next few days, so I (Greg Kumparak) will
Meet retail’s new sustainability strategy: Personalization
We have been raised to believe in recycling, but it has mostly been a sham — only 9% of all plastic waste produced in 2018 was recycled. The beauty industry produces over 120 billion units of packaging every year, little of which is recycled. Globally, an estimated 92 million tons of textile wast
Aerospace primes Northrop, Lockheed join in Orbit Fab's over $10M funding round
San Francisco-based startup Orbit Fab wants to be the go-to source for orbital refueling, and now it has raised over $10 million in its quest to get there. The money will go toward funding a refueling trial that's due to launch as early as the end of 2022, in which the company plans to send to
Twitter is testing big ol’ full-width photos and videos
Twitter is exploring ways to build a more visually immersive experience with its latest test, which brings edge-to-edge tweets to the app on iOS.
Full-width images and videos track for the direction the company has shown some interest in going lately. Twitter introduced bigger images with improved
Automakers race to design desire for luxury and tech
In late summer, car collectors converged in Monterey, Detroit and, most recently, Oxford, England, in an annual tradition focused on ogling over — and oftentimes bidding for — luxury and historic vehicles.
The outdoor luxury automotive events ruled in 2021 after a universal pause the ye
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