Apptopia raises $20M to expand its competitive intelligence business beyond mobile

Boston-based Apptopia, a company providing competitive intelligence in the mobile app ecosystem, has closed on $20 million in Series C funding aimed at fueling its expansion beyond the world of mobile apps. The new financing was led by ABS Capital Partners, and follows three consecutive years of 50

CMU researchers show potential of privacy-preserving activity tracking using radar

Imagine if you could settle/rekindle domestic arguments by asking your smart speaker when the room last got cleaned or whether the bins already got taken out? Or — for an altogether healthier use-case — what if you could ask your speaker to keep count of reps as you do squats and bench

Final-mile fulfillment startup parcelLab closes $112M Series C funding led by Insight Partners

Munich-based parcelLab, which offers a final-mile fulfillment service for online retailers, has closed a $112 million (GB£80 million) Series C funding round led by the U.S. VC/PE firm Insight Partners. Germany's Endeit Capital participated as a co-investor, alongside existing investors Capnami

The motorcycle ride-hailing wars in Nigeria and Uganda are SafeBoda’s to lose

On April 16, Uganda-based, two-wheel ride-hailing platform SafeBoda announced that it had completed 1 million rides in Ibadan, a southwestern city in Nigeria. This might not seem spectacular from a global perspective because it took the startup a year and two months to achieve, but it’s a not

Engageli nabs $33M more for its collaborative video-based teaching platform

As schools move more widely into reopening their doors for in-person learning, many educational institutions have also learned a critical lesson in the last year. Having better tools to teach remotely are critical for situations when the physical experience has to be shut down, but even when things

Google Pay US users can now send money to users in India and Singapore

Google Pay users in the U.S. can now send money to GPay users in India and Singapore, Google said on Tuesday, making its first push into the remittances market. The company has partnered with Western Union and Wise, both of which have integrated their services into Google Pay. Josh Woodward, direc

Lisbon’s Kitch raises $4M to help restaurants take control of the delivery app mess

Lisbon-based food delivery startup Kitch hopes to hand back control to restaurants dogged by the mess of food delivery apps today, by aggregating the apps onto one tablet and platform. Restaurants then get one place to manage all their delivery orders, track couriers and update their menus across a

Nothing's first product, the Ear 1 earbud, launches in June

Say what you will, Nothing has been doing a fine job milking its upcoming launch for all it's worth. The company has spent the last several month's teasing the arrival of its first product. The launch will find the company entering the already extremely crowded earbuds category in June, wit

Exeger takes $38M to ramp up production of its flexible solar cells for self-powered gadgets

Sweden’s Exeger, which for over a decade has been developing flexible solar cell technology (called Powerfoyle) that it touts as efficient enough to power gadgets solely with light, has taken in another tranche of funding to expand its manufacturing capabilities by opening a second factory in

6 investors and founders spotlight SaaS, B2B and medtech as Wroclaw’s hot startup sectors

London and Berlin usually top the lists of European startup hubs, but Central and Eastern European countries like the Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia and Poland have claimed a growing portion of the startup pie in the past few years. Looking at Poland in particular, Krakow and Warsaw have blossome

Is buying and selling short positions in pre-IPO stock next? This fintech startup is banking on it

Even the most sanguine industry observer has to be stunned at times by the pace of dealmaking right now. Not quite halfway through 2021, startups are routinely closing new rounds just months apart and sometimes seeing their valuations triple and even quadruple with every new round. Maybe they will

Serial fiction app Radish acquired by Kakao Entertainment for $440M

Serialized fiction app Radish will be acquired by Kakao Entertainment in a transaction valued at $440 million. Kakao Entertainment is owned by Kakao, the South Korean internet giant whose services include its eponymous messaging platform. Radish founder Seungyoon Lee will hold onto his role as its

Toyota partners with ENEOS to explore a hydrogen-powered Woven City

Toyota has tapped Japanese company ENEOS to help develop the hydrogen fuel cell system that will power its futuristic prototype city Woven City. The vision for the 175-acre city, where people will live and work amongst all of Toyota's projects, including its autonomous e-Palette shuttles and ro

Lidar startup Innovusion closes $64M round led by Temasek

More investors are joining the wave to bet on lidar, the remote sensing method that uses laser light to measure distances and has garnered ample interest from automakers in recent times. But it’s also a technology that has long been scorned by Elon Musk partly due to its once exorbitant costs