Blue Origin reveals highest bid for a seat on its first human spaceflight, currently at $2M

Blue Origin is taking a novel approach to selling the first available private spaceflight seat on its New Shepard rocket, with an auction that will award the spot to the highest bidder. The company used a sealed bidding process for the first part of the contest, but it is now revealing the amount o

Formlabs raises $150M

There was a massive raise for the 3D printing industry this morning, as Massachusetts-based Formlabs announced a $150 million Series E. The round, led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2, effectively doubles the value of the unicorn to $2 billion dollars. The news comes during a kind of resurgence as t

Super raises $50M to cover home repairs and maintenance via a subscription model

The real estate sales market has been in an upswing this year, and today a startup that’s addressing one of homeowners’ biggest needs — repair and maintenance services, and specifically the stress of sorting these out when things break down — is announcing some funding on th

Sequoia’s Shaun Maguire and Vise’s Samir Vasavada will talk success in fintech on Extra Crunch Live

In the past few weeks, we’ve heard Fifth Wall’s Brendan Wallace and Hippo’s Assaf Wand discuss the biggest opportunities in prop tech, heard why Scale AI’s Alex Wang and Accel’s Dan Levine think that unconventional VC deals can be the best option and taken a stroll thr

Unbounce snags Snazzy.ai to add automated copywriting to platform

Unbounce, a Vancouver startup best known for helping marketers create automated landing pages, added a new wrinkle this morning when it announced it has acquired Snazzy.ai, an early-stage automated copywriting startup. The two companies did not share the terms. Unbounce Chief Strategy Officer Tamar

More funding flows into Pipe, as buzzy fintech raises $250M at a $2B valuation

At the end of March, technewss reported that buzzy startup Pipe — which aims to be the “Nasdaq for revenue” — had raised $150 million in a round of funding that values the fintech at $2 billion. Well, that deal has closed and in the end, Miami-based Pipe confirms that it ha

Startup studio eFounders reaches portfolio valuation of $2 billion

European startup studio eFounders has now been around for 10 years. And because a birthday sounds like a good opportunity to share some metrics, the portfolio companies have reached a valuation of $2 billion together — only 18 months after reaching $1 billion. EFounders says it is focused on bui

Proton, the privacy startup behind e2e encrypted ProtonMail, confirms passing 50M users

End-to-end encrypted email provider ProtonMail has officially confirmed it’s passed 50 million users globally as it turns seven years old. It's a notable milestone for a services provider that intentionally does not have a data business — opting instead for a privacy pledge based on zer

IFA Berlin 2021 is canceled, citing 'uncertainties' around vaccine rollouts

After IFA became one of an extremely small number of in-person trade shows in 2020, the gfu Consumer & Home Electronics GmbH is pulling the plug on this year's event. Initially planned for September 3-7 at the Messe in Berlin, the large-scale consumer electronics trade show is going on hiat

Spotify launches a virtual concert series with The Black Keys and more

The past year has been utterly devastating to the music industry generally, and live music in particular. Artists who make a living touring have been forced to find alternative ways to make ends meet, while those among us who once frequented live events have been looking for ways to plug the hole c

Upstream, a Miami-based professional networking platform, raises a $2.75M seed round

If you're reading this, there's a pretty good chance you have a LinkedIn profile with your digital resume and hundreds — if not thousands — of professional connections. But how many of those people do you actually know well, and, more importantly, do you ever connect with them a

API security startup 42Crunch raises $17M Series A led by Energy Impact Partners

With security top of mind in many companies these days, especially given how many staff work at home, there is one area that remains chronically ignored: that of the world of APIs which power all of the platforms we all use every day. Now, a significant player in the cybersecurity of APIs is super-

India tells WhatsApp to withdraw its new policy terms

The Indian government is not pleased with WhatsApp's new privacy policy. The nation's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has once again directed the Facebook-owned company to withdraw the planned update. In a letter to WhatsApp on Tuesday — which was read to Te

PhonePe in talks to acquire Indian app store Indus OS

Walmart-backed Indian payments services firm PhonePe is in advanced stages of talks to acquire Samsung-backed Indus OS, a startup that operates an eponymous third-party Android app store, a source familiar with the matter told technewss. The deal values Noida-headquartered Indus OS at $60 million,