European branded payments startup Recharge raises $11.8M debt round led by Kreos Capital

Online branded payments now run the gamut of anything from Spotify vouchers, Netflix vouchers, Neosurf, PaySafe cards, and everything in between. Consumers use them to pay for a variety of things. In Europe, they are an increasingly big business. Now, European branded payments fintech Recharge.com

Gorillas, the on-demand grocery delivery startup, raises $290M and ‘surpasses’ $1B valuation

Gorillas, the Berlin-HQ’d startup that promises to let you order groceries and other “every day” items for delivery in as little as 10 minutes, has raised $290 million in Series B funding, at a valuation that surpasses $1 billion. The round — which was first reported by BI &

Investors feed the meter for curb management startup Automotus

The curbside is being squeezed as the number of commercial vehicle operators and gig economy workers battle over this increasingly scarce real estate — a problem that has been compounded by an uptick in on-demand delivery services fueled by the pandemic. A number of startups such as Coord and cur

CoScreen launches its screen-sharing product, announces $4.6M in fundraising

This morning CoScreen, a startup that helps teams share screens and collaborate in real time, formally launched its product to market. It also disclosed that it has raised $4.6 million to date. Unusual Ventures led its seed round. Till Pieper, CoScreen’s co-founder and CEO, told technewss in

Drone data scanning company Skycatch announces a $25M raise

Skycatch today announced a $25 million raise, led by ADB Ventures and Wavemaker. Founded in 2013, the Bay Area-based company provides centimeter-accurate 3D scanning services, primarily for construction sites and mining operations. The service has already been rolled out in a number of different lo

Big banks rush to back Greenwood, Killer Mike’s Atlanta-based digital bank for underrepresented customers

"speakable-summary" style="font-weight: 400;">Before even taking its first deposit, Greenwood, the digital banking service targeting Black and Latino individuals and business owners, has raised $40 million — only a few months after its launch. Coming in to finance the new challenger bank are

Notarize raises $130M, tripling valuation on the back of 600% YoY revenue growth

When the world shifted toward virtual one year ago, one service in particular saw heated demand: remote online notarization. The ability to get a document notarized without leaving one's home suddenly became more of a necessity than a luxury. Pat Kinsel, founder and CEO of Boston-based Notarize

Spinning out from the cryptocurrency hardware developer Bitfury, LiquidStack pitches a data center cooling tech

Data centers and bitcoin mining operations are becoming huge energy hogs, and the explosive growth of both risks undoing a lot of the progress that’s been made to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. It’s one of the major criticisms of cryptocurrency operations and something that man

While other startups develop alt-proteins for meat replacement, Nourish Ingredients focuses on fat

Plant-based meat replacements have commanded a huge amount of investor and consumer attention in the decade or more since new entrants like Beyond Meat first burst onto the scene. These companies have raised billions of dollars and the industry is now worth at least $20 billion as companies try to

Pie Insurance raises $118M for data-driven workers’ comp coverage

Pie Insurance, a startup offering workers' compensation insurance to small businesses, announced this morning that it has closed on $118 million in a Series C round of funding. Allianz X — investment arm of German financial services giant Allianz — and Acrew Capital co-led the round

Fishing for solutions

One of the slower weeks for robotics investments I've seen since I started doing this roundup. This stuff ebbs and flows, though, and there's always bound to be a bit of a flurry at the beginning of the year. This week, most of the top news revolves around research, which, let's be hone

Spotify rolls out redesigned desktop and web apps

Spotify today announced it’s rolling out a new look for its streaming service on the desktop, with the launch of a redesigned app for both Mac and Windows, as well as an updated web app. The changes, which will be made available to all global users, focus on improving the navigation and provi

PPRO extends latest round to $270M, adding JPMorgan and Eldridge to grow its localized payments platform

In January, localized payments provider PPRO became the latest fintech-as-a-service startup to hit a billion-dollar valuation when it closed $180 million in funding. As a mark of how payments and e-commerce continue to be major areas of focus in the global economy, today PPRO is extending that roun

Brazil’s iFood outlines sustainability initiatives aiming to reduce its carbon footprint

The Brazilian-based pan-Latin American food delivery startup iFood has announced a series of initiatives designed to reduce the company’s environmental impact as consumers push companies to focus more on sustainability. The program has two main components — one focused on plastic pollut